March 18, 2022
Dear Shrewsbury Families, Colleagues, & Community Members,
On this beautiful day, I want to share a number of student achievements with you, and ways to view some of them as well. Please read on for information regarding the following:
- The SHS Spring Musical (performances tonight and tomorrow night)
- The SHS Quiz Team competes on television tomorrow evening
- SPS student artists' exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum
- First ever middle school Unified Basketball game
- A significant honor for SHS Robotics
- Success for SHS and OMS Speech & Debate teams
- SHS Girls Ice Hockey run to the state Final Four
SHS Spring Musical tonight and Saturday night at 7:00pm: The annual spring musical is back! Students will be performing the musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in the SHS auditorium tonight and Saturday night at 7:00pm -- reports are that last night's first performance was hilarious! Tickets are available in the lobby prior to the show starting at 6:00pm, $15 for adults and $10 for students and senior citizens (cash or check only). Click here for the program. Note: Some material in the show may not be suitable for younger children.
SHS competes on GBH's High School Quiz Show on Saturday at 6:00pm: Good luck to the SHS Quiz Team who has made it to the Sweet Sixteen round of GBH's High School Quiz Show, where Massachusetts high schools compete in a Jeopardy!-style TV quiz game. SHS will be competing against Notre Dame Academy (Worcester) tomorrow evening on GBH Channel 2 at 6:00pm. The show will also be live streamed and archived for later viewing on the High School Quiz Show YouTube channel here.
SPS artists honored in Youth Art Month exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum: Artwork from approximately 50 Shrewsbury Public Schools students from grades K-12 will be showcased in a free exhibition the Higgins Education Wing of the Worcester Art Museum along with other schools from Central Mass throughout the month of March. Congratulations to our student artists and their teachers!
First ever middle school Unified Basketball game: Yesterday, the Shrewsbury Middle School Unified Basketball team, with players from both Oak and Sherwood Middle Schools, played its first ever interscholastic competition against Auburn Middle School, and they will play a home game on March 24 at 3:30pm at Oak Middle School. Unified Basketball is an inclusive sport that allows students with intellectual disabilities to participate together with general education students. The middle school team even has their own booster club that produced this newsletter, where you can learn more about the team.
SHS Robotics wins another Chairman's Award: SHS's Robotics FIRST Robotics Competition Team 467 earned the most prestigious award given by FIRST Robotics, the Chairman's Award, at its recent competition in New Hampshire. The award is given to the team "that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST." SHS has won this award multiple times in past years; congratulations to this year's team members and adult coaches/mentors for continuing this tradition of excellence! The team has now qualified for the New England District Championship to be held later this spring.
Success for SHS & OMS Speech & Debate teams: SHS recently hosted its annual Mardi Gras tournament, the largest in the state. Our Oak Middle School team competed in this high school competition and came in 10th place out of 27 schools, while the SHS team earned first place in the tournament, with six individual competition champions and many more placing! Congratulations on the continued stellar success of our Speech & Debate program!
Final Four run for SHS Girls Ice Hockey: The sixth-seeded SHS Girls Ice Hockey team went further in the state Division 1 playoffs than ever before, making it to the Final Four before losing a tough 2-1 game to the #2 seed. Congratulations to these outstanding student-athletes on their historic season! Click here to view the team roster.
We are proud of all of these student successes, especially during this challenging year. Thank you to the students for their efforts, to their families and the community for supporting them, and for our educators, coaches, support staff, and leaders for making all of these opportunities possible!
Respectfully,
Joe Sawyer
Superintendent of Schools