Partying with a purpose
Freshmen connect at GHS



GUILDERLAND — Energy, like electricity, surged through the halls of Guilderland High School last Tuesday night.

Newbies — ninth-graders — were on their home turf.
"People were nice, telling us about the clubs," said one of them, Brendan Connelly, who had just come from a party in the gym, where freshmen could learn about school activities.
He thinks he may join the Spanish Club. "They go out to dinner and they might go to Costa Rica, which sounds cool," said Connelly.

Jack Taylor, who was munching from a paper cone filled with popcorn, said he liked the music played by the DJ at the party.
Connelly and Taylor and some of their friends threw themselves into goofy poses when faced with a reporter asking to take their picture. The party, they said, was "chill" and they were "psyched" for the year ahead.
"We wanted to make people feel welcome," said Lisa Patierne, the dean who worked with a transition committee to create the "Welcome to High School Celebration."

In its inaugural year, Patierne estimated, the celebration attracted about a quarter of the 490 students in the Class of 2010. Parents were invited, too.
After the party, which featured food and music as well as club pitches — Patierne has dubbed it "the freshman rush" — about 230 parents and students assembled in the auditorium. There, Patierne gave a PowerPoint presentation and students shared their experiences at the school.

After that, parents met with the guidance counselor assigned to their child, while the students met in groups for an unusual scavenger hunt. Teams of kids were given disposable cameras, purchased by the PTA; they had to find certain places in the school and take pictures of themselves there. The pictures will be assembled into montages.
Colleen O’Connell, describing herself as a "first-time ninth-grade parent," told her fellow school board members on Tuesday that the program was "outstanding."
"We believe this has a lot to do with students’ feeling comfortable in school and leading to their success in the program," said Superintendent Gregory Aidala.

A disciplinarian and an advocate

Patierne, who started working at Guilderland in August of 2004, oversees the freshmen and the Focus program for struggling students.

In April of last year, she shared with the school board comparisons of ninth-graders from the year before and from 2005. The number of discipline incidents had decreased by 5 percent from 437 to 415. The number of students failing courses had also decreased — by 22 percent, from 316 (out of 3,386 enrolled) to 247 (out of 3,763 enrolled).

Patierne stressed then the importance of a smooth transition from the child-centered middle school, where students are sheltered in one of four schools-within-a school, to the wide open and more competitive high school.
"If you lose a student in ninth grade, they can be lost forever," Patierne told The Enterprise this week. "Those are the ones most likely to drop out. You have to get them connected to the high school so no one slips through the cracks, no one is unknown, no one is a wallflower."

Patierne led last Tuesday’s celebration with the gusto of a camp counselor. She used to be one.
"From the time I was a little kid, I knew I wanted to be a teacher," she told The Enterprise. "My friends would tell me they got sick of playing school."

She started working as a camp counselor — at the Tippee Canoe Camp, through the YMCA — when she was just 12.
"Kids were always comfortable with me," said Patierne.
She married at age 20 and worked her way through school at The College of Saint Rose. "We had bills to pay and a house to take care of. We had a couple of kids," she said. "I worked two jobs while going to school full-time and my husband worked two jobs, too."
Patierne taught sixth grade for a decade at Shenendehowa and loved it. "I said I would never be an administrator," she recalled. But the superintendent was recruiting teachers to train as administrators because of a shortage.
"Somebody nominated me...I took one course and was hooked." Now, said Patierne, "I love what I’m doing. This is the perfect job for me....I have a lot of contact with kids. I feel like I can make a difference."

Patierne describes herself both as a disciplinarian and a student advocate.
She credits those who work with her for her success at Guilderland. Patierne singled out her secretary, Dawn Wier, for praise and went on, "The reason these programs are successful is the hard work of the teachers and parents. We’re all a team and we all work hard to make it a success."

"Big on connections"

Patierne stressed at last Tuesday’s assembly the importance of parental involvement in high school and the need for students to make connections — both key elements to improve academic success.
"We’re very big on connections," Patierne told the crowd. "Kids need to get hooked in their first year of high school."
She went on, "Research shows establishing relationships leads to higher academic achievement."
Guilderland started a program last year where upperclassmen are matched with freshmen as student advisors. A teacher oversees each advisory group. The student advisors are known as ATPs. The physics teacher on the transition committee likes the acronym, said Patierne, "because ATPs have energy."
"The ATPs work with the freshmen on team-building activities," said Patierne. For example, they’re currently planning a "dress-code fashion show," featuring both ‘do’s and ‘don’t’s.

The ATPs are selected by the advisory teachers for their leadership skills and enthusiasm, said Patierne.
"They come in for training over the summer," she said. "This year, the kids came up with the activities."

At Tuesday’s assembly, several young women who were ninth-graders last year shared, with poise and sincerity, their experiences in the new advisory program.
"We got to know each other more as the year progressed," said Martha Mahoney. She said it was "really fun" at the end of the year when the advisory teams played each other in kickball.
Hannah Kinisky said she came to the high school without knowing anyone. "It helps to know an older person," she said of the ATPs. The program, she said, "helps build a sense of community."
Sara Korman said when her grades dipped, her ATP was helpful. "We could talk to them about school or home issues," she said.

Next, the microphone was passed to students who had served as ATPs.
"It helped me be a better student and a better friend," said Alix Saba, who will be an ATP for a second year. "I’ve seen a lot of people grow and pass their classes."

Jaclyn Brauth said teaching study habits helped her learn.
Heather Thomas told the assembled parents, "We’re here not only to be a friend to your child but a role model as well."

Q & A

The assembly program concluded with a panel of four upperclasswomen, answering questions from the audience. One mother asked the girls what had been their most negative experience as ninth-graders.

Brooke Kolcow said it was going to lunch and not knowing who to sit with.
"ATPs help you become more comfortable with people you wouldn’t usually sit with," she said.

She added that she never had trouble with upperclassmen sending her to the third floor or the pool — neither of which exist.
Laura Santacrose answered, "The sheer fact I didn’t know anyone."

She ended up, she said, joining clubs and making new friends while also staying in touch with old friends.
"Go after that," she concluded.

Liz Sherman said she had had a really, really negative middle-school experience.
"In high school," she said, "you get so integrated with so many people. I was terrified there’d be cliques like in the middle school," she said, naming the popular kids, the Goths, the outcasts.
"There’s nothing like that in high school," she said.

Sherman advised students to pay attention to announcements so they wouldn’t miss opportunities, such as theater try-outs.
"Help your children find their niche; that will get them through high school," advised Santacrose.
She then offered to answer questions about teachers and classes "you’ve heard that are horrible."
"No," said Patierne with a smile as she took back the microphone, "we’re not going there."

Patierne’s parting advice to parents was to stay involved with their children, support the school’s programs, and to ask questions.
"They pretend they don’t want you to ask questions," she said, "but they really do."