Principal's Update 9/5/25
School Instagram at lhsbluedevilnation
LHS Families’ Help Cheat Sheet on the school website here.
Open House Change
The LHS/CTEi Open House date had to be changed to Monday September 29th at 5:30. Families will start with a short presentation in the auditorium and then can walk their student’s schedules and get information from various organizations.
Homecoming Dance
The Homecoming Dance will be on Saturday September 13th at Leominster High School.
The dance is semi-formal (so no new clothes required) and will be from 6-9 PM.
Tickets are just $10 and will be sold during all four lunches. Tickets will not be sold at the door. Only LHS students can attend, no outside guests! We only have so much room in the gym!
Early Release Day September 17
Wednesday September 17 is an early release day for students. Students are being dismissed at 10:45
Damaged and Lot Chromebooks
We get a LOT of damaged and lost chromebooks and this gets to be very expensive for the district. If your student damages their chromebook through negligence or deliberate damage (it happens), we do charge for the replacement device just like we do if a student loses their textbooks. Do whatever you can to get them to be responsible for their chromebook.
Lockdown Drill and School Safety
Unfortunately preparing students to react to an assault on the school is a way of life now. On Wednesday September 10th we will do a very low-intensity lockdown drill. I will announce that we are doing a drill, put the school in lockdown, and teachers will talk through with students what they should do, how to evacuate the building in the event of a real incident, and what to do if they are in the halls or bathroom and a lockdown starts.
I know that these drills can be anxiety triggers but it is absolutely essential that your student try to be here for this information. We will not be evacuating the building, there will be no role-players or loud noises, and the entire drill is designed to make sure everyone knows what to do in a real event.
We will follow this up with another drill later in the fall where students will evacuate and the admin team will practice our command and control procedures with the Leominster Police Department and Office of Emergency Management. This will help to evaluate and correct any gaps in our plans. There will still be no use of blank rounds or role-players, but students will evacuate and we try to get them to think about alternate routes to what they use in a fire drill to help make sure they are able to think critically in a real event.
While we are on the subject of safety, here are two reminders:
· If you hear about a threat to the schools call the Leominster Police ASAP. We would rather screen out a false alarm than not have information about a threat that ends up being real.
· If there is a lockdown please do not call or come to the school. We need to leave the phone lines and through ways open for emergency response personnel. The district will send out information as soon as we have it. Your student will have access to their cellphone.
The safety of our students is paramount to what we do and I appreciate your support in these efforts to keep the school safe.
School Council:
LHS is looking for family members to serve on the LHS School Council.
School Councils are made up of staff, students, and parents and meet regularly (once a month or so) to advise the principal, particularly on the school budget, program of studies, and handbook. Send me an email if you would like to serve on the LHS School Council
Substitute Teachers
LHS has need of a few people with a lot of patience and savviness to help us out as substitute teachers. Please email me if you are interested.
Did You Know?
The last song released by the Supremes with Diana Ross was “Someday We’ll Be Together.” Ironically, the other Supremes members didn’t sing on the recording, just Diana Ross. I always like the parts where the guy is singing the little ad-libs. That’s the part I would do karaoke if I could get my wife to do the Diana Ross part.
Next Week’s Athletic Schedule
https://arbiterlive.com/Teams?entityId=12673
Reminders
Buses:
School bus routes are posted on the district website at https://www.leominsterps.org/.
You can also track the bus using the FirstView App.
Schedule:
Schedules are available in ASPEN. Your student can log in to ASPEN using their school google account username and password. You can log in at https://ma-leominster.myfollett.com/aspen-login/?deploymentId=ma-leominster
Student Pick Up and Drop Off:
Remember that 2100 people are trying to get into the school at 7:30 and there is construction around the city so plan to be a little earlier due to traffic. If you drive your student you can drop them off and pick them up at the main entrance of the school (not where the buses are). Pull up as far forward as you can.
Calling in a student absent
If your student is going to be absent call the school at 978-534-7715 as soon as possible. The absence line is option 1. If you get an auto-call that your student is marked as absent and you think they are at school, don’t panic. Sometimes they accidentally get marked absent (especially with a sub) and sometimes they cut class. Call the school and we will confirm they are not here.
School Attendance:
It is essential for you to get your student to school as much as possible. I am compelled by law to work to get your student to school as often as possible. Absences are excused by a doctor or dentist’s note, court appearance, college visit, driving license appointment. Vacations are not excused absences.
When a student gets five unexcused absences we will require a meeting with parents to make a plan to get them to school more often. Remember that students will need to make up time from unexcused absences at our Saturday Academy.
Student Dismissals
If you need to dismiss your student you can send them to school with a note to bring to the office when they get to school. Your student will receive a pass to be dismissed and can just check out at the office when it is time for them to go. You won’t need to come into the school and it’s much faster than coming in to dismiss your student.
We cannot do dismissals over the phone or by reading a text you sent to your student’s phone for safety reasons. Someone else could be impersonating you and we would not be able to verify it (this happens more often than you might think).
Joshua Romano
Principal