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Vol. 3, No. 1
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Peabody resident takes part in Holiday Inspiration Video By Christopher Roberson
P
eabody resident Lisa Pelrine, the admissions director at the Chapel HillChauncy Hall (CH-CH) School in Waltham, recently participated in the school’s Holiday Inspiration Video to honor the accomplishments of student Emma Maniscalco. The video, which is posted on the school’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, also features a number of other students and teachers thanking each other for making a substantial difference in their lives. Pelrine said she remembered how shy Maniscalco was during her student interview as an eighth grade student visiting CH-CH. “She was definitely an introvert,” said Pelrine. However, Maniscalco is now half way through her junior year and much has changed. “This didn’t happen overnight, it’s definitely a progression,” said Pelrine. Pelrine said Maniscalco is a student tour guide and works at the school’s summer camp. “She’s here every day during her summer vacation,” said Pelrine. “She’s a leader in so many facets.” With 180 students enrolled at the college preparatory boarding school, Pel-
rine said CH-CH is very much a “closeknit community.” The video itself was put together by Matthew Soule, CH-CH’s assistant director of Marketing and Communications. “The idea behind this video is that we wanted to make sure that our students and teachers truly understood the impact they’ve made on each other’s lives,” he said. “To create the video, CH-CH teachers and students were given the opportunity to record a message on an iPad to someone within our school community. That message was then gift wrapped and surprise delivered to the recipient, then we filmed their reaction.” Soule said that thus far, the video has been viewed 13,000 times on Facebook. “We’ve been humbled by the response we received from posting the video online,” he said. “It is great to see the positivity from this project reach far beyond our campus in Waltham. We have a really caring group of teachers and students at CH-CH, and we will definitely continue this project to make it easy for them to share these messages of gratitude.”
VIDEO | SEE PAGE 11
Up and Over
978-777-6397
Friday, January 5, 2018
City officials share goals for 2018 By Christopher Roberson
W
ith the dawn of a New Year, members of the School Committee and City Council outlined some of their latest plans for Peabody.
to all students, teachers, parents and taxpayers.” Amico also said that he is looking forward to what the future will hold when Assistant Superintendent of Schools Cara Murtagh takes the reins as superintendent on July 1. “I’m excited to support our new superintendent, Ms. Murtagh, with her vision of putting students first,” he said.
Thomas Rossignoll Councilllor-at-Large
Councillor-at-Large-Elect Thomas Rossignoll said he intends to “be a good listener and advocate for the citizens.” In doing so, he plans to keep a watchful eye on real estate developer Carl Crupi as the Birchwood Subdivision project moves forward. Rossignoll said another goal for the New Year will be to assist in the ongoing effort to make downtown Peabody“more vibrant.” Rossignoll also said funding for education needs to be a top priority, his having served on the School Committee for the past eight years.
Ryan Melville Councillor-at-Large
Councillor-at-Large-Elect Ryan Melville said his objective is to be “extremely responsive to constituency requests and issues.” “I also would like to start the discussion on some infrastructure issues I heard about on the campaign trail,” he said. “I hope to hit the ground running as a firsttime elected official.”
Beverley Griffin Dunne Joseph Amico
School Committee Member
School Committee Member
Mike Tansey penetrates for a layup in the Tanners’ 69-37 home victory over Essex Tech last Friday. See story and photos on page 6. (Advocate photo by Greg Phipps)
School Committee Member Joseph Amico said his primary goal is to actively participate in crafting the school budget for fiscal year 2019. He said it needs to be done in a way that“takes the needs of our students, teachers, parents and taxpayers into consideration.” Amico said it is too soon to identify any new line items. “Because the cost of public education is expensive, I would like to review our upcoming budget further before I can finalize goals or a wish list,” said Amico. “With that said, the residents of Peabody deserve the best possible school system at a value that is fair
School Committee Member Beverley Griffin Dunne said her goals for the New Year include developing a redistricting plan for the city’s eight elementary schools, raising the state’s designation from Level 3 to Level 1 at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and enhancing the role of the Student Advisory Board. “I also want to work toward an increased partnership with Essex Technical High School, and I want to bring new ideas and information to the School Committee from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees through my chairmanship of Division 1,” she said.