Wheeler High School: Small in size, big in heart
My prior experience as an educator in one of the greatest school systems in Connecticut— Region 18, Lyme-Old Lyme — convinces me that Wheeler High School should continue serving North Stonington’s teens. After leaving a superior school system to seek a career in administration, I am equally privileged to work in another system that offers just as much to the children of North Stonington.
Wheeler offers a private school setting. At Wheeler, teachers truly know their students. They know them so well they can create independent studies for students who show a level of passion that exceeds an outlined class syllabus.
Ask Lena, who left a larger, local high school and now pays tuition to come to Wheeler because she needed smaller class sizes and a system that knows how she can find success. Ask Raven, who signed with the University of Pennsylvania as a junior with a commitment to play softball. Or talk about it with Troy, who walked on at a University of Connecticut baseball tryout and made the team.
Talk with our juniors and seniors who challenge themselves with rigorous ECE, VHS, AP and honors-level courses such as physics, calculus, world history and English. Talk to Sarah, who is in an advanced accounting course that is differentiated so she can take Accounting 3 while her classmates work at the regular pace on Accounting 2.
Perhaps you can talk to students who are still trying to find themselves, students who get to take journalism, creative writing, forestry, forensics, psychology, entrepre- neurship and marketing, materials and processing, video production, art history, computer programming, guitar, sports management and philosophy, until they figure it out.
Ask Glen, a junior who built a hydroponics system in our greenhouse using fish fertilizer to grow lettuce year round or the teacher who made that happen for him. Better yet, talk to our seniors as they are halfway through their capstone senior projects, dabbling in areas such as baking, makeup art, construction, boat-building, coaching and a variety of other possible career choices for their future.
Or you might check out our National Honor Society Service projects where students are coordinating events to raise money for local nonprofit charities. If you can’t get to Wheeler to talk to these kids, talk to the students from Spain, Norway, Brazil, Yemen, Germany and China who have participated in an exchange program at our small high school — all who remain and still keep in touch with the school that embraced their differences.
Ask our teachers what they think of Wheeler. Ask them about the relationships they have been fortu- nate enough to build with students during their seven years with them through middle and high school. Ask these same teachers about the professional development opportunities they participate in to make their curriculum innovative and better than yesterday’s.
Ask them about the curriculum they have written these past three years, or the SRBI interventions they have put in place for struggling students. Ask our counselors, psychologists and social worker about the mental health care they provide for students. Ask about the food pantry our students work hard to stock for those less fortunate, or maybe even talk to the neighbors of Wheeler who have benefited from students raking their lawns or clearing out their gardens during Advisory Give Back days or on Earth days.
Finally, ask our NEASC visiting committee what they thought of our school when they visited last fall and voted to grant us our reaccreditation. Supportive, compassionate, academically solid, rigorous — these are the words you will hear.
What we lack in size, we certainly make up for in our sense of community. That is real. That is what makes Wheeler special. That is what allowed a girl, with one last wish to graduate, the opportunity to do so.
Yes, I left a job I loved to come to Wheeler. I have no regrets.