CHEERS to Methuen High math teacher Meredith Moore, who was honored recently with a prestigious award.
Moore, who teaches advanced placement calculus, was one of 15 teachers honored with a Partners in Excellence award from Mass Insight Education, a Boston-based nonprofit. Mass Insight Education’s Mass Math + Science Initiative seeks to improve math and science performance around the state and to encourage enrollment in AP courses, which follow a national curriculum and are recognized by most colleges and universities.
Moore’s selection in part recognizes that 16 of 18 students in one of her AP classes last year passed the AP exam.
“That’s just outstanding,” Joseph Harb, the AP course coordinator at Methuen High, told reporter Douglas Moser. “She’s a teacher who has high expectations, but she helps them through it every single day.”
Moore has been a teacher in Methuen for 13 years and has been teaching calculus for 12 of those years, and AP calculus for more than four. She has been a key part of expanding the AP program over the last few years, and puts in extra effort after school and during the summers to support her students.
Our schools need teachers who challenge students to do their best work in demanding subjects. Congratulations to Moore on her award. We appreciate her dedication to and support of Methuen’s students.
JEERS to a late-season snowstorm that baffled some forecasters and left many struggling to get to work Friday.
Forecasters had been tracking the development of the storm all last week and accurately predicted that it would bring pounding surf to our coastal areas. But no forecasts we saw said interior regions of Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire would get more than a foot of snow. Meteorologists were predicting four to eight inches, maybe a foot in some locations. Most everyone in our coverage area got at least a foot. Some parts of northern Worcester County approached two feet.
We already are well above our average snowfall for a given year, so water supplies should be in good shape. So enough with the snow. The Red Sox are less than a month away from their return north from Florida. We’re ready for spring.
CHEERS to the Haverhill Boys & Girls Club, which in five short years has gone from an exclusive, boys-only domain to a haven for the city’s girls.
Saturday, the club celebrated the start of its fifth year of serving both boys and girls. The former Boys Club changed its name at the start of 2009, welcoming girls for the first time since its founding in 1906. It was one of the last Boys Clubs in the country to make the change.
And Haverhill’s girls have welcomed the switch.
“We started with just two girls and now we have 400 girl members along with 425 boy members,” Brian Theirrien, the club’s executive director, told reporter Mike LaBella. “Our daily attendance went from about 80 kids per day in 2009 to over 250 kids per day now.”
That rapid growth earned the club recognition from the Boys & Girls Club of America.
The club has invested about $1 million in facilities improvements. The club’s building at 55 Emerson St. has become a community center, Theirrien said.
“Everyone gets a nutritious breakfast and lunch, while those in the after-school program are treated to a nutritious snack,” Theirrien said. “The changes we’ve made and the great opportunities we’ve introduced in recent years have been made possible through the support of our 30 volunteer board members, who are business leaders in our community.”
Congratulations to the Boys & Girls Club and its supporters for providing a welcoming place that serves all the city’s children.
