To the Parents/Guardians and Students, Administrators, Teachers, Nurses, Counselors, Secretarial and Maintenance Staff and Community Leaders Connected with Hackensack High School (HHS),

We must change our conversations!   

We must start talking about what really matters in the school community and what is most important to students!  The goal of any high school is to prepare students to meet the rigorous demands of college and the workplace.  Our conversations should be about this goal. 

Let’s talk as much as possible about the college students want to attend, about possible careers, (even career-changes that staff members have made or second careers that staff members are contemplating), about books you are reading, about various facts and information you are learning, about electives that students want to take at HHS to help achieve their goals, about courses and graduate work that staff members are involved in as life-long learners.  (So many of our staff are currently going to school for various educational degrees.  Our students and parents/guardians should hear about these graduate degree and certification programs.)

If all of us talk more about our lives as educated, life-long learners, there is less time to gossip and “talk trash” that drags us down.  We must gossip less, as gossip is the cause of many problems.

Students of HHS:  Teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, and I will be asking you questions about what college and what career you are considering after you graduate, since your decisions about classes, electives, activities, and sports should be determined by your goals…

…Which leads me to my second point:  The decisions you make now – TODAY – at HHS – will determine your quality of life now – and in your future.  Your choices at HHS, your academic and athletic success can bring scholarship money for college, which in turn will allow you to graduate college with less debt and a potentially higher salary (than if you did not go to college), which in turn allows you to have a better quality of life after college, and so on.   Realize this important fact:  Your decisions at HHS will affect your future salary (of course, there are exceptions to this fact).  If you think – and speak about improving your critical thinking, reading, writing, and speaking skills, you will do well on SATs, the HSPA, college placement tests, and you will be better prepared for the demands of any college that you might want to attend.  Ultimately, your success at HHS will SAVE and can MAKE you hard-earned money. 

So everyone:  Let’s start talking about what matters to each of us in the short- and long-term:  EDUCATION!!

Blessings!

Mark Porto

Principal