Multicultural Day at Malden High

For the first time in the eight-year history of the Malden Reads program, the 2018 kickoff event was held at Malden High School on Feb. 15. Usually staged in the Converse Memorial Building of the Malden Public Library, the kickoff emphasized the intergenerational nature of the book choice, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, a young adult novel that can be enjoyed and appreciated by all ages. The Malden Reads committee collaborated with the student-run Black Culture Club at Malden High School to host an event that was inclusive and celebratory as well as profoundly moving, challenging and inspiring, which reflected the book’s topical themes. “One of the things that I think is really exciting about this joint venture between Malden Reads and the high school is the way it’s showcasing student voice and issues that are relevant to students, starting some great conversations among students, educators and community members,” said Sean Walsh, Malden High School English teacher and Drama Director, who was involved in the collaborations. The event featured exhibit tables from a […]

During the early spring of 2015, Lawrence High School Principal Ted Lombardi was strolling down his school’s empty hallway when his phone received a SchoolSpring alert of a high school principal opening. Lombardi appreciated these alerts not as a job search, but as an administrator’s news feed of job transitions in the state. This alert plucked a familiar chord since Lombardi vaguely knew Malden High School’s Principal Dana Brown.   Lombardi flagged a fellow educator who knew the Malden School District very well.  “Did you know that Dana Brown is leaving Malden High School?” The quick reply, “yes, he decided last year”, resonated with Lombardi. Lombardi continued on for another thirty feet down the hallway, when he heard the fellow educator banter,  “You are going to apply for that position, right?” Lombardi stopped in his tracks and spun around,“I don’t know. I haven’t updated my resume in a decade.” Lombardi thought to himself, “ I love Lawrence and plan to continue working here for years.” Lombardi has been teaching or leading at the Lawrence Humanities […]

By Saliha Bayrak Having a conversation over the lunch table, waving to your friends between classes, sharing excitement over college admission letters — these are some of the things that Malden High School teenagers yearned for as they attended their classes virtually.  As Malden High School (MHS) transitions to hybrid learning with a phased process that started the week of March 15, nearly one year after schools switched to fully remote, students look back on all the ways that online learning has impacted their life. Remote learning uprooted the life of teens around the city and forced them to reimagine what their high school experience will look like. Now they ponder on how they will move forward.  Sheilly Patel, a senior at MHS, worries that she may miss some of the big milestones of high school such as senior prom and graduation. But she also misses the small activities that accompanied going to school in-person.  Patel says that she often finds herself “missing that kind of little social things that happen in between classes,” and […]