With just a few days until the new school year begins, parents and students in Solanco are getting ready.
Keith Kaufman, spokesman for the school district, said that parents don't need to worry about supplies. "The district does not require parents to buy supplies. The district provides all items," said Kaufman. But both Swift and Smith middle schools sent a list of "suggested" items home with students during sixth grade orientation. "Sixth grade orientation is upstairs and to the left," instructed a seventh grader at Smith Middle School last week. Perfect instructions if you already know how to find the staircase. Sixth grade orientation was underway. Incoming sixth grader Molly Peffer said she is a little nervous about starting middle school. Her mom, Michelle, already knows the ropes. Members of Solanco High School's 2014 marching band are playing music from their parents' era.
Many of the musicians' parents recognize the tunes in this year's program, band director Gary Doll said last week. "It's 70s jazz, stuff that a lot of their parents recognize," he said. "Most kids aren't exposed to jazz." The four arrangements in the show were composed by Chuck Mangione. They were written between 1962 and and 1978. Not all of the school district's construction projects will be finished by the time Solanco students start the school year on Monday, August 25.
But the major work will be done and the remaining projects won't interfere with the operation of the schools, said Dr. Timothy Shrom, the district's business manager. Solanco's summer reading and writing program added something new this year. Math. "We've never done that [math] before," coordinator Robin Ball said last week. "Our teachers come from the elementary grades, so they could do it." Teachers and aides, with volunteers from the community, run the camp. The faculty of Swift Middle School has named the following students to the fourth quarter honor roll.
The faculty of George A. Smith Middle School has announced the names of students earning honor roll distinction for the fourth marking period of the 2013-14 school year.
SMITH MIDDLE SCHOOL
Abigail Nelson and Sophie Plechner earned multiple awards at George A. Smith Middle School's end of year ceremonies. Nelson and Plechner received the Outstanding Student Award and the L.E.A.D. III Award. Plechner also earned the Principal's Leadership Award, the English Award, and the Science Award. Nelson also won the Technology Education Award and the Soroptimist Club Award. For the past 56 years, his life has been ruled by the school calendar. That changes on June 30 when Dr. Martin J. Hudacs retires as superintendent of the Solanco School District. "I've been in this routine all my life," he said last Thursday. That schedule began when he started attending public school in Scranton and continued through his college years. For the past 39 years, he's also worked under that calendar as teacher, assistant high school principal, high school principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent. Commencement exercises for Solanco High School's Class of 2014 will be held indoors this evening.
School officials made that decision at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 11. The decision was made due to the threat of rain and thunderstorms, officials said. Commencement will be held in the school's large gymnasium, starting at 7:30 p.m. This will be the third year in a row graduation has been held indoors. The school district schedules exercises in the high school football stadium with the indoor site as an alternative. The outdoor site allows more spectators. When commencement is held indoors, the district allows each student to give out two tickets to family members or friends. Anyone without a ticket can watch the ceremony on closed-circuit television. Some of Bart-Colerain Elementary School’s students spent Wednesday afternoon, June 4, competing in the school’s annual fun day.
There were several events held on the school’s playground. Groups of students rotated among the different events, which included a form of dodge ball and several races. The students were not expected to sculpt what they see. Instead, they were to work from abstract works of expressionist artists. "I explained that what those artists see is not what everyone sees in reality," Swift Middle School art teacher Stephanie Deininger said recently. "The work was supposed to be surrealist and dream-like. It's not supposed to be realistic." For the sixth graders, that meant coming up with paper and cardboard sculptures that can be used as wall hangings. The eighth graders worked with papier maché formed over wire and then painted to create free-standing sculptures. Tristan Murry was looking for Prisoner B 3078 on Thursday morning, May 22, but there weren't any in stock at the Swift Middle School Book Fair. The fair will be getting more copies on Friday, reading specialist Alison McPherson told him. "You can pay for the book now and we'll hold it for you," she told Murry. Murry was looking forward to the nonfiction work. "It's a true story about the Holocaust," he said. "He was one of the people who survived." The book's title refers to the number tattooed on the prisoner's arm, he added. He prefers an eReader because he can keep more books on it. "And it doesn't get heavy if it's a long book," he explained. Members of one of Solanco High School's Odyssey of the Mind teams have traveled more than half way across the country this week to compete in OM's World Finals. The team is competing in the Driver's Test. A student-designed and constructed vehicle must complete tasks while traveling through a course, going forward and in reverse. "The vehicle and driver have to complete three tasks as it runs through the course," teacher Caley Roark said. Two of the tasks come from a list provided by OM; the third is developed by the students. John Little is leaving half of his ideal career. Little, who has been teaching middle school students for 35 years, will retire at the end of this school year. He will continue to coach Solanco High School's varsity wrestling team. "I have friends who have retired from teaching and who still coach and they enjoy it," he said. Retiring from teaching means giving up a job he's enjoyed for more than three decades. "I have had a dream job," he said. "I enjoy teaching science. I have the greenhouse, the outdoor site, and the [aquarium and terrarium] tanks. I have all it takes right here in this room." The Eden Township native went to Catholic school for two years, transferring to Solanco in the third grade. Shortly after that, he met the man who would inspire him. The Solanco School District is selling kitchen, serving, and dining utensils at their first surplus sale this month. Then the district will sell weight-lifting equipment to help work off the pounds generated by items in the first sale. "Our goal is to have one lot [sold] now and have the other come up right at the end of school," said Dr. Timothy Shrom, the district's business manager. The first sale includes a commercial-size Hobart mixer, a vegetable chopper, cooking pans, condiment dispensers, mixing bowls, double broilers, and cafeteria tables. Bids on items in the current sale must be submitted to the business office, 121 S. Hess St., Quarryville, by 4 p.m. on May 28. Delaney Peffer helped with Solanco High School's recent minithon, an event that raised more than $21,000 for a pediatric cancer program at Hershey Medical Center. She turns out every year to support the Solanco Relay for Life. Now the high school freshman is serving as Celebration for Life's 2014 Guest of Honor. Celebration for Life is a non-profit fundraising organization that helps fund research and support cancer patients. Delaney knows firsthand how important that support can be for a patient and the patient's family. A 13-year cancer survivor, she was a month past her first birthday when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Drugs are a problem in the Southern End.
Now the Solanco School District is working to help parents deal with the problem before it hits home. The school district is working with the Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center to give parents the warning signs their children have potential drug problems. Members of Solanco High School's Class of 2014 won the school's annual color wars last week, reprising their predecessors' victory in 2013. The competition wrapped up in the school's larger gymnasium Friday afternoon, March 28, with contests that tested skills that have few applications in daily life. They slurped whipped cream from tin plates, sucked applesauce through straws, and ran an obstacle course after spinning themselves dizzy. To win, class members had to work together. That was the whole purpose of the competition, said teacher and student senate advisor Jen Eisenberger. At their Monday night, March 17, meeting, members of the Solanco School Board chose Dr. Brian Bliss as the district's new superintendent.
Dr. Bliss has been the district's assistant superintendent for the past seven years. Even before students leave for their summer vacations, contractors will be getting ready for projects at two of the district's schools.
One project will remake the entrance to Quarryville Elementary School. The second will build a weight room at Solanco High School and renovate the space it has occupied in the building. They haven't built the scenery. They aren't rehearsing their roles. But without the promotions crew, Swift Middle School's students will be playing to an empty house when they stage The Revenge of the Pigs later this month. They have been preparing press packets, meeting with reporters, and will begin creating posters to fill the seats for the play's two performances. |
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