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. Anglers who turn out for the first day of trout season along Conowingo Creek will find new signs to help them find, and legally take, fish. The five signs were erected late last week by Joseph Mundorff, a Solanco High School junior and a member of Boy Scout Troop 76. Making and erecting the signs is Mundorff's project to reach scouting's highest rank "The fish commission came to our troop to suggest this as a troop project and I ended up with it as my Eagle project," he said. 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. Solanco High School's small engine repair team finished in second place in the annual small engine repair contest. The contest was held in the ag shop at Solanco High School on Tuesday, March 4. Seven school districts were represented in the annual county FFA competition. No backup. No accompaniment. Just one of the world's toughest songs, a microphone, and each other. That's been enough for Solanco High School seniors Danae Dombach, Shannon Bates, and Sammie Brown as the trio gave repeat performances of The Star Spangled Banner to open late-season basketball games. Two Solanco High School students have won Gold Key awards in the regional Scholastic writing competitions. Dakota White earned two Gold Key awards and Katie Marchesani earned one Gold Key for poetry and honorable mentions for a short story and flash fiction. They will have their work submitted to the national Scholastic competition. White, a senior, and Marchesani, a junior, each submitted numerous entries to the regional competition. A tradition of more than three decades has fallen victim to the requirements of one of Pennsylvania's new mandatory competency tests.
Solanco High School science students no longer have to develop individual projects and enter them in a competitive science fair. The district had to cancel the long-running fair to make more time for increased instruction in biology, said Dr. Brian Bliss, the district's assistant superintendent. A Solanco High School graduate, with help from a group of middle school students, is sending 1,200 Christmas cards to troops serving in the United States and overseas. Working from August through November, 2013 graduate Jamie Paxton created the colorful cards. She took extra shifts at work so she could afford to buy the materials she needed to create all of the hand-crafted cards. Kelly Cook knows the story. Last year, she read the book. This year, she's in the play. The Solanco High School freshman has the lead in “The Diary of Anne Frank.” As an eighth grader, Cook read the diary as part of the district's English curriculum. She also went to Washington, D.C., on a class trip and toured the Holocaust Museum. A veteran of two plays in Lancaster's Fulton Opera House, she tried out for this fall's school play and won the role of Anne Frank. Frank, a young Jewish girl, kept a diary while she and her family hid from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam during World War II. The diary was discovered after Frank and most of her relatives died in a concentration camp. Nearly 1,000 costumed children turned out Thursday night, October 24, for Solanco High School's Halloween Hallways. Members of the high school's clubs worked late that afternoon to decorate the hallways around the school. Each club chose a theme for its section of hallway. Some worked with movie characters, while others chose television series or traditional Halloween themes.
The clubs provided candy for the visiting children and also offered activities, including a coloring contest. High school students and the clubs paid for the decorations and the candy. After they graduated, one became a teacher, two spent most of their adult lives farming, another worked on the roads, a fifth ran the family's trucking business, and the sixth was employed by a major snack food company. But six members of Solanco High School's Class of 1956 have one thing in common - all served as township supervisors. Solanco High School students are getting ready for their annual homecoming celebration. Activities will begin Tuesday, October 15. The homecoming queen will be crowned at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, October 18, before the start of the Solanco-Elizabethtown football game. The king will be crowned at the homecoming dance on Saturday, October 19. If it rains Friday night, the homecoming queen will also be crowned during the dance.
Buoyed by an impressive showing during scrimmages Saturday, Solanco boys soccer coach Ron Miller has high hopes for his squad. The Mules were 3-0-1 on the day. "It was awesome," Miller said. "It was a good day for us. We've improved big time and I see a nice season in store for us."
Every August, the Thursday before school opens, the drivers who pilot school buses throughout the Solanco School district gather for orientation and training. Every year, the training is different.
"We try to give them practical training for everyday stuff they do on the bus," said Jason McClune, the district's transportation coordinator. This year, the emphasis was on safety. There must be some recessive gene in the Girvin family tree. That's one way to explain how three generations of the family have become public school teachers, Barry Girvin said last week. Barry is a native of Bart Township who graduated from Solanco High School and went on to teach social studies in the Conestoga Valley School District for 34 years before retiring. His son, John, graduated from CV and Millersville University and is well into his third decade at Solanco High School, where he teaches chemistry. John's daughter, Alyssa Girvin, is a graduate of Penn Manor High School and Elon University. She is beginning her first year as a science teacher at Solanco High, where she will teach biology. "I like biology because its a very hands-on subject," Alyssa said last week. "It's the study of life." The Solanco School District is working on several building projects that will improve security, make buildings more energy efficient, and provide additional classroom space. One of the more pressing is changing the entrance to Quarryville Elementary School.
"We're looking at options," said Dr. Martin J. Hudacs, superintendent of the Solanco School District. End of school locker cleanouts turned up the usual debris, school officials said last week. There were bundles of school papers, glasses, sweatshirts, jackets, and a few watches. And 31 bags of baby carrots. That's what one custodian found in a Solanco High School locker she was cleaning. The locker's former user apparently had not been a fan of the more nutritious lunches the school's cafeteria has been serving. The Chronicle Solanco's largest Mule arrived Tuesday morning and was hoisted into place shortly before 11 a.m. The Mule, which weights more than half a ton and stands a bit over eight feet tall, was a gift to Solanco High School by members of the graduating class of 2011. "The Class of 2011 left money to do a sports statue," said Solanco High School Principal Brian Gallagher. "Then Ina [high school secretary Ina Wilson] came up with the concept." They knew they were close. Just how close became apparent Wednesday afternoon, May 29. That's when classmates Tyler McCardell, Seth Temple, and Joel Nelson found they would
be sharing the title of valedictorian of Solanco High School's Class of 2013. |
Archives
August 2022
Categories
All
|