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. Early Saturday evening, May 24, the public will be able to see what a group of parents has been concocting for the past 14 months.
The parents, all of whom have children in Solanco High School's Class of 2014, volunteered to put together a post-prom party for members of the senior class and their guests. The public is invited to view the party setup from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The party is open to seniors and guests from 10:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. He doesn't know what the prize is, but Solanco Food Service Director Matt Kirchoff wants the district's schools to win the state's latest competition. "We've entered each school in Pennsylvania's school breakfast challenge," he said last week. To meet the state's goal, each school has to increase the percentage of students eating breakfast 30 percent. Who pays to fix mailboxes damaged by plowed snow depends on where the mail customer lives and who plows the road.
The state and some townships will not compensate mailbox owners if plowed snow damages their rural delivery boxes. Other townships will either compensate the owner or fix the boxes. 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. Marissa Witmer knows where she's going. The Solanco High School freshman intends to major in biology in college, earn grades high enough to get into a good medical school, and enter a residency program where she will train to become a surgeon. She decided to become a surgeon after first intending to become a teacher. "My mom is a professor at Millersville [University] and I wanted to be a teacher just like mom," she said. 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. The faculty of Solanco High School has announced the names of students earning honor roll distinction for the first marking period of the 2013-14 school year.
Fantasy titles led the list of must-reads at Smith Middle School's book fair. "The new fantasy books are very popular," reading specialist Emily Ritholz said Thursday, December 19. Among them are several series of books. Books in the Hunger Games, Diary of A Wimpy Kid, and Maximum Ride series were selling well. "James Patterson writes the Maximum Ride books and kids really like them," Ritholz said. 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. Each year, members of the Southern Lancaster County Historical Society decide which dozen landmarks will be featured in the group's calendar.
This year, the 30th anniversary of the society's first calendar, members chose to revisit the scenes they portrayed in their 1984 edition. Although the landmarks are the same, different artists drew the scenes, often from a different perspective. The faculty of Swift Middle School has announced the names of students earning honor roll distinction for the first marking period of the 2013-14 school year.
Fewer people paid their Solanco School District real estate taxes during the two-month discount period earlier this year.
But more people paid their bills in the following two months, bringing collection figures as of October 31 in line with those of previous years, said Dr. Timothy Shrom, the school district's business manager. Families who need emergency help buying heating fuel this winter will be expected to help pay for the assistance. In the past, Solanco Neighborhood Ministries has paid for a minimum fuel delivery for people who need emergency help. The rising cost of home heating fuel and the increased demand for assistance has led the agency to change that program for the coming heating season. It will offer matching grants this winter rather than paying the entire cost of a minimum fuel delivery. While voters were choosing candidates inside Quarryville Borough Hall last week, a group of Smith Middle School students was outside the building planting for the future. As part of the STREAM (Smith Teaching Respect for the Environment using Alternate Methods), 15 students, mostly eighth graders, spent Tuesday, November 5 learning about the environment. Half the day was dedicated to studying in a Beaver Creek tributary stream. The rest of the day was devoted to planting 75 trees and shrubs. 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. Quarryville Elementary School hosted a family engagement night to help students and parents focus on the importance of homework. The Title 1 Homework Treasure Hunt began after school on Monday, October 21, with Quarryville students doing their homework in the library. Quarryville teachers and Solanco High School National Honor Society students were on hand to provide assistance and answer questions from the younger students. 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. |
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