Febr. 3, 2012 D-Link

The D-Link

An E-Newsletter for the DASD Community

February 3, 2012- Vol 4, Issue 11

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Call 610-269-8460, ext. 6113 for more information

In This Issue

Tweeting and Friending

Around the District

Headlines of the week

Foundation News

Principal Updates

A Message from Superintendent Mussoline

Superintendent

On February 8, 2012, the Downingtown Area School district will name its staff development room after former School Board member James E. Watson, Jr. Jim has been a student, parent, board member and community leader, and has donated time to the school district and our area's senior center. Jim served in the armed forces in the late 1940's and returned to his hometown to work in the Sonoco paper mill. He first ran for a seat on the Downingtown Board of Directors in 1977 and won that election by one vote. For over 25 years, Jim represented the community of West Bradford as a Board member.

As we approach Black History Month, the district pauses to reflect on Jim's experience as a minority student attending Downingtown's segregated elementary schools. As an African American first grade student in the early 1940's, Jim walked three miles to school. Once there, he and his fellow classmates were relegated to the "Union" room, a classroom composed of entirely minority students. These students attended school as a single class, with grades 1 - 4 taught by a single African American teacher. The students were not permitted to have recess or lunch time with the white students. Jim credits his parents, among others, for ending this practice in the Downingtown schools.

Jim can remember one senior class trip to Washington when Downingtown High School advisors learned that the hotel they had booked was a "whites only" establishment. The minority students would not be allowed to stay there. When his fellow Downingtown students heard that they would be staying in a different hotel, the entire senior class insisted that they wouldn't stay there in a segregated hotel either. That solidarity is a moment he has long remembered.

In 1977 Jim first ran for office and was elected the first African American to the Downingtown Board of Directors. He told us in an interview that he was nervous at first to take his seat, and thought several times about not serving. He talked with his family and friends who expressed their support and convinced him that he could do much as an elected official. His fears were allayed when his fellow board members accepted him warmly. Several years later, he was elected to the position of Board President.

When Jim graduated from Downingtown High School, there were only 5 minority school teachers in the entire system. As a Board member, Jim focused much of his time on creating a more diverse teaching and administrative staff and would even attend Minority Hiring Fairs with the HR department. Due to his work in this area, three black educators have served in the district's highest positions, one as the district's first black superintendent, Dr. Levi Wingard and two others as East and West high school principals. As a member of the school district's Diversity Committee, Jim remains committed to working with the district in their continuing efforts to attract highly qualified minority teachers and administrators.

In a recent interview, Jim was asked what one thing he wished he could pass on to today's students. Perhaps remembering that one vote that put him on the path that leads him here this evening, Jim hopes that DASD students will enter the political field and run for elected office. "Getting involved in the service of your country and community is something that young people should be doing", he said.

Jim believes that everyone owes something to the community they come from. Jim Watson's life has mirrored those beliefs and we thank him for sharing his good humor, strength and convictions with those who were fortunate enough to know him and work with him.

Dr. Lawrence Mussoline
Superintendent

Tweeting and Friending on Facebook

twitter

Superintendent Larry Mussoline and a number of our Principals are using the social media tool, Twitter, to reach out to our community. Dr. Mussoline began delving into this 140 character world in January. The Superintendent will be the first to tell you that while he is new to the Web 2.0 world, he strongly believes that social media has a place in education.

Dr. Mussoline (@lmussoline) has been urging his administrative staff to utilized Twitter and Facebook, both nontraditional mediums, to communicate news and updates to the community. Both Facebook and Twitter provide free, useful, real time information to parents, students and community members. The Superintendent and Principals have been using Twitter to tweet during visits to classes, after reading a book to students, while attending a conference, and to congratulate students and staff on a job well done.

Tweets can include images, links, student achievements and staff accomplishments. Principal Nick Argonish (@dasd_ew) at East Ward Elementary School recently sent out a tweet with the link to a sign-up page for Science Saturday 2012. He also tweeted that he was observing students in Mrs. Bradford's class. The students were learning to crochet as part of a lesson for the novel The Family Under the Bridge. DMS Principal Nick Indeglio (@DASD_DMS) is also tweeting, and recently congratulated both DMS and LMS engineering students for making the finals in the Future City Competition. LMS (@DASD_LMD) Principal John Ross tweeted back congratulations to the DMS engineering team. Norma Jean Welsh at Shamona Creek (@DASD_SC) sent out reminders about the early dismissal in January. The District Communication Office (@DASD_Schools) also has a Twitter account and can quickly send out the district's e-newsletter to all following that account.

Dr. Mussoline also intends to use Twitter as another means of communicating during the snow closing process (the phone system is still the primary means of communicating important and urgent information). "Although we have been very fortunate this year, I have no doubt that we may have some snow in a future forecast. If that happens, I will be sharing the snow closing/delay decision process with those who are following my tweets."

Rather than fear social media, the district hopes to construct sound lessons that integrate these tools into the learning environment, similar to those lessons being used at the STEM Academy. "Communicating with social media tools is a growing phenomena", added Dr. Mussoline. "As our district strives to stay on top of technology to meet our mission of educating students for the 21st century, we would be bereft if we ignored the communication world our students, and frankly a vast majority of our parents, are using today. While there are those who may mistreat these powerful tools, our strategy will be to teach our students how to use them safely and effectively."

Many school leaders use Twitter to network with colleagues and praise the tool as a professional development gold mine-they learn from each other's tweets. Dr. Mussoline expects more administrators to use Twitter as more people use Blackberries, IPhones and other devices to communicate. The district has scheduled a class on how to use social media tools for later this month and several non-tweeting administrators have already signed up. Plan on following us into the future!

If you haven't become a friend of the District's Facebook page yet, become a follower on www.facebook.com/downingtownschools.

Around the District

Video Clip of the Week

Uwchlan Hills Elementary School students created a video to showcase some of the exercises and fun they have been having in class this year. Phys Ed teachers Leo Suniaga and Melissa Koons invited students to put their routine together. Students from Mrs. Back's 4th grade class created the following routine for their project. http://dasdvideo.dasd.org/uwback

Headlines Of the Week

Future Cities

The Future City Competition is a national, project-based learning experience where

students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade imagine, design, and build cities of the future.

Students work as a team with an educator and engineer mentor to plan cities using

SimCity™ 4 Deluxe software; research and write solutions to an engineering problem;

build tabletop scale models with recycled materials; and present their ideas before

judges at Regional Competitions in January.

This flexible, cross-curricular educational program gives students an opportunity to do

the things that engineers do-identify problems; brainstorm ideas; design solutions;

test, retest and build; and share their results. This process is called the engineering

design process. With this at its center, Future City is an engaging way to build

students' 21st century skills.

Downingtown Middle School's Team of 28 students competed for the first time

against 43 other schools in the Philadelphia region making it to the final 6 to tie with

Radnor and New Hope-Solebury! Congratulations to all

Board Member Carl Croft and a SC future scientist

Science Fair at SC

On Thursday night, 20 students in grades 1-5 participated in the Science Fair. The topics ranged from Solar panel cars to the effectiveness of suntan lotions. We were pleased to
have our adopted Board Member, Mr. Carl Croft, attend this event. The evening concluded with a program presented by The Franklin Institute.

Students at BW contributing cans of soup

Souper Bowl

Fifth Grade classes throughout the district participated in their own Super Bowl this week. Teachers and students participated in the "Souper Bowl", an effort to accumlute cans of soup to donate to the Lord's Pantry in Downingtown. The goal is to collect 800 cans of soup. Although a winning classroom will be announced in an upcoming edition of the D-Link, the real winner in this competition was the Lord's Pantry.

Congratulations and thank you to all who participated in this drive.

Vodcast

Vodcasting at DHS East

On January 30, 2012 DHS Chemistry teacher Theresa McCafferty hosted a flipped classroom open house. A flipped classroom uses vodcasting. Students watch vodcasts at home, giving them more time to spend in class engaging in hands-on activities and directed problem solving. Teachers from several other local schools attended the open house and expressed great interest in using this exciting process in their own classrooms.

apple

STEM Academy Named an Apple Distingushed School

The Downingtown STEM Academy has been named an Apple Distinguished School for the 2011-2012 school year. The Apple Distinguished School designation is reserved for schools that have demonstrated Apple's highest vision of a successful 21st century learning environment. The selection of the STEM Academy highlights its success in enhancing and extending teaching and learning with thoughtful and innovative implementations of technology.

James E. Watson (gray jacket) with Dr. James Warnick and DHS students.

Students Interview Guests for Radio Show.

High school students Cayla Cassells (STEM), Marissa Tremoglie(DNS West), and Sandhya Subramanian DHS East interviewed former board member James E. Watson, Jr. for the district's WCHE radio show, Chalk Talk. The girls prepared their own questions and carried the 1 hour interview off without a hitch. The show was broadcast on WCHE, 1520 am on January 26, 2012. To hear a podcast of that show, click here.

Third grade students Sara Stoetzel and Hope Hessler hosted the event.

TEDX at Pickering Valley
Sudents came away from a recent PV assembly with great ideas and the impetus to create their own projects. The special program for grades 3 - 5 was developed by two 3rd grade students with help from the TED X organization. They enjoyed area artist Michael Biddison who creates beautiful artwork out of "shrubbie", the transformed rubbish he finds on walks through the world.They laughed as mountaineer Paul Deegan helped teacher Nancy Fraim tried on the clothes one would need to climb Mt. Everest. And everyone, from staff to students, expressed amazement at four of the TED videos that were shown during the program. Visit TED at www.ted.com.

girls on run

WB Girls on the Run

West Bradford Elementary School partnered with the YMCA of the Brandywine Valley to offer the "Girls on the Run" program to 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls. Lead by parent volunteer Shannon Miller and school counselor, Mary Wallin, WB had 12 girls in 3rd and 5th grade participate in the after school program. Each practice focused on a different positive piece of social development for girls. On December 4th, the girls ran a 5K race at Downingtown West High School with over 1200 pre-teen girls and friends in Chester County.

Downingtown Community Education Foundation News

Business Leaders Luncheon - Join us!

How can a local business or corporation help grow their business, watch their property values go up and make sure that a well trained workforce is being prepared for them? By getting involved with their local public schools, of course! On February 23, 2012 the Downingtown Community Education Foundation will be hosting a luncheon for local business leaders who are interested in becomming a part of the Downingtown Area School District push toward "greatness". The event begins at 11:30 and will be held in the Central Administration Office Building at 540 Trestle Place, Downingtown.

The Business Leader luncheon will feature a welcome by Superintendent Larry Mussoline, a video highlighting the businesses already involved with our schools and an enlightening session about the EITC (Education Innovation Tax Credit) from Helen Semus. The event is free to all interested Downingtown Area School District business leaders. A complementary luncheon will be served. There are a variety of ways that businesses can partner with the Foundation's mission to inspire and support our 11,800 students. Take this first step ....and join us on February 23, 2012. To attned the luncheon, please email pmcglone@dasd.org.

Phillies Tickets UPDATE

Tickets are still available to the April 13, 2012 Phillie's evening game against the Mets, click here to order your tickets. Seats are in sections 427-429 and cost $30.00 with a portion of each ticket sold coming back to the Foundation.

Principal Updates

Beaver Creek

Mrs. Welk's 2nd grade class earned a class PAWS reward and they chose to bring in board games from home to play with Mrs. Lawless. She appreciates them being Polite and Wonderful Students in the cafeteria. Our School Spirit Committee organized Half Way to the Beach Day and everyone had fun wearing sunglasses, beach hats and flip flops in the middle of winter. Pink flamingos, beach towels and palm trees were in the office and lobby. We also managed to fit in a fire drill on a cold but sunny day. Friday after school, many families returned for Pizza Bingo! Thank you PTO for sponsoring this fun, family event.

Brandywine Wallace

Former Philadelphia Flyers player Bob Kelly visited BW last Friday as part of a Teamwork
assembly program. Students were encouraged to set goals both at home and at school.
The importance of working with others was also stressed and demonstrated through a
race to dress in hockey attire.

Bradford Heights

Bradford Heights recently held its Science Fair. After working very hard and learning about a variety of topics 15 out of 21 students will be heading off to the Chester County Science Fair. We are very proud of all of the participants and the hard work they put into each and every project.

Our Science Fair participants are:

5th Grade: 4th Grade:
Andrew Finegan Melody Yu

Mari Wise Lili Zeblium

Julia Harpel Aubrey Maybe

Julia Johnson Emiy Clemson

Abigail Pincus Gillian Christopher

Megan Herrmann Kennedy Zednik

Grace Voss Samantha Schultz

Jenna Bianco Madeleine Mailloux

Erin Conti Taylor Shorn

Katie Flynn

Matthew Plichta

Emily Plichta

Two Bradford Heights Students competed in the First State FLL Champion's Tournament for Robotic at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Delaware. Congratulations to Brianna Hart and Rachel Bowman.

East Ward

On Friday, January 27, East Ward participated in an assembly called Crazy Olympics. The day certainly resembled the name as students in grades K-5 teamed up to break the old school record set 20 years ago. More than 50 parents volunteered their time to coach our 48 teams, while teachers and staff were on hand to judge their performance.

The day was facilitated by Jack Chambers (Chester Springs). While students were challenged with many crazy activities such as various relays, dance contests, make your favorite breakfast cereal, and spell your coaches name, teachers, staff, and parents assisted with earning points through a teacher sing off, Frisbee through, and basketball shooting. All the while Jack reinforced the importance of working as a team, treating each other with respect, cheering each other on, etc. The day is sure to be remembered by all for years to come!

Many pictures and a few videos to give you a better idea of our "jacktivities" can be found on the East Ward Facebook page.

Science Fair

Our 5th grade students demonstrated their knowledge of the scientific process in their science fair on Thursday, February 2. Over 100 boards were on display for our judges from Quest Diagnostics and Arkema. The top 5 student projects were determined after a grueling 4 hours of review. The top five student projects will have the opportunity to participate in the County Science Fair on March 9th at CAT Pickering.

Envirothon

Mrs. Barbara Roy has started the first Envirothon Team at East Ward. Our first team meeting was held on Friday, January 27th. 43 students have signed up for the new team. These 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students learned about Outdoor Safety and started discussing Pa Wildlife. Through May, students will expand their knowledge of Pa. wildlife(mammals and birds), aquatic life(includingfish, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians), foestry(trees and plants), outdoor safety and the the current environmental issue, Low Impact Development/Non-source pollution in order to prepare for the competition on May 2, 2012 at Hibernia Park. The team will focus on hands-on learning of conservation including guest speakers and is hoping to schedule some hikes to the Struble Trail.

High School Tutoring at East Ward
The high school tutoring program that was started at East Ward last year has begun
again. This year there are currently 15 students from West and STEM that come to East
Ward to reinforce mathematics concepts. Each tutor pairs up with 1 student in grades 3-
5. This pairing also provides an opportunity for students to be mentored by our high
school buddies. There has been a very positive response after our first 2 sessions.

Pickering Valley

Monday afternoon, January 30th, the 3rd graders participated in a wonderful community
service project. They spent the afternoon decorating hearts and adding inspirational
messages to them. Those hearts were then used to make 36 heart wreaths, 42
decorative hearts, and 27 heart garlands. These Valentine decorations, along with a
giant Valentine card signed by all the 3rd graders, will be delivered to the Child Life
Department at CHOP to brighten it up in time for Valentine's Day. A huge thank you to
all the students for all their hard work during the event, all the parent volunteers for
helping out, and Mrs. Yi and Mrs. Rao for organizing the event.

On Thursday, Feb. 2nd, our first, second and third graders had the pleasure of attending
the Deputy Phil and Pals assembly. Deputy Phil's message was for everyone to realize
we all have the power (ability) to make our community a safe and respectful place. This
was an assembly which certainly got the message across in a fun way teaching students
safety and respect for themselves, friends, grown-ups, and the community!

Shamona Creek
On Friday, January 20th, 10 students from 5th grade participated in the SC Spelling Bee.
After a grueling 90 minutes, 3 competitors remained. Congratulations to Brooke Elmore
in 3rd Place, Kaite Zibello in 2nd Place and our winner, Mithil Gadura.

The Response to Instruction and Intervention groups in grades 2 and 3 will soon change
for a new cycle. Many of the groups will be performing plays in the next few days.
Readers' Theatre is a wonderful way to engage the children in reading and making
personal connections to the content. It helps build vocabulary and student selfconfidence.

As part of our Positive Behavior Support Plan at SC, we had an all school assembly. The
purpose of this plan is to create a positive learning environment through common
language and a focus on good choices. Teachers and Instructional Aides bravely took to
the stage to model our school expectations. (Be respectful, responsible, safe and kind.)
Through various vignettes, the teachers showed unwanted behaviors. We then talked
with the audience about how they could improve to show SC Shark behavior. The
teachers then modeled appropriate behaviors. The assembly was a huge hit with
students and staff. Kudos to the SC family for making learning fun!

Shamona Creek recently raised money forone of their own! Monies raised went to the
NephCure Foundation which saves kidneys! The NephCure Foundation has gotten a
major break and will be featured on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice!!! "Real
Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice has designated the kidney disease
non-profit as her charity beneficiary if she wins prize money on the broadcast network
prime time series.

Springton Manor
Grade 5 Science Fair: On Thursday, January 26, 2012, the fifth grade students at
Springton Manor Elementary School participated in our annual Science Fair. Every fifth
grade student first selected an area of science they decided they would like to learn
more about. They then developed an experiment to focus their learning in that
particular area of science. The students posited an hypothesis of what they believed
would be the outcome of their experiment, developed a procedure to test the
hypothesis, recorded the data they collected throughout the experiment and then
presented their findings. The students then needed to present a conclusion reflecting
both the accuracy of their hypothesis and what they learned through the experiment
itself. A distinguished guest panel of professional engineers selected five student
projects to advance to the Chester County Science Fair that will be held on March 9,
2012 where our five advancers will compete against students from across Chester
County. We would like to offer a big Mustang congratulation to the students who
produced the advancing projects. The advancing students are Mr. Adam Grintz from
Mrs. Coyle's classroom, Miss Audrey Covaleski from Mr. Whiteley's classroom, Mr.
Matthew Kervinen from Miss Hummel's classroom, Mr. Jake Morrow from Miss Hummel's
classroom, and Mr. Ben Smith from Mr. Chindemi's classroom.

Springton Manor Spelling Bee: On Friday, January 27, 2012, Springton Manor
Elementary hosted our fourth annual Spelling Bee. Classroom competition winners from
grades four and five squared off in an exciting and challenging school-wide spelling
competition. After many rounds of difficult words, Mr. Ethan Clay, a fifth grade student
from Mrs. Coyle's classroom emerged as the winner with Miss Sarah Bastian from MissHummel's classroom finishing as our first runner-up. Mr. Ethan Clay will now advance to
represent Springton Manor Elementary School in the Chester County Spelling Bee
competition which will be held on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. The entire staff and
student body here at Springton Manor wishes Ethan all the best as he enters the next
challenging level of competition. Pictured below are Mrs. Coyle, Mr. Clay, Miss Bastian,
and Miss Hummel.

Uwchlan Hills

On Friday, January 27, 2012 Uwchlan Hills hallways were abuzz. The hard work of the
young scientists, in Kindergarten through Fifth grades, finally paid off when they
presented their Science Fair Projects! In our Bridge Building Competition we had twentyfive participants who were trying to show off the strength of their bridges while other
bridges were so bright and colorful you needed sun glasses to look at them!five participants who were trying to show off the strength of their bridges while other bridges were so bright and colorful you needed sun glasses to look at them!

Downingtown Middle School
DMS Physical Education classes identified and applied trust building
skills, listening skills, non verbal and verbal communication skills,
and decision making skills during classes this week. Students participated in a
cooperative game called The Human Ladder. Everyone was responsible for safety,
positive group interaction and asked to recognize the tasks contribution to
fitness. Each class successfully met the challenge by acting as a team and
by encouraging one another.

Clubs
DMS ski club found SNOW! The club of over 150 hit the slopes with
their skis and boards enjoying Bear Creek Mountain. Students boarded buses last Friday
with the hopes of good skiing in warm weather. A fantastic and safe time was had by all!

WCU Tutoring
The next round of tutoring will begin next week starting on Feb. 6. Ildi Brown and Karen
Welch met the students of professors Dr. Patricia Gysling and Dr. Lesley Welsh on
campus this past week to train them for the PSSA tutoring sessions. Many thanks go to
the professors for changing their class times this semester to accommodate our
afternoon REACH time. The WCU students were enthusiastic and ready to work with our
students. The Meet and Greet on Tuesday will bring tutor and DMS student together.
We look forward to another productive semester.

FOOTLOOSE
Students are working hard to polish songs, dances and drama as crew perfects scene
changes, lighting and sound, and final touches are added to costumes and sets. Pit
musicians, both adults and high school students, are adding their professional magic.
This high-energy show is going to be terrific! While the Friday Feb. 10 show is nearly
sold out, tickets remain for Feb. 11 (2 & 7 PM) and Feb. 12 (2 PM) and can be purchased
through the DMS office. Tickets will also be available for student purchase at lunches
starting Monday. We can't wait!!

Lionville Middle
The 6th grade Knowledge Master team recently competed in the International
Knowledge Master competition. This competition tests academic knowledge across the
curriculum. They received first place in the state of Pennsylvania and 8th place
Internationally out of 250 schools. Bravo to our team. Members include: Nathaniel Healy,
Sarah Carlsen, Rohan Vora, Dani Yan, Aaron Stoyak, Catherine Li, Maria Meyer, Himani
Vommi, Daniel Gao, Jacqueline Wu, Aidan Lillis, Anisha Bhogale, Rishab Abhyankar,
Marcus Djuhadi, and Noah Sabadish.

LMS has been running several Rachel's Challenge Groups with different missions of
service attached to each group but all with the goal of creating and maintaining a Chain
Reaction of Kindness.

The Rachel's Challenge Chain Link Group, led by Faculty Advisors, Becky Leister and
Christine Samarin, has been busy going to a different team each week in order to have
the students write an act of kindness they have witnessed on a strip of construction
paper that will become a link in a large paper chain. At the end of the year, the group
hopes to hold a rally and show the school just how long the chain of kindness that they
made grew. The purpose of this group is to show the students at LMS that acts of
kindness happen every day.

The Welcoming Club, created colorful "Happy You Are Here at LMS" cards. The cards
made new students feel that they belong to the supportive family of LMS. The club
members hand-delivered the cards to the new students in their homerooms. Faculty
advisors, Mrs. Toole and Mrs. Bortnick feel that it is such a pleasure to see the
members return from their deliveries with huge smiles because the recipients were
wonderfully surprised and touched by this expression of kindness.

Mrs. Pavone and Mrs. Mais and their Rachel's Challenge Communicate Kindness Club,
has been very busy! Their first project was to create slogans and hang posters around
the building to create a positive environment and send the message of acceptance.Messages included: Free Hugs! Smile Every Day! Laughter is the same in Every
Language...

Next, members of the club were busy letter writing and creating birthday cards. A letter
was written to every member of the support staff. Currently, they are designing posters
to hang in the lunchroom for the cafeteria staff, and one for the custodian's office.
Birthday cards were made for fellow club members. A goal for the club is to create a
card/sign for everyone's locker on their birthday!

DHS East

Florida Band, Orchestra & Choir & C olor Guard T rip:
From February 1-5, the DEHS Band, Choir, Orchestra and Color Guard will travel to
Orlando, Florida where they were chosen to perform at one of the most high-profile
venues in the world- Disney World. It will expose our groups to the highest level of
performance excellence while reinforcing lifelong lessons in teamwork, discipline and
artistic growth.

Being selected by The Disney Corp. to perform in one their parks is a premier highlight
for our performing groups. Having the performance and clinical opportunities are a
tremendous tool in motivating students to work hard and take their individual and group
levels of play to a higher level.

The staff at Disney continually reminds students that their performance is part of The
Disney Magic. Disney stresses that the student performing groups are a part of their
entertainment team. They are treated as performers and are given the opportunity to
learn how professional performers are treated both back stage and on stage. They also
learn from top performance organizers how to pull off these Magical Disney
performances.

On this trip students do not only have the opportunity to perform themselves, but can
attend various performances on the Disney grounds. These performances are executed
by some of the most skilled musicians, actors, gymnasts, etc. from around the world.
The ability to watch these performances expands each student's perspective of the
performance world and offers them a chance to discover different career opportunities
within music and the other performing arts.

DE Choir Students:
This past weekend, 10 Downingtown East Choir Students participated in a three day
Pennsylvania Music Educator's Association District 12 Choir Festival: Sarah Diamond,
Anne Dooley, Steve Harding, Emily Goodrich, Ian Goodrich, Jackson May, Heather
McConnell, Ruth Menger, Mia Phillips, and Zach Salamon.

The Festival held at Radnor H.S. was comprised of the best vocalists from Philadelphia,
Chester and Delaware Counties and culminated in a concert on Saturday, January 28
conducted by Dr. William Weinert, Choir Director of the Eastman School of Music.
Four of our students, Sarah Diamond, Jackson May, Heather McConnell, and Ruth
Menger were selected to progress to the PMEA Region VI Choir Festival to be held from
March 8-10 at Upper Perkiomen H.S. Region VI Choir is comprised of the best singers in
Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware counties.

DHS West
AWARDS
West is proud of our CAT Brandywine Students of the Quarter. They are:
Stephen Curdo-Automotive Collision Technology
Bryan Eiswerth-Electronic Systems Technology
Christopher Marberger-Animal Science and Technology
Taylor Miller-Allied Health Science Technology
Kai Reitelbach-Commercial and Graphic Arts
Olivia Walsh-Health Occupations

ACTIVITIES
Alex Schweizer, 11th grade, and Liam Dilenschneider, 10th grade, have been chosen to
participate in Regional Band.

The indoor drum line is practicing for their 2012 competitive season - This ensemble
consists of members from East, West and STEM High Schools. They will be competing in
the Mid Atlantic Percussion Society circuit and on the National level in the Winter Guard
International Circuit in the Scholastic A Division.

The Indoor percussion ensemble and the Downingtown Music Parents Association will be
hosting an indoor Drum line competition on March 17th.

The Downingtown Indoor Colorguard is back! After an absence of 15 years, the indoor
colorguard is back and is in full swing with their practices and preparations for their
competitive season, which begins in February. This group is made up of students from
all three high schools as well. This is a combination of dance, flag and rifle while moving
to contemporary music. Like the indoor drum line, it too competes in a gymnasium.

The Black Student Union held its first annual Fashion Your Talent show on January 26th.
Congratulations to the following winners:
2nd Place (tie)-Tali Trofa and Tom Apostolacus
1st Place-Lulu Rivera.

A big thank you to Mrs.Monarch, Mr. Farrell, Mrs. Steffy, Mr. Jones and Ms. Dunn for
judging the contest

Photography teacher, Carla Plomchok, will be hosting a solo art show featuring quilts,
glass work, metal work, jewelry, ceramics and other items. The show will take place at
the Steinmetz Gallery in Lancaster County on February 26, 2012 from 1-5 pm. The items
will remain on display until March 22nd.

Maddie Rumpf (grade 10) and Alex Cuttic (grade 12) raised $2,000 selling bracelets for
The Pulsera Project. The Pulsera Project is a non-profit organization that helps young
Nicaraguans. The students teamed up with the project by selling colorful pulseras
(Spanish for bracelets) during school lunches. The pulseras are made by young
Nicaraguans and sold here. All of the profit will help create many opportunities for
Nicaraguans. The opportunities include jobs, scholarships, medicine, food, clothing, clean
water, electricity, books.

A big thank you to Mrs.Monarch, Mr. Farrell, Mrs. Steffy, Mr. Jones and Ms. Dunn for
judging the contest.

SPORTS
Our Athlete of the Week was wrestler, Peter Rhoads. Peter pinned his opponent in the
final match against Methacton in the District Duals. This enabled the Whippets to defeat
Methacton 33-32.

DASD Diversity Committee

Greetings!

The purpose of the Downingtown Area School District Diversity Committee is to promote the district's efforts to foster multicultural knowledge and to increase attitudinal acceptance ofothers' individual uniqueness. The committee believes that respecting differences in ethnicity, cultural background, physical or intellectual ability, religion, gender, or sexuality are necessary for all members of the school community.

In this issue of the D-Link we would like to recommended an excellent book - Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. This book is written with a fresh Chinese-American voice, an inspiring debut about an immigrant girl forced to choose between two worlds and two futures.