A special thanks and congratulations to all students who participated in the 2010 Franklin County Science Fair this past weekend at Chambersburg Area Middle School! Projects were judged on April 30, and awards were handed out at a ceremony May 2. Click here for a list of CASD winners and photos of their projects.

 

Faust Student Council members and members of the Faust recycling team visited Scotland Elementary on April 16 to read to Theresa Reichard's, Amber Pereschuk's, and Kathy Kroepil's 3rd grade classes in celebration of Earth Day. The Faust students shared Dr. Seuss's The Lorax with the 3rd graders and sang songs with them. The children also colored paper shopping bags that local grocery stores used with their customers on Earth Day. Faust students shared the same program at Ben Chambers Elementary on April 23.

 

The following Chambersburg Area School District personnel were recognized with a certificate of appreciation at last Wednesday's school board meeting for having 30 years of service with the district. We thank each of them for their ongoing commitment to education and to our students and community!

Timothy Brookens, 4th Grade Teacher
Cynthia Campbell, Math Coach
Peggy Heck, Library Secretary
Virginia Hoyer, 5th Grade Teacher
Kathy Kroepil, 2nd Grade Teacher
Mary Jane Torri, 4th Grade Teacher
Victoria Valentino-Koontz, Speech Therapist
Daryl Reeder, Day Custodian
Donald Kimple, Day Custodian
Dr. Paul Sick, Regional Principal

 

Vocabulary Day was held April 30 at Buchanan Elementary, and students celebrated by dressing as a word from their vocabulary list. Teachers also had the opportunity to dress up or act as a vocab word other than one on the students' list, and they organized a vocab parade where they visited all the classrooms to model their words. In the primary classes, the teachers pronounced and defined their words and explained the rationale for the costumes. In the intermediate grades, they simply walked through and the students had to figure out which word each teacher was dressed as!

 

    

 

Four Faust orchestra students participated in the 33rd annual Holocaust Memorial Service at the Congregation Sons of Israel Synagogue in Chambersburg on April 11. Ninth grade violinists Patricia Fox, Sydney Hays, Katrina Kniss, and Logan Peiffer were accompanied by their director, Julia Emig, in performing "Song of Remembrance" by Elena Roussanova Lucas and "Theme from Schindler's List" by John Williams.

 

Not only was the service a meaningful musical experience for everyone who attended, it was a lesson in cultural awareness, history, and literature. Participants paid their respects to Holocaust victims by listening to readings from The Diary of Anne Frank and from the writings of Hannah Senesh and others. Rabbi Molly Karp offered prayers for the departed and led the lighting of memorial candles.

 

At the close of the service, a historic recording was played of Jewish survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp singing "Hatikvah" (which means "The Hope") on April 20, 1945 as they were released from the camp. The congregation then sang the song accompanied by the students.

 

Congratulations to the girls of the Faust varsity volleyball team, who won their Gettysburg tournament on March 27 and are 11-0 so far this season! Wendy Grove is coach of the varsity team and is assisted by JV coach Nickey Zanin.

 

Dylan Johnson, 5th grade, Grandview
Gwendalynn Clark, 5th grade, Lurgan
Hayden Kissel, 5th grade, South Hamilton
Caitlin Vrabel, 6th grade, CAMS
Ethan Overcash, 7th grade, CAMS
Jonathan Hopple, 8th grade, Faust
Samantha Herrera-Cruz, 9th grade, Faust
Larren Ficks, 10th grade, FCCTC
Brandon Diehl, 11th grade, FCCTC
Hope Rogers, 11th grade, CASHS
ConRoy Smith, 12th grade, CASHS

 

The Flexible Benefit Plan is an employee benefit available through CASD that isn't insurance but rather an arrangement under Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code that allows you to reduce your taxable income. Section 125 flexible benefits can be used to pay for employee share of eligible insurance premiums, eligible medical expenses not covered by insurance, and eligible daycare expenses.

 

See the schedule for May of when you can enroll or adjust your enrollment. (Note: The only employees who need to attend these days are those wishing to sign up or those who need to make a change to their contribution.)

 

CASHS technology education teacher and Trojans assistant football coach Raymond Setaro Jr. has applied for a Pepsi Refresh Grant to purchase A/V equipment and computer software for a new tech ed class, but Raymond's proposal needs your help! The proposal is in the running for a $25,000 grant from Pepsi, and the winners are chosen through online voting. Below are directions for how you can vote:
 
1. Visit www.refresheverything.com.

2. Click on the gold "Education" button on the top right-hand side of the page.
3. Select the $25,000 tab.

4. Next to "Vote For," select "Near You."

5. Find Raymond's proposal, "Create A/V Technology Course, Promote Athletes for College Scholarship," and click "Vote for this idea." (You can vote once a day until the end of May.)

 

Faust Student Council representatives Tia Pattillo and Brooke May delivered this report to the school board last week:
 
In celebration of Earth Day, Sen. Richard Alloway visited with students on April 22 and answered questions about energy and the environment. He also announced a creek cleanup project that will take place in May, when students will be invited to help remove debris from the Conococheague Creek.

 

In celebration of National Student Leadership Week, Student Council invited Mrs. Jacobs, Faust principal, and Mr. Hill, CASD director of security, to a special leadership breakfast on April 19. Mrs. Jacobs and Mr. Hill talked to students about leadership and bullying in school.

 

Mrs. Shaw's Landscape Design class, Mrs. Lehman's Interior Design class, and Mrs. Barkett's Technical Drawing class collaborated on a project in which students worked in groups to design a home structure and interior and landscape design for the home using computer-generated graphics software, design project boards, Prezi presentations, and 3-D displays. All students did an excellent job!
 
Four students from Faust Future Business Leaders of America attended the FBLA state conference in Hershey on April 12 and 13. The students took part in business workshops, listened to corporate speakers, and competed in business-related areas against other FBLA members.

 

 

Hundreds across CASD celebrated Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 29 by doing just that: carrying poems in their pockets to share. Some teachers offered extra credit or prizes for students who brought their own poem; others let children select from poems they had either read or written during the school year.

 

I celebrated by wearing a fishing vest covered with pockets filled with various types of poems and performed the poems for many classes. Several classes including the 1st grades at Lurgan made their own pockets. The teachers, Linda Stolte and Stephanie Glunt, along with Title 1 teacher Kelly Hurley, read the poem "Band-Aids" by Shel Silverstein while students placed bandage-sized Post-it notes on their bodies wherever the poem mentioned.

 

This month's Frontline Employee Newsletter from Quest's Employee Assistance Program offers advice about free credit reports, secrets to better speeches, getting unstuck from a toxic friendship, and more.

 

This month's Frontline Supervisor Newsletter answers questions about gender favoritism, documentation, good manager traits, and teambuilding.

 

Congratulations to our elementary poster contest winners from Letterkenny Army Depot's Earth Day celebration!