The D-Link

An E-Newsletter for DASD Community

December 1, 2012 - Vol 4, Issue 7

In This Issue

Exton Mall Art Gallery

Battle of the Brains

Student Showcase

Congratulations

News From the Schools

Superintendent's Column

The Downingtown Area School District celebrated the beginning of construction for the Sixth Grade Center on Friday, November 20, 2012. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on land overlooking the construction site located on Dorlan Mill Road in Uwchlan Township. Members of the school board, administration, local officials, community members and students from the four corners of the district participated in the ceremony.

As Board President Jackie Fenn noted, it took awhile to get these shovels in the ground but we are at last building a much needed school to relieve the overcrowding we are experiencing in our two middle schools.   Yesterday we were joined by many of the people who have made this new school a possibility.   We thank the Uwchlan township officials; our community members and administrators who helped turn the dream of a school into a reality.

I would once again like to thank this School Board for their leadership in moving forward with educational initiatives while constraining costs.   What one should remember is the creative way our school board has dealt with overcrowding at both our high schools and middle schools.   Rather than build a third high school at a cost of 120,000,000 or more, board members approved the renovation of our oldest building and created our innovative STEM Academy at a far less cost to the community. Likewise, this sixth grade center will fix the overcrowding issues we are experiencing at the middle level, without the added costs that a middle school requires.

The first shovel is in the ground, with good weather ahead, we expect the Sixth Grade Center to open in time for the first day of school in 2014.

Dr. Larry Mussoline, Superintendent

The DASD Exton Mall Art Gallery

The Downingtown Area School District is pleased to announce the opening of the DASD Art Gallery located on the first floor of the Exton Square Mall. Each art teacher in the Downingtown Area School District from our three high, two middle, and ten elementary schools will select two to three works of art each month to display in the gallery. The artwork covers a variety of materials and styles including drawing, painting, ceramic, and sculpture. Each month new works from students in kindergarten through twelfth grade will be displayed. The gallery will be open through March.

The Exton Mall is providing this space to the district free of charge. The Downingtown Area School District is grateful to the mall for providing this opportunity to share the successes of our art program, students, teachers, and schools. During the month of December, holiday greeting cards created by student artists in DHS East, DHS West and the STEM Academy will be featured. The cards are available for sale through the Downingtown Community Education Foundation. Proceeds from the sale of these cards benefit our student artists and programs.

Music played in- store has been recorded by our K-12 music department. The music playing has been created by students in the band, orchestra, and chorus from throughout the district.

Volunteers will run the store in order to secure the safety of the art. When it is not "open," the artwork can be viewed through the glass doors.

Battle of the Brains

The DHS East Junior Varsity and Varsity Academic Teams placed first in their respective matches during the second annual Battle of the Brains held on November 26, 2012. The competition was held in the auditorium of last year's champions, DHS West. The $300 raised from ticket sales will benefit the three high school academic teams.

The Battle of the Brains trophy will now rest in a place of honor at DHS East until the 2014 competition. Next year's competition will be held at DHS East.

Student Showcase

Holiday Greeting Card Competition

Greeting card packets are on sale this season to benefit the Downingtown Community Education Foundation's fund to support art programs in the high schools. Each pack costs $10.00 and contains nine beautifu, original cards. You may view and purchase these packs of greeting cards at this link.

DHS East

First place - Kim Canfield

Second Place - Renee Lassow

Third Place - Anna Tarasova

DHS West

First place - Avery Bell

Second place - Hana Wise

Third Place - Amanda Patton

STEM Academy

First place - Miranda Cobb

Second Place -Scott Doran

Third place - Victoria Killen

Congratulations

DHS East

Congratulations to two Downingtown East Choir students, Abbi Wood and Stephanie Jackman who performed in last weekend's 6 ABC Thankgiving Day Parade that was televised to millions. The girls were part of the "Center Stage" performance that featured a singing/dancing medley of songs from the silver screen. The group was comprised of approximately 120 high school aged performers from schools in the Philadelphia area.

Congratulations to DEHS senior choir member, Heather McConnell on her recent acceptance to the 2013 NAfMe All-Eastern Honors Choir. The National Association for Music Education's Eastern Division Honors Ensembles are comprised of the best high school musicians in Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Students are accepted by a committee that builds the ensembles from the state presidents' ranked lists. Heather was chosen for this honor because of her participation in the past two Pennsylvania All-State Choir Festivals.

Heather will attend the 2013 NAfME Eastern Division Conference from April 4-7 in Hartford, Connecticut and perform with the All-Eastern Treble Voice Chorus on Sunday, April 7 at 1:30 p.m.

The All-Eastern Treble Choir is the most highly selective choral ensemble for high school aged girls in the country. This is an incredible musical accomplishment for Heather! Way to go!

Seven high school music students from DASD are performing at Carnegie Hall on Friday, November 30th. The students will also be joined by one of our district's music teachers, Sherry Weaver. The concert will feature performances by Sarah McLaughlin, Lorena McKenna and many other nationally acclaimed artists and is a Christmas Concert fundraiser for autism hosted by Kate Winslet.

This is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity for the students and Mrs. Weaver.

The students performing on Friday, November 30th at Carnegie Hall in The Tim Janus Youth Orchestra Christmas Concert are:

from STEM: Brian Moser
from West: Erin DeNardo, Alex Schweizer, Greg LaRosa
from East: Sarah Miller, Jackson May, Lioba Menger

Delaware Valley Minority Student Achievement Consortium

The following students from Downingtown Middle School traveled to the University of Pennsylvania to participate in the Delaware valley Minority Student Achievement Consortium on November 29th: Michael Hamilton, Kenneth Oxendine Costello, Charles Williams, Keyanna Cooper, Elon Graves.

DVMSAC seeks to inspire young men and women to seek high levels of personal and

academic success and accept leadership responsibilities as part of their contribution to

their school and society. The Middle School Student Leadership Institute offers students

a chance to network with students to support possible future collaboration and to

engage in activities that will foster personal leadership development.

News from the Schools

Bradford Heights

On Tuesday, our First Grade headed to the Camden Aquarium. This is a wonderful culminating activity for our habitat unit. The students were able to touch stingrays and sharks. Many students walked through the shark tunnel, and some even had the chance to experience a virtual shark cage. The penguin show gave students an opportunity to learn about penguins. The most exciting part is seeing the enormous tank with so many exciting animals. This trip is a wonderful learning experience that brings the information learned in class to life.

Brandywine Wallace

The BW Turkey Trot was held recently and we were glad to have members of the DHSW Track Team helping us with the event. We had a huge turnout and our winners were glad to receive their turkey hats. Thanks to Mrs. Tredway and Mr. Young for coordinating this fun and healthy activity for our school!

The BW Chorus, under the direction of Mrs. Stephanie Heavens, has entered the holiday

choral competition sponsored by B-101 Radio. Be listening for our students in the coming

weeks. Our song is "Santa's Rocking Down the Chimney". We know our chorus is extra special.

Pickering Valley

On Tuesday, November 20th, Ben Franklin visited second grade at Pickering Valley. He shared facts about his life, things he invented and his importance in our everyday lives today. Ben's visit was our culminating activity for completing a unit of study on colonial life. Last week PV Cares met for the first time to discuss ideas for what they wanted to sponsor throughout the year. Students discussed past service ideas done through PV and ongoing community service projects that they could help promote. Some ideas they came up with were activities to increase awareness of Stop Hunger Now and Toys for Tommy. Additionally time was spent helping out Toys for Tommy by creating posters to display on collection boxes near the main office.

West Bradford

Buck for the Beach. It looked kind of "beachy" around here last week when the entire school participated in Buck for the Beach event to raise money for the Red Cross's Sandy relief effort. Everyone got into the fun, dressing in their favorite beach sweatshirts, Hawaiian shirts, shorts and even a grass skirt or 2! WB raised over $800 for the Red Cross!

iPads at WB. 17 teachers are piloting the use of iPads within their instructional practice here at WB. We researched a variety of uses (not just for apps, you know!) as well as the use of apps. Teachers have been using them for remediation and enrichment, during literacy and math centers and RtII. Students are creating videos, taking pictures and doing research as well. No learner is too young (or too old!) to learn from the use

of this device!

Downingtown Middle School

The students of Downingtown Middle School raised close to $1000 in a special "Breakfast with the Turkey" competition. The winning homeroom received a home cooked breakfast by Dr. Bruton and their homeroom teacher, Mr. Getz, dressed up as the guest of honor (the turkey).

Our "real" turkey remained in the Courtyard for all to visit and see. Later in the day, two of our 6th grade "Save the Turkey" essay winners, Kaitlyn Martchek and Brooke Elmore, read their first person narratives to the "committee." They won iTunes gift cards and it was announced that a home was found for the turkey on a

large farm nearby.

Lionville Middle School

Together the LMS family created 19 food baskets for our families in need. Each basketcontained everything for a full Thanksgiving Dinner from the turkey, to stuffing,cranberry sauce, dessert and much more! The bins full of food were delivered to eachfamily the day before Thanksgiving so that everyone was able to enjoy the holiday.

The Fifth Annual Turkey Trot raised almost $8,000.00! The LMS Student Council is planning to donate a large portion of that money to the Ladies Auxillary VFW Post in Downingtown where it will be used to help many on the homeless veterans in our community.

DHS East

Mrs. Podolak's Spanish V, Honors Seminar, and AP Classes all worked hard to perfect letters to send to our sister school in Honduras. They also gathered jeans and raincoats to send to the children in Honduras. Together, her classes donated 134 jeans and 8 raincoats. It took a total of 70 volunteers to pack all the donations and drive them to the post office.

The National Honor Society canned food drive has been underway since last Monday. Please spread the word! All cans will be donated to the Lord's Pantry in Downingtown. Cans can be placed in homerooms, and NHS volunteers will come to collect them every few days. This is a contest and will be extending to the end of November. The winning classroom will receive a free breakfast compliments of the National Honor Society.

DHS West

As always members of the National Honor Society are hard at work. They have

completed or are in the process of completing many community service projects.

· Many items were collected for Operation Military Stocking for the troopsCollected canned goods for the Lords Pantry just prior to Thanksgiving.

· Preparing for The Giving Tree (will begin the first week of December).

· Teacher aiding and tutoring both at West and Elementary School throughout the

district.

· Preparing a meal for Safe Harbor in West Chester.

· Collected many baby items that were delivered to a shelter in Staten Island for

the smallest victims of Hurricane Sandy

· Raised money to help support Cure 4 Cam (Childhood Leukemia)

The annual Winter Concert and Art Exhibit were held on November 28th.

Student Council has started a fundraiser for Alex's Lemonade Stand every Tuesday after

school to raise money for cancer research.

STEM Academy

On Monday, November 19 The German Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Peter Ammon and Congressman Jim Gerlach made a visit to the STEM Academy for a tour and a meet and greet. German students and STEM German Teacher Jessica Staub led a discussion session with students and staff from the STEM Academy as well as German students and teachers from East and West High School. Students were able to ask questions creating a great dialogue. The International Baccalaureate program makes the STEM Program of great interest domestically as well as internationally.

To submit an article, "tidbit", "swap and shop" item or a "kudo", send an email to pmcglone@dasd.org