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 The D-Link
An E-Newsletter for the DASD Community
December 14, 2012 - Vol 4, Issue 8 |
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Superintendent's Column |
Greetings:
Assessments
11th grade students recently participated in the first Keystone Exams. Principals report the testing went well. The Keystone Exams are replacing the decades old PSSA tests. The rollout of the Keystone exams this year is the first step in a major overhaul of the state's testing system.
Our juniors will be taking three Keystone Exams this year (Algebra 1, Biology and Literature). Only Algebra I and Literature will count toward AYP, but students will still be required to take the Biology Keystone to meet the participation requirement in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for a science assessment. I will keep you informed about these new exams via this column and our website.
Happy Holidays!
 I have had the pleasure of attending many of our school's holiday concerts this season. It is always amazes me that children so young can produce such splendid music. I congratulate our students, music teachers and our parents for their part in creating another year of entertaining concerts.
At this special time of the year, I would also like to congratulate the students, our staff and the community for their support of numerous charitable organizations in our community. Whether individually or in groups, students have involved themselves in collecting items for our troops, the Lord's Pantry in Downingtown and the Chester County Food Bank. Baby items were collected and delivered to a shelter in Staten Island for the smallest victims of Hurricane Sandy. Money has been collected for UNICEF, pediatric cancer, breast cancer awareness and the American Heart Association among others. Many in our community took time out of their busy Thanksgiving celebrations to run in the Chester County Turkey Trot, a race dedicated to one of our students who passed away in May from Leukemia.
A great part of the success of any school district is a having a very supportive community that is concerned about the education of children and takes pride in their school system. We are very fortunate to have such a caring community.
My best to you and your family. Enjoy the holidays!
Dr. Larry Mussoline,
Superintendent
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| Board Elects New President |  School Board members held their reorganization meeting on December 5, 2012. Jane Bertone (bottom row, left) was elected President of the Board and Barbara Hurt-Simmons (bottom row, third from left) was re-elected Vice President. Former President Jackie Fenn elected not to run for another term. Mrs. Bertone is the mother of three DHS West graduates. She represents residents in the WB, EE, and EW precincts of Downingtown. Mrs. Hurt-Simmons has one daughter in DHS East. Her oldest daughter is a graduate of DHS East. Mrs. Hurt-Simmons represents the residents of West Pikeland and Upper Uwchlan 2. |
| Redistricting Update |
The Redistricting Steering Committee met on Tuesday, December 11, 2012. The committee has reviewed several possible elementary school boundary scenarios. The options have been evaluated based on criteria developed by both the School Board and the committee. Feedback received from the community was also considered, as was input from the district's transportation department.
One option favored by the committee is to be refined by McKissick and Associates based on additional committee suggestions. Once the committee finalizes its recommendation on the elementary boundary revisions, a public meeting is expected to be scheduled. The committee also plans to begin looking at boundary modifications for the secondary schools at its next meeting, January 8, 2013. |
| Teachers Receive Over $6000 in DCEF grants |
 | | Finch Robots |
The Downingtown Community Education Foundation approved the funding of five innovative proposals submitted by DASD teachers. Funding was approved for an Apple TV projection system at DHS West, stability balls to assist special education students at Brandywine Wallace, Finch Robots for both DHS East and DHS West, Smart Board clickers for Lionville Elementary School, geography ebooks for the Brandywine Wallace library and Sifteo cubes for Lionville Middle School.
Additional proposals were submitted but could not be approved during this grant cycle due to the limited balance in the DCEF classroom project/innovative grants fund. Consider donating this year to the Downingtown Community Education Foundation and help continue the DCEF's support of our talented teachers.
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| Volunteers needed for the DASD 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. 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.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.
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. If you have some time to sit in our gallery, please visit our sign-up website.
Click here to volunteer! |
| A Look at...... | |
Springton Manor
The Planet Patrollers at Shamona Creek Elementary school are a group of students who promote recycling. They have been very busy throughout the month of November organizing this year's first community shoe and coat drive which was held on Saturday Nov. 10th. Besides collecting shoes and coats they also collected eyeglasses, cell phones and print cartridges. The drive was a huge success with close to 300 coats, 1500 lbs of shoes, 267 eyeglasses and two boxes full of ink cartridges. The shoes were sent to Shoebox Recycling who sends them to be reused by people who struggle to buy new shoes. The company also donates .50 cents per pound which the planet patrollers donate to a charitable organization. The 1500 lbs of shoes collected on November 10th earned $750.00 to be donated to the Hurricane Sandy victims. The $750.00 was combined with $330.00 collected in donations the day of the drive. In total the day earned $1080.00 for the hurricane victims. The coats went to various shelters around the community including: City Gates Men's shelter in Coatesville, Friends Shelter of West Chester, Coatesville YWCA shelter, various shelters in Philadelphia and the Wings for Success program. The Planet Patrol should be proud of their efforts.
The Planet Patrollers continue to help the environment and promote recycling. They will be collecting toys the week of December 10 - 14th for Second Chance Toys of PA which is an organization that rescues and recycles unwanted plastic toys for needy children. They also run the low litter lunch competition once a month to encourage students to pack their lunches with less trash and reduce the amount that goes into landfills. The Planet patrol is working hard to keep their school and community reducing, reusing and recycling.
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| Student Showcase | |
Student Artists Honored
The Board of Directors honored the winners of the 27th annual Holiday Greeting Card competition at their 12/5/12 meeting. Student artists are invited to create greeting cards. The cards are then judged by DASD staff members. The first place winner from each high school receives a $50 Visa gift card. Second and third place winners receive a certificate and a packet of their own cards. Art teachers from all 15 schools were invited to participate in the "official" photo.
 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
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| Around the District | |
Bradford Heights
Bradford Heights started the Holiday Season off with Breakfast with Santa, which was held at the Lionville Applebees. Teachers, former students, and parents were found serving pancakes to many Bradford Heights' families. This year we had a wonderful turnout. The adults enjoyed the social time with friends and neighbors, while the children had the opportunity to share with Santa what they would like for Christmas. This amazing event would not be possible without the hard work of Mrs. Lorraine Owens and her family. Thank you for all of your time and dedication to this fun event.
Throughout Bradford Heights we always encounter acts of kindness, and this year is no different. The Adopt-a-family is in full swing with donation boxes outside every classroom. We also have students that begin their own thoughtful traditions. For the past few years, Taylor Schorn, a 5th grader in Mrs. Eisenhardt's class, is doing a Teddy Bear Drive. Taylor is collecting new teddy bears to distribute to children in hospitals during this holiday season. Once again, we would like to thank Taylor for her dedication to this wonderful drive.
Brandywine Wallace
BW was delighted to host a Melmark handbell concert by the Joybells on Tuesday. This outstanding group of musicians has performed nationwide, including three times at the White House. The Joybells shared their gift of music as well as their message of acceptance. Thanks to our Home & School for providing this special event for our BW community. Click here for more BW news.
East Ward
During the month of November, the students at East Ward participated in the November Bear Fair. During the entire month of November, the students and staff donated new teddy bears to the Bear Fair. The donations will be given to children in various hospitals and shelters throughout the tri-state area. The Bear Fair began at West Chester University in 1997. It was started by a college student, and over the years has expanded to include alumni and community programs throughout Chester County and beyond.
Fifth graders at East Ward enjoyed a presentation from an engineer at Sikorsky Helicopters in Coatesville. This reinforced concepts that the students are going to learn about in an upcoming Foss Lesson titled "Plane Sense." Jonathan Grahamslaw discussed building helicopters, how they work, what his job entails and what he studied in college. The students were very interested and helped to wrap up the morning by asking excellent questions to the presenter!
Uwchlan Hills
Mrs. Krygiel-Evans and the Uwchlan Hills Art Department are busy creating Holiday Cards that our school will send to all 15 DASD schools, the school board, and DASD administration. Every student from Kindergarten through Grade 5 has a hand in at least one step of the production process. Talea Wise assembles the painted paper holly leaves and berries onto the fronts of the greeting cards. The painted papers are the leftover scraps from the collages that our school is creating for our Spring 2013 celebration of the work of Eric Carle. Our goal is to create 120 handmade Holiday Cards total, so that they may also be shared with every teacher and staff member at Uwchlan Hills Elementary School. Click here for more UH News.
Shamona Creek The school with the blue roof was alive with music on December 7th as we hosted our Winter concert. Many thanks to our parents for bringing students to school for early practices and to our wonderful conductors...Mrs. Angela Baer, Mr. Tom Conroy and Mr. Glenn Gordon. Click here for more Shamona Creek news.
Springton Manor
 Springton Manor's Safety Patrol marched in the Downingtown parade on December 8th. The Safety Patrol, parents and teachers looked great as they marched down Lancaster Avenue from Beaver Creek Elementary to East Ward Elementary. This march has become a much anticipated annual event for our school.
West Bradford West Bradford's Girls on the Run & STRIDE teams ran the Downingtown GOTR & YMCA STRIDE Challenge 5K (plus they each had a running buddy...including WB teacher, Mr. Reigle). There were 1,966 runners who completed the event. Many of our WB runners set personal records, and we even had a few kids win overall age group awards. Our kids were decked out with spray painted hair and many had "WB" painted on their cheeks. The weather was perfect for running, and we had an amazing cheering section including family, friends and WB staff. The prerace excitement, the race itself, and the post race celebration made this day truly spectacular! Tyler Gift placed 3rd in his age group (8 and under boys) as well as Sam Connolly - 3rd place in his age group (boys age 9). Carlie Chylack placed 2nd in the 8 and under girls! CONGRATS!!!
DHS East
The DE Academic Team continued its winning ways in a sweeping victory against Bishop Shanahan and OJ Roberts. The varsity team, led by Neil Vinjarmuri gained a 40-point lead over their competitors. The junior varsity team, led by, Nick Wu dominated the schools in a victory of 145 points to their 55 and 40. Congratulations team!
Tori Wakelee was selected for the PCVA All State Volleyball team. Way to go Tori!
The DHS East Choir will be hosting a Cabaret Night on March 8, 2012. Attendees will enjoy an Italian dinner and a live show of solos and small ensembles. Gift Baskets will be raffled off to the audience. Click here for more information.
DHS West -
Congratulations to all Future Business Leaders of America on their accomplishments at the regional conference. Jeff Fiorentino took first place in the Business Calculations event and Abby Lawson took first place in Impromptu Speaking. Marissa Tremoglie and Rebecca Weintraub placed third in Management Decision Making and Ted Funk placed fifth in Economics. Jeff and Abby will be heading to the State conference in Hershey in the Spring.
Last Saturday, the Downingtown West band finished the regular season at the Conestoga HS competition with a second place score of 94.05 behind Upper Darby with a winning score of 94.85. DWest also won the high percussion award. This was the first time in 4 years Upper Darby did not win a percussion award in a Cavalcade of Bands show. 94.05 was also the highest score the band had ever received.
The band has been working hard while quietly coming up through the rankings. At the beginning of the season, Upper Darby was 7 points ahead of them. Two weeks ago they were 3.5 points ahead. Going into Championships, we are trying to keep that momentum going.
STEM Academy
The STEM Academy is honored to have been accepted into the National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (NCSSSMST). The mission of NCSSSMST, the nation's alliance of secondary schools and programs preparing students for success and leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, is to serve members' students and professionals, to foster collaborations, to inform STEM policy, and to advocate transformation in education. The goal of the Consortium is to foster, support, and advance the efforts of those specialized schools whose primary purpose is to attract and academically prepare students for leadership in mathematics, science, and technology. The STEM Academy joins over 100 secondary schools and nearly 100 affiliate members (colleges, universities, summer programs, foundations, and corporations) who share the goals of transforming mathematics, science, and technology education. Click here for more STEM news.
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