The D-Link
An E-Newsletter for the DASD Community November 15, 2013 - Vol 5, Issue 6 |
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Superintendent's Update |
Greetings!
On Wednesday night I was honored to be reappointed by the School Board for a three-year term as the Superintendent of the Downingtown Area School District. I am so pleased to be working in this exceptional school district. I have worked in education for 35 years and can honestly say that my favorite experiences as an educator have been while I served the DASD communities over the past four-plus years. Sincerely,
There are many successes to celebrate within our District and I applaud the accomplishments that have been made. The STEM Academy is about to graduate its first senior class and next year we open the new 6th Grade Center. Shamona Creek Elementary School received the top score in Chester County in the latest Pennsylvania Assessment ratings. Bradford Heights received a state commendation for its growth in PSSA scores and is actually the second ranked school in Chester County. DHS East and DHS West were both named to the Advanced Placement Honor Roll for moving more students into AP programs than ever before and both have been on Newsweek's list of top American high schools for the past three years.
But as many of you who have met me know, I do not feel we have we have finished our journey together. The future is extremely bright for this school district. We have a supportive community, tremendous volunteers and many active business partnerships who want to see our children succeed. As I work together with our School Board this year, our conversations will continually focus on providing our students with a quality learning environment, quality instruction and quality opportunities for our 12,000 plus students.
I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the Downingtown community, our staff and especially the Board of Directors for providing such a supportive and positive experience during my first four-plus years.
I thank you for believing in me and for giving me another opportunity to continue implementing the vision and to learn more from the great people who live and work in the Downingtown Area School District through June of 2017.
Dr. Larry Mussoline
Superintendent
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| Thank You to Tom Ost-Prisco | |
School Board member Thomas Ost-Prisco (left) has represented the residents of West Bradford for the past four years. He elected not to run for a second term and will give up his seat on the Board of Directors on December 4th.
Mr. Ost-Prisco served as chair of the Personnel and Policy committees and was the Board's liaison to the Downingtown Area Recreation Consortium (DARC). He also served as a mentor to high school students who wished to follow in his footsteps as an attorney. An Assistant District Attorney, Mr. Ost-Prisco volunteered his time to work with students during the high school's annual Mock Trials and invited them to visit the Chester County courthouse. His son is in the Downingtown Blue and Gold Marching Band. Tom is an avid supporter at DHS West football games and parades.
Mr. Ost-Prisco welcomed Barbara Albright to the Board. Ms. Albright will take her seat as his replacement at the December 4, 2013 Board meeting. |
| Downingtown Education Foundation Awards Three Teacher Grants | |
President Chuck Schmidheiser (third from left) of the Downingtown Community Education Foundation awarded three teacher venture grants totaling $11,148.30 during the 11/13/13 School Board meeting. The grants were awarded to DHS East, Brandywine Wallace and Beaver Creek.
DHS East - $7886.60 was awarded to Lisa Anderson, Dr. Beth Kunze, Joe Kamor, Terry Thompson, Rebecca Wilcox and Sue Sokowlosky for their proposal "DNA Fingerprinting Simulation - Gel Elecctrophoresis". The funding will help teach all biology students techniques for pouring gels, loading gels and interpreting DNA fingerprints.
Brandywine Wallace - $542 to Catherine Sachs for her project "Magnetism - The Attraction is Obvious. Funding for this project will help extend the 4th grade magnetism curriculum and will introduce elementary students to the field of engineering through hands on, real world engineering experiences. This grant was funded by a donation from School Board member Carl Croft and his wife Miranda.
Beaver Creek - $2,719.70 to fund her project "Being QR-ious". This project will fund materials necessary to add QR codes to the backs of library books and gives students the technology needed to scan and read the codes. Students will write "reviews" of books in the library which can then be read by other students when they scan the QR code.
The Ed Foundation is a 501 c3 organization that raises funds to support the Downingtown Area School District. The Ed Foundation has raised over $509,000 for scholarships, school support and teacher venture grants since 2009.
If you would like to support a teacher's innovative idea, please consider donating to the Downingtown Community Education Foundation. Any amount is appreciated. Click here to make a donation. |
A Student's View by Emilie Gazzerro, senior, DHS West | |
For many seniors Tuesday November 2nd was not simply another day off from school to sleep in and hangout, instead, it was their first opportunity to vote in a local election.
My father has been involved with local politics for over 12 years. I had turned 18 two months prior, so I greatly anticipated my first chance to exercise my new right. The first half of senior year history curriculum concentrates on our government, so throughout October I learned how extremely important it is to vote - even when it is not the Presidenal election. Many people do not vote because they claim it takes too long, it is too complicated, or it does not really effect them, but as a first time voter, I could not disagree more.
The process was very easy. You simply sign in at the registration desk, read the simple directions, and proceed to fill in bubbles next to the candidates you wish to elect. After I voted, I handed in my form. The entire process was finished in under 10 minutes! Even primpary elections, such as the one I participated in, make a large impact. Our local government handles important matters and their decisions affect many aspects of our town and everyday lives.
I hope other young adults understand the importance of voicing our opinions and never take this opportunity for granted! |
| What's Happening in the District? | |
Parent/Child Preschool Group
The second session of the new Parent-Child preschool group will be held on Monday. Parents will learn about the Pennsylvania food service regulations and requirements with Angela Cummings, Food Service Director and Sharon Standish, HR Director who chairs the DASD Health and Wellness Committee while their children enjoyed some fun food related games and learning about healthy choices. To register for the November event, click here.
Reckless - DHS East Fall Play
The Downingtown East Theatre will be presenting its fall play, Reckless by Craig Lucas, on November 14-16 at 7:30pm in the Downingtown East High School Auditorium. Come enjoy this dark comedy set over a series of Christmas times to get in the mood for the holiday season. Tickets are sold at the door, and more information is available online at
www.downingtowneattheatre.com Vist our Downingtown East Theatre page on Facebook and follow at @DEast_Theatre on Twitter
12th Annual Chester County Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day
November 28, 2013, at 8:00 AM at Downingtown West High School. The event is a 5k Run/1
Mile Walk/Kids Fun Run. It is one of the largest races in Chester County - Technical
shirts are guaranteed to the first 2,000 registered runners. See the website for additional
information on the race structure and awards.
The race is hosted by the Downingtown West High School Cross Country Team, and benefits
the team as well as the Cure4Cam Childhood Cancer Foundation organization founded by family and friends in memory Cameron Evans, a teammate and friend who lost his battle with leukemia in May 2012. Cameron was a gifted athlete and a compassionate, positive, and inspiring young man. His perseverance and spirit touched all of us.
More information is available at www.chestercountyturkeytrot.com
Superintendent Mussoline Recieves Award
 Downingtown Area School District Superintendent Lawrence Mussoline received the Leadership and Service Award at Penn State University's Alumni Society awards banquet.
Mussoline was honored with other Penn State University College of Education graduates on Oct. 25.
"It was quite a surprise," Mussoline said. "I'm a proud graduate."
To read more of the Daily Local News article by Ginger Dunbar, click here.
Pennsylvania Youth Survey to be Discussed
Communities That Cares invites you to come to one of its Town Hall meetings to hear the latest results of the Pennsylvania Youth Survey.
November 17, 2013 from 3 - 5 p.m. at Ashbridge Manor, 971 East Lancaster Ave. Downingtown, PA. With special guests State Representative Becky Corbin and Lex Remillard LCSW, MSW.
November 20, 2013 from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Hopewell United Methodist Church, 852 Hopewell Road, Downingtown, PA. With special guest Judge William Mahon, Chester County. |
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Principal Updates
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Beaver Creek
Families thoroughly enjoyed participating in various science experiments as a part of our PTO Family Science Fun Night. Volunteers, including some STEM students, helped to facilitate each passport station. Participants' names were included in a prize drawing for science gifts. Afterwards, parents and their children were invited to stay and hear about Beaver Creek's competitive Science Fair and non-competitive Invention Convention. Each participant was given a free science folder, logbook and trifold board to start. This year Mrs. Hall is our Science Fair Coordinator, so please direct all questions to her.
Brandywine Wallace
This week was our Barnes & Noble Bookfair. On Monday night, our orchestra students entertained store guests and got everyone into the holiday spirit! Story time with Mrs. Leib highlighted some fun books available for purchase at the store. The new "Pete the Cat" book was a hit as well as "The Day the Crayons Quit". Thanks to Mrs. Baer and Mrs. Stewart for helping make our visit a success!
Shamona Creek
Shamona Creek is coming together to collect new and gently used hardback books for a school library in need outside of Philadelphia. We have already collected 8 boxes of books from the staff and nearly $400 in gift cards to Barnes and Noble. Students are encouraged to "Gift a Book" at the upcoming school events...Barnes and Noble Book Fair, Basketball Shoot-Out and our Winter Concert. As always, the generosity of the Shamona Creek community is a big part of building good citizenship in our students.
Bradford Heights
Bradford Heights had a wonderful musical assembly on Brazilian Music with the group Minas. Minas performed several famous examples of Brazilain music and presented historic and educational references to expose students to the culture of Brazil. They used Authentic Brazilian percussion instruments such as the surdo, tamborim, repinique, agogo, reco-reco, ganza, pandeiro, and cuica. The students were able to participate in singing scat and playing Brazilian percussion. The Minas group was amazing and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.
Uwchlan Hills
The Wellness Committee at Uwchlan Hills Elementary school tried out a new program last week called the Great Grub Cooking Club where students in grades k - 5 had the opportunity to read from recipes, help measure ingredients, mix food and above all, try new healthy foods! We made homemade applesauce, pork BBQ, and a smoothie. We had an overwhelming response and are holding the class again in December for children that have already signed up. Below is a picture of some of the students with full bellies at the end of the class!
DHS West
The Downingtown West Blue and Gold Marching Band won the "Yankee A Championships" at the 2013 Cavalcade of Bands State Championships held at Hershey on November 9th. In addition to winning the Championships, the band also won the following awards:
High Percussion
High Visual
High Music
High Overall Visual Effect
They are the "Cavalcade of Bands 2013 Yankee A Champions"
DHS East
18 new members were inducted into The Downingtown East Franciso de Goya chapter of the Spanish National Honor Society on Tuesday November 12th. Club Advisor Karen Fernandez Zupa and Spanish teacher Jacqui Johnson organized and facilitated a very dignified ceremony.
The new members are Emmi Altieri, Chris Buccellato, Justin Chan, Riya Jain, Austin Jarrett Kissinger, Amanda Koser, Julie Kramer, Madison Lawton, Ariana Majer, Meghan McGoldrick, Laura McGrath, Raymond Miao, Rebecca Miller, Melissa Murdock, Hannah Sanders, Paul Thomas Schlosser, Rohan Shah, and Connor Warner.
STEM Academy
The Engineering Pathways class at The STEM Academy has initiated a mentorship program to support their 23 student generated engineering team projects. The projects range from a transformable wheelchair and high efficiency electric car, to a hovercraft, bio engineered medical joint replacement and Green Roof/Green Wall project. In order to gain real life experience, the student teams are being matched with real life mentors from partner companies. Representatives from Chief Technologies, Bernard Haber Holloway Architects, and Southco have all participated during brown bag lunch sessions to present their projects to the engineers and receive feedback and recommendations on how these engineering projects would be handled in the real world. All of the engineers stressed how collaboration and communication is a critical part of completing a successful project.
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