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A Message from The Superintendent
 I am pleased to announce that the Downingtown School Board and the Downingtown Area Education Association (DAEA) have reached an agreement on a two-year contract which will span from 9/1/15 to 8/1/17.
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The Tentative Agreement was ratified by the Downingtown Area Education Association on November 11, 2014. The Board of School Directors ratified the document at the regularly scheduled Board meeting on November 12, 2014.
During the 11/12/14 school board meeting, President Bertone commended all who had worked to bring talks to a successful conclusion.
"This is a great evening for our community, said Mrs. Bertone. Together, we were able to settle on a contract that acknowledges the efforts of our teachers to provide all students with an outstanding educational program. I would personally like to thank two of our school board members, Colleen Cranney and Carl Croft and our CFO Rich Fazio and Human Resources Director Sharon Standish. They worked all summer and fall with the union leadership to create a contract that is fair and equitable for both our teachers and our community."
Craig Krusen, President of the DAEA, notified President Bertone of the union's vote on the morning of November 12, 2014.
"Our goal, quite simply, is to provide the best education possible, said DAEA President Craig Krusen. "Downingtown teachers are committed to educational excellence, and we are fortunate to be an integral part of this dynamic community. I am very proud that we were able to come together this summer and talk about our mutual interests and the tenets of the agreement in a way that was collegial and professional."
He added, "This agreement is a reflection of the proactive and committed stakeholders in our community and school district."
We are all pleased to have this important document signed. I too, thank the DAEA leadership and the Board for this wonderful accomplishment. We have labor peace and quiet at least until August of 2017.
Dr. Larry Mussoline
Superintendent
Downingtown Area School District
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| School Performance Profiles Released | |
Pennsylvania's Department of Education released the latest school performance profile scores on Thursday and the Downingtown STEM Academy topped the list for the second year in a row. The profiles cover 2,947 public schools, including all charter schools, and measures academic achievement, promotion and graduation rates, academic growth and how well a school is closing the achievement gap.
Scores are based largely on the results of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests (PSSA) the Keystone Exams and the amount of growth students have shown in one year as measured by the Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment System. The STEM Academy scored 101.4 points out of a possible 107 (100 plus bonus points).
The two other DASD high schools also scored better than last year with DHS East scoring 97.3 (up 4.1 points from last year) and DHS West scoring 94.1 points (up 7.1 points from last year). All three high schools scored a perfect 100 points in several areas, including "Meeting Annual Academic Growth Expectations" in mathematics and science, the SAT/ACT College Ready Benchmark, offering Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate Diploma, or College Credit Offered and PSAT participation. DHS East and DHS West also earned 100 points for closing the achievement gap in science and biology.
"I am very proud of the students, faculty, and leadership teams across the district because everyone plays a part in the success of all three high schools", said Dr. Lawrence Mussoline, Superintendent. "As a district, we have become intentional in using the data from these profiles to inform curricular and instructional decisions as well as to create professional development opportunities. I am pleased to see our students responding to our efforts."
Statewide about 12 percent of schools scored 90 or higher. The state considers scores of 70 and above to be strong.
"What a tremendous accomplishment for all our schools", said School Board President Jane Bertone. "Our high schools don't get where they are without a strong K-8 curriculum or a community that supports our efforts to provide a rigorous and robust program. This is a tribute to our entire community."
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| New Website Goes Live! | |
We have a new website, hosted by Schoolwires. As you can see photos of our students and staff will take the prominent position on each homepage. The new websites feature mobile friendly technology. You can view the sites from your cell phone or tablet.
To help our community find the information they need, four new tabs, students, parents, community and staff are featured on all 17 websites. Just click on a tab to find information quickly.
School closing and emergency information will now appear at the top of your child's website. Look for that information to appear above the school logo on each site.
We welcome your comments about our new website, please send them to info@dasd.org. |
| Greeting Cards On Sale - Designed by our student artists | |
For almost 30 years, high school art students have created greeting cards. This year is no exception. 15 students had their work selected to become the 2014 collection of greeting cards. These cards may be purchased - just in time for the holidays.
Each card costs $1.00 each. You may purchased cards as a package - 10 cards for $10.00. Proceeds benefit the DASD Art Department. Purchase one kind or an assortment. Cards may be viewed online by clicking here.
For more information or to purchase your cards, send an email to pmcglone@dasd.org.
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| Alumni Hall of Fame |
The 2015 alumni Hall of Fame Nomination Period is now open!
It's that time of year again! The Downingtown Alumni Association Hall of Fame Committee is looking for candidates to consider for the 2015 induction class.
Last year, 5 distinguished Alumni were inducted as the Inaugural Hall of Fame class for their achievements in:
- Dr. Todd Stong, '58 - Humanitarian and Military Service
- Dr. Richard Whittaker, '58 - Medicine, Humanitarian Service
- James (Hank) Hamilton, '68 - Business, Community Service
- Bonnie MacDougal Kistler, '71 - Law, Literature
- Curt Schroder, '79 - Politics, Government
The bar has been set high, but we know there are many Downingtown Alumni to be recognized. The 2015 nomination period is now open through January 15, 2015. Selections will be made by end of January and Finalists will be inducted at the Alumni Banquet in April 2015.
For more details and to access the updated Nomination Form, please visit http://www.downingtownalumni.org/HallOfFame.html
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Around the District
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Beaver Creek
 Fourth and fifth graders participated in our annual Turkey Trot, a wellness event which also encourages parent participation. Congratulations to Lucas Slate for having the fastest overall time of 7:01! The winners are as follows:
5th grade- Girls: 1st place=Ava Minnier, 2nd place=Alicia Littler.
Boys: 1st place= Owen Mielnik, 2nd place= Adam Sotack
4th grade- Girls: 1st place= Deanna Junod, 2nd place=Ava Smith
Boys: 1st place= Lucas Slate, 2nd place= Jacob Rossney
Bradford Heights
Bradford Heights had a busy week of conferences and meeting with parents. Conference time is a great way for parents to see first hand the great work that is taking place within the classrooms at Bradford Heights. We do miss the students when they are not in our classrooms, but time with their parents is always a wonderful treat. To end the week we had an amazing Science Tellers assembly. This assembly was a way for students to review and reinforce terms and concepts that are learned in the science curriculum. Science Tellers uses visually exciting experiments to bring the sights and sounds of a story to life! Students were totally immersed in the interactive storytelling show, featuring tons of exciting hands-on experiments.
Pickering Valley
The whole school enjoyed a visit from Sadecky's Puppets on Friday, November 7th. They performed "Spun", a fresh take on the classic children's story "Charlotte's Web". It reminded us all about the importance of friendship and being kind. In the funny and quick moving play, a spider named Scarlett saved her friend Filbert from the owner of
"Bacon Bacon", much to everyone's relief.
Uwchlan Hills
The students of Uwchlan Hills collected Halloween candy for donation to our troops. Dr. Ron Briglia, DMD, of Briglia Dental Group located in West Chester, PA, accepted delivery of the Uwchlan Hills candy donations. Dr. Briglia weighed our boxes of candy and we delivered 160 lbs.! Our addition to his already large collection put his total collection of candy donation for the troops at over 1000 lbs! Thank you to Dr. Briglia for agreeing to ship our candy! Job well done, Uwchlan Hills!
Lionville Middle School
 LMS 5th Annual Veterans Day Festivities
Lionville Middle School takes great pride in our numerous activities throughout the year that connect our students to veterans from around the community. Veterans Day is always a big deal for the LMS Family as it involves the largest number of veterans being able to connect with almost every student in the school. This year, our festivities kicked off with the Welcome Procession throughout the halls of the school. All of our guests walked through the sea of 7th grade students on their way to meet the 8th grade in the assembly.
DHS West
As part of a state initiative called PA Forward Speak Up in which authors visit libraries to promote libraries and literacy, we were one of 47 locations in PA that received a visiting author who donated his/her time to support our libraries. Beth Kephart visited us. Shas published 23 books, teaches at Penn, has sat on several panels to decide major literary awards, and is an op-ed writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Our
students had such a rich experience with her yesterday! Just a few days from the 25th celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, she spent 4
periods discussing with our students her work, Going Over, which centers around two teens and their struggles for various forms of freedom as they are stranded on either side of the Wall. She expertly intermingled language arts, history, art, and music and led our students to create and share their own poetry and graffiti art. Our students were stunning-they wrote and drew beautiful pieces and eagerly shared! After school, Ms.
Kephart stayed to meet with 10 members of our student book club who were so excited to discuss the difference between writing and publishing, how to develop their ideas, and share inspirations. Through the day, well over 100 students had joined us for the programs.
STEM Academy is Rated #1!
Once again and for the second year running the Downingtown STEM Academy was named the number school in the commonwealth as determined by the annual Pennsylvania School Performance Profile. These profiles measure not just academic achievement, but also promotion of student learning on a value added model, graduation
rates and closing of the achievement gap. Congratulations to the students, staff and families of the STEM Academy!
STEM Shakes it Off!
Last Friday, November 7th the iMedia Digital Pathway students at the Academy saw one of their biggest projects finally come to fruition. They were able to plan and execute an amazing Lip Dub video. What is a Lip Dub? It's a lip-syncing music video, filmed in one
continuous take, while the rest of the school shows off their school spirit in the background. The students chose Taylor Swift's, "Shake it Off" the amazing efforts of Maham Quraishi, Vivian Ferris, Nancy Peng, Shannon McWilliams, and Francesca Coyne was what made the intricate video a success. As of this writing the video has been viewed over 15,000 times in 24 hours! Check it out on the STEM Howler! STEM Academy Lip Dub
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