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A Message from The Superintendent
In these last few weeks, I've had the pleasure of attending many of the concerts performed in our schools throughout the district. I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate our singers, musicians and teachers on the wonderful music you shared with your audiences. The hard work really paid off.
I also wish to congratulate our students, both as individuals and as members of various clubs and organizations, who have worked on behalf of those less fortunate in our county. Throughout our district, our students have helped collect food for The Lord's Pantry, jeans for homeless teenagers in our community and toys for a wide variety of charities. They've shared time and songs with senior citizens and participated in other seasonal activities. We are all very proud of you.
In this last issue of the D-Link before the winter break, I'd like to wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season. Enjoy this time with your children for they grow up so quickly. Spend time with each other this break... over a hot chocolate, a good book or a walk on one of this area's excellent trails.
On behalf of the Downingtown Area School Board and Administration, I wish you and yours a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.
Dr. Larry Mussoline
Superintendent
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| Community Meeting Regarding Turf Fields | |
The Downingtown Area School District is developing plans for the installation of artificial turf fields at the Downingtown High School East Campus located at 50 Devon Drive. Two artificial turf fields will be constructed at the location of two of the existing grass fields behind Lionville Elementary School and DHS-East.
This work is scheduled to start in early May 2015 with a completion date of mid-August 2015.
We have scheduled the following informational meetings for the community. These meetings will include a presentation of the plans for the artificial turf fields. There will also be a question and answer session.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014 at 7:00 PM
Downingtown High School - East Campus
Monday, January 5, 2015 at 7:00 PM
Downingtown High School - East Campus
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| Cooking Robots at DHS West | |
 | | Waffle Making Robot DHS West |
Remember the Jetsons? How wonderful for that out of the world family to have a robot that could cook breakfast and lunch. Well yesterday's iconic TV show became a reality. On December 10th DHS West's Project Lead the Way Engineering students showed off their robots that could cook waffles and create a hoagie.
The students in the class had been divided into two teams by their instructor Gavin Speirs. Each team designed, built and programmed two automated robotic assembly lines. The waffle robot could measure and pour batter, spin and time the waffle iron and gently push the finished waffle off the pan and into a plate with a rubber spatula.
The hoagie robot gave you a choice of white or wheat bread, lettuce, onions, bacon bits, mustard, mayonnaise, meat and more. From the numbers of students and teachers walking into room 175, both robots were a huge hit.
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| Tots For Tots Created at STEM | |
Wooden cars and fishing poles were designed and created by Downingtown STEM students as part of the IB Design Technology curriculum. The project helped student become more familiar with the design process and the different types of manufacturing. The 100 finished toys were donated to the Toys for Tots campaign in Montgomery/Chester Counties.
The project took approximately seven weeks. The students finished sanding and painting the toys on December 5th. Student Chris Caston designed the car and Ben Long designed the fish and pole game. Both are students of teacher Jocelyn Long of the technology and engineering department.
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| Hour of Code Throughout the District | |
In honor of Computer Science Education Week (December 8-12), many of our schools participated in a nationwide initiative, the "Hour of Code." The goal of the national campaign (developed by code.org) was to introduce computer programming to 10 million students and encourage them to learn programming.
After receiving online encouragement from President Obama, students completed their hours of code by completing online programming tutorials (using Blockly, JavaScript, Scratch, and Python for example). Students received programming tips from Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, among others, when creating their lines of code. Hopefully this fun and successful classroom experience will encourage our students to learn more about coding and programming.
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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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| What is 211 |
2-1-1
Connect with Human Services
What is 2-1-1?
2-1-1 (866-964-7922) is a free phone number and website (www.211sepa.org) that connects people with local health and human services including: emergency food, job training, medical and mental health services, youth and childcare programs, and support for older adults.
2-1-1 is available 7 days a week from 8:00 am - 8:00 pm with TYY and multilingual services available.
2-1-1 is also used during regional disasters to provide information about shelters and other available resources.
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Around the District
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Beaver Creek
Our music teachers Mrs. Scrafano, Miss Zirolli and Mrs. Patterson are to be commended for inspiring and preparing our chorus, band and orchestra students for our winter concert. The performances were beautiful and reflect the hard work and persistence of our students. The audience got to practice one Habit of Mind: "Responding with Wonderment and Awe!"
Bradford Heights
The end of November at Bradford Heights was the host to our annual Turkey Bingo. This event was once again sold out. Mr. Pron was very kind to give his time to be the caller for the wonderful family event. We would like to thank the many families that took time out of their busy schedule to attend this event. An even bigger thank you goes to the committee that continues to make Turkey Bingo a fun evening for all.
East Ward
Kindergarten has been busy preparing for their annual Holiday Show. In order to teach the new 1/2 day Kindergarten teacher and her students the song that is sung a cappella and as a "round", two fifth grade students came to the classroom for three days to assist. The show is scheduled for December 19th for the AM, PM and FDK classes.
Fourth Grade students are beginning chapter six with Math in Focus and are completing real world math problems. These multistep problems really challenge the students and make them organize their thought in sequential order.
STEM Academy
Hour of Code is back at The STEM Academy! Over 50 students and teachers participated with Microsoft to write code with "Touch Develop" a programming environment developed by Microsoft research. Eva Dickerson, Dani Diaz and Lindsay Lindstrom from Microsoft concluded the Hour of Code with prizes and swag to celebrate the effort. Hoping to develop the next generation of computer programmers...
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