Little Green Machine Wins “Best School Band”

South Fayette High School’s “Little Green Machine” Marching Band won the County Executive Award for Best School Band from Allegheny County at the recent St. Patrick’s Day Parade! Judges from the All-American Judges Association viewed the Little Green Machine as best in music, marching skills and visual appeal.

Superintendent Attended National Summit
Dr. Hippert was one of 100 educators from across the country invited to participate in an all day summit with leaders in education, workforce, human services and policy on April 29, 2008 at the Westin William Penn in Pittsburgh. Health Careers Futures convened a national summit, High Schools & Careers: The New Value Proposition, to address this crisis in education. The Summit brought education, policy, workforce and human service experts from across the country, together with employers, to discuss the national, state and local policy issues, employer and workforce concerns, and core experiences related to development of career identity and career ambition in high school and middle school students. Participants joined one of four Summit work sessions to profile innovative approaches to career education, with the goal of reinventing career learning.

The key outcome from the Summit was a vision of an education and career preparation system that will enable more students to be successful in careers.

The Summit stressed the importance of making career ambition and career knowledge a core part of the high-school experience and an essential component of high-school reform, both locally and nationally, as well as to form a system that prepares students for a lifetime of successful employment.

Summit Objectives
• To create a common vision and work plan to make career ambition and career knowledge a core part of the high school experience and an essential component of high school reform locally and nationally;

• To synthesize the recommendations from each of four work sessions to create an ideal career education system that prepares students for a lifetime of successful employment;

• To develop state policy recommendations and a federal advocacy agenda for future education and workforce reforms and initiatives;

• To connect career education models to strategies for career education reform and opportunities for multisector partnerships; and to provide every participant with a clear path for future action.


Technology Student Association Members Praised
Twenty students from the South Fayette Middle School TSA (Technology Students Association) chapter participated in the PA TSA regional competitions at California University of Pennsylvania on February 29.

Since October, these students have worked after school to prepare to compete. The students competed against more than 120 neighboring middle schools in nine events involving engineering and design. All performed well, taking 5 first place, 6 second place, and 4 third place ribbons. Every South Fayette Middle School student who participated qualified to compete at the State level.

The results are:

Challenging Technology Issues
1st Place*
Evan Levine (6th Grade),
David Truman (6th Grade)

2nd Place*
Ben Kenawell (6th Grade),
Kevin Chaussard (6th Grade)

Digital Photography Challenge
1st Place*
Gracie Klimek (7th Grade)

2nd Place*
Arianna Lower (7th Grade)

Dragster Design
*Joe Caffrey (8th Grade)
*Dan Leger (8th Grade)

Manufacturing
1st Place*
Dylan Witt (7th Grade),
Nic Blocher (7th Grade),
Paul Black (8th Grade)

Marine Design
1st Place*
Jonathan Walasik (8th Grade),
Anthony Walasik (8th Grade),
Joe Caffrey (8th Grade)

2nd Place*
Evan Levine (6th Grade),
David Truman (6th Grade),
Kevin Chaussard (6th Grade)

3rd Place*
Matt Leger (7th Grade),
Trey Walker (6th Grade),
Ben Kenawell (6th Grade)

Technology Problem-Solving
1st Place*
Corey Mitchell (8th Grade),
Jonathan Walasik (8th Grade)

2nd Place*
Dan Leger (8th Grade),
Paul Black (8th Grade)

3rd Place*
Sean Lacinski (8th Grade),
Anthony Walasik (8th Grade)

Structural Challenge
3rd Place*
Sean Lacinski (8th Gr),
Paul Black (8th Gr),
Parth Bhatia (8th Gr),
Corey Mitchell (8th Gr)

Transportation
2nd Place*
Gracie Klimek (7th Grade),
Jessica Barton (8th Grade)

3rd Place*
Evan Levine (6th Grade)

4th Place*
Ryan Eberle (7th Grade)
PA- Safety Illustration

2nd Place*
David Truman (6th Grade)
(*Denotes state qualifier)


School Board
This nine member Board of School Directors, elected by the people of the township for a term of four years, is responsible for school policy. According to state law, they must be 18 years of age and serve without pay.

Regular meetings are held on a monthly basis. The Committee Meeting, which serves as a work session for the board, is held the third Tuesday of each month. The Board votes on school policies and other items at its regular meeting which is held the fourth Tuesday of the month.

Both are held at 7 p.m. in the High School Conference Center. The exception is the Reorganization Meeting which will be held on Tuesday, December 2. All meetings are publicly advertised in local newspapers and are open to the public at large.

School Board members are:
WILLIAM NEWCOMER, President
CHRISTOPHER NIEMANN, Vice President
TERESA BURROUGHS
LEONARD FORNELLA
LENA HANNAH
FRANK MORELLI
TODD PETRILLO
JEFF SMITH
ALAN WOOD

The mission of the South Fayette School District, as an integral part of the community, is to foster development and growth of each student’s full academic, artistic and athletic potential by providing exemplary opportunities in a caring, safe, positive environment; to promote lifelong learning, and to cultivate ethical, responsible, contributing members in a global society.


South Fayette School District Calendar Items
May 22 —No School Kennywood Picnic Day
May 23 — No School, Prom
May 26 — No School, Memorial Day
June 6 — Last day of school for students
June 6 — 80th Commencement - 7pm High School Stadium


South Fayette School District Seeking Substitutes
South Fayette School District is seeking individuals willing to work as day-to-day substitutes in a variety of aspects in the District. People interested in working as teachers, administrative assistants, custodian, bus driver or in the food service department should contact Mrs. Vicki Adams at vadams@southfayette.org or (412) 221-4542, ext. 405 for more details.


South Fayette Golf - Steelers Fundraising Event
The Golf Booster club organized a basketball game to help raise money for the golf team. Members of the Steelers took on members of the school faculty for an exciting game on Friday, April 25.

FEATURES

Hurdling to Victory

Thanks to Coach Heiser Who Came Back From the Future to Save SF’s Athletic Program



Cover Focus
Freshman hurdler Josh Godwin during a recent meet.

South Fayette Rocks with Footloose
The musical story of a town’s toe-tapping transformation.

Cleaning Up
Volunteers were out in force this spring tidying up sections of South Fayette.

Landfill Power
How Waste Management keeps your trash out of sight and turns garbage into clean energy.

Special Needs
The school district has created a unique learning opportunity for one particular student.

History: Part One
Brushing up on South Fayette’s intriguing past.

History: Part Two
Honoring SF’s fallen in America’s wars.

Cupcakes for Seniors
When kids team up to cook food for seniors, you can bet the result is likely to be mouthwatering.

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