MSAD 1 COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS - School Administrative ...

Page 16 • SAD 1 Community Connections • October 2011
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Student workers at Graves Shop ’n Save earn scholarship benefits, too
Fifteen Presque Isle High School
students who work at Graves Shop
’n Save supermarket may be eligible
for scholarship assistance when
they go to college.
The scholarships are provided by
supermarket owners Bob and Greg
Graves, based on the the student’s
grades and number of hours they
work.
Students who have an average
of 90 or above can receive scholarship
assistance totaling $1 for every
hour they’ve worked at the store.
For students who graduate with an
average of between 80 and 90, the
scholarship amount is 50 cents for
each hour worked.
To be eligible, a students has to
work at the store for at least a year
and continue working there through
graduation.
A student with a 90 average who
works 10 hours a week for a year
prior to graduating would be eligible
for a $520 scholarship. If that
same student worked 15 hours a
week for two years, the scholarship
Kelli Beaulieu’s 1st grade in the corn maze with School Farm manager Aaron Buzza.
Store Manager Don Samiya (left) of Graves Shop ’n Save stands with four of the 15
Presque Isle High School students who are working part-time at the store. They are
(l. to r.): Justin Pelletier, Connor Churchill, Ethan Beauman, and Connor Savage, all
service clerks. At right are Assistant Store Manager Ryan Graves and Grocery Manager
Nick Nadeau. PIHS students not present when photo was taken: Olivia Cyr, Chandlaer
Guerette, Kolby Knight, Madison Michaud, Haleigh Argraves, Haley Bouchard, Logan
Dumais, Dakota Dinatale, Ashley Johnston. Kelsey Buck, and Chelsie Turner.
2 Pine Street 1st grade classes tour School Farm
Kelli Beaulieu’s and Jennifer
Espling’s first grade classes at Pine
Street Elementary School visited the
SAD 1 School Farm on September 15.
Jennifer Espling’s 1st grade in the corn maze with Mr. Buzza.
5th graders select instruments, get ready for band rehearsals
About 85 fifth graders at Zippel and
Mapleton elementary schools have started
learning to play musical instruments as part
of the SAD 1 fifth grade band program.
The students receive lessons once a week
during the school day from elementary band
teacher Keven Kinsey.
Later this fall, after they develop some
basic musical skills, the students will start
practicing together as a band after school for
an hour a week.
Band practices will be on Thursday afternoons
at Zippel. Mapleton students will be
bused to Zippel, but should be picked up by
parents after rehearsal.
The program will conclude in May with
a combined Fifth Grade Band concert in
conjunction with the SAD 1 Art Show at the
Aroostook Center Mall.
Mr. Kinsey says the program focuses
on the standard band instruments—flute,
clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and
drums.
He says some schools go through an elaborate
testing program to determine which
instruments students are suited for, but he’s
always felt that students should play the
instrument they’re interested in.
“They have to be excited enough to practice
amount would increase to $1,560.
Bob Graves told MSAD 1 Community
Connections that the scholarship
program has been in effect
The students enjoyed a presentation
by the Cooperative Extension
Service on pumpkins, and each
class received a big pumpkin for
it at home,” he says.
Sometimes, a student will switch instruments
partway through the year, but most of
the time they’re going to be most successful
playing the instrument they want to play.
Mr. Kinsey says the instrument lessons
are voluntary, as is participation in the afterschool
band practices. He says the music instruction
book comes with a CD that students
can use for practicing at home.
“All the songs in the book are on the CD
twice,” he says. “The first time through,
there’s somebody on their instrument playing
the song along with the student; the second
time, the helper instrument isn’t there, just
the background music. That way, the students
get a chance the play with a group
while sitting at home next to their computer.”
Mr. Kinsey says the fifth grade band program
helps a lot of students become interested
in playing and enjoying music.
He says in a typical year, he’ll start with
about 85 students playing instruments,
and he’ll wind up with 55 or 60 in the band
concert at the end of the year. Then, about
50 of those students will sign up for the band
program with Mr. Bragdon as sixth graders
at Presque Isle Middle School.
since the early 1980s.
“My dad came up with idea.”
Mr. Graves said. “We had a lot of
kids who were good kids and good
their room.
The two classes also toured the
farm, riding on a cart that was
pulled by Mr. Buzza’s tractor. One
workers. He wanted to help them
earn the money for school that they
wanted to earn, but he also wanted
them to maintain their grades and
not sacrifice one for the other.”
Initially, the scholarship amount
was 50 cents an hour for students
with a 90 or above, and 25 cents an
hour for students with an 80 or above.
Mr. Graves said students continue
to be eligible for the scholarship
bonus if they work at the Presque
Isle store while attending college—
either during the school year or
during vacations.
He said one of the very first
participants in the program, Mike
Underwood, worked four years
while a student at Presque Isle
High School. Then he worked four
more years while attending the
University of Maine at Presque Isle.
“He took advantage of the program
for eight years,” Mr. Graves
said. “He worked at one of the Shop
’n Save stores that we sold, and he’s
now a manager for Hannaford at
the Hogan Road store in Bangor.”
of the stops was a corn maze, where
the children walked between rows
of corn that was much taller than
they were.
Zippel fifth grader Andre Daigle practices on his trombone.