February 21, 2012 - Peters Township School District

AF
Focus on
Excellence in Education
Academics, Athletics, Artistic Endeavors,
Leadership,
&
Character Education
February 21, 2012

Excellence in
Academics

Pleasant Valley Blue
Ribbon Celebration
On January 20, PV students and staff officially celebrated their Blue Ribbon award with a
special ceremony at the school. With students and staff dressed in their blue ribbon t‐
shirts, the students heard speakers that included former PV students and Washington
County Commissioner Larry Maggi.

PTMS Students
Honored in
Essay Contest
Hannah Taylor,
3 rd place in State
Stephanie Wang,
2 nd place local level
Elise Dowdall,
3 rd place local level
Three PTMS students have been honored by the McMurray Veterans of Foreign Wars for
their submissions in their annual Youth Essay Contest. Hannah Taylor’s essay has moved
all the way from first at the local level to third place in the state –she is the first PTMS
student to be recognized at that level. The theme of this year’s contest was “Are You
Proud of Your Country?”

Handwriting
Contest at
McMurray
Emma Scarton selected to
represent the school at the
state level
This McMurray 4 th grader has been selected by a panel of her teachers to represent the
school in the National Zaner‐Bloser Handwriting contest. Emma’s best cursive handwriting
will be judged among others from across the nation.

PTHS Junior Wins Writing Award
Morgan Boyer received the “Silver Key” award in
the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
This PTHS junior has received the “Silver Key” award in the Scholastic Art and Writing
Awards of Southwestern Pennsylvania for her poem titled “The Fuse.” She was honored
at the awards ceremony at CalU on Feb. 12.

PV Blue Ribbon Reading Challenge
100% of the students took part and Alexa Goldsmith was the top reader
with 210 books in the two week challenge.
If the students at Pleasant Valley all took part in the reading challenge, Mr. Fisher
promised to do something “silly” for the students. Well, they did it. And to mark this feat,
the building’s top 2 readers got to paint his hair blue on the morning announcements.
The top reader in the challenge hll read 210 books in the 2 week event.

Senior Named Finalist in
National Achievement
Scholarship Program
Taylor Young
Senior Taylor Young has earned the distinction of being named a finalist in the National
Achievement Scholarship Program. This academic competition is part of the National
Merit Corporation and recognizes outstanding Black American high school students. She
is now eligible to receive one of 800 Achievement Scholarships given in the competition.

100 th Day at Bower Hill
Students at Bower Hill marked the 100 th day of school on Feb. 7 with activities that
centered around the number 100. Not only were students encouraged to wear 100 of
something in honor of the occasion, students also completed 100 exercises, did math
problems, and drew pictures of what they thought they might look like at 100 years old.

Watershed
Lesson at
Pleasant
Valley
Third grade students had a hands‐on environmental lesson this week with a special visit
from the PA Resource Council. The students shared their knowledge of this important
natural resource and learned about our fresh water comes from and what factors can
affect our water sources and the ecosystems it supports.

Peter Township
Students Named
National Merit
Finalists
Kierra Falbo
Valerie Gobao
Alexandra Hussey and
Daniel Ketyer
Four students from PTHS have been named finalists in the annual National Merit
Scholarship Program. These students are among an elite group of 15,000 students from
across the nation to earn this honor.

MM McMurray
Career Fair
McMurray Elementary held their annual career fair on Feb. 7. Twenty local professionals
donated their time for the event and students had the opportunity to rotate through
presentations that included an engineer, chef, travel agent, software engineer, and
biology professor.

PTMS MathCounts
Honors
Top Team Overall:
Martina Zhuang, Stephanie
Wang, Varun Sharma, and
Connor Schwartz
1 st Place (individual):
Connor Schwartz
3 rd Place (individual):
id Varun Sharma
The Middle School MathCounts team came away with the top overall team score in the
regional competition. Individual honors were also earned by two of our team members
who finished first and third overall. All four students will now advance to the state level
MathCounts competition.

Excellence in
the Arts

Meatballs and
Music
12 th Annual Music Booster
event to support music
programs at the High
School
The 12th annual Meatballs and Music event took place on Jan 21. Throughout the
afternoon and evening, hundreds of hungry community members were treated to good
food and even better entertainment to support our arts programs.

Jazz Invitational
at PTHS
with guest artist
Bruce Johnstone
On February 2, PTHS hosted a Jazz Invitational with our own student musicians, along
with students from Upper St. Clair and South Fayette. A concert followed the event in the
High School auditorium.

PTHS at the Pops
Music students observed a
professional rehearsal and
met Marvin Hamlisch
On Jan. 25, 43 instrumental music students from the High School had the opportunity to
observe a private rehearsal of the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops Orchestra at Heinz Hall.
Afterwards, students met Marvin Hamlisch, as well as other guest artists. The rehearsal
was in preparation for the recent Pops Concert series in which Band Director Milt Barney
was a member of the orchestra.

PMEA Music Honors
Michael Counihan has been
selected for PMEA Region Band
This senior trombonist has been selected by audition to represent PTHS in the PMEA
Region Band that will take place at Norwin High School later this week.

Jazz Musician of the Year
Milt Barney will be honored as
by the Washington County Jazz
Society
PTHS teacher and band leader Milt Barney has been named Jazz Musician of the Year by
the Washington County Jazz Society. He will be honored at the group’s annual awards
luncheon on Feb. 26 and will be featured in a performance with the WJS Big Band.

Excellence in
Athletics

Dance Team Earns
National Honors
Junior Varsity earns
2 nd place
at Nationals &
Varsity earns 3d 3rd
The PTHS Varsity and Junior Varsity Dance Teams took part in the National Dance Team
Championships on Feb. 4 and 5 in Orlando. The junior varsity team placed 2 nd overall and
the varsity team earned 3 rd place among 58 teams in their division.

Alan Rich
Photo: A
Boys Swim Team ‐ Section Champs!
25 swimmers headed
to WPIAL Championships at Univ. of Pittsburgh
PTHS Boys Swim team has earned the title of section champions after beating rival Upper
St. Clair and more than 25 Peters swimmers are headed to the WPIAL championships on
March 1‐2 at the University of Pittsburgh.

PTHS Basketball
in WPIAL
Playoffs
Lady Indians vs
Oakland Catholic
TONIGHT!
Indians vs
Central Catholic,
Saturday, Feb. 25
Both the boys and girls basketball teams took part in the WPIAL playoffs this weekend
and came away with wins. Our girls are currently playing in the next round against
Oakland Catholic and the boys will take on Central Catholic this weekend.

National Letter of Intent Signings
Baseball: Mike Bittel, Seton Hill University
Field Hockey: Courtney Schratz, Robert Morris
Football: Andrew Erenberg, Fordham University
Football: Clayton Evans, Notre Dame College
Golf: Jeremy Merich, St. Francis University
Lacrosse: Katie Denning, Lafayette University
Soccer: Matt Venanzi, University of Pittsburgh
Softball: Tara Konopka, Drexel University
Softball: Morgan Matetic, George Washington University
We would like to congratulate these nine student athletes who signed national letters of
intent to continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level and thank them for the
pride they have brought to our school and this community.

Excellence in
Leadership

EZ Child ID
Program at PTMS
The Middle School participated in the EZ Child ID program in cooperation with the PTA
and the PT Police Department. More than 75 families opted into the program and were
screened by volunteers at the Middle School and given a CD with the child’s biographical
information, photo, fingerprints, as well as a video interview.

Peter Township
Teachers Awarded
GEO Grants
Lindsey Myers (HS), Nicole
Mitchell (MS) & Kelly eyZajicek (PV)
Three Peters Township teachers have been awarded GEO Grants from the Peters
Township Education Foundation. In total, the Foundation awarded nearly $7,000 in grant
funds to support technology used in classroom projects at the High School, Middle School
and Pleasant Vll Valley Elementary.

PSBA Distinguished
Service Award
Tom McMurray recognized
for 28 years of service on
the PTSD School Board
Tonight we are also pleased to present Mr. Tom McMurray with a Distinguished Service
Award from the PA School Boards Association. Mr. McMurray is being recognized for his
outstanding efforts, loyalty, dedication and perseverance as a school board director for
the past 28 years.

Excellence in
Character

Dodgeball
Tournament
$4,500 earned for
Make‐a‐Wish
Scholarship hi Fund
The District’s annual Dodgeball Tournament also took place this month. Sponsored by the
National Honor Society, the funds raised support the Make‐A‐Wish Foundation. The
Middle School team earned bragging rights again as the top building team. The event
raised more than $4,500 for the Make Mk a Wish Shl Scholarship hi Foundation.

Kindness Matters at PTMS
students pledge to create a “chain
reaction” with random acts of kindness
Middle School student have accepted the kindness challenge this month and have
pledged to go above and beyond to show kindness and compassion in our schools. The
students have purchased t‐shirts supporting the effort and will create a visible chain
throughout the building that represents acts of kindness they have performed.

Prudential Spirit of
Community Award
Kelly Henry earns Certificate of
Excellence and President’s
Volunteer Service Award
Senior Kelly Henry has received a certificate of excellence in the Prudential Spirit of
Community Awards. She is among the top 10 percent of all applicants in the state. She
has also been recognized with the President’s Volunteer Service award for her
commitment for giving back to her community.

Seek First to Understand

Thank you!
Michelle Hvizdos & Ron Dunleavy
As we celebrate our habits – we would like to recognize tonight two people p who have helped our
community to “seek first to understand” by assisting in the taping of our Board meetings . Mrs.
Michelle Hvizdos and Mr. Ron Dunleavy have volunteered countless hours behind the camera to
ensure that Peters Township Cable has footage of the meetings that can be played for the
community.
Many people do not know that this is a completely volunteer operation –they give their time and
talents for the benefit of our community and we wanted to recognize these efforts and show our
appreciation.