Fairview Fast 5
District News from the Fairview Park City Schools
Welcome to another edition of the Fairview Park City Schools “Fast Five” newsletter, your go-to source for updates and stories from around the district. In this edition, we are excited to share important district information and highlight some heartwarming stories about the amazing things happening within our school community.
This month, you can learn more about Fairview’s recent announcement of a move to a new athletic conference, the Chagrin Valley Conference, starting in the winter of 2023.
You will read about a powerful collaboration between Gilles-Sweet Elementary School and its PTA to create a food pantry. With the help of dedicated volunteers and generous donors, this vital resource provides healthy and nutritious food to students in need so that they can focus on learning.
Next, you will hear about Diana Hill, the District’s Food Services Coordinator, who competed in a “School Chef Mystery Box Competition” to test her culinary skills and learn how to combine unique ingredients to make healthy and tasty meals for students.
Finally, we spotlight the Key Club students who are volunteering their time to make a difference in our school and our community. From fundraising efforts to community service projects, these students are making a real impact and inspiring others to get involved.
We hope you will enjoy this edition of the “Fast Five” and be inspired by the incredible work of our students, staff, and volunteers.
Starting with the 2023-2024 winter athletic season, the Fairview Park City School District will begin a new chapter in athletics.
On February 7, 2023, the Fairview Park City School District was officially accepted as a member of the Chagrin Valley Conference. For the past four years, Fairview Park has been a member of the Great Lakes Conference, a conference made up of mostly larger schools with higher student enrollments.
To start next school year, the Warriors will still compete as members of the Great Lakes Conference. All fall 2023 athletic teams, except football, will move to the GLC East division. Fairview’s football program will compete one last season in the GLC West division against teams like Rocky River, North Olmsted, Elyria Catholic, Bay, and Westlake.
The jump from fifth to sixth grade can be filled with anxiety for students and parents.
However, the Fairview Park City School District tries to make the process as easy as possible with programs and information designed to help everyone in the family before the first day of school in the fall.
“We slowly trickle information out so that it doesn’t get lost in the sauce,” Chris Vicha, principal of Mayer Middle School and Fairview High School said. “We provide an overlapping and tiered scaffolded approach to information flow. If we just threw everything at parents at once or waited until August, the anxiety would build all summer long.”
For Gilles-Sweet Elementary and the PTA, advocating for all children goes beyond the school's brick walls.
In response to the reduction of emergency allotments in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Gilles-Sweet PTA and the school recently started a Food Closet to help families who may need additional food assistance.
“We’re looking for non-perishable items with a core emphasis on protein; also fruits and vegetables,” Gilles-Sweet PTA Vice President of Membership Angie Cause expressed. “We’re looking for items easy for kids to do independently. Something that there would be no added ingredients, like milk or butter, or additional things that would need to be brought.”
The Fairview High School Key Club continues to make a positive difference in the community.
During the first semester of this school year, 52 Key Club members volunteered 709.75 hours to local programs and events. According to the national website, Key Club is a student-led organization that builds leadership and character through service opportunities. The group fosters a sense of caring and inclusiveness to help students make a positive difference.
Students can donate time during a planned club event or activity or can choose to volunteer with a program that has more personal connection.
After making the holidays brighter for senior citizens in Fairview Park, students at Gilles-Sweet Elementary have another project planned for this spring - this time to support other local children.
Students at the school are collecting “Birthdays in a Bag” items for children at Laura’s Home Women’s Crisis Center in Cleveland.
“We designed our service projects this year where the first project was at O’Neill [Healthcare], right here in Fairview,” Meredith Schulte, a counselor at Gilles-Sweet expressed. “We wanted our students to feel they were contributing to the happiness and well-being of some people in their own community. Now, with Laura’s Home, it’s a bigger, greater community.”
In January, Fairview Park City School District Food Services Coordinator Diana Hill had her own Iron Chef moment as she competed in a local School Chef Mystery Box Competition.
Sponsored by Pisanick Partners in Brecksville, the Mystery Box Competition highlights the skills and creativity of school food service professionals and their kitchens. Pisanick Partners offers nutrition and operations consulting services for over 40 local school districts and organizations in Northeast Ohio, including Fairview Park City Schools.
Hill was interested in joining the competition when Pisanick announced it to their members in January. Competitors were challenged to make one entree or side dish based solely on the mystery ingredients provided in the box.
