Three Quakertown Community High School vocal musicians - Reid Clymer, Mikayla Fuentes and Courtney Schreier - have qualified for the prestigious 2019 NAfME All-Eastern Chorus Festival. They will join top student musicians from 12 of the Eastern Seaboard states, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools from Europe in April.

NAfME stands for National Association for Music Education. According to vocal director Jonathan Lechner, "It is a rare honor to be selected for a group of this caliber."

Previously, only nine Quakertown singers have qualified. This is the first time in one year that Quakertown will have three representatives.

"I am very proud of them," Mr. Lechner said.

Three students were recently sworn onto Quakertown Borough Council by Magisterial District Judge Lisa Gaier, as part of the Borough's Junior Council Person Program.

Riley Boike is a senior and Mason Smith a sophomore at Quakertown Community High School. Amanda Banes is a sophomore at Bucks County Community College. Junior Council members are seated with council, participate in borough business, and observe all council rules.

The Junior Council program provides youth in the community an opportunity to get engaged in borough government and develop leadership skills. The program also allows borough officials to serve as mentors to students who will be future leaders in their communities.

As he shared personal stories of his visits to the mid-west and western parts of the country with his fourth-grade science students, Quakertown Elementary School teacher Ryan Wieand believed his students wanted to learn more about rock formations than reading from a textbook.

So he assigned them a project to research a famous U.S. rock formation of their choice at school and create a 3-D model of it at home.

The students printed out a colored photo with their main objective to identify how their formation was created through weathering, erosion and deposition, along with what type of earth material it was made from. "I thought the project would be a great extension of what we were learning in class, while at the same time, providing an opportunity for parents to work with their children on a fun project," Mr. Wieand said. "They could make their model out of any supplies they wanted, but I recommended clay, Play-Doh, salt dough, foam or Model Magic. Some students even used paper mache."

Their results were recently displayed in the school's gymnasium, and parents were invited to view all of the completed projects. "The outcome was amazing," Mr. Wieand said. "The kids went all out to create some incredible and accurate models of their researched rock formation. They were engaged and excited about the project, often coming to school and giving me updates on their models. The parents were invited to a celebration to see all of the projects and quite a few stopped by to make sure I knew how much they and their child enjoyed the project.

"Because of the incredible participation and effort, I am definitely planning on assigning another 'at home' project for the spring time, such as an egg drop competition."

Quakertown Community High School linebacker Nick Levinski, is one of 63 players in the eastern half of Pennsylvania to receive the 2018 Mini Max High School Award. Nick made the first team Suburban One League American Conference for the Panthers, who finished 9-4, including a playoff victory. A team captain, he also made honorable mention at tight end.

For the Mini Max, which is presented by the Maxwell Football Club, players are nominated by their coaches throughout the 2018 season and evaluated based on a criteria that includes; football performance, academics, and community service.

Mini Max Award recipients will be honored at a dinner on January 10 at the Drexelbrook Catering Ballroom in Drexel Hill. The dinner is open to the public and tickets are available on the Club’s website www.maxwellfootballclub.org. The Maxwell Football Club will select one player from the group of Mini Max winners as the Pennsylvania High School Player of the Year. The announcement will be made at the awards dinner.

The winner of the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware Player of the Year awards will be the candidates for the Club’s 33rd Jim Henry Award as the Outstanding Player in the region.

Liz Maceri, a Quakertown Community High School senior, recently ran into some familiar faces after her interview for a four-year Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps scholarship at Penn State University. Jared and Jason Susnoskie graduated from QCHS in June, and had attended several classes with Liz.

A year ago, the identical twins were among only 200 seniors nationwide to earn the coveted Army ROTC full scholarships, sought by approximately 12,000 students each year. "They are both great guys, and I have no doubt they will be exceptional leaders of character as officers in the military," said Liz, who had lunch with the brothers following her interview.

Liz's goal since middle school has been to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. Her application for West Point is finalized, and she has been deemed qualified in regards to academics, leadership potential, and physical aptitude, she said.

Penn State is one of her backup schools, along with Lehigh, Johns Hopkins, Villanova and Dickinson.

Superintendent Dr. Bill Harner, who graduated from West Point and enjoyed a 20-year career in the Army, recommended Liz for an appointment to the Academy. "She has an incredible intellect, charisma and is involved in many activities that illustrate her care for other people," Dr. Harner said. "In the future, I have no doubt that we'll be hearing more about her on the national level."

The Quakertown Community High School cheerleaders won the District One Small Varsity Championship Saturday at Central Bucks South High School.

The students now advance to compete on January 11-12 at the Giant Center in Hershey for the state title.

Best of luck ladies!

Madilyn Siuta has been chosen to the Suburban One League Girls Golf All-League team.

The SOL named six golfers to its first, second and third teams from schools in Bucks and Montgomery counties. Besides Madilyn, who had an outstanding fall campaign, the top golfers include Jade Gu of Pennsbury, Sarah Scarpill of Central Bucks East, Cristea Park of Wissahickon, Ashley Ea of Pennridge and Lizzie Palmieri of CB South.

Members of the Quakertown Community High School Key Club packed donated food in the school lobby for shipment to the Quakertown Pantry before Thanksgiving.

Mr Brader’s class led the way with more than 700 items. Students in Ms. Eisenmann's and Mr. Boquist's classes finished second and third. More than 2,000 items were collected!

Prior to the Thanksgiving Holiday, a pep rally was held in the Quakertown Community High School gymnasium. The students, teachers and administration planned things out well with a video and several fun events prior to the break. Here are some photos.

Steven Fisher of NBC-10 News in Philadelphia traveled to Quakertown Community High School recently for his story on the cold temperature for the Thanksgiving Day football game. He interviewed Coach George Banas, linebacker Nick Levinski, cheerleader Arielle Lightbourne and marching band conductor Robert Bryant. Please click here to see his report.

Strayer Middle School students recently heard from Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin, an Associate Professor of Biology at Penn State Lehigh Valley and Founding Director of CHANCE, Penn State's award-winning, international environmental engaged-scholarship program.

The Career Talk is a regular feature at Strayer, where business owners and professionals in a variety of fields give students ideas for what they might like to study.

Dr. McLaughlin, a cell and molecular biologist and environmentalist, told the students to think outside box and to never give up. "People admire people who work hard," she said, adding that it's important to "believe in yourself" and to "treat everyone with dignity and respect."

Richland Elementary School recently held a Character Education Assembly using the NED Show. It focuses on three messages for students:

NEVER GIVE UP

ENCOURAGE OTHERS

DO YOUR BEST

During the assembly, students learned about NED’s three messages while also enjoying storytelling, magic, humor and yo-yo tricks.

NED is a non-profit organization, committed to promoting character education in schools. December 3 is the final sale day for yo-yos as used in the assembly. A portion of the proceeds is donated directly to St. Luke's Hospital. The remainder of the proceeds go toward funding an assembly NED's Mission presents at another school, just as a past school's sales funded our assembly. It's a great way to pay it forward!

For more information on NED, please click here.

ASPIRE students recently prepared healthy meals for the homebound clients of Aid For Friends Philly.

The students included, from left in the above photo, Cole Lorah, Xavier Yanqui, Connor Sweeney and Shane Pattison. The students in the photo at left are, from left, Emily Afflerbach and Lelaina Ferrell.

The district's ASPIRE program stands for Acquiring Skills Professionalism, Independence and Responsibility for Education/Employment. The mission of this program, taught by Elizabeth Alvino, is to prepare students ages 18 to 21 to be competent, confident and caring in managing their personal, family and public lives. Students are taught daily living skills, how to gain and retain employment and are educated in self advocacy and interpersonal skills.

Pfaff Elementary School celebrated the end of the trimester with a Kindness Fair. Students had an opportunity to participate in a number of games, color and make crafts. Enjoy the photos!

Michael DeCarolis, first-year boys basketball coach, has named Eli Ortiz, Sean Harrison and Matt Catalano as team captains for the 2018-19 season.

"I’m excited to see these boys lead our program," Coach DeCarolis said on Twitter, using the hashtag PantherPride.

In the Suburban One Sports preview, DeCarolis said “I am extremely excited for my first year as Head Coach at Quakertown after three seasons of being the Head Coach at Penn State Lehigh Valley. I feel like we are in an extremely competitive league with great coaching, players, and rivalries. I feel like we have the talent and the depth to compete for a District 1 playoff position. I am looking forward to see how our seniors handle their bigger roles and how the sophomores and freshman to perform under the bright lights.”

The preview also notes:

Key returners: G- Senior-Eli Ortiz, G-Senior-Matt Lucas, G-Senior-Sam Rice, G-Senior-Sean Harrison, F-Senior-Nick Mestayer

Others to watch: G-Sophomore-Matt Catalano, G-Junior-Matt Tuley, G-Freshman Bobby Rosenberger, F-Freshman Allassane Amaduv

Strengths: Chemistry, Effort, Toughness

Question Marks: Youth, Varsity Experience

Quakertown grad Tom Garlick, a junior at Ursinus, made Centennial Conference honorable mention after throwing for 2,772 yards on 194 completions, becoming the school's record holder in both categories.

Garlick threw for a career-high 17 touchdowns and ran for six more. He now has more than 1,000 yards rushing for Ursinus.

In a recent 70-14 win over Misercordia, Garlick completed 17 of 25 passes for a career-high 365 yards and 4 TDs, earning game MVP honors. His 341 yards in first half set a conference record. He completed passes to seven different recovers, including a 29-yard strike to another Quakertown grad, Alec Vera. Another former Panther, Zach Gravelle, caught three passes for 90 yards, a career-high.

Two important presentations were recently given at Quakertown Community High School that Superintendent Dr. Bill Harner wanted to make parents and guardians aware of.

One involves drug abuse and vaping; the other is about the Pennsylvania Youth Survey.

David Fialko of the Council Of Southeast Pennsylvania, a highly sought after speaker, spoke about drug abuse and vaping. His presentation can be found here.

Carolyn Staffieri, a QCSD Pupil Services Administrative Intern, presented on PAYS data. Her presentation can be found here.

The Quakertown Community School District is in need of custodians. SSC Services, which services the district, is seeking full and part time permanent and seasonal custodian positions.

Candidates may contact Laird Ihle, director of SSC, at 610-392-1059 or via email at lihle-ssc@qcsd.org.

The Levy School Bus Company is seeking drivers.

The position has flexible hours, a positive environment and is conveniently located in the Quakertown area.

Levy offers a competitive wage package, 401(k) benefits with company matched funds, bonus incentives, training and development, career opportunities, extra hours available evenings and weekends (optional), and community involvement.

This is a perfect job for people who love children, stay-at-home parents, college students looking for education experience, former teachers and anyone in need of extra income.

If you’re interested in becoming a school bus driver or want to hear more, please call Len at 215-536-4567 x121 or email len@levybus.com.

Gary Weckselblatt, QCSD Director of Communications, writes about the people and the programs that impact the Quakertown Community School District. Find more District topics of interest on the qcsd.org website by clicking here.

Email: gweckselblatt@qcsd.org
Website: www.qcsd.org
Location: 100 Commerce Drive, Quakertown, PA, USA
Phone: 215-529-2028
Facebook: facebook.com/QCSDNews
Twitter: @QCSDnews