Western Wayne High School Students THINK ENERGY!

ppl-think-energy-western-wayne-2016

On October 20th Western Wayne High School Students in grade 9 experienced the THINK! ENERGY Innovation Program. This program is an interactive, hands-on presentation with a take home energy efficiency kit for each participating student and teacher. The program teaches the importance of energy, natural resources and environmental resources, and gives each participating student’s family energy-efficient technologies to install at home. Students and Staff in the high school received innovation kits on October 21st.  The kits included three LED light bulbs, shower timer, a water conserving shower head and faucet aerator as well a smart energy power strip.  160 innovation kits were distributed overall.  This comes to 480 new LED bulbs distributed to the Western Wayne School District.  This program will also result in a number of mini grants for the teachers in the high school as well.  The Think Energy Innovation Program has been brought to the schools by the National Energy Foundation, PPL Electric Utilities and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.  For more information or questions, please contact National Energy Foundation at 1-855-494-2942 or email  stephanie.dorman@nef1.org.

Evergreen 5th grade class representatives announced!

Kayden Peifer, Emily Romanowski, Peyton Cook, and Taylor Maiocco were elected class representatives for their 5th grade classrooms at EverGreen Elementary.  These students have shown exemplary skills both academically and socially.  They will go on to campaign for class president and present speeches to the student body.  Elections will be held on November 8, 2016.  Best of Luck to all of our candidates!

5thgrade

GIRL POWER: Western Wayne Cross Country

With the District II cross country championships this week, we’re taking a look at a pair of girls leading the Western Wayne team in this edition of Girl Power. The Wildcats were one of the best teams in the Lackawanna League, and it’s a couple underclassmen who are paving the way for success. Click to view video highlight.

 

“Full STEAM Ahead as Glass Making Demonstrations at Western Wayne High School Introduce Students to the Science Behind Glass.”

SOUTH CANAAN, PA – After nearly a century, Wayne County’s glass making heritage will come back to life as professors and glass artists from Keystone College demonstrate hot glass blowing for students at the Western Wayne High School on Friday, November 4th. Members of the community are invited to attend free demonstrations on Saturday, November 5th from 9 am to 3 pm. Teachers and administrators from regional schools are encouraged to attend the public demonstrations to learn how they can bring this STEAM program to their schools. Several school clubs will sell refreshments during the public demonstrations.

Sponsored by the Dorflinger Glass Museum and Keystone College, this mobile glass studio, the only one of its kind in the region, will be operated by Keystone faculty member James Harmon. Harmon is an internationally recognized glass-making artist and combustion engineering expert. He designed the studio, saying about it, “I want to reach everybody to teach about the magic of glass.”

Western Wayne science teacher Mark Nebzydoski is extremely excited to have the studio on the school campus. He has been involved in the project from the beginning, working with Harmon and Keystone faculty to prepare a curriculum for the studio. Glass artists will use the fully equipped mobile glass studio to demonstrate glass making techniques to teach chemistry and physics principles to students, providing them with a unique opportunity to experience glass making. Mark said, “This is a really cool way to engage our kids with science.”

Nebzydoski first threw out the idea of having glass making demonstrations during a meeting with Dorflinger Glass Museum curator Hank Loftus. The museum wanted to partner with the district to create an educational program under Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program.

Loftus said, “What may have started as a pipe dream quickly became a reality with the help of Keystone’s Director of Grants Liz Ratchford and Ward Roe, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. The college wanted to build a mobile unit for a while but things just hadn’t worked out. In this case, the planets aligned and, with help and support from a lot of people, we were able to make it happen. We really can’t wait to get this out on the road to high schools!”glass1

Currently, 12 school districts have agreed to participate in the mobile glass program: Wayne Highlands, Western Wayne, Wallenpaupack, Scranton, Lackawanna Trail, Blue Ridge, Carbondale, Forest City, Montrose, Mountain View, Abington Heights and Tunkhannock Area. Plans call for the studio to be taken to school districts for hot-glass learning events.

Funding for the project comes from funds donated to Dorflinger by corporations under the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development EITC program. The companies get tax credits for donations that support innovative educational programs such as the glass studio. Loftus said the following local banks have made generous donations over several years: Dime Bank, Wayne Bank and Honesdale National Bank.

“We expect this will be a unique learning experience for local students in a variety of ways,” said Keystone Art Professor Ward Roe, who has been involved in project’s organization. “The process of making glass not only involves great artistry but important scientific principles.”

Roe continued, “This has truly been a community effort. We thank our partners from Dorflinger, Harbison-Walker International, Nivert Metal Supply, Inc., Sherwood Chevrolet, and all the local companies and businesses that have come together to make this a truly great project.”

The Dorflinger Glass Museum is located in the former home of renowned glassmaker Christian Dorflinger in White Mills, PA. Set in the middle of the 600-acre Dorflinger-Suydam Wildlife Sanctuary, the museum exhibits the largest collection of Dorflinger glass in the United States. During the summer, the Sanctuary is home to the Wildflower Music Festival, a series of outdoor concerts held on Saturday evenings through July and part of August. The museum also owns several historic buildings in the community that help to tell the story of glass making in Historic White Mills.

Keystone College is well known for preparing fine arts students for specialized careers in the field of glass making. The College’s on-campus glass studio, featuring all the equipment and technology needed to produce fine works in the artistic medium of glass, is regarded as the best in the region. As a private, non-profit co-educational institution of higher education, Keystone is devoted to providing students and the region with exceptional humanities programs and real world experience. The College serves nearly 1,600 students, offering more than 40 degree options in liberal arts and sciences based programs.glass2

Western Wayne’s administration has been supportive of the project from the start. As the lead Pennsylvania school, they will be the first to host the glass studio. Mark Nebzydoski’s involvement and enthusiasm for the project has been crucial. The demonstrations are in keeping with the mission of the Western Wayne School District in alliance with family and community to educate each student to be an adaptable, life-long learner and a responsible citizen of a global society.

The Western Wayne High School is located along Route 296 in South Canaan, PA between Waymart and Lake Ariel. For GPS directions, use 1970A Easton Turnpike, Lake Ariel, PA 18436. For additional information about the program, call Hank Loftus at the Dorflinger Glass Museum at 570-253-1185. For information about the organizations: ww3.westernwayne.org

www.keystone.edu or www.dorflinger.org

 

 

 

Below are two of the lab’s latest media highlights: 

http://www.wicz.com/clip/12837027/vestal-high-school-students-blow-of-some-steam

http://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/local-news/vestal-high-schoolers-take-part-in-glass-demonstrations

 

Special message from the Board of Education

The Board of Education of the Western Wayne School District will act on the retirement request of our Superintendent, Joseph Adams at the next Public Board meeting. Mr. Adams intends to retire, tentatively, on February 1, 2017.

In the process of hiring Mr. Adams as Superintendent, the Board and Joe identified fourteen (14) specific items that we collectively believed Western Wayne needed to strategically accomplish. These items were:

  1. Settling all labor contracts/agreements with long term affordability and reasonableness for the community and staff;
  2. Refinancing the debt to harvest exceptional savings;
  3. Procuring the smallest tax increase in recent years, yet significantly improving the fiscal position of the District. Right now, the District is in the best financial shape ever recorded;
  4. Putting a succession and professional development plan in place for administration;
  5. Completely overhauling the Transportation system;
  6. Settling all outstanding Grievances and combining these settlements with improvements for professional development, instruction, curriculum and co-curriculars;
  7. Completing the $10,000,000 Capital project without having to raise taxes, and adding 20 years of useful life to our largest capital items;
  8. Continuing to have improving academic performance, curriculum upgrades and standardized test score results; 9.
  9. Promoting positive perceptions and morale within our District, Community, Staff and Students;
  10. Making substantial capital and operational improvements with our information technology operation, programs and media;
  11. Continuing to improve our co-curricular and athletic performances and programs and;
  12. Providing educational opportunities for the Board regarding school finance, accounting, operations, with comparative PDE compiled, statewide school district data;
  13. Establishing an effective, sustainable, maintenance and custodial program, with succession planning and;
  14. Providing a future capital projects plan with estimated replacement costs and schedules.

 

Mr. Adams had significant expertise and experience in these areas and was hired with direction to accomplish these tasks. The Board and Administration’s expectation was that the completion of these items would take three (3) to four (4) years. With the diligence of The Board, Administration, Staff, and Community, the first twelve are completed and in place, and the final two will be done before February 1, 2017 – within a twenty (20) month timeframe.

It was made clear in the hiring process that Mr. Adams committed to remain with the District until all items were accomplished and intended to retire shortly thereafter. The next phase of concentration and focus for Western Wayne are in the areas of improved educational achievement and strategy, curriculum, instruction, professional development, educational programming, and continuing to improve Districtwide communication.

Mr. Adams has delivered on his commitment and contributed to our recent growth and success, but communicated to the Board that the future needs of the District are outside his expertise and experience areas, and it is the appropriate time to transition to a new Superintendent. Joe has further committed, at our request, in assisting us for an extended period of time in this transition.

We all appreciate the efforts and contributions of Mr. Adams to our Western Wayne Community and District and wish him well in his retirement. We believe that Western Wayne has and will continue to make dramatic progress in becoming an exceptional public school and important Community partner. Thank you.

 

Signed by: Don Olsommer, Jr., Bill Gershey, Jeff Gogolski, Gary Enslin, Bernice Fiorella, Rick Hoch, and Don McDonough