The Western Wayne Middle School, Western Wayne High School, and Liberty Middle School Bands joined together on Tuesday, February 6, to participate in a one-of-a-kind clinic and exhibition concert sponsored by the KHS America Academic Alliance.

    After working tirelessly on the festival music in their own schools, band students from the two districts met for the first time as a band early on the morning of the event and spent the day getting to know one another through music. Under the baton of esteemed clinician Dr. Peter L. Boonshaft, the students had  the opportunity to collaborate and learn festival rehearsal techniques to take back to their schools.

     Dr. Boonshaft, Director of Education for KHS America, is the author of the critically acclaimed best-selling books Teaching Music with Passion, Teaching Music with Purpose, and Teaching Music with Promise. He was honored by the National Association for Music Education and Music For All as the first recipient of the “George M. Parks Award for Leadership in Music Education.” Dr. Boonshaft was selected for the Center for Scholarly Research and Academic Excellence at Hofstra University in Hempsted, NY, where is Professor Emeritus of Music.

    The culminating exhibition concert was free and open to the public and very well attended.

    Western Wayne Assistant Superintendent Dr. Cynthia LaRosa gave the opening address to the audience and welcomed Dr. Boonshaft and the students and staff of Liberty Middle School to Western Wayne.  She told the crowd she hoped they would “experience what can happen when students are motivated and inspired and to enjoy the magic of music.”

    The audience certainly did enjoy the magic of music that afternoon being first treated to a variety of musical selections performed by the Pride of Western Wayne, the High School Marching Band. Then they experienced the truly unique musical collaboration of Western Wayne Middle School and Liberty Middle School students playing together after having worked with the esteemed Dr. Boonshaft.

    “What happened here today is because of dedicated teachers,” Boonshaft told the audience.  “Music allows someone to gaze into the infinite, and today I spent a few hours gazing into the eyes of the infinite with these talented students and their teachers. They are the future of music.”

For more information on KHS America and the Academic Alliance, visit www.academicalliance.org

The Western Wayne School District congratulations its 2023-24 FBLA State Qualifiers that will be competing at the State Leadership Conference in Hershey this April.

L – R Top Row:

Weston Nugent, Adrian Agnello, Graysen Valinski, Connor Bryant, David Elias, Jamie Chapman, Hunter Smith, Kayden Peifer, Logan Pauler, and Paul Borowski.

L – R Middle Row:

Avery Ullner, Clare Coccodrilli, Raeleigh Kromko, Madelyn Vinton, Natasha Amberg, Lauren Dramisino, Allie Pauler, Khloe Mistishin, Maggie Kotchessa, Grace Moser, and Makenzie Chearney.

L – R Front Row:

Paityn Duprey, Bryn Vinton, Audrey Agnello, Phoebe Schmitt, Madelyn McClure, Taylor Maiocco, Rhayni Carroll, Colette Schmitt, Angelina Correa, Lauren  Geisheimer, and Olivia Gries.

The Western Wayne Middle School, Western Wayne High School, and Liberty Middle School Bands will join together on Tuesday, February 6, to participate in a one-of-a-kind clinic and exhibition concert sponsored by the KHS America Academic Alliance.

     After working tirelessly on the festival music in their own schools, band students from the two districts will meet for the first time as a band early in the morning and spend the day getting to know one another through music. Under the baton of esteemed clinician Dr. Peter L. Boonshaft, the students will have the opportunity to collaborate and learn festival rehearsal techniques to take back to their schools.

     Dr. Boonshaft, Director of Education for KHS America, is the author of the critically acclaimed best-selling books Teaching Music with Passion, Teaching Music with Purpose, and Teaching Music with Promise. He was honored by the National Association for Music Education and Music For All as the first recipient of the “George M. Parks Award for Leadership in Music Education.” Dr. Boonshaft was selected for the Center for Scholarly Research and Academic Excellence at Hofstra University in Hempsted, NY, where is Professor Emeritus of Music.

     The culminating exhibition concert is free and open to the public. The concert begins at 4:00 pm at Western Wayne High School Veterans Memorial Auditorium. Doors open at 3:30 pm.

For more information on KHS America and the Academic Alliance, visit www.academicalliance.org

The Western Wayne High School CATS club visited Wayne Woodlands Manor in Waymart on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, to spread Christmas cheer.  They visited with all the residents and gave out a gift to each person.  The residents and the students had a wonderful time talking to each other, singing, and spreading holiday spirit. Bottom row: Lizzie Washine. Middle row, from left:  Lillian Bronson, Grace Lidy, and MaKennah Holbert.

Western Wayne High School students in the Creative Writing elective classes served as Santa’s helpers by composing official North Pole responses and crafting gifts for some RDW students who wrote to Santa about their wish lists. Students were excited for the opportunity to use their talents to do a good deed this holiday season.

This past October Western Wayne High School science students participated in the WAHS Engineering Competition held at Wallenpaupack Area High School and hosted by the WAHS Technology Club Kiley and Associates.

It was a one-day engineering and design contest for local high schools. Teams were presented with a challenge at the start of the event.  This year’s challenge was to make a marble move from one end of a board to the other in a certain timeframe.  The marble had to move from one corner of the space to the other and couldn’t go off of it.

Students were given specific materials to use for the challenge which included: pipe cleaners, tape, uncooked pasta, rope, chain, silly puddy, wood blocks, etc.

Two groups of Western Wayne High Schoolers participated and competed against groups of students from other local schools.  One of the Western Wayne groups won the award for the Most Ingenious Use of Materials.  This winning group included: Makayla Walton, Julia Wehrmann, Colette Schmitt, Kallie Wehrmann, and Lia Hartman.  A second group of Western Wayne students also participated and had a great learning experience:  Anita Vanyo, Stephanie Mildner, Sean Owens, Jacob Dietrich, and Jacob Schott.

Lia Hartman, Western Wayne junior, who plans to attend medical school and study pathology in the future, explained how her group used their materials “ingeniously” for the challenge.

“Instead of having it all one dimension, we created a wall and along the wall funnels to slow down the marble,” she explained.  ‘We also included a maze at the bottom of our project.”

All of Lia’s teammates were excited to be recognized for their work in the competition.

“I thought I was going to feel a lot more pressure,” Makayla Walton, a Western Wayne junior who wishes to attend a four-year college after graduation to study psychology and also wants to pursue a doctorate in the same field, said.  “But I realized that everyone had the same task to accomplish and that we needed to have confidence in ourselves and each other.”

Another one of their teammates, Julia Wehrmann, a Western Wayne junior, who would like to study science and medicine after graduation, explained how she learned a lot about adapting to unexpected situations from the competition.

“When we practiced ahead of time for the event, we didn’t know exactly how difficult it would be,” she explained.  “At the actual competition, the scenario was harder than we anticipated, and we had to work together to meet the challenge.”

All of the Western Wayne students who attended the event felt like they learned a lot and those who are not seniors look forward to participating in the competition again next year.