ST. SEBASTIAN PARISH SCHOOL S BRICK LOTBulletinAugust 2017 From the Principal s Office Welcome Teachers, Staff, Students and Families On behalf of St. Sebastian Parish School, I would like to welcome the following new members to our teaching community (and some who are returning in new roles): Elizabeth Aronhalt (art teacher); Alex Barbour (1st-grade aide); Autumn Gaskins (6th-grade teacher: science, social studies and religion); Bryan Kover (physical education and 7th-grade health teacher); Cara Nestor (who will now be the math teacher for 6th-grade in addition to 7th- and 8thgrades); Scott Mason (librarian, band director, director of the Academy of Culture & Arts); Lisa Morelli (health aide, aftercare director); Julia Moskaluk (7th- and 8th-grade science and 8th-grade health teacher); Nicole Pillitiere (enrichment teacher, administrative assistant); Jen Slegus (former 4th-grade teacher, will now teach 6th-grade English and reading as well as 7th-grade reading); and Jennifer Smee (4th-grade math, science, social studies). I would also like to welcome all our students and families to the new school year. I am excited to be back for my 13th year overall and first year as your principal. I am pleased to report that enrollment is strong, and I am looking forward to a year full of new initiatives, service learning and continuing traditions. I want every student to live and breathe the school s mission while advancing their education. What s New and Exciting I am especially excited to further implement the STEM initiatives we developed as part of our school s STEM designation, our 1:1 Chromebook initiative (see below), and inquiry-based learning in our new Innovation Lab. I am also excited to announce an expansion of our partnership with Camp Christopher that will allow students to be even more involved in the Catholic community through problem-based learning opportunities. Also this year, our school will use the free and award-winning Bloomz parentteacher communication app. The goal is to increase parent engagement by enabling parents to receive school updates, class updates, events, and signup sheets all in one place. We will coordinate parentteacher conferences using Bloomz this year, and parents can even arrange carpools using the app. More information to come. 1:1 Chromebook Initiative Starting this year, our school will provide all students in grades 6-8 with a Chromebook laptop computer. The majority of parents and students surveyed last spring agreed on the importance of a 1:1 technology program for the upper grades. This is an exciting time for our school! We believe a Chromebook for each student will lead to an overall enhanced educational experience, better student organizational skills and learning and sharing beyond the walls of the conventional classroom. It will allow greater accessibility to technology while preparing students for an ever-changing world, remove the need to schedule computer lab time or share mobile carts, and create a sense of responsibility through personal ownership. Moreover, our 1:1 Initiative will make learning available at our students fingertips and enable teachers to easily track both student progress and needs for further instruction. Summer Projects Thank you to the school maintenance staff who worked hard over the summer cleaning and preparing the building. The maintenance staff also worked hard to prepare our brand new Innovation Lab. For more information on the lab, read the letter on the next page from Kelly Gupta, our STEM Coordinator, who also deserves thanks for her efforts! With the help of our Socials Committee and teacher Sue Vernon, the maintenance staff also completely renovated our teacher s lounge. Mark Your Calendars for the 14th Annual September Spectacular on Saturday, September 30. New Agendas, Spirit Wear Thanks to HASA, this year our students will receive Catholic-themed student agendas that include scripture-based questions and prayers, a daily Gospel message and more. The dress code remains largely the same, but the biggest change is that students may wear spirit wear every Friday except during Advent and Lent. If you have questions regarding approved Spirit Wear other than the green shirts with the crest on the front and cross on back, please contact the school office. The sixth-grade students will design new spirit wear through the Traveling T- Shirt Company. This unique program guides students through the production of a t-shirt while integrating lessons on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, globalization and history, all of which is combined with service learning. I encourage everyone to come to a few important events as we kick off the school year: Open House (August 20, 12 p.m. -2 p.m.), the State of the School Address (September 21, 7 p.m.) and September Spectacular (September 30, 6 p.m.). I hope to see you at all of these events! Yours in Christ, Anthony Rohr Principal Questions or Suggestions? Questions or suggestions for the newsletter? Please email Anne Dennée, Newsletter Editor, at Anne@DenneeFamily.com. Items for the Nov.-Dec. issue should be submitted by Friday, September 29th.
From the STEM Coordinator Our Amazing Innovation Lab Comes to Life, Teachers Attend Training Over the Summer Welcome to the new school year! There is so much going on at St. Sebastian Parish School that it is hard to know where to begin! It has been an amazing summer here at school as we have been preparing for the opening of our brand new Innovation Lab. The lab will be housed in what used to be the sixth-grade science room on the second floor. We began the renovations last spring by hiring Noel Frazer and his team from Ohio Garage Interiors to help us plan and ultimately bring our vision of our new lab to life. After numerous meetings and amendments to our original plans, we were ready to begin. First they sealed the floor with a state-of-the-art polymer coating, and then they custom built all of the cabinetry that stores all of the supplies we will need to be a fully functioning STEM accredited school. In addition, six mobile lab tables were custom built by the team to include butcher block table tops and built-in storage. The tables are two different heights to meet the needs of both smaller and taller students. We added a grow station in the back of the room in front of the windows where students will prepare seedlings for planting in our community garden in the springtime. The lab also has a giant Lego wall where students of all ages will be able to imagine and create 3-D masterpieces for the school to enjoy! We have invested in many new supplies to accompany this endeavor as well. Grades K-5 will have all of the lab supplies needed to successfully complete all of the labs in our new science series, Science Fusion. This is the first investment in science lab materials for the younger grades in many years. To add to our Environmental Club Donates Produce from School Garden Lego Robotics, Dash and Dot Robots and drone programs, we have purchased thousands of Legos and numerous sets of cardboard construction materials. In addition, thanks to a generous donation from the Mickel family, we have begun acquiring new tool sets to be housed in the lab. Finally, teachers have begun attending many in-services to help them incorporate STEM teaching into their curricula. Eight of our teachers participated in the Diocese of Cleveland s STREAM Academy in August, where they were immersed in learning about Legos, primary engineering, inventions, science scrimmaging, creating their own companies, and even kitchen chemistry! These courses included all of the materials needed to help our teachers bring these subjects to life for our students. Be on the lookout for these throughout the year, especially at our next Innovation Night to be held in 2018! We look forward to seeing you in the Innovation Lab during our Open House from 12 p.m.-2 p.m. August 20. Please stop by and see what all the excitement is about! Yours With Christ, Mrs. Kelly Gupta Thank you to all the students in the Environmental Club who spent Mondays over the summer tending our redeveloping school garden! Each week, between 10 and 15 students came to the garden, which is located next to Byrider Hall, to harvest, weed, and learn all about the different crops. In addition to huge cherry tomatoes, the students harvested green beans, tons of lettuce and some berries. In early fall, they plan to harvest potatoes, squash and pumpkins. All of this wonderful, fresh produce was donated to the Good Samaritan Hunger Center, which is also located on campus at Byrider Hall. Our school has established a partnership with the Good Samaritan Hunger Center in which all crops harvested at the school garden will be donated to the center. Pictured here, Environmental Club member Isabel Petit (left) helps deliver a big box of produce to Hunger Center Director Michele Smith (center, who happens to be a St. Sebastian graduate!) and a summer intern at the Hunger Center. This was the inaugural year for the Environmental Club, which is run by our STEM Coordinator Mrs. Kelly Gupta. Mrs. Gupta reports that the students are looking forward to problem-solving this fall and winter to determine what could be done to improve the garden and its surroundings, and she notes that the incoming seventh-graders have already drawn up plans for a new design in the main growing area to be implemented in early 2018. Thank you to Mrs. Gupta and the students for all of their hard work on the garden this summer, and thanks to fellow teachers Miss Molly Karg and Mrs. Nicole Pillitiere, and parents Ana Borges and Tricia Rothkopf, who also pitched in to help.
Students in the News August 2017 In case you missed it, here are some great stories about student achievements that took place after our last newsletter went to print in the spring. Stock Market Team Creates Winning Portfolio Congratulations to St. Sebastian Parish School s stock market team The Best Buyers, who finished first in their region out of 142 teams in the Stock Market Game. The team also ranked ninth out of 721 elementary, middle, and high school teams! The team s first place regional title earned team members (who were sixth-graders at the time) a trip to the University of Cincinnati last spring to present their portfolio to a panel of judges composed of Cincinnati investment companies. Team members, pictured here at UC with club moderator Mr. Rohr, were Emma Doucet, Madison Najeway, Julia Pentasuglio, Elizabeth Saliga and Elizabeth Savitski. The Stock Market Game, sponsored by the University of Cincinnati s Economic Center, allows students to manage a virtual stock portfolio with real-time data and compete against other teams and schools. The program introduces students to the stock market and the topics of saving and investing. Similar to a real-world financial adviser, student teams learn financial literacy, math, social studies, language arts, critical thinking, teamwork and collaboration, and access resources that help them grow their investment portfolios. Mark Your Calendars for the 14th Annual September Spectacular on Saturday, September 30. The evening will begin at 6:00 p.m. in our own Zwisler Hall, which will be beautifully transformed with elegant Caribbean accents to match this year s Havana Nights theme. Your $85 ticket includes an open bar, appetizers, sit-down dinner, entertainment and live and silent auctions. This is our parish school s largest fundraiser, and we hope everyone will be able to attend! The September Spectacular Needs You! Many thanks to live auction chairs Alexis Rizopulos and Chrissie Beynon and to silent auction chair Natalie Griffin Kinney for all their hard work in putting this event together. There is still much work to be done! We need people to attend the party, donate auction items, advertise in our auction program and volunteer to make our 14th September Spectacular really shine! Every contribution, of time, talent or treasure will make a difference. If you can help, please let us know by emailing spectaculars@stsebastian.org. Estate Collection New this year is an Estate Collection category in the silent auction. Do you have a piece of fine jewelry or a set of collectible fine china that has been in Four Students Compete at Power of the Pen State Tournament In late May, the Power of the Pen State Tournament was held at the College of Wooster. Four St. Sebastian Parish School students (pictured here) qualified to compete: recent graduate Matthew Dennée and incoming eighth-graders Cassia Chivers, Mia Khayyat and Sawyer Huckabee. Matthew scored a superior, an honors and a merit ranking. Sawyer scored three honors rankings. Mia received two honors and a merit score. Cassia received three honors rankings and qualified to write in the Power Round. Congratulations to these fantastic creative writers! Class of 2017 Earns Over $264,000 in Awards Congratulations to the 35 members of the St. Sebastian Parish School Class of 2017. These students earned over a quarter of a million dollars ($264,000!) in awards and scholarships to continue their education at Catholic high schools. We are proud of them, and we wish them well as they begin their high school years. All of the scholarship winners were recognized in an advertisement in the West Side Leader, which is reprinted on the reverse. A poster version of the ad was also displayed at church. Please note: While several of our students earned scholarships to more than one high school, in order to fit everything onto one page, each student was listed only under the school that he or she chose to attend. The $264,000 amount includes all of the scholarships/ awards earned, including those to schools the students chose not to attend. your family and hasn t been used in years? Why not donate it and give it new life? Your donation will be cleaned, repaired and appraised, and you will get a tax receipt. Items will be photographed and featured in the auction program along with a full description. Bidding is open to the entire parish through the BidPal System. For more information please call (330) 836-2233 ext. 135 or email spectaculars@stsebastian.org. Proceeds Benefit Every Student Over the past 13 years, the September Spectacular event has raised over $880,000 for our parish school. Profits have been used for tuition reduction for every student, technology investments, the school garden, art and culture programs and the school s STEM initiatives, as well as the complete renovation of our Technology Learning Lab. Last year, because of your generosity, our new Innovation Lab will soon open and an endowment was begun to protect the financial future of our parish school. This year, proceeds will be used to support a new virtual reality program and technology upgrades, grow the endowment and continue to make education affordable for every student. Please consider attending, donating or volunteering for the 2017 September Spectacular. We d love to hear from you! Visit the Spectacular web page at www.stsebastian.org/school for more information on how you can get involved and to purchase tickets for this fun night.
ST. SEBASTIAN PARISH SCHOOL Pride, Tradition, Achievement Since 1928 Congratulations Eighth Grade Graduates 2016-2017 Academic Achievement & Scholarship Recipients ARCHBISHOP HOBAN HIGH SCHOOL William & Catherine Foley Memorial Scholarship ~ Alexander Raita Thomas Scholarship ~ Michael Johnson, Alexander Raita Alumni Merit Scholarship ~ Aaron Brown, Colin Jaroch, Garrett Persinger OUR LADY OF THE ELMS HIGH SCHOOL The Virginia & Herman Behrle Scholarship ~ WALSH JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL Grace Heinle The Beck Family Foundation Award ~ Samuel Haslinger, Miles Newland The Gerstenmaier Family Scholarship ~ Anthony Calleri, Nicholas Zografakis Campion Society Award ~ Anthony Calleri, Brody Toth ST. VINCENT-ST. MARY HIGH SCHOOL Irish Academic Scholarship ~ Matthew Dennee, James Gupta, Virginia Hunt, Brian Kelley, Andrew McSteen, Jacob Thomas Wheeler Family Green & Gold Scholarship ~ Matthew Dennee, Luke Dobson, James Gupta, Virginia Hunt, Mary Jewell, Andrew McSteen, Abigail Minear, A Maya Scott, Emily Steel, Drew Vereecken The Bader Family Scholarship ~ Luke Dobson The Breiding Family Scholarship ~ Mary Jewell The Hanlon Family Scholarship ~ Mary Jewell John A. Trecaso Scholarship ~ James Gupta The Joseph P. Wheeler Scholarship ~ Brian Kelley The Newt Henry Memorial Scholarship ~ Jack Vought Thomas & Margaret Antonino Memorial Scholarship ~ Luke Dobson, Theresa Hagey Nick and Eileen Antonino Family Scholarship ~ A Maya Scott FIRESTONE HIGH SCHOOL International Baccalaureate Program ~ Connor Beaven Project Lead the Way Engineering Program ~Connor Beaven AKRON EARLY COLLEGE Connor Hochstetler ADDITIONAL AWARDS Deacon Terry Peacock, Knights of Columbus Scholarship ~ Michael Johnson HASA Youth Christian Service Scholarship~ Samuel Haslinger, Virginia Hunt St. Irene Principal s Scholarship ~ Alexander Raita Father Byrider Award ~ Brian Kelley, Madalyne Sinley Daughters of the American Revolution Citizenship Award ~ Virginia Hunt, Emily Steel, Noah Schlueter, Garrett Persinger Athlete of Character Award ~ Theresa Hagey, Miles Newland Student Christian Athletic Award Catiedia Bertolini-Rivas, Colin Jaroch
Welcome to Our New Teachers! Ms. Elizabeth Aronhalt Art Teacher Education: B.S. Art Education Miami University; Minors in Spanish and 2-D Media Studies Began Teaching: 2015 Hobbies: My hobbies include painting, biking, playing Ultimate frisbee, playing soccer and going to art galleries. Why I Like Teaching: I enjoy exploring and creating art with students. Art enables students to be innovators and creative thinkers and I love that! August 2017 Ms. Autumn Gaskins Sixth-Grade Teacher Education: B.A. Education and History University of Akron Years Teaching: 4 years Hobbies: Riding horses and spending time with my husband and daughter Why I Like Teaching: I enjoy watching students hard work and creativity come to life in the classroom. I also enjoy helping students become lifelong learners and assisting in them reaching their full potential. Mr. Bryan Kover Physical Education Teacher (will split time between St. Sebastian and Julie Billiart School) Education: B.A. Sports Management Baldwin Wallace College; licensure K-12 Health Education and Physical Education Began Teaching: 2013, 11 years of coaching Hobbies: Spending time with my wife and kids, coaching, golf, movies, music, and travel. Why I Like Teaching: Teaching provides an opportunity on a daily basis to pass on my enthusiasm and passion for physical activity and sport to my students. Mr. Scott Mason Librarian and School Band Director Education: B.A. Music with K-12 Reading Specialization Kent State University; M.Ed. Music Education University of Akron Years Teaching: 34 years Began Teaching at St. Sebastian: 2016 Hobbies: Gardening, Cooking, Beekeeping, British Car Restoration Why I Like Teaching: I want to share my love of music and books with kids! I enjoy watching kids grow through their learning and discovery of the world and what they can do in it, and find that developing the skills of reading both text and music notation opens many doors to the understanding of the world, ourselves and the beauty that can be found in everything. My goal is to help open these doors to the students so that they can more fully experience and appreciate our world, each other and the beauty of God s work in their lives. Ms. Julia Moskaluk Junior High Science Teacher Education: B.A. Middle Childhood Education (Science and Language Arts) Marietta College; Teacher Leader Certificate (McDonough Leadership Program at Marietta) Began Teaching: 2017 Hobbies: Volleyball played three years of varsity volleyball at Marietta Why I Like Teaching: I like teaching because it s different every day! Students change day to day, which makes things interesting. Also, seeing a student finally understand a topic or seeing them really interested in a topic completely defines my learning goals for all my students. Mrs. Nicole Pillitiere Enrichment Teacher Years Teaching: Began at St. Sebastian in 2012, held positions as Substitute Teacher, Instructional Aide for Grades 4-8, Lunch/Recess Monitor, AfterCare Attendant Hobbies: I enjoy family time, reading and hiking. Why I Like Teaching: I love watching students engage in the fun and exciting lessons I ve planned for them. Mrs. Jennifer Smee Fourth-Grade Teacher Education: B.S. Elementary Education The University of Akron Began Teaching: 2001 Hobbies: Reading, cooking, Disney movies, traveling, antique shopping, crafting, spending time with family. Why I Like Teaching: I love igniting the passion for learning and inquiry in my students. I enjoy making a difference in their lives and touching their hearts as they touch mine, and I like being a part of shaping the future.
ST. SEBASTIAN PARISH 476 MULL AVENUE AKRON, OHIO 44320-1299 SCHOOL CALENDAR AND IMPORTANT DATES SAVE THE DATE Race Around the Park 5k & Family Fun Run November 4 Ladies Holiday Boutique Social, Portage Country Club November 5 Celebrity Night Social November 16 Explorer Day November 17 Thanksgiving Break November 22-24 Winter Music Program November 30 AUGUST Welcome Picnic for New Families Welcome Back Open House First Day of School (grades 1-8) Kindergarten Orientation Sessions Preschool Orientation Sessions Kindergarten Half-Day Soccer Registration Deadline for DD & Soccer Stars First Full Day of Kindergarten First Day of Preschool Welcome Back Coffee SEPTEMBER No School Labor Day HASA Meeting State of the School Address CYO Fall Sports Team Mass Day Confirmation Meeting (8th Grade) September Spectacular OCTOBER Parent/Teacher Conferences No School, Teacher Professional Day HASA Meeting Kindergarten Parent Dinner Confirmation Meeting (8th Grade) End of First Quarter Halloween Parade Monster Mash August 2017 August 17 (Thursday), 5:30-7 p.m. August 20 (Sunday), 12-2 p.m. August 23 (Wednesday), 7:55 a.m. August 23-24 (Wednesday-Thursday), 8-9 a.m. August 23-24 (Wednesday-Thursday), times TBA August 25 (Friday), 8-10:30 a.m. August 25 (Friday) August 28 (Monday) August 28 (Monday) August 28 (Monday), 7:30-9 a.m. September 4 (Monday) September 14 (Thursday), 7 p.m. September 21 (Thursday), 7 p.m. September 24 (Sunday) September 25 (Monday) 7-8 p.m. September 30 (Saturday), 6 p.m. October 4-5 (Wednesday-Thursday) October 6 (Friday) October 12 (Thursday), 7 p.m. October 13 (Friday) October 23 (Monday), 7-8 p.m. October 27 (Friday) October 27 (Friday) October 28 (Saturday)