COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

Shen Dollars for Scholars program offers a wide-range of scholarships. Memorial Scholarships include those in memory of Adeline Haswell, Matthew Proctor, John J. Sanvidge, Adam Haswell, Susan Jill Hughes, Nicole Lee, and PJ O'Donnell. Additional scholarships with specific emphases, as well as the general DFS scholarship, are also available. Interested applicants should visit the website and click on Scholarship Application for specific requirements.

Posted 5/8/08
On Wednesday, May 14^th, high school health students will be attending a presentation by Rick Stoddard in the High School East Auditorium. After losing his wife to cancer caused by cigarette smoking, Rick Stoddard completed a series of emotionally-charged, television and radio public service announcements for the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.

Rick Stoddard, author of The Burning Truth, continues his mission by speaking to youth and adults throughout American about the dangers of tobacco use and the manipulative marketing tactics of the tobacco industry. We look forward to Mr. Stoddard’s powerful message and the profound impact it can have on students’ health behaviors.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Colleen Coletta, health teacher at High School East by telephone – 881-0310, ext. 61739 or by e-mail – colecoll@shenet.org.

Posted 5/3/08
Leave No Child Behind, by Annette Romano whose son attends Koda Middle School. She wrote this article for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

My son Luke was diagnosed with cancer in August 2004, when he was a 5th grader, but since then he has never given up his fight not only to live but also to learn. At that time, I was a teacher, so when he couldn't go to school, I taught him at home. He studied for about two hours a day when his chemotherapy treatments would allow it. But that was elementary school; his teacher was flexible and free to rearrange his schedule so that he wouldn't miss his hands-on science class, and he could skip the spelling workbook and weekly tests that weren't absolutely essential. By prioritizing his studies, Luke was able to do increasing amounts of academic work as he began to gain strength, and he eventually reentered the school.

A Video Line to Learning

Three years later, at the end of 7th grade, Luke had a relapse with leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. His school, Koda Middle School in Clifton Park, N.Y., and I began to make a plan for his learning because he would need to be in isolation at home for his entire 8th grade year. At Luke's 504 planning committee meeting (for accommodating students with disabilities in accordance with the law), I requested that we explore the idea of videoconferencing as a solution to Luke's being homebound. Click here to read the rest of the article.

Posted 5/8/08
Koda Middle School is sponsoring a trunk sale on Saturday, June 7th, from 9am-2pm on the middle school parking lot. By renting a space for $25, you are allowed to sell anything you want (clothes, food, books, etc.) Each space consists of two parking spaces (one for your car, and one for the items you are selling). Money from rented spaces goes to the Akuffo Tom School in Ghana, Africa to help in buying supplies and updating their school. Set up time will be 8:00 AM on 6/7/08. The deadline for reservations is May 30, 2008. Click here for the application for a space or contact Mr. Mruz at 881-0470, ext.52607 for more information.

Posted 5/7/08
District receives grant from Senator Joseph Bruno. In an effort to help supplement the costs to enhance programs and services at Shenendehowa, the school district submitted a request to Senator Joseph Bruno who provided a $146,115 grant. This money will be used for the following: Bascom’s Global Chalkboard and Web Library, the Carillion Restoration Project, equipment purchases for the new Math Science Technology (MST) Academy at the high school, equipment for the middle school Lego League, and  health/wellness initiatives. Click here for more information about these projects.

Three vie for two seats on Shenendehowa's Board of Education on May 20. Each seat carries a three-year term. The two seats are currently held by Mary Wiggins who is seeking re-election and Charles Huff who has decided not to seek re-election. The candidates are:

• Mary Blaauboer
• Erin Wallace
• Mary Wiggins

Posted 5/3/08
Shen teacher and coach, Ken Strube, has been named New York State Girls Basketball Co-Coach of the Year for the 2007-08 season as selected by the Basketball Association of New York. This year has been a memorable one for Ken. During the 2007-08 season, Ken achieved his 500th coaching victory at Shenendehowa and also led his team to the 2008 Class AA Section 2 Championship. Ken was also recognized as the National District 2 Coach of the Year for the season and served as an assistant coach at this year’s WBCA High School All-American game in Tampa, Florida. Ken will be honored at the Basketball Coaches Association of New York annual clinic in the fall of 2008. Again, our congratulations to Ken, his players and his assistant coaches on achieving this tremendous honor.

Posted 5/3/08
The Shenendehowa Softball Booster Club is hosting a Friendly's Fun Night fund raiser at Friendly's in Clifton Park on Tuesday, May 13 from 5 to 8 PM.  Please join us and help support Shen Softball!

Posted 5/3/08
Maggie Seligman, a junior at Shenendehowa High School, has been chosen as one of six students to represent New York at the National Federation High School Student Leadership Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana from July 17 through July 20th.  The National Student Leadership Conference provides a forum for student and adult leaders to discuss contemporary issues facing education based athletics and activities. These student leaders will learn to promote respect, positive values, sportsmanship, teamwork, healthy lifestyles, community service and perspective. We congratulate Maggie in representing Shenendehowa at this conference.

Posted 5/1/08
Karigon and Orenda will host Got Stories (an evening of storytellers) on Thursday, May 8 from 6:30-8 p.m. The event is free and will be held at Orenda and Karigon Elementary Schools on the Shenendehowa campus. Come listen to local storytellers tell stories and get you interested in reading this summer.  Also, learn what the public library has to offer this summer and sign up for a library card.

Posted 4/28/08
Members of the High School East Choraliers and Mostly Acapella recently competed in the New York State School Music Association major organization festival under direction of Diane Warner.   Both ensembles were awarded Gold with Distinction honors at the highest level.

Posted 4/25/08
The Shenendehowa Athletic Department is pleased to announce that T.J. Popolizio has been chosen to participate in the 2nd Annual Red Bulls High School Cup presented by Adidas.  This event features the top senior soccer players from New York and New Jersey and puts them against each other for ultimate bragging rights. Players were selected by media from across New York and New Jersey. The Red Bulls High School Cup will be played at Giants Stadium on Saturday, June 21st at 9:30 PM following the New York Red Bulls match vs. FC Dallas.

T.J. has been a standout performer in the classroom and as a member of our soccer and wrestling teams.  T.J. will be attending Brown University in the fall.  We want to congratulate T.J. on this outstanding recognition and wish him all the best on the Saturday, June 21st.

• Due to unused snow days, there will be no school on Friday, May 23.
• Due to the unusual number of school delays this year due to bad weather, the calendar for kindergarten students will be changed for the June 13th half day. AM kindergarten students will report to school, PM kindergarten students will not have school on that day.

Posted 4/23/08
On April 23, more than 700 people participated "Science in the World Around Us" a science discovery night sponsored by the Shen Science Department and SAGE. The events requiring tickets were sold out in the first half hour. 

Local museums, exhibitors and science clubs presented programs on forensics, flight simulators, robots, constellations, turtles, lizards, fruit flies, rocks, minerals, Future Cities, coral reefs, lightning machines, and more!. Attendees received a free sapling tree courtesy of the Clifton Park Town GREEN committee.

Special thanks to:

• Rose Barra and the lego league as well as all the participants of the robotics team for their presentations.

• Ellen Nicolella and Ron Renoni for their preparation and participation in the nights activities with the microscopes.

• Diane Neuber for getting the dry ice and doing her hands on activities.

• Laura Gavlik who worked on the pollution side of earth science.

• Kelsey Backus with her work on being a scientist in the field.

• Scott Clark for his SEEC camp and all the technology that he helped to set up.

• Al Green for his presentation.

• Doug Wildes and his group for the lego league presentations.

• Joe Sliwinski for his OM vehicle presentation.

• Eddy Rizzo, Chris Andersen and Joe Sliwinski for helping move the tables.

• Dan Nagle - Faculty advisor to the HS Science Club who presented "Way Cool Science Club"

• Jamie St. Denis & Kyle Armstrong who brought students in their HS Forensic Science course to present "Forensic Exploration"

• Joanne Coons - Faculty advisor to the HS SCARCE club, who presented the "Energy Bike"

• Nicole LePage who presented "Tobacco Use Age Progression Simulator"

• Bridget Ciulla & Paul Yattaw who helped with event logistics.

• Paul Whitley - Faculty Advisor for the Future Cities presentations

• The middle school custodial staff. 

Also thanks to the NHS student volunteers who helped us with the evening's event as well as those who were part of the clubs (above) that presented.

Posted 4/23/08
Students from Shenendehowa’s Finance and Investment class placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Spring 2008 Stock Market Game Session. Students from Laura Tarlo’s class competed via the internet against 100 other teams from schools all over the capital region. In 1st place were Travis DeSilva and Scott Loy, 2nd place were Chris Coppola and Natasha Sakhichand and 3rd place were Joe Macaluso and Sam Rosenzweig. The 1st and 2nd place teams will attend an awards ceremony on May 19th at the Holiday Inn in Albany.

Posted 4/23/08
The Gowana Student Council asked the student body to collect their pennies for a really great cause!  From March 7th to the 28th, each team was asked to raise as much money as they could to help the Pennies for Patients campaign.  This campaign asks schools to donate loose change and all of the proceeds are donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  At the conclusion, the students of Gowana raised $1713.58.  Team 8-1 was the leader, raising $363.52, and Team 6-1 was close behind raising $351.87.  We want to thank all of those that participated; we look forward to helping out this great cause again next year.

Posted 4/21/08
Music Department News:

• All-District Choral Festival: Tuesday, April 29th at 7:00 PM HS East Auditorium.  This concert will highlight students in grades 5-12 in our choral program with a finale you won't want to miss!!

• All-District Jazz Festival: Thursday, April 24th at 7:00 PM HS East Auditorium.   This concert will feature our middle school and high school jazz bands at Shen with internationally recognized performing and recording trumpet artist, Scott Wendholt!

Posted 4/8/08
Want to be a Better Parent???  Then Try Systematic Training for Effective Parenting of Teenagers. Be part of a group of parents to help you learn how to relate better to your teenager through Systematic Training for Effective Parenting of Teenagers. Our STEP/TEEN group will meet for 5 weeks and is based on an easy-to-read  textbook and videos dealing with specific challenges and problems encountered by parents of teenagers. Issues such as cooperation, communication, problem solving, discipline, and mutual respect are discussed in a group format.

   The sessions will be held for 5 consecutive Tuesday evenings from April 29th through May 27th from 6:30- 8:30pm. in the High School East Library. There is no fee but the STEP/TEEN textbook must be purchased ($15) at the time of registration. Registration is on a first come, first served basis and is limited to 16 participants. Please call the course facilitator John Puccia, the Academic Administrator for Guidance, at 881-0313 to register.

Posted 3/31/08
The Shenendehowa PTA Council will be hosting a Giffy’s BBQ to coincide with the budget vote on May 20th.  You may pre-order your dinner either from your children’s school or directly from Council.  The cost is $8.00 for a ½ chicken dinner and you may pick up your order from 4-7pm at the side yard between Gowana & Acadia.  If ordering from Council, click here to download the form and then drop it off at the High School East North Main office addressed to the PTSA.  This dinner is being offered as a service to all of our Shen voters and is NOT a fundraiser! We hope you will take advantage of a night off from cooking and enjoy a delicious Giffy’s chicken dinner!  If you have any questions, please contact Tammy at 383-2833 or Jane at 371-0652.  We hope to see you all there!

1. The district has established an after-hours number, 371-4004, for people to call when there  is a situation after hours that needs attention. People can also use this line to share information about a particular situation or safety concern that needs to be addressed quickly. The person will be asked to leave a message. Please be aware that the telephone number is identified, blocked calls will not be accepted. This is not a substitute for calling 911 for emergencies.
2. The district is unveiling its new "Heard it through the Grapevine" page. While the Shenendehowa community is fairly large, rumors fly through it pretty quickly. This pseudo-blog is an attempt to provide people with accurate information on a regular basis. Just click on the Grapevine graphic or on this link: www.shenet.org/grapevine

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Character Education at Shenendehowa

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Grade K-12 Summer Reading lists