Greetings!
This is the last Friday Coffee Break for the 2024-25 school year! In today's newsletter, BAHS, BAMS, PGE, and BES schools are highlighted. I have a list of retirees - HAPPY RETIREMENT 🎉 There are three Class of 2025 spotlights to finish up my list. Be sure to check out the Red & White Scoreboard! Track and Field is currently at States, Boys' LAX has a playoff game today, and Baseball and Softball both earned D6 Champion status this past week!
BAHS art student, Ella Novitsky, recently received her 5th place award and certificate for the Congressional Art Competition. Also, BAHS art student and member of the Class of 2025, Anna Dello Stritto, is shown with the Graduation Program for this year’s Commencement Ceremony - that she designed herself!
The second graders of Bellefonte Elementary celebrated Bellefonte Week in May. Each day they took a walking field trip to a different place in town to learn about the community. The students visited Logan Fire Co, Bellefonte Art Museum, Centre County Library, the Borough Building where they got to meet Mayor Buddy Johnson and learn about being Mayor, and Mrs. Fisher collaborated with Mr. Maris to plan a historic tour of important landmarks in Bellefonte. The students and staff wrapped up Bellefonte Week with visiting Talleyrand Park and getting snow cones at Pelican's!
The High School Stat classes hosted their annual Probability & Statistics Carnival in April. The students create their own carnival games, calculate the probability of winning each prize, and then see if the actual game play (empirical probability) matches the classical probability. Staff and students are invited to be part of the data collection. What fun!
Yesterday, the varsity Softball and Baseball teams won their District 6 Championship games! Both teams played Juniata.
Softball won 6-1 and Baseball won 10-0. Both teams will continue on their post season journey. Congratulations to these exceptional student-athletes!
On Monday, BASD held their annual Special Olympics during the school day at Rogers Stadium. It was an incredible day for everyone involved! Thank you for such a special day for these students!
There will be a Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday, May 21st at the Bellefonte Area Middle School in the cafeteria. The meeting will start at 7:00PM. The public is encouraged to attend!
The next board meeting after Wednesday, will be June 10.
Many of our Spring Sports Teams host a Teacher Appreciation Day. Check out the attached graphic to see who each athlete nominated.
For this year’s Congressional Art Competition, Ella Novitsky placed Fifth! Generally, they do not have a fifth place, but the judges absolutely loved her work. Her individual piece will be kept for one year on display on GT (Glenn Thompson’s) desk in Washington. Her piece is titled: What’s Your Elephant? Congratulations, Ella!
Greetings!
Please enjoy your Friday's Coffee Break newsletter for May 16. Today's newsletter features articles from BAHS and BAMS. Many of the spring sports host a Teacher Appreciation day, which is highlighted. Congratulations to Zane Hummel, Victoria Schellenberg, Madison Miller, Althea Helms, and Addison Fry for qualifying for the Track & Field State Championship meet! Our spotlights are Drew Eddinger of the High School and senior, Nate Leddy.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
At the beginning of May for School Lunch Hero Day, the High School Life Skills Support Classroom made lunch for the HS cafeteria staff! They also made vases of flowers for each of them with a message of thanks on them to celebrate School Lunch Hero Day. So very kind!
BAMS is excited to announce that they will be holding a week long Math Summer Camp in June! The camp is free. Please see the attached graphic for more information.
Click the following link to register:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdgxcZMGzpLsHHyGmVKbZg-1p_yLQvy8X2N_1OUEbjKzhvtNQ/viewform
Recently, Bellefonte Area Middle School Learning Support teacher, Mikayla Stover, teamed up with her good friend Mya Trauger (BASD alumni) who is a Special Education teacher at Central Mountain Middle School. They came up with the idea to connect their classes and have them write Pen Pals all school year. Last Wednesday, the students got the chance to meet up with their Pen Pals from CMMS! They spent the afternoon at the Mill Hall Park and then had a sweet treat from the Ice Shack. What a great experience for these students!
Last week, Dr. John Tooker, a PSU professor of entomology, came into the BAHS biology classrooms to work with students to help them with some of their research. The students are studying plant response to stress. Every group of students was given a goldenrod plant, and half the students received a male gall fly to place on their plant. Later in the week, flies were removed, and all students placed beetle larvae on their plants to see if herbivores prefer the plants that were not under stress (from the fly). Dr. Tooker will come back to help with data analysis.
Dr. Tooker is an annual guest in the biology classrooms and the teachers and students always appreciate his assistance and knowledge!
Happy Worker Wednesday! The Bellefonte Area School District is hiring!
Listed below are some of the highlighted positions:
1. Custodian 3rd Shift - BAHS
2. Jr. High Girls' Basketball Head Coach
3. Elementary Learning Support Teacher - Pleasant Gap Elementary
4. Elementary Vice Principal - Bellefonte Elementary
5. Elementary Math Intervention Specialist
There are many more listed on our website, which can be viewed here:
https://bellefonte.schoolspring.com/
Please share with family and friends - a fully employed school district is what our children deserve!
Seniors Annie Cernuska, Ruthann Smoyer, and Elliott Miller participated in the entrepreneurship Dream.Learn.Pitch Rising Star Challenge, placing first in the high school division for their business concept idea Varsity Valet, a valet service for student drivers, offering convenience and safety during arrival and departure times of the school day. This opportunity provided students experience in public speaking, teamwork and collaboration as well as an extension of their learning in the Entrepreneurial Mindset class.
At Benner Elementary, Mrs. Gall's first grade class created retractable telescopes to help them remember the way the earth is organized after learning about geography in social studies! They started with the biggest category, the Earth, and labelled the biggest cylinder. The students then zoomed further and further in, adding a cylinder for each level of organization, including the category, and the example of where they live. By the end, they had a telescope that was retractable, so they could see all the fun places they could go!
Congratulations to Breanna Dickey for being crowned 2025 Miss Bellefonte! Breanna is a wonderful student who is actively engaged in many extra-curriculars. These activities include: National Honors Society (President 25-26), SuperSAC, Student Council (Secretary), Team USA Baton Twirling, Raider Corner, BAHS Cheer, BAHS Majorettes, Show Twirler Competitive Team, Chinese Club (Vice President), Private Baton Coach, BAHS Marching Band and Next Gen Clinic. Breanna was escorted by Cameron Lucas. Congratulations, Breanna!
At Benner Elementary, Miss Stover's class and Miss D’Ambrosia made seed bombs in celebration of Earth Day! They started by building on their opinion writing experience trying to decide if they left wet paper balls full of seeds on the ground, would it be considered littering? After deciding that it would not be considered littering, they got a bag of native pollinator seeds and did some noticing and wondering about the differences. Then the students got some wet construction paper, shredded it into the smallest pieces they could, added a little mash that was created using a blender, and created an "earth seed bomb" by packing the shredded wet paper together to look like a globe. After these dry, they will keep for a long time until they find the perfect spot to "bomb" with the native pollinator seeds.
Mr. Baughman and Mr. Bates worked with Uplifting Athletes to provide a meaningful experience for students at Bellefonte Elementary School to learn more about rare diseases while spreading awareness and raising money to help. Students participated in a free throw shooting competition during P.E. class and also learned about rare diseases from Mr. Bates during Health. Students could collect donations through an online platform where family and friends could donate a set amount or an amount per made free throw. The competition culminated in an assembly where the final four students were paired with an athlete for the final rounds in front of the whole school.
BES welcomed former Penn State and NFL football players: Nate Stupar, Brett Brackett, and Super Bowl champions Jordan Hill and Stefan Wisniewski. The four athletes competed with the students and celebrated raising almost $4,000 for Uplifting Athletes to help fight rare diseases. Mr. Baughman made a clutch shot at the end with over $1,000 on the line to bring the final total over $5,000. This event was the first of its kind with Uplifting Athletes.
