Awards, Honors, and Grants
2007-2008
Honors:
Will Colan attended the 60th Annual Dirigo Boys State program at Thomas College in June.
Kini-Ana Tinkham, school nurse at Maranacook Community High School was elected vice president of the Board of Directors for the Maine Assembly on School-Based Health Care in August.
Maranacook Community High School senior Ben Gadberry was selected last spring to attend the Maine Humanities Council History Camp 2007 in July.
The artwork of Readfield Elementary School students Elizabeth D’Angelo, grade 5, Kurstyn True, grade 4, Abigail Lucas, grade 3, and Nicole D’Angelo, grade 2, was chosen for the Maine Excellence in Art program. The students’ work was displayed in state government buildings in October.
Maranacook Community High School senior Claire Marvinney was selected last spring to attend the University of Maine’s “Consider Engineering” program for high school juniors.
Awards:
Last spring, 12 Maranacook students placed in the top ten in Maine for their respective grades on the AATG National German Test. They are Megan Williams, Chelsea Watts, Sam Whittemore, Nolan Poulin, Jillian Blouin, Lindsay Laferriere, Jenny Bourgoin, Carrie Paul, Alice Berry, Owen Peterson, Emma Prysunka and Claire Marvinney.
Three Maranacook Middle School students received state talent search awards from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth 2007 for their scores on the SAT exam. Una Huang received a Student With Exceptional Talent (SET) award for scoring higher than 700 in critical reading before age 13. Sarah Adams received second place in Maine for critical reading in grade 7. Christopher Morris received first place for combined score (2110), first place for critical reading (780) and second place for math (660) as an eighth grader. He also received the SET award for critical reading. Morris was invited to the national ceremony for being among the highest scorers nationally.
Max HoddWells, a senior at Maranacook Community High School, was among seven semi-finalists in the third annual Governor’s Young Writer of the Year Awards presented last spring.
Maranacook Community High School senior Sean Clark, along with 16,000 other high school students, was named a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program.
Anne Brooks, the evening librarian/media specialist at Maranacook Community High School, won third place for her photograph at the Winthrop Art Show in August.
The Maranacook Student Health Center was one of seven school-based health centers to receive $3,000 for best performance in data collection and reporting for the 2006-2007 school year from the Maine CDC Teen and Young Adult Health Program.
Two students from the Maranacook Area Schools District have won awards in the Annual Maine School Bus Safety Poster Contest. Fifth grader Alicia Tilley of Wayne Elementary placed first and third grader Luke Arsenault of Manchester Elementary placed third in Division 2 (grades 3-5).
2006-2007
Honors
On October 3, Jennifer Day of the Maine Parent Federation and Michele Pino of the Southern Kennebec Child Development Corp. presented Superintendent Rich Abramson with a plaque for his “dedication to excellence in education through community and parent involvement and for his modeling, in spirit and action, a level of commitment as an educator and an invested stakeholder in the lives of children through central Maine.”
Carol Ladd, German teacher at MCHS, has been invited to attend a workshop at the Goethe Institute in Chicago in December for training in conducting presentations. She will also learn to train other teachers to conduct presentations.
Stanley Keach was recognized as a recipient of the 2006 Commissioner’s Recognition Award on May 25. Stan has served as the MCHS Alternative Education Program teacher for more than 15 years and has been instrumental in working successfully with students who are at high risk of dropping out and has created a program that truly meets the needs of these students. He has more than 25 years experience in autism education, special education and alternative education.
In July, the Maranacook Area Schools Wellness Team was honored for 20 years of participation in the Maine Schoolsite Health Promotion conference and its work in the District in the area of school site health and wellness.
An animated movie by Ben Gadberry, a junior at Maranacook Community High School, opened the International Animated Film Festival in Vienna, Austria, in October.
Betsy Allen-McPhedran’s holiday card design was one of seven by University of Maine at Augusta art students chosen by UMA’s president to represent the institution’s holiday wishes. Betsy is enrolled in a 2-D design class at the University.
Ed Larson, Manchester and Readfield elementary music specialist, was invited by the organist of the National Symphony Orchestra to play the 106 rank pipe organ at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., in November.
The Maranacook Area Schools District has been accepted as a recipient in the 2007 Japanese Friendship Doll Program coordinated by the Japanese Cultural Center in Spokane, WA, and Mukogawa Women’s University in Nishinomiya, Japan. Terry Hickey, elementary GT coordinator, is the JFD liaison and will facilitate the introduction of lesson plans accompanying the doll.
The Maranacook Student Health Center has been featured on “House Calls.”
Sophomore Emily Perkins of Wayne has been accepted at the New England Young Writers’ Conference. She will be at the Bread Loaf School at Middlebury College in Vermont from May 17-20.
Vanessa Randall, a junior from Wayne has been accepted into a summer program at the Art Institute in Chicago.
Zach Godbout, Zachary Holman and Brianna Goetz of Mt. Vernon Elementary were invited to the Blaine House on March 6 for the Maine Artists Recognition Tea for Youth Excellence in Art.
Molly Weegar spent a day paging for the Legislature in February. Molly is a second grader at Mt. Vernon Elementary.
A poster by Hunter Harrington, first grader from Readfield, is featured this month in the Maine Recycles calendar.
Awards
Julie Churchill, a seventh grade student at MCMS, earned three blue ribbons at the Meadow View Equestrian Show in July.
Abby Mace, a seventh grader at MCMS, placed second in her age group in the 1500m race at the 2006 Regional Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships held in Kingsbury, New York, in July. Placing among the top three qualified her to go to the 2006 National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships in Baltimore, Maryland. There she won a seventh place medal with a time of 5:02.85. In August, Abby set two new state records at the Maine USATF State Championships, one in the 3000m race with a time of 10:58.0, and the other in the 800m race with a time of 2:32.52. The previous records were set in 1987 and 1974 respectively.
Christopher Morris, an eighth grader at MCMS, received two awards for his SAT scores from The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth during its CTY Talent Search 2006. Chris scored first among Maine seventh graders for the SAT-I Combined score and second for the SAT-I Math score. His scores place him higher than 90% of Maine’s college-bound seniors in critical reading and 84% in math.
MCMS eighth grader Mitch Gerrard earned a first-degree black belt in August from Pushard’s Karate where he studies Isshinryn Karate.
MCHS tenth grader Zack Gerrard earned a first-degree black belt in August from Pushard’s Karate where he studies Isshinryn Karate.
MCHS Junior Adam LaRochelle of Mt. Vernon is making headlines in mountain bike racing, ranking second nationally in the junior expert 16-under division, and first in the Maine Mountain Bike Association. He races for Maranacook in the high school varsity series. Adam plans to become a professional mountain bike racer.
Betsy Allen McPhedran, French and interim art teacher at Readfield Elementary, received a master’s degree in Education with a specialization in arts curriculum integration from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass.
Chris Crockett, fifth grader at Manchester Elementary School, won second place for his age division in the Maine Bus Safety Poster contest.
Wayne Elementary student Madison MacDonald won first place in the Maine Bus Safety Poster contest.
Corliss Chastain, art teacher at Maranacook Community High School, has received a Fulbright Fellowship to tour and visit Japanese schools with a group of 20 American teachers and administrators for three weeks in October.
German 4 & 5 AP classes took second overall in the Sprachfest competition at Colby College, placing in the culture bowl, all three cake divisions, video contest and obstacle course commands. The trophy is a small VW Bus.
In March, sophomore Travis Elliot of Mt. Vernon competed in the Maine State Indoor Archery Championships in Gorham. He finished second in the Young Adult (15-17 year old) Freestyle event with a perfect score of 300 points, and shot 60 arrows to set a new state record of 299 on his way to winning the State Championship in the Young Adult Bow Hunter Freestyle division.
Senior Liza Gallant of Manchester has received the 2007 Principal’s Award, in recognition of her academic achievement and citizenship.
Junior Ryan Martin of Wayne was named Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Basketball Player of the Year.
Owen Peterson, a senior from Mt. Vernon has been awarded a Congress- Bundestag scholarship to study in Germany for the 2007-8 school year.
Maranacook Community Middle School eighth grader Anthony Salpietro of Readfield won the regional spelling bee and will represent the region at the state bee this spring.
The Middle School Math Team placed seventh at a math meet at the University of Maine at Augusta on March 10. Ryan Fish placed sixth individually.
Grants
In December, the District Service Learning Committee awarded a mini-grant of $300 to Manchester teachers Faye Trafton and Pia Holmes, who proposed a geography project in which grade 5 students will work to improve community use and access to the town’s walking trails.
A second $300 grant was awarded to Rob Schmidt and the Pathways class at Maranacook Community High School to complete a project started last year by fifth graders at Readfield Elementary. The high school students will design, plan and build a recycling storage shed for the elementary school.
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