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Politics & Government

PT School Board Celebrates Red, White and Gold

Peters Township School Board and superintendent recognized recent accomplishments within the district, including some major sports titles.

“We have a lot to celebrate tonight,” said Peters Township School District Superintendent Dr. Nina Zetty at Monday night’s regular meeting of the PT Board of School Directors.

The meeting began with a “Celebration of Excellence,” where Zetty recognized academic, artistic, athletic, character and leadership achievements within the PT school district.

Here are some highlights of the success stories Zetty told:

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Academics

Last week, principal Mike Fisher and teacher Traci Stunek traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the building’s National Blue Ribbon Award, she said.

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Pleasant Valley has been named a Title I Distinguished School by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. It was recognized for making AYP for two consecutive years and for its outstanding performance on the PSSA reading exam.

Zetty noted that the school has made AYP for many more than two consecutive years, however, and the two consecutive years were mentioned only as part of the award’s requirements.

Students at recently participated in a read-athon. They read for a total of 250,068 minutes, raising more than $22,000 for the Bower Hill PTA and programs at the school.

Overall, Zetty said, more than half the Bower Hill students read for at least 400 minutes each.

has been honored by the College Board and placed on its AP Honor Roll, for increasing access to AP coursework while increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on the exams.

Nine PTHS students have been named Commended Students by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. They are among 34,000 of the highest scorers on the PSAT and will receive letters of commendation, she explained.

Arts

A team of PTHS media students earned second place in the “24-Hour Film Challenge,” where students had to write, storyboard, shoot and edit and short film incorporating three random items all within 24 hours. The challenge was sponsored by television and video teachers and Robert Morris University.

Four students were recognized for their contributions to Peters Patch. They are: 

 

The PTHS varsity and junior varsity dance teams won first place in the PNC Park Americheer competition and JAMfest competition. In both competitions, the varsity team also had the highest score in the dance division.

Athletics

PTHS golfer Tom Nettles, junior, took first place in the PIAA Western Regional, earning a spot in the state championship, where he finished second. This was the highest finish ever for a PT golfer, Zetty said.

Also recognized and congratulated was the girls tennis team, which earned the title of 2011 PIAA Team Tennis Champions. What’s more, Sara Komer and Stephanie Smith won the PIAA Doubles Championship.

Coach Brandt Bowman addressed the board with comments summarizing the season stats for the team.

The PTHS girls soccer team was recognized for winning its second state championship in two years. They are the first team in WPIAL history to have earned back-to-back wins.

Coach Pat Vereb thanked the board and pointed out that, although the district can pride itself on winning two state championships in a row, this year’s team was “a totally new group of young ladies … representing us on the field.

“It’s … not the same group we brought back last year. It’s a new group of young faces,” he said.

The student-athletes who brought home these titles attended the meeting and were each presented with a Certificate of Excellence by Board of School Directors President Diane Ritter.

The coaches were also presented with certificates and thanked for their hard work.

Character

This fall, the PTHS dance and cheer teams combined efforts to raise money for breast cancer awareness, Zetty said.

The girls sponsored awareness events in the high school and raised $15,040 for the cause.

Leadership

The PTA Area Council honored Board of School Directors President Diane Ritter for her dedication to the students of the district. Ritter was presented with the PTA Life Achievement Award, the highest honor given by the PTA, which, according to Zetty, “was created to recognize a person who daily lives out his or her commitment to children.”

Judy Alexander, Gifted Coordinator at PTHS, was awarded a Learn and Serve grant from the U.S. Department of Education. By this grant, the district will receive $25,000 for its life skills projects, entrepreneurship programs and mini-grants for service learning.

To close the “Celebration of Excellence,” Zetty recognized three school directors who stepped down from their board seats this year.

Zetty thanked board president Diane Ritter and board members Mark Buzzatto and Julie Ann Sullivan for giving “their time, talents and hearts to the students and community of Peters Township.”

Ritter and Sullivan were presented with gift bags containing photographs of students and were told that they could keep their name plaques from the board table.

Buzzato was not at the meeting on Monday night, and Zetty said she would see to it that he received his gift as well.

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