FALCONER ALCONER CCENTRAL ENTRAL SSCHOOL CHOOL...The Falconer Future Business Leaders of America are revving up for a busy winter as they plan for two large community service projects.

Upcoming Events

February:

January:

1-2:

6:

7:

10:

15:

19:

20:

24:

26-29:

30:

Winter Recess

Board of Education Meeting

MS/HS @ 7:30 p.m.

Winter Pictures

Chautauqua Band Day

MS/HS Progress Reports

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

(No School)

Board of Education Meeting

MS/HS @ 7:30 p.m.

SAT Test @ Jamestown HS

NYS Regents Exams

1/2 Day All Buildings

End of 2nd Marking Period

3:

7:

16:

17:

17-20:

Board of Education Meeting

MS/HS @ 7:30 p.m.

CCMTA All County Winter

Festival (Chaut. Lake)

Presidents’ Day (No School)

Board of Education Meeting

MS/HS @ 7:30 p.m.

Mid-Winter Recess

(No School)

March:

2-5:

3:

5:

17:

6:

13:

14:

15:

17:

National Foreign Language,

i-Ready Benchmark Week

Board of Education Meeting

MS/HS @ 7:30 p.m.

Spanish Market Day

Scholastic Fair @ Fenner

MS/HS Progress Reports

Sup’t Conf. Day (No School)

Sr. High Musical

HS Aud. @ 7:30 p.m.

Annual Pi Day Gr. 6-8

Sr. High Musical

HS Aud. @ 7:30 p.m.

SAT Test

Sr. High Musical

HS Aud. @ 2:30 p.m.

Board of Education Meeting

MS/HS @ 7:30 p.m.

FFALCONERALCONER CCENTRALENTRAL SSCHOOLCHOOL

TTHEHE FFALCONALCON

Home of

the

Golden Falcons

District Newsletter

January 2015

Elementary Bookit!

Temple and Fenner Elementary participated in a Pizza Hut Bookit

challenge back in November. On Wednesday, November 12,

dressed in camouflage and sitting in a tree stand, Mr. Gilbert,

Fenner Principal, read his heart out from bell to bell. He read a

book to each class outside on a cold fall day with an average

temperature of about 36°. The staff and students also dressed in

camo and blaze orange clothing to support him. The next day,

Thursday, November 13, Mrs. Hannon read her heart out while

pedaling on a stationary bike the entire day. She also read to each

class as she pedaled and talked about the importance of staying

healthy. Temple staff and students wore sport-themed shirts or

jerseys to support her.

Both principals commented to the kids that if they could read all

day under those extraordinary circumstances, the students could

read 15-20 minutes every night.

Board of Education

President

Todd Beckerink

Vice President

Cathleen Kimball

Members

Gordon Buck

Robert Carpenter

Tom Frederes

Jennifer Ribaudo

Jamie Zaranek

Administration & Supervision

Superintendent

Stephen Penhollow

High School Principal

Jeffrey Jordan

Middle School Principal

Terry English

Fenner Elementary Principal

Gary Gilbert

Temple Elementary Principal

Holly Hannon

School Psychologist

Ashly Warner

Business Executive & Purchasing

Agent

Brent Agett

Director of Special Education

Julie Possai

Director of Instruction & Staff

Development

Judith Roach

Building & Grounds Supervisor

Randy Ingrao

Transportation Supervisor

Scott Peterson

Coordinator of District Data

Judith Roach

Falconer Central School

2 East Avenue North

Falconer, NY 14733

(716)665-6624

Spreading Joy this Holiday Season:

Temple Elementary has participated in a number of initiatives to

spread joy this holiday season. For the month of November, staff and

students brought in food items for the Kennedy Food Pantry. Lisa

Penhollow, Temple School Nurse, has organized the drive for 4 years

with community member, Elsie VanHise. Each year, the donated food

goes to families in our area.

For the month of December, Temple Families made donations to the

Chautauqua County Humane Society. In lieu of a classroom gift

exchange, students brought in items from the Humane Society’s wish

list. This has been a school-wide drive for 3 years. A special thank you

to 2nd grade teacher Kristy Winchester for organizing it this year.

Also in November and December, Temple students participated in a

card and letter writing campaign for a local little girl named Kallie.

Many students were familiar with Kallie’s Krusade and wanted to show

support for Kallie during the holiday season. Temple students made

pictures, cards, and wrote notes for Kallie. Kindergarten teacher,

Ashley Digirolamo, organized this campaign and is mailing groups of

letters each week to Kallie.

Temple Elementary 2nd grade teacher, Alicia Brandi, has a brother-in-

law who is currently on a 9 month deployment in Liberia. Each year,

with her class, she focuses on giving during the holiday season. In

years past, she has had her class write letters to the deployed troops.

Mrs. Brandi shared her story with the Temple Staff and now, this year,

the students at Temple Elementary will be sending letters and pictures

to Mrs. Brandi’s brother-in-law’s unit.

The giving season wouldn’t be complete without including the Kiwanis

Club of Falconer. Kiwanis members believe every child should

experience reading. The Kiwanis Club of Falconer gave books to every

UPK and Kindergarten student at Temple Elementary and donated

several books that were obtained through a grant to the Temple school

library. For Thanksgiving, they delivered turkey dinners with all the

fixings to local families in need. At Christmas time, they deliver

wrapped gifts to area children. With the help of the Temple Staff,

letters were sent home and the children were able to create their own

wish lists.

www.falconerschools.org January 2015

TTHEHE 2 FFALCONALCON Administration

Holly Hannon Temple Elementary Principal

www.falconerschools.org January 2015 FCS

TTHEHE 3 FFALCONALCON High School

Skull Facial Reconstruction

Take one skull, add muscle and skin, and you can construct an

image of what the living person looked like. Take a 2.5 million

year old hominid skull, use the same technique, and you can

meet your 83000th great grandfather. The Environmental

Geology class is learning how forensic anthropologists

reconstruct our very distant ancestors.

Technology Class Trip Falconer Technology Students recently participated in the Jamestown Manufacturers Association

"Dream It Do It" program. The JMA, in cooperation with Jamestown Community College, established

this program in an effort to promote manufacturing careers in Chautauqua County. Students spent

time touring the Jamestown Community College

Manufacturing Institute of Technology as well as Artone

Industries. Pictured here are students participating in

the lecture part of the tour during which they learned

about team work and developing positive work habits

and job readiness skills.

Falcons on Campus High School Guidance Counselor, Mrs. Duliba, and

School Social Worker, Mrs. Wagner, traveled to

SUNY Fredonia with 37 students in grades 9-12 in

November to learn about college life.

Distance Learning Field Trip Pictured are students from Falconer,

Forestville and Westfield High Schools.

Students toured the Jamestown Savings Bank

Ice Arena as part of their Sports Management

Distance Learning Class. This class is taught in

Westfield High School and received by both

Falconer and Forestville via our Distance

Learning Program. The Sports Management

class studies the business management,

promotional and operational side of sports and

sports entertainment activities.

Lutheran Social Services Volunteers Pictured below is a group of ninth graders

who selflessly volunteers their time on

Fridays from 12-1:30 p.m. with Mrs. Duliba

and Mrs. Wagner to assist the LSS community

in a variety of ways.

Middle School Student Council Middle School Student Council sponsored their annual Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive the week

before the holiday. Students donated non-perishable food items resulting in just over 7 large boxes

being donated to the Kennedy, Falconer and Ellington food banks the Wednesday before

Thanksgiving. Thank you to everyone who donated!

Postponed because of snow and cold temperatures, Middle School Student Council finally hosted the

3rd Annual Turkey Trot on November 21 in warmer weather, despite the blowing rain shower that

started 2 minutes into the race! About 25 students participated in the 1 mile fun run/walk at the track.

The entry fee was one canned food item to top off the recent food drive. Teachers donated raffle

prizes and Student Council donated frozen turkeys to the top three boy and girl finishers. At the end of

the race, a beautiful rainbow graced the sky above the track. It

seemed everyone had a good

afternoon. Many thanks to the

parent and teacher volunteers,

and to those who provided

donations.

In December, our homerooms

completed in a holiday door

decorating contest. Classroom

doors were transformed into

Santa scenes based on popular

apps.

www.falconerschools.org January 2015 FCS

TTHEHE 4 FFALCONALCON Middle School

Students use Their Imaginations in Science!! In sixth grade science classes, students studied how behavioral and physical adaptations allow

animals to survive in a variety of environments. The science classes did research in the library using

Grolier’s Amazing Animals, and then each student used the information they gathered to design their

own nocturnal animal. They gave the animal a common name and reported on the animal’s physical

features, habitat, and adaptations. The students faced many choices such as: Will my animal have fur,

feathers, or scales? Will my animal live in a warm or cold climate? How will my animal catch its prey?

What will it eat? How will my animal protect itself from danger? Many students came up with very

unique names, information, and drawings for their reports!! They are currently on display in the sixth

grade hallway.

Eighth Grade Planning for High School Mrs. Odell is currently meeting with families of eighth grade students for High School planning

sessions. Please contact the Guidance Office at 665-6624 #2, #1, and speak to Mrs. Hedstrand if an

appointment is still needed for your child. All plans should be completed prior to the February break

in order for the ninth grade schedules to be created for next school year.

Coming Up... Our next service project will be the

Pennies for Patients fundraiser in

February, benefiting the WNY

Chapter of the Leukemia and

Lymphoma Society.

www.falconerschools.org January 2015 FCS

TTHEHE 5 FFALCONALCON Clubs/Sports

The Eaton Award Given to Falconer GSA This past November the Falconer GSA was

awarded the Eaton Award at the GAYLA, an

annual fund-raising dinner for the Gay Lesbian

Youth Services. The award is presented to

individuals or GSAs that have made a significant

difference in their school and have helped to

make school a safer place for GLBT students. It is

named for the late Bill Eaton, a WNY GLBT

activist, who died of lung cancer in 1998.

Scholar Athlete

of the Week Jackson Teboe and

Morgan Steele

were awarded the

Fessenden,

Laumer and

DeAngelo/Scholar

Athlete of the

Week Award.

Community Service Takes Top Priority The Falconer Future Business Leaders of America are revving up for a busy winter as they plan for two

large community service projects. For those of you interested in scrapbooking, join them on January

23 and 24 in the High School Cafeteria for their second annual “Crop Till You Drop” event. This year’s

proceeds will go to benefit our area’s American Red Cross and March of Dimes organizations. If

scrapbooking is not your cup of tea…no worries. On Saturday, February 7, FBLA will be hosting a

Skeet Shoot to benefit “Hunt of a Lifetime”. For more details on either of these events, visit the FBLA

webpage at http://www.falconerschools.org/Domain/252. Preregistration is required for the

scrapbooking event, so please log on and download the registration form. FBLA appreciates your

support and looks forward to seeing you at these events.

Falconer Girl’s Varsity Soccer Team Season The Falconer Girls Varsity Soccer Team finished the season with a 16-5 record overall and an 11-3

record in the league. Falconer had to do some major revamping to the lineup due to injuries and had

to shift some players around to positions that they had never played before. Falconer came into the

season without a set player for the position of goalie. Senior, Kaylee Keith, who previously had

primarily played defense and was a former CCAA West first team selection at sweeper, stepped up to

the challenge of playing goalie for the first time ever, Falconer found its new goalie in Keith for the

remainder of the season. The league was back and forth between Falconer and Olean pretty much the

whole season with Olean taking the league title in the end even though Falconer had beat them both

times they saw each other. The Falconer girls were certainly disappointed that they didn’t win the

league, yet they refused to quit. With playoffs in the near future, the Falconer Girls Soccer Team was

on the mend. They had not played with a full roster all season due to injuries. The first playoff game

was a home against Springville Griffith. Falconer managed to hang on to the win as two lone goals

were scored in the game (one for each team,) until the final two minutes of sudden death overtime.

Next Falconer would travel to

Rochester to take on the Section 5

champions, Aquinas, in the Far West

Regional game. Unfortunately for

the Lady Falcons, their dream

season came to an end that day.

Aquinas took the lead and Falconer

could not recover. All-in-all this

season, Falconer played with a

tremendous amount of heart, desire,

passion, and love for the game.

www.falconerschools.org January 2015 FCS

TTHEHE 6 FFALCONALCON Temple and Fenner

Fenner’s Thanksgiving Feast The students in Mrs. Butzer’s class at Fenner

Elementary prepared a Thanksgiving feast to

celebrate the holiday. They cooked a turkey, made

stuffing and mashed potatoes, and baked rolls. For

dessert, they prepared a special pumpkin recipe.

Everyone liked participating in the fun and practicing

important life skills. They especially enjoyed eating

the meal with special guests from around the school,

including Mr. Gilbert and Mrs. Possai.

Hockey Players Read at Fenner

On November 6, Niko Greco, Cody Gibson, Matt Brzozoweic, Victor

MccUtcheon, and Tyler Berry from the Southern Tier Xpress hockey team

came to Fenner and read Rotten Richie and the Ultimate Dare, by Patricia

Polacco, to the third graders. After reading the story, the hockey players

answered questions and signed autographs. In addition, the players gave

each student a complimentary ticket to the November 8 hockey game

against the Cincinnati Swords.

Art Creations from Temple

www.falconerschools.org January 2015 FCS

TTHEHE 7 FFALCONALCON Temple

The Spirit of Friendship The week of Thanksgiving, the Kindergarten

students in Miss

Digirolamo’s and

Mrs.Telford’s

classes shared the

spirit of friendship

and thankfulness

during their

cooking project.

Each child brought

in apples. The children learned about the life

cycle of an apple tree. As a group, they

“brainstormed” ideas for delicious treats that

could be made from the apples they brought.

Using teamwork, they peeled, cut and cooked

apples to make applesauce. Then, they enjoyed

the yummy treat together!

Falconer Kiwanis Donates

Books to Temple

Giving Back Students at Temple Elementary donated a

truckload of food to the Kennedy Food Pantry.

This is the fourth year that they have donated.

Cheer Bear Mrs. Melquist and Mrs. Roth's 1st grade classes

won the Cheer Bear for the month of November.

Thankful for Books

This display case features

our second grade

teachers and some of

their students sharing

their favorite books!

Eat Ham Not Turkey

Mrs. Winchester and Mrs. Brandi's second-grade classes disguised as turkeys.

TTHEHE Back Cover 8 FFALCONALCON

www.falconerschools.org FCS January 2015

Mission Statement

The Board of Education,

collective staff, and

community of the Falconer

School District are

committed to preparing

our children to be

productive members of

society. Through

continuous evaluation and

improvement, this

partnership will a provide

quality educational

environment for students

to meet the graduation

requirements.

Alma Mater

Falconer High School here’s

to you best in the land.

‘Neath the old gold and

blue, we will proudly take

our stand in classroom

study, field, or track with

you dear as our guide, no

honor ever shall you lack.

We’ll win your pride.

Instructed by Miss Fisher,

Educational Technology Specialist

After Prom Needs Your Help The Falconer After-Prom is in need of your help!!!! The Prom/After-

Prom party is scheduled for May 9, 2015. Our next meeting is January

5 at 6:30 in the Eighth Grade Project Room!!! So save the date...We

not only need your help the night of the party but we need your help

at meetings. We need parents to attend the meetings and help us

come up with new ideas to make the party a success. Our theme this

year has been decided and it’s going to be Western. Students do not

have to attend Prom to come to the after-prom party and they always

have a fun filled night. We encourage parents to come and help out.

Your child does not need to be a Jr. or Sr. to help with this huge

event. We do our best to schedule our meetings around sporting and

other events, but with such a busy school calendar, it is not always

possible. If you are able, please come to the meeting on the January

5. Contact Rosie Digirolamo with questions (665-6624 option 1, 2).

Attention Falconer Central School Alumni

New this year, we will be displaying FCS alumni information in the

Middle/High School Lobby. It is our hope that past graduates will

share their accomplishments,

activities, and other happenings

since their graduation from FCS. If

you would like to submit

information for display, visit our

website, www.falconerschools.org,

to access the fillable form or

contact Julie Zahm at

[email protected].

Financial Aid Event At JCC Jamestown Community College will be hosting the annual Financial

Aid Program for seniors and their parents on two different dates in

January. This program is designed to take the place of individual

high school financial aid programs. Topics of discussion will include

the general financial aid process, FAFSA (Federal) and TAP (New

York State) applications, Expected Family Contribution and much

more college financial aid information. These events are free of

charge and will be held in the Carnahan Theatre in the Katherine

Jackson Carnahan Building.

Wednesday January 7, 2015

6:30-8:30 p.m.

Saturday January 24, 2015

10:00-12:00 a.m.

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Jamestown_Community_College_744531_i0.jpg

Reminder

The Fosberg Technology

Center is open late on Tues-

days for additional work

time until 4:10 p.m. The late

bus is available if needed.

Newsletter Produced by…

Desktop Publishing

Students

Justin Gould & Liz Hanson