Category: Archive
Three candidates are running for three Board of Education seats
[April 20, 2023]
Three candidates are running for three seats on the Fort Plain Board of Education that are up for election to fill vacancies for terms expiring on June 30, 2023. The new terms will run from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2026.
The candidates are Brenna Kirkpatrick, Anthony Crouse and David Przestrzelski.
Brenna Kirkpatrick is a lifelong resident of Fort Plain who graduated from Fort Plain Central School District in 2004. She holds a master’s degree in education and has been a teacher for 14 years. “As a parent of a child in the district, I am personally invested in making our school the best it can be for all students in our community,” she said. “Growing up in Fort Plain, I loved the small, close-knit community that made school memorable.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to serve the community that has given so much to me and my family.”
Tony Crouse, 53, is a graduate of St. Johnsville Central School and SUNY Oswego. He was born, raised and has always lived in the Mohawk Valley. “I understand the benefits of living in rural New York and attending a small school,” he said. “Along with my 30 years of accounting experience at FYE Inc., I feel that I have the financial understanding and the ‘small town’ philosophy to be the voice of the Fort Plain community.
“Many of my family and friends have attended FPCS, so I will be dedicated to making sound decisions on the School Board that will satisfy the community and support the school’s staff.”
David Przestrzelski is running for a fourth term on the Board of Education. He has served on the Board of Education since 2014.
Regular elections for Board of Education seats are held each year on the third Tuesday in May, the same date residents vote on the coming year’s school budget. This year’s vote date is May 16, from 1-9 p.m., in the Harry Hoag gym.
HS yearbooks are on sale
The FPHS Yearbook 2023 is now on sale for $40. Those who are interested in purchasing a yearbook may purchase one online at jostensyearbooks.com or by seeing Sue Summerfield at the Jr./Sr. High School in Room 202A.
Ozo baseball is a homerun for digital fluency and computer science students
By Wendy Stokna and Rachel Heroth
As part of the 7th grade team baseball event, students in Mrs. Heroth’s Computer Science and Mrs. Stokna’s Digital Fluency classes teamed up to program our Ozobots to perform in a baseball-themed manner. Students have spent the school year learning various computer science and applied digital skills such as programming with JavaScript and using digital applications for productivity and creation. This project pulled together all of those skills along with some baseball-themed fun!
Students brainstormed, developed a plan, and developed algorithms to enable the Ozobots to “play ball!” Students participated in stations in which they programmed the robots to round the bases and perform a special movement at each base, hit a ball to compete in a home-run derby, and choreographed a “7th inning stretch” dance with code. Students had fun learning about how the technology communicates through optical sensors, color codes, all while problem solving and debugging their code to complete the final product.
As a real-life connection, small baseball-themed cutouts were created to “dress up” the Ozobot using the Cricut machine. A Cricut machine uses optical technology similar to that of the Ozobot to read registration lines and work in coordination with its software to cut out the shapes used in this activity.
The celebration concluded with a special ballgame favorite . . . popcorn! There was truly a lot of excitement and learning around this special event.
Check out our video!
Please join us at our May 3 Community Conversation as we focus on Improvement Priorities
[Posted 4/20/23, reposted 4/28/23]
All are welcome and encouraged to participate in the third in a series of Fort Plain Central School District Community Conversations on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, from 5-6 p.m. in the Harry Hoag library. The focus topic will be Improvement Priorities.
“We welcome all to participate in our Community Conversations: parents, guardians, families, students, community members and business owners. If you wish to be part of conversations about FPCSD’s mission and vision and related action plans, I invite you to join me on May 3, when we will focus on Improvement Priorities,” said Superintendent Lauren Crisman.
“The goal of our Community Conversations is to foster a dialogue between our district’s leadership and our community related to matters of public interest. Questions, concerns and celebrations are all welcome for discussion.”
Please note that the superintendent and district leaders will not be able to discuss matters related to contractual negotiations or specific personnel.
The first Community Conversation of the year was held in October and the second in January.
Sign up is not required.
Glow week and trashketball: no boring test reviews for these students
Who said that getting ready for state testing had to be boring? As students across the state prepared for the New York State English Language Arts (ELA) assessments, the students in Mrs. Amy Bartholomew’s 6th grade ELA classes were doing the same . . . sort of.
And in Abigail Gorinshek’s 5th grade ELA classes, students were surprised with a basketball theme review day, featuring trashketball, as they prepared for the 5th grade NYS ELA assessment.
Mrs. Bartholomew’s students spent last week reading incredibly challenging text passages and then analyzing and answering multiple choice questions. But since she was asking for so much effort and focus from them, Mrs. Bartholomew decided to reward her students and their hard work by making the experience as fun as possible.
They call these days “Glow Week,” and students spend their ELA class in complete darkness with blacklights, glowsticks, glow-in-the-dark balloons and highlighters to light their way as they work. When students completed test questions accurately, they were allowed to play glow-in-the-dark bowling, ring toss, tic-tac-toe and basketball as a reward.
“It is one of the most fun weeks in 6th grade ELA and students were actually thanking me for their week of test prep!” Mrs. Bartholomew said. “I’m incredibly proud of our 6th graders and all of the hard work they’ve put in during the test preparation week, as well as throughout this entire school year.”
Meanwhile, in Ms. Gorinshek’s 5th grade ELA classes last week, it was game time! “In preparation for the 5th grade NYS ELA assessment, my students were surprised with a basketball theme review day where they got to play trashketball!” Ms. Gorinshek said.
“In teams, the students worked together to answer questions and when they answered them correctly, their team had a chance to shoot a mini basketball into a trash can to earn points. “The students worked hard, embraced some friendly competition and even found some fun in test prep: who knew!? I am so proud of all of my students for ‘shooting for success on the state test’!”
Visit our Facebook page for more photos.
Bikeway is cleared of plastic, trash thanks to HS students
A motivated group of 8th through 11th grade students celebrated Earth Day 2023 by cleaning up garbage along the Fort Plain section of the Erie Canal Bikeway.
The most common items found were bottles, cans, and plastic food wrappers. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade and breaks down into microplastics, which persist in the environment for a very long time. Thank you to our students and Mr. Elliott, Ms. Veitch and Ms. MaGinnis.
Topper Pride!
Harry Hoag students achieve 3rd Q Honor Roll or Principal’s List
Harry Hoag School is proud to announce the 2022-23 third quarter Honor Roll and Principal’s List. The Honor Roll and Principal’s List recognize outstanding achievement and effort.
Congratulations to the following students:
Honor Roll
Grade 6
Alyvia Castellano
Alexzandriah Clapper
Jessie Fink
Conner Hearn
Alexandra Hinkle
Hailee Moore
Isaac Passero
Gabriella Peters
Carl Reese III
Dylan Salerno
Rylee Stone
Makenna Sweet
Issac Tompkins
Grade 5
Angela Abe-Callan
Jaxon Best
Aubree Childs
Christopher Compton Jr.
Ziva Dimon
McKenzie Jones
Olivia Jones
Jacob LaQuee
Brian Madden
Amaya Rivera
Aleeya Rodriguez
Joseph Sweet II
Booker Tarica
Kendrik Thackrah
Maicee Thomas
Adalay Webb
Principal’s List
Grade 6
Laura Atkins
Asher Barber
Halleli Brackett
Lexis Downes
Dillan Harris Jr
Justin Hisert
Khloe Hisert
McKenna Hisert
Madden Lathers
Jazmain Leonard
Connor Lochner
Lainie McDuffee
Isabella McGuire
Jack Parkinson
Zoe Paul
Mary Pomatto
Braddock Putnam
Trent Richards
Sequoia Robarge
Molly Shults
Jaymes Smith
Anna-Belle Snyder
Gavin Souza
Giavanna Suiter
Kinley Trumbull
Kiana Tyler
Jordan Williams II
Grade 5
Fiona Brown
Brantlee Brownell
Alana Candido
Owen Charboneau
Milo Clark
Christopher Cook
Sienna Dean
Bently Dodson
Sterling Edick
Arianna Eells
Laura Flynn
Jake Fountain
Raelynn Fournier
Laylah Hardnett
Isabella Hearn
Amarha Herring
Timothy Keane
Piper Kretser
Claudia Maring
Carl Morrell
Aishwarya Murray
Isabella Palmeri
Mara Poultney
Ethan Shostek
Gavin Smith
Noah Smith
School newsletter is available
The Country Editor is no longer printing issues of our school’s newsletter.
To download the April issue, click here
To download the March issue, click here.
If you have difficulties accessing the newsletter online, contact communications@fortplain.org.
Board of Education to meet April 26 to vote on HFM BOCES budget, HFM BOCES board candidates
The Fort Plain Central School District Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, April 26, at 7:30 a.m. for the purpose of voting on the HFM BOCES Budget and HFM BOCES Board candidates.
The meeting will be held in the Ronald H. Thibodeau Conference Room in the District Office.
6th graders decode a masterpiece – and the media notices
Posted April 6, Updated April 17, 2023:
Students in Autumn Slawienski’s 6th grade art enrichment class spent eight weeks using pixelated charts of five colors to decode an image. The group of 21 students worked in collaborative teams to read, transcribe and color code nine 30×40 panels of grid.
“They had no idea what the final image was going to be – although many had a very good guess!” Slawienski said. “Just in time for their final class, the image was unveiled: ‘The Mona Lisa’ smiled upon them and the students returned to the art room to watch a video about the history of one of the most widely recognized pieces of art to date.”
