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
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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rSUtN5DxoaD_r2pFV:img1.findthebest.com/sites/default/files/10/media/images/
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