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The Webster Central Schools PTSA has just announced that its 2012-2013 PTSA Calendar Cover Art Contest has officially begun.

The contest is open to all students in grades K-11 in the Webster Central Schools.  There will be two winners, one for the smaller size calendar and one for the larger size calendar. Each winner will receive a $50 United States Savings bond and have their art work reproduced on more than 2000 calendars sold by the Webster Central PTSA.

Entries must be submitted by Wednesday, May 30 (no late entries will be accepted), and the artwork will not be returned.  Entries must conform to the rules below and will be judged on their artistic merit and the ability to reproduce the work on the calendar.  The subject of the drawing must relate to education.

Alexandra Carpenter, then a 6th grader at Willink Middle School, created this design used on the 2010-11 calendar.

Here’s the fine print:

ALL ENTRIES MUST:

• be hand drawn in black ink or black marker on white paper no larger than 11” high by 14” wide (or smaller than 8 ½ X 11″); landscape format preferred;
• must not include copyrighted characters or images such as Snoopy or Mickey Mouse;
• must not be folded;
• must not include the name of a specific school or teacher, and must not contain any misspelled words;
• must have the following information printed on the back of the artwork: student’s name, current school and grade, and home telephone number;
• Artwork should reflect education and/or positive youth values (such as the 40 Developmental Assets).

Artwork must be submitted to your school office or library by Wednesday, May 30.  For any questions contact your school’s PTSA Chair or Terri Edwards at 872-3993 (tme @rochester.rr.com).

The cast of Fiddler on the Roof perform at the Stars of Tomorrow ceremony in this image from the SOT website.

More great news from our schools today.

Webster Schroeder High School rocked the Auditorium Theater stage last week when the Rochester Broadway Theater League held its annual Stars of Tomorrow program. Thirty-six schools from a nine-county area competed for honors, and Schroeder’s March production of Fiddler on the Roof garnered awards in nine categories, including:

* Outstanding Dance Ensemble
* Outstanding Production Crew
* Outstanding Student Orchestra
* Outstanding Singing Ensemble
* Outstanding Supporting Actor (Mathew Burley as Lazar Wolf)
* Outstanding Supporting Actress (Hadley Strelau as Tzeitel)
* Outstanding Lead Actor (Paul Urriola as Tevye)
* Outstanding Lead Actress (Alyssa Willmarth as Golde)
* Outstanding Musical Production

The Stars of Tomorrow judges also gave special recognition to Leah Hecht as Grandma Tzeitel, Brendan Messner as Sasha, Jacob Murphy as the constable, Alessandra Devia as the Fiddler on the Roof, the entire string section of the pit orchestra, and individual pit members Emily Dorsey, Ajay Phatak and Melanie Pozdol.

The road to success continues for Paul Urriola and Alyssa Willmarth. Both will perform in the New York City Bound National High School Music Theatre Association competition on May 24 at the Auditorium Theater.  In this annual competition, the 32 Leading Male and Female role award recipients from the Stars of Tomorrow compete in “American Idol”  fashion, ultimately narrowed down by a panel of judges until one Leading Male and one Leading Female are selected to represent Rochester. From there, young actors can win college scholarships, professional internships, career coaching and opportunities for auditions.

Community members can vote online for their fan favorites (that would be our Alyssa and Paul, of course) to help them win an additional prize package valued at more than $500. CLICK HERE or on the photo above to vote.

Congratulations to Christine Dunne and Marcia Napolitano, who were recently named this year’s Oak Tree Award Teachers of the Year.

Award winners Christine Dunne (L) and Marcia Napolitano

The Oak Tree Award promotes community recognition and respect for teaching as a profession by selecting a representative Oak Tree Award winners Christine Dunne (L) and exemplary educator at the elementary and secondary levels in Webster Schools. A nominee must be characterized as an exemplary teacher, be currently teaching in a full-time position in the Webster Central School District, have a minimum of five years’ teaching experience in Webster, and plan to continue to teach in the following school year in/or retire from the Webster Central School District.

Other nominees this year included Lynda Courage, Erin Lantzer, Kathy Scerra, William Schoff, Pam Smith, Kristin Chatfield, Diane DiGravio, Julie McGuigan and Deb Ostertag. Winners were chosen by a selection committee comprised of representatives from the Webster Teachers Association and Webster Parent Teachers Student Association.

Marcia Napolitano is the Oak Tree Award recipient for the elementary level.  Colleague Ann Merkey nominated the Plank Road North Elementary School fourth grade teacher.

Christine Dunne, who teaches foreign language at Willink Middle School and Webster Thomas High School, is the recipient for the secondary level. She was nominated by her former student, Beth Gillis, and by her colleague, Kathleen Lehman.

As Oak Tree Award honorees, Napolitano and Dunn were presented with their plaques at the Board of Education meeting on May 3. These plaques will hang in their buildings (Dunne’s will be at Willink) as a proud display for their colleagues and visitors to the schools.  They also each received a hand-lathed, wood pen and a $500 award.

Last weekend, many of our Webster Schroeder music students traveled to Walt Disney World in Orlando to participate in the annual Festival Disney.  Several performance groups were represented, including the Webster Show Choir, comprised of students from both Thomas and Schroeder high schools.

Yesterday I received a press release from Show Choir Director Laura D’Angelo letting me know that along with a few sunburns, lots of souvenirs and tons of great memories, these kids also brought back some pretty impressive bling.

Festival Disney allows high school performing groups from around the country to perform for a panel of three eminent college professors, who provide constructive feedback in the form of a brief clinic. At the event last Saturday, 45 choirs were adjudicated in various aspects of performance and given final numeric scores reflecting overall level of preparation and competence.

Of the 15 “Specialty Choirs” represented, Webster achieved the highest ratings of “Gold” and “Best In Class” with an average rating of 97. This was not only the highest score in the Specialty Choirs class, but the highest overall score among all 45 choirs of all classes. The adjudicators also made special mention of the show choir’s pit band, unique among the 15 choirs in their class.

Proud directors: Kim Eckler and Laura D’Angelo

Webster Show Choir is an auditioned extra-curricular group which meets for one two hour rehearsal per week for eight months of the year.  The students from Show Choir who attended this festival were:  Brianna Adams; Stephen Adams; Hayley Alexander; Dan Bennett; Abby Blackmon; Hannah Boddery; Jon Christiano; Tom Curran; Kayleigh DeBrine; Jordan Diggory; Emma Germano; Tim Hight; Gabby Jerzak; Carson Klasner; Selene Klasner; Diana Lohrman; Alec Nevin; Dan Parry; Justin Smith; Allison Snavely; Hadley Strelau; Evan Sundquist; Paul Urriola; and Julian Wicks.

The pit band included: Nick Mastrolonardo and John Killigrew, Trumpet; Frank Regelski, Tenor Sax; Zak Smith, Bass; and Kevin Killigrew, Drums.

Congratulations to all the performers, and Show Choir directors Laura D’Angelo and Kim Eckler for this terrific accomplishment. You made Webster proud again.

Today I offer a follow-up on a blog I wrote a few days ago.

If you happened to click through to the gallery of photos I posted as part of my blog on Community Arts Day on Saturday,  you saw this one:

I was so impressed with this piece, my caption simply said, “This. Is. Awesome.”

Since that blog, I’ve gotten quite a few comments about that photo, and it has racked up several “likes.”   Turns out, the student who painted that piece, is a Thomas High School Advanced Placement art student, so found out a little more about it, and about the artist himself, from Webster Thomas art teacher Todd Stahl.

The artist is Austin Frank, and he is so good at what he does that he’s been offered the Presidential Scholarship from the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Art, where he’ll be studying Industrial Design this fall.  The award is offered to only a few incoming freshmen every year, and will cover his entire tuition for all four years.

But, proud art papa that he is, Todd didn’t want to talk only about Austin. He pointed out that several of his students have received impressive scholarships. Like Beth Peterson, who “received a major scholarship from almost every major art college in the country east of Chicago — every school she applied to.”

Other outstanding students from the program include Dennis Moore and Jessie Schnall. Todd gave me the actual figures, and so far these four students alone have pulled in a total of $863,000 in art school scholarships so far.

Webster Schroeder also has its share of top-notch art students.  Schroeder AP art teacher Bill Stephens told me that his students Tristan Cannan, Briana Jewell, Michaela Jewell, Danielle Capizzi and Katie Papas have also scored some big bucks. Check out some of their artwork below.

email me at missyblog@gmail.com

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