JOIN US tonight, Dec. 11. for the High School Chorus Concert at 7 p.m.!
CAN YOU HELP? The High School's Youth Against Cancer Club is in the midst of a donation drive through Dec. 16 to collect items to brighten the days of Garnet Medical Center patients. See the flyer for what students are hopeful to collect! Your contributions would be most welcome!
CAN YOU HELP?
The High School cheerleaders' SOCK, HAT and GLOVE DRIVE runs through Dec. 20. Please see the details and thanks for sharing!
CONGRATULATIONS to the Varsity Cheer team, who earned a bid to compete at the UCA National HS Cheerleading Championship in Orlando Florida in February. The bid was earned following their competition at last Saturday’s UCA Pocono Regional at Mohegan Sun in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The team will be competing in the Small Varsity Division II division! #MINISINKProud
"Papa " Elf has arrived at the High School! It looks like he's determined to cause mischief in the Main Office and encourage Sue Papa's math students to deviate from their math work!
BEHIND THE SCENES:
Take a look at these wonderful photos from Friday's "Heart of a Giant" surprise announcement! We all get a chance to see some of the cool, non-public areas of MetLife Stadium, including the Giants ' locker room! Congratulations again to Senior Vanessa Tepper! See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
CONGRATULATIONS AND WELL-DONE!
The High School Drama Club’s recent fundraising performance of “Club Green Light,” an adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” set to stage by Junior Drama Club Treasurer Gavin McGinnis, raised $2,600!
The event was a dinner theater fundraiser which was mainly student run and they did a fabulous job---take a peek at the show! Fifty Drama Club students volunteered their evening as performers, servers and backstage help.
Gavin McGinnis wrote and directed the play with the help of assistant director and junior Hana Ebbert. Both have been selected as winning playwrights for the upcoming NYSTEA Student Conference next month.
The funds raised are earmarked for “Footloose,” the Drama Club’s Spring musical, the upcoming trip to NYSTEA Conference and the recent trip to see The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes.
Congratulations to the High School’s November “Students of the Month,” who were recently recognized for their efforts on one of these categories: Trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, citizenship, kindness and fairness. Students are presented with a letter with a description of the category they were nominated for and followed by a breakfast gathering. Honorees are:
Travis Alba
Andres Balseca
Mason Cay
Anthony Cuttler
Olivia Dzierzek
Allison Gerson
Alexandra Godlewski
Sophia Goldstein
Jasani little
Gavin Long
Mikia Nash
Blake Padavano
Gianna Pecorella Zachary Phillips Ella Reicherter Logan Rizzo Christopher Ruiz
Areli Sanchez
Cole Sanfilippo
Gabriel Simpson
Logan Wood
Michael Zechewytz
The Middle School and High School drama clubs had a wonderful Dec. 3 field trip to see The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes! Take a peek at their outing!
This was a great field trip for many reasons: Drama program students experience "drama" in two categories: "Performer" and :Production." In each of these categories, there'a a variety of positions and related skills students need to fulfill their respective "job" in the production. Equally important is that all the district’s drama productions include vocalists, instrumentalists, actors, dancers, set designers, light technicians, sound technicians, technology/device support, set builders, set movers, costumers, house designers --- and more ---- who come together to bring a production to the stage.
That’s no different than the work that happens to bring The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes to the stage! Students had the opportunity to attend a quality show where they can experience and respond to world-class singing, dancing, storytelling and technical production value, which is aligned with New York State Arts Standards involving art, music, dance and theater disciplines. Add to this a STEAM component as well, as the show heavily relies on the use of technology and three-dimensional set effects.
It’s also perfect timing, because both drama clubs are gearing up for their own spring musicals, so seeing this performance also helps them to better understand professional level quality. (And, the show offers deeply discounted ticket pricing for groups!) See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD/
High School families: Order your student's yearbook now!
Kimberly Jordan’s Freshman Biology students recently finished up their Biochemistry unit, meaning it was now time to explore chemical indicators! They learned about pH and indicators used to detect nutrients in foods like Benedicts, Biuret, Iodine and even a simple Brown paper bag.
Students merged their hands-on lab experience with the use of our digital lab platform called Gizmos. Using the Gizmo program, they were additionally exposed to SUDAN RED, an additional test for Fats. The labs ran over a week and they had a lot of fun.
THANK YOU to the High School PTO for providing a mini-grant which allowed for the purchase of new lab glasses! Students loved using them!
SUCH FUN! Take a peek at the High School Art Club's "Paint & Cider" fundraiser, where $200 was raised to support student scholarships! This group did a fantastic job with its first-ever fundraising event and you can see a great time was had by all! See more photos on the district's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MinisinkValleyCSD
IMPORTANT REMINDER:
The district is hosting an important program on teen mental health and bullying/cyberbullying prevention for parents, led by nationally recognized author and speaker Tom Thelen, on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Middle School Auditorium.
READ MORE: https://www.minisink.com/article/1887697
It’s a huge deal to qualify for and participate in State Competition! Please join us in congratulating Senior Briana Foote, who represented Minisink Valley and Section IX with distinction and finished in19th place overall in the 50m freestyle (18th in the Federation) and 21st place overall in the 100m butterfly (13th in the Federation) in the recent NYSPHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving Championship! She jumped multiple places up from her original predicted seed!
Some very awesome news about members of our NYSPHSAA Varsity Volleyball Regional Championship team! Take a look at these wonderful achievements!
• Kayla Wasserman has been named to the NYS All-State 1st team, State Tournament All-Star team, the All-Section All- Star Cass AA 1st team and is the All-Section Player-of-the-Year!
• Angelina Rivera has been named to the NYS All-State 2nd team,All-Section All-Star Class AA 1st team and is All-Section All-Star Class AA MVP!
• Anghela Jackson has been named to the All-Section All-Star Class AA 1st team!
• Chloe Marcovecchio has been named to the All-Section All-Star Class AA 2nd Team!
• Salma Hasan earned the NYSPHSAA Volleyball Sportsmanship award during the recent championship tournament!
We always love it when alumni return to speak to our students!
The High School launched its inaugural Science Speakers Series on Nov. 26, where Minisink Valley graduates who excelled in science, graduated college, and transitioned to the workforce come in and speak to students who are enrolled in the college level science classes.
Thank you to Class of 2019 alumnus Martin Alijaj, who spoke to over 60 students today about his education, work experiences and answered questions from students.
Martin received his master’s degree in robotics and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was also a teaching assistant for select computer science courses. He was also part of an engineering club called Penn Electric Racing, where members would build completely electric race cars from scratch every year.
Martin also completed two internships in California: In 2021 at Tesla in San Diego, and in 2022 for e Apple in Cupertino. After graduating from UPenn in 2023, he moved to the Bay Area in California and now works full-time as an electrical engineer at Apple. ‘
More alumni speakers are planned. Please join us in thanking Martin for taking the time to speak to students and show them the wonderful possibilities that await them in their futures with hard work and determination
Class of 2025 families: As a follow-up to emails sent to parents/students and information provided to students in the Class of 2025 Google classroom,...a friendly remember, it's time to order your student's cap and gown! Order by Sunday, Dec. 1 to avoid paying a late fee!
Jenna Conklin’s High School chemistry students recently completed a “Flame Test” lab during class.
Do you remember this from your Chemistry class --- When electrons gain energy (in this case with the fire from the Bunsen burner) they move to an outer orbital of an atom, which is called the “excited state.”
When the electrons come back down from the excited state, they emit energy in the form of light. This is usually a quick process, but in this instance, students elongated the color by saturating a wooden dowel in a solution, which allows for a longer burn.
In the instance for the Flame test, this is visible light --- or colored light. Every element has its own distinct color, meaning one can determine an element from its characteristic flame!
This is the same chemistry behind the color of fireworks, or the "color changing campfire" packs found in stores. Green fireworks are usually made from copper salts, Purple/lilac fireworks are made from potassium salts and red fireworks are usually strontium!
Saturday evening Volleyball update:
Our Varsity Volleyball team played hard, with determination and tremendous grit, winning one out of three matches at today's NYSPHSAA Volleyball Championship Class AA semi-finals, but the team will not be advancing to tomorrow's final meet. But! The team earned third-place honors...the third best Class AA team in New York State!
This team achieved a level of achievement not seen in 24 years at Minisink Valley, and there's much to celebrate!
Please join us in congratulating the players and coaches for a magnificent season.
AND....THEY"RE OFF!
What a great, fun CLAP OUT! Go get 'em, ladies! We're rooting for you You got this! Good luck at the NYSPHSAA Volleyball Championships!
A special thank you to Megan Earl Sullivan, a member of the 2000 Varsity Volleyball team ---the last time our Varsity Volleyball team went to the NYSPHSAA Championships --- who stopped by (wearing the silver medal the team won that year, btw)) to give a pep talk to the 2024 team! SO COOL!
THANK YOU to everyone who made this evening possible and who joined us! We appreciate you!
