Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 1

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Raider Pride Newsletter

Raider Pride Newsletter

Sponsorship

levels set for

‘seneca social’

The Seneca Valley Foundation

is planning their annual fund-

raising event, and this one is

shaping up to be an exciting

night filled with lots of Seneca

Valley flavor. Complete with

live entertainment, exceptional

food, and a silent auction, the

occasion promises to be fun

while at the same time raising

money for Seneca Valley stu-

dents and programs. Tickets

will be made available soon,

however, opportunities to get

involved can also be found in

sponsorship. See our levels

below. To participate as a

sponsor, contact the communi-

cations department at (724)

452-6040, ext. 1612 or by

emailing Linda Andreassi,

communications director, at

andreassill@svsd.net

PREMIER - $15,000

● VIP seating for 20 guests

● Three foursomes in the 2014 SV Founda-

tion’s Gift of Hope Golf Classic on Aug. 7,

2014 (12 golfers)

● Four season passes for free admittance to all

2014-15 Seneca Valley Athletic Events

● Corporate recognition (exclusive two-month

feature) of the 2014-15 Seneca Valley Activi-

ties/Info. Calendar

● Corporate recognition as a Premiere sponsor

with banner at event

● Recognition in auction/raffle program with

premium page positioning

● Corporate logo at registration and auction

check out

● Corporate logo on all printed materials

● Verbal recognition with introduction of offic-

ers on stage during event

GOLD - $10,000

● VIP seating for 12 guests

● Two foursomes in the 2014 SV Foundation’s

Gift of Hope Golf Classic on Aug. 7, 2014

(8 golfers)

● Two season passes for free admittance to all

2014-15 Seneca Valley Athletic Events

● Corporate recognition (exclusive one-month

feature) of the 2014-15 Seneca Valley Activi-

ties/Info. Calendar

● Corporate recognition as a Gold sponsor with

banner at the event

● Recognition in auction/raffle program

with premium page positioning

● Corporate logo at registration and

auction check out

● Corporate logo on all printed

materials

● Verbal recognition with introduction

of officers on stage during event

SILVER - $7,500

● VIP seating for 8 guests

● A foursome in the 2014 SV Founda-

tion’s Gift of Hope Golf Classic on

Aug. 7, 2014 (4 golfers)

● Corporate recognition as a Silver

sponsor with banner at the event

● Logo ad in auction/raffle program

● Corporate logo throughout the auc-

tion/raffle

BRONZE - $5,000

● VIP seating for 6 guests

● Corporate recognition as a Bronze sponsor

with banner at the event

● Corporate logo in auction/raffle program

BLUE - $2,500

● VIP seating for 4 guests

● Recognition as a Blue sponsor, logo on a

banner at the event

● Corporate logo at Auction Check Out

RAIDER - $1,000

● VIP seating for 2 guests

● Recognition as a Raider sponsor, logo on a

banner at the event

PATRON - $500

● Recognition as a Patron sponsor, logo on a

banner at the event

TEACHER - $100

● Recognition as a Teacher sponsor in event

signage

Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 2

2013-14 Snow

Makeup Days

Due to four recent inclement

weather closures, Seneca

Valley will now be in session

on:

● Feb. 14, 2014

● March 17, 2014

● April 17, 2014

● May 9, 2014

A downloadable PDF version of this calendar can be found on the homepage of the Seneca Valley

School District website at www.svsd.net

Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 3

SV Preschool

opens

registration

for 2014-15

Seneca Valley offers a top-

notch preschool program

through the child develop-

ment classes of the senior

high school. If you're interest-

ed in learning more or regis-

tering for the 2014-15 school

year, visit their page @ http://

www.svsd.net/Page/6119

Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 4

Recent regional tournaments in Pittsburgh and

here at Seneca Valley will guarantee spots on the

national academic games team for a number of

Seneca Valley students. These gifted individuals

are working toward and preparing for the National

Academic Games competition set for April 25-28,

2014, in Knoxville, Tenn.

In mid-December and early January, Seneca Val-

ley Academic Games students competed in the On

-Sets and Propaganda regional tournaments, re-

spectively, returning with several top finishes,

highest scores and individual awards. These two

are the latest of four regional competitions that

have taken place to date. Students must accumu-

late several national qualifications in order to

make the national team.

On-sets Competition:

In the Seneca Valley Elementary Division, there

were several first and fourth place winners and a

number of individual qualifiers from Haine Mid-

dle School. Two teams tied for first place and

include members Zoe Stebbins, Sydney Bruns, DJ

Kovarik, Spencer Katzenell, Derek Howe, Emma

Woodard, Bailey Saldmen, Evan August, Ben

Dessing, and Ari Bilger. Two Haine Middle

School teams also tied for fourth place and in-

clude Kate Scanlan, Lindsey Hans, Katie Yanez,

Emily Babusci, Kevin Karatassos, Harry Foss,

Michael Beggy, Vinya Ponugoti, Matt Donaldson

and Ani Ponugoti. National qualifiers from Haine

Middle School (*denotes perfect score) are:

*Emily Babusci, *Kevin Karatassos, *DJ Ko-

varik, *Cam Martin, *Emma Woodard, Rachel

Rafferty, Zoe Stebbins, Sydney Bruns, Evan Au-

gust, Marc Amado, Michael Beggy, Matt Don-

aldson, Julia Ehrman and Ari Bilger.

In the middle division, Seneca Valley Middle

School Team One took second place at the tourna-

ment. Members of the team are Alex Garcia, Ryan

Stelitano, Andrew Funovits, Caleb Cekella and

Rishin Sharma. Seneca Valley Middle School

Team took third place and includes Brian Vogel,

Jacob Geil, Sarah Donaldson, Francesca Citrone,

Tori Beck and Alex Garcia. Students who have

now qualified to go the national competition are

Matt Ehret, Caleb Cekella, Rishin Sharma and

Alex Garcia.

The Seneca Valley Junior Division Team placed

first in Onsets with a team consisting of Mark

Livingstone, Kyle Cindrich, Rhea Kudtarkar, Urvi

Gupta and Shane Ruiz. Urvi Gupta also earned an

individual national qualifying score.

The Seneca Valley Senior Division Team placed

fourth and Nikko Paserba also qualified for the

national competition.

Propaganda Competition:

The Seneca Valley Elementary Division took

home the first, second, third and fifth place finish-

es with 14 students finishing as national qualifiers

in the top 15 percent of participants. The first

place team is from Evans City Middle School and

consists of Adam Corrigan, Connor McDonald,

Sam McCune, Dean Smith and RJ Wallace. The

second place team from Haine Middle School is

Cailee Cheski, Kate Scanlan, Harry Foss, Vinya

Ponugoti and Ani Ponugoti. The third place team,

also from Haine Middle School, includes Sydney

Bruns, Morgan Wehr, Zoe Stebbins, Ben Dessing

and Jerry Zeman. A second Haine Middle School

team tied for third and those members are Michael

Beggy, Marc Amado, Jose Ordonez, Matt Don-

aldson and Spencer Katzenell. Fifth place team

winners from Haine Middle are Ty Thompson,

Kevin Karatassos, Evan August, Francesca Salva-

tore and Derek Howe. National qualifiers from

Evans City Middle School are Adam Corrigan,

Gregory Mihalik, Connor McDonald, Dean Smith

and RJ Wallace. Haine Middle School national

qualifiers include Michael Beggy, Cailee Cheski,

Harry Foss, Jose Ordonez, Ani Ponugoti, Kate

Scanlan, Zoe Stebbins, Ty Thompson and Katie

Yanez.

In the middle division, Seneca Valley Middle

School students swept the tournament, taking first,

second and third place. Students on the first place

team are Rishin Sharma, Katie Bablak, Victoria

Beck, Caleb Cekella and Ben Hess. The team win-

ning second place is Francesca Citrone, Jarrett

Johnson, Jacob Johnson, Matt Lewis and Mark

Trotta. The third place team members include

Jonathon Simeos, Megan Mitchell, Brian Vogel,

Matt Muir and Jacob Geil. Five of the eight top

individual scores at the competition were achieved

by Seneca Valley Middle School students and

they are Victoria Beck, Jarrett Johnson, Mark

Trotta, Ben Hess and Rishin Sharma. With the

individual wins Victoria Beck, Jarrett Johnson,

Mark Trotta, and Ben Hess have now qualified to

go to Nationals joining the four others who have

already qualified. Mr. Rishin’s win gives him

three individual tournament wins for the year –

more than anyone else on the team.

BUILDING A TEAM

Regional tournaments prepare SV students for National Academic Games

Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 5

Contraption winners

Juniors Tanner Quiggle, Emerson Maloney, Kobie Rankin, An-

drew Lingenfelter, Cole Davis and Mike Palaski made up the

Seneca Valley Senior High School team that won the Most Me-

chanical Award on Dec. 13 in the Chain Reaction Contraption

Contest at the Carnegie Science Center. The competition chal-

lenged students to create a complex machine to do an everyday

task in 20 steps or more in the tradition of engineer and inventor

Rube Goldberg. According to competition officials, the Seneca Valley Team was chosen as a category

winner because they demonstrated the most mechanical nature of the machine through the use of lev-

ers, wheels and pulleys, while at the same time minimizing the use of power sources.

Hitting the high notes

Nine Seneca Valley Middle School students were recently

selected for Junior High District Chorus. They include, front

row, from left: Josh Bannon, Rachel Winterhalter, Caitlin

Bliss, Leena Aboosally and Zach Zulick. Back row, from

left: Zach Gehm, Jakob Nehrer, Bobby Stoffa and Calvin

Jiang.

IHS student wins

technology award

Kelsie McElroy has been selected as a 2014

Affiliate Award Runner Up by The National

Center for Women & Information Technology,

Award for Aspirations in Computing. A sopho-

more in the Seneca Valley Intermediate High

School, Kelsie has been involved for the past

two years in computer science pursuits, includ-

ing two different computer science classes, par-

ticipation in the Pico CTF hacking competition,

and assisting in the development of a Computer

Science scenario for gifted support.

The path to positive thinking

A freshman in the Seneca Valley Intermediate High School had an

incredible idea recently that, with the help from five of her friends,

made about 1,150 of our students smile. This incredibly giving

young woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, handwrote a pos-

itive message to each student in the IHS building (they even made

sure to have one brailed for our student who is blind). Last Sunday,

they came in and taped a message to each locker in the building. It

was a great way to start the first day of midterms, quarterlies and

final exams!

As Plato once said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

HELP! Community

experts needed

The Seneca Valley STEM Fair, hosted by the

Seneca Valley Science Honor Society and spon-

sored by the Seneca Valley Foundation, is an

amazing experience that allows students to share

their independent studies in Science, Technolo-

gy, Engineering and Mathematics with the pub-

lic. The STEM Fair also seeks to match student

projects up with local experts in the appropriate

field of their study, affording students the op-

portunity to get feedback on their work from

those that do similar work in the “real world.”

If you or someone you know has experience or

expertise in any STEM field, Seneca Valley

could really use your help. Anyone that can

commit to spending a few hours with students

and staff on the evening of Thursday, February

20, should send an email with their name and a

brief description of their background to Dean

Walker, senior high physics and geometry

school teacher, at WalkerDC@svsd.net.

Thank you for your consideration and support

Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 6

Agriculture on the move

Pennsylvania's Mobile Ag Science Lab spent two

weeks at Evans City Elementary & Middle School s

earlier this month, providing students with the

opportunity to strengthen their awareness of science,

technology and the environment through hands-on

experiments. This interactive learning experience was

coordinated by

the Evans City

PTO and

funded by the generosity of the Butler

County Farm Bureau, Burgh

Implement Inc., Agway in Mars,

McElhinny Farms, Kellar Farms,

PA Soybean Board, American

Agriculturalist Foundation and

Armstrong.

Nutrition news

Did you know a 12 ounce can of soda has 40 grams of sugar?

Ms. Mara Miglioretti, an intern in the food services department,

has been dispensing these important nutrition fast facts in meet-

ings with students across the District.

Invited to speak to seventh grade health classes in early Decem-

ber, Ms. Miglioretti discussed the importance of how to read the

nutrition label when choosing snacks and beverages (as pictured

here). Ms. Miglioretti has also been involved in creating nutri-

tion banners and messages in the Evans City, Haine, CVE, and

Rowan showcases (also pictured) and cafeteria to highlight the importance of fruits and vegetables

and a balanced plate.

She has also been dedicating her time here in creating recipes,

menus, nutritional information for consumers, and has worked

in the production area at Evans City Elementary. She has also

developed a survey for the middle and secondary schools to

receive student input on their school lunch choices in an effort

to increase school lunch participation. She shared with us that

she is excited to have the opportunity to intern and learn in the

school district that she has grown up in (she’s a Seneca Valley

graduate) and hopes to be involved in school nutrition educa-

tion once she completes her internship.

Ms. Miglioretti has her bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Indiana University of Penn-

sylvania. In addition to being a dietetic technician, Ms. Miglioretti is a former nutrition educator and

has two years of experience teaching children in grades K-12 about the importance of nutrition.

Learn more about the Seneca Valley Food Services Department by visiting the District Website at

www.svsd.net/FoodServices

● Compass - National School Lunch Program

● Free & Reduced Price School Meals

● General Information

● Menus

● Myschoolbucks Online Meal Payment Program

● Nutritional Information

● Nutritious Celebrations

● Special Dietary Needs Form

● SV Approved Snack Lists

Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 7

Winter Sports Update

Following the path of our very successful fall sports campaign, Raider student-athletes and coaches in

the winter season are experiencing equal amounts of success and providing our District and communi-

ty continued opportunities to display school spirit and pride in the varied accomplishments.

Boys Basketball

As a result of three straight section wins in mid-January, the Raider Boys’ Basketball Team is on pace

to make a return appearance to the WPIAL tournament in mid-February. Junior Zach Snyder has been

one of the leading scorers, along with senior Mike Smith, for Seneca Valley. Of their remaining five

section contests, three will be at home with New Castle (Jan. 28), Pine-Richland on Senior Night (Jan.

31) and Butler (Feb. 7) to close out the regular season.

Girls Basketball

With back to back key section wins the week of January 20, girls basketball has put themselves in

complete control of their chances to make the WPIAL tournament for the first time in six seasons. The

Raiders feature a very balanced scoring attack and multiple players including Abbie Trzeciak, Lexus

Lambert, and Mel Carter have lead the team in scoring each game. Seneca Valley will close out the

regular season section schedule with home games against North Hills and Butler and will travel to

Oakland Catholic. In addition, they still have non-section games against Upper St. Clair, Keystone

Oaks and Bethel Park.

Swimming and Diving

The Raider Swimming and Diving Team has had much success this season,

including a first place finish by the boys’ team at the West Allegheny Invi-

tational (see photos) over the December holiday break. At the same meet,

our girls’ team finished second. For the boys, Spencer Tretter broke the

meet record for the 200 freestyle while Jake Fausti broke the meet record

for the 100 freestyle. In addition, the

boys 200 and 400 freestyle relays also

broke meet records while Ali Kozlina, a

freshman on the girls’ team broke the

meet record in the 100 freestyle as well

as finishing first in the 50 free. Both the

swimmers and divers are gearing up for

the WPIAL championships that take place at North Allegheny for

diving (Feb. 22) and at the University of Pittsburgh Trees Hall for

swimming (Feb. 24).

Wrestling

As of this writing, the Raider wrestling program will face off

against Hopewell on Monday, January 27, in the first round of

the WPIAL team championships. The winner advances to

take on Franklin-Regional January 29. Seneca Valley ad-

vanced to the team tournament as a result of a 38-24 victory

over Fox Chapel in the sectional qualifying match. The Raid-

ers have had a strong showing in January, winning the Bur-

gettstown Invitational (see photo) the weekend of January 18.

First place finishers included Alex Lynch, Anthony Latess and

Austin Leon.

Athletic testing

and physicals

Drug testing, baseline concus-

sion testing and spring sports

physicals will be offered to

students in grades 7-12 on

February 13, immediately

after school in the senior high

school.

Only one initial drug test and

physical are required per

school year. Baseline concus-

sion testing must be done eve-

ry other year through Seneca

Valley.

To take an initial drug test,

students must submit a com-

pleted Drug Testing Consent

Form and $30 cash or a check

payable to SVSD. Sports

physicals require athletes to

submit a PIAA Comprehen-

sive Physical Form. Sections

1, 2, & 5 must be completed

by a parent or guardian and

the doctor will sign section 6.

The $15 fee may be paid in

cash or a check payable to

SVSD.

All student athletes must take

a baseline concussion test

administered at Seneca Val-

ley. It is valid for two years. If

you took the test last year,

retesting is not needed this

year. There is no fee or con-

sent form required.

For forms and more infor-

mation, please visit the Seneca

Valley Athletics page at

www.svsd.net or contact the

SV Athletic Office at 724-452

-6040 x1752.

Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 8

Cyber Safety

Be a social network expert

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest,

LinkedIn and other social networks have become

an integral part of our online lives. Social networks

are a great way to stay connected with others, but

SafeOnline.org, powered by the National Cyber

Security Alliance, warns you should be wary about

how much personal information you post.

Have your family follow these tips to safely enjoy

social networking:

● Privacy and security settings exist for a reason: Learn about and use the privacy and security

settings on social networks. They are there to help you control who sees what you post and man-

age your online experience in a positive way.

● Once posted, always posted: Protect your reputation on social networks. What you post online

stays online. Think twice before posting pictures you wouldn’t want your parents or future em-

ployers to see. Recent research found that 70% of job recruiters rejected candidates based on in-

formation they found online.

● Your online reputation can be a good thing: Recent research also found that recruiters respond

to a strong, positive personal brand online. So show your smarts, thoughtfulness, and mastery of

the environment.

● Keep personal info personal: Be cautious about how much personal information you provide on

social networking sites. The more information you post, the easier it may be for a hacker or some-

one else to use that information to steal your identity, access your data, or commit other crimes

such as stalking.

● Know and manage your friends: Social networks can be used for a variety of purposes. Some of

the fun is creating a large pool of friends from many aspects of your life. That doesn’t mean all

friends are created equal. Use tools to manage the information you share with friends in different

groups or even have multiple online pages. If you’re trying to create a public persona as a blogger

or expert, create an open profile or a “fan” page that encourages broad participation and limits

personal information. Use your personal profile to keep your real friends (the ones you know

trust) more synched up with your daily life.

● Be honest if you’re uncomfortable: If a friend posts something about you that makes you un-

comfortable or you think is inappropriate, let them know. Likewise, stay open-minded if a friend

approaches you because something you’ve posted makes him or her uncomfortable. People have

different tolerances for how much the world knows about them respect those differences.

● Know what action to take: If someone is harassing or threatening you, remove them from your

friends list, block them, and report them to the site administrator.

Protect Yourself with these STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Tips:

● Keep a clean machine: Having the latest security software, web browser, and operating system

are the best defenses against viruses, malware, and other online threats.

● Own your online presence: When applicable, set the privacy and security settings on websites to

your comfort level for information sharing. It’s ok to limit how you share information.

● Make passwords long and strong: Combine capital and lowercase letters with numbers and

symbols to create a more secure password.

● Unique account, unique password: Separate passwords for every account helps to thwart cyber-

criminals.

● When in doubt, throw it out: Links in email, tweets, posts, and online advertising are often the

way cybercriminals compromise your computer. If it looks suspicious, even if you know the

source, it’s best to delete or if appropriate, mark as junk email.

● Post only about others as you have them post about you.

See more at: http://www.staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/protect-your-personal-information/

social-networks#sthash.U6LTOyhM.dpuf

Parental

Controls

Parental controls are available

on most Internet-enabled de-

vices, like computers,

smartphones, tablets, gaming

systems. When enabling paren-

tal controls, use age-

appropriate settings to filter,

monitor and block your child’s

activities. As a parent, you’ll

likely want to allow your chil-

dren to use technology for

communications, learning and

more. You’re also going to

want to be sure that your chil-

dren use the Internet safely and

securely. Parental controls are

a great way to be proactive

about your child’s online safe-

ty and activities.

OnGuardOnline.gov gives a

breakdown of different types

of parental controls:

Filtering and blocking: This

limits access to specific web-

sites, words, or images.

Blocking outgoing content:

This prevents your children

from sharing personal infor-

mation online and via email.

Limiting time: This allows

parents to set time limits for

how long their children are

online and the time of day they

can access the Internet.

Monitoring tools: This alerts

parents to their children’s

online activity without block-

ing access and can be used

with or without the child’s

knowledge. Some software

records websites a child has

visited. Others display a warn-

ing message when a child vis-

its a certain website.

See more at:

http://www.staysafeonline.org/

stay-safe-online/for-parents/

parental-

con-

trols#sthash.4xDGD9KL.dpuf

Seneca Valley School District | 124 Seneca School Road, Harmony, PA 16037 | (724) 452-6040 | www.svsd.net page 9

Follow the

yellow brick

road

A classic! The Seneca Valley

All-School Musical Cast

and Crew is following the

yellow brick road this year,

and will proudly present

“The Wizard of Oz” during six

performances in the Seneca

Valley Intermediate High

School Auditorium:

● Friday, February 28

7:30 p.m.

● Saturday, March 1

7:30 p.m.

● Sunday, March 2

2 p.m.

● Friday, March 7

7:30 p.m.

● Saturday, March 8

1:30 p.m.

● Saturday, March 8

7:30 p.m.

All performances are reserved

seating. For more information

and/or to purchase tickets, visit

the musical page at this link:

http://www.svsd.net/

Page/6609

Don't miss it!