If you’ve noticed the orange tractor tires outside the entrances to our middle and high schools, you can thank Alyssa Wright’s seventh and eighth grade intro to ag students who’ve been working hard to transform them into festive pumpkins!
Community member Mitch Ling donated the tires and our middle school intro to ag class has spent the past few weeks cleaning and painting them.
“We’re pretty happy with how they turned out,” said Wright.
(Photos courtesy of Alyssa Wright)
Students in Mrs. Jill Pierce’s special education class headed to Becker Farms in Gasport last week for a bit of outside-the-classroom learning!
“We learned about how farms have changed over time, took a wagon ride to the apple orchard, picked apples and fed the goats, pigs and alpacas,” said Pierce. “The class enjoyed the trip and will be using the apples picked to make apple dumplings for their Basic Bites food cart this week!”
(Photos courtesy of Jill Pierce)
Your Attica Blue Devils raised $5,320.66 at their Digging for Domes volleyball game against Pembroke last Thursday night - that’s $1,000 MORE than they raised in their 2022 and 2023 Dig Pink fundraisers COMBINED!
The fundraising game was named in honor of Melanie Domes, a high school special education teacher who was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile ducts, in May. The entire fundraising sum will be donated to the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, a global non-profit dedicated to finding a cure for the disease.
“All I have to say is thank you to everyone who supported this cause, whether they were at the game or not,” said Varsity Volleyball Coach Natalie Perl. “I have to give all the credit to our players. They played such an important role in helping raise money. I was and still am amazed at how many donations we got this year and that was due to the players going around and asking different businesses.”
In addition to soliciting donations, Attica volleyball players raised money by selling cupcakes, t-shirts and 50/50 raffle tickets and with a serving competition for members of the audience.
“We sold out of all of our 500 cupcakes and the 2,000 50/50 tickets we bought, so that says a lot,” said Perl. “I also want to thank Pembroke’s varsity coach, Mary Rupp, who’s been great with helping sell t-shirts at Pembroke, and all her players who helped support the fundraiser by purchasing t-shirts, cupcakes and participating in the serving competition.”
The Dragons ended up topping the Blue Devils in five sets Thursday, 26-24, 21-25, 25-22, 20-25, 18-16, but Perl said she was proud of the way her team fought.
“I have to say it was probably the hardest we have played the entire season,” she said. “I’d be lying if I said I knew for sure we'd be able to lock in and go from being emotional to being ready to play. It was challenging for me to do so I'm very proud of the girls for handling it very well.”
(Game photos courtesy of Brennan Bezon)
Our next featured farm for National Farm to School Month is Merle’s Fresh Produce!
Merle’s has been an incredible partner to our food service staff, supplying us with various items for freezing as well as fresh corn, spinach, squash, tomatoes and broccoli for our daily salad bar.
Owned and operated by Matt and Ashley Merle, they’ve also supplied produce for our Mobile Farm Stand this year and are always willing to lend a hand and tackle a new challenge.
Thank you, Merle’s!
Today, during School Board Recognition Week, we want to take a moment to recognize and say thank you to our Board of Education members - Chris Day, Thane Wright, Susan Herman, Brian Fugle, Pamela Rudolph, Michael Janes and Lyman Rudgers.
These seven board members are responsible for overseeing the education of our community’s young people, a huge responsibility and one that has trickle down effects for years and decades into the future.
Their passion for ensuring our students have access to a robust, quality education is second to none and we’re lucky to have such dedicated public servants leading our district.
As a small token of appreciation at our board of education meeting earlier, we presented each board member with cards made by our elementary schoolers, picture frames featuring student artwork and produce grown by our ag students, among some other goodies.
Thank you, Board of Education members!
A handful of high school students traveled from classroom to classroom today selling cupcakes to raise money for cancer research.
Students and teachers had eight varieties to choose from - caramel apple, Reese’s, cookies and cream, raspberry velvet, cookie dough, vanilla confetti, strawberry lemonade and Snickers.
All were baked by Attica’s own Jenn Holt, owner/operator of A Sweet Ending Bakery!
We’re not sure exactly how many students sold but judging by the stack of cash they were hauling around by the end of sixth period, we’d guess quite a few!
Our students’ fundraising efforts will continue tonight when our junior varsity and varsity volleyball teams host the Pembroke Dragons in the Digging for Domes match!
The game is named in honor of Melanie Domes, a high school special education teacher who was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile ducts, in May.
In addition to cupcakes, there will also be t-shirts for sale at tonight’s matches, a 50/50 raffle and a serving competition for members of the audience
All proceeds will go to the Cholangiocarcinoma Research Foundation, a global non-profit dedicated to finding a cure for the disease.
The JV match starts at 5 p.m. and the varsity match starts at 6:30 p.m., so come on down and help support a good cause!
New York Thursday in the house!
Today for lunch, students have taco in a bag as an entree option with beef produced by Attica’s own Burly Brothers Country Butchery.
Yum!
Greetings Attica Families,
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and share with you my educational work background. My first nineteen years in education were spent as an elementary teacher in Franklinville. I then moved into the Elementary Principal’s position for four years. From there I walked across the street and became the High School Principal for six and a half years. Following my time in that role, I assumed the position of Director of Special Education for almost three years before I accepted the job as the Superintendent of Keshequa Central School where I spent six and a half years before I retired. Most recently I served the Dansville Central School District as its Interim Superintendent for six months.
I have been very fortunate to have chosen the right career path for my life. In every position, during my 39 years in education, I have been fulfilled. To make a positive difference in students’ lives has always been my goal. I will continue in that endeavor during my time in this outstanding school district.
Should you ever need to speak with me, please do not hesitate to contact me at 585-591-0400, ext. 1109 or tkopp@atticacsd.org.
Respectfully yours,
Thomas K. Kopp
Interim High School Principal
And a few more from our fall pep rally - likewise courtesy of Alanna Pellicane.
Full album over on our Facebook page at the link below.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=100057106403663&set=a.1051704110076459
Few photos from our homecoming parade earlier this month, full album over on our Facebook page at the link below.
Huge shout out to Brennan Bezon and Alanna Pellicane for capturing these shots!
Link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=100057106403663&set=a.1051690136744523
As October is National Farm to School Month, we figured we’d highlight some of our local agriculture partners who help us bring delicious, nutritious meals to our students each and every day!
The first farm to foray into our Friday feature is Preston’s Farms out of Albion, Orleans County.
If they sound familiar, that’s because they just supplied us with literally THOUSANDS of fresh apples for our Big Apple Crunch event down at Prospect Elementary!
Preston’s is a women-owned, first generation apple farm that specializes in selling its high-quality fruit to local school districts. It produces gala, honeycrisp and evercrisp varieties.
Thank you, Preston’s Farms!
Few shots from our homecoming football game last week courtesy of Brennan Bezon.
Your Blue Devils fought hard, but took the 19-27 loss to Oakfield-Alabama/Elba and fell to 1-4.
The boys are next in action Saturday, Oct. 12 against Notre Dame Batavia/Byron-Bergen at GCC.
There’s nothing more important to us than keeping our students safe - at school AND at home.
That’s why we’re so grateful to all our local firefighters and EMS workers for coming to speak with our students for Fire Prevention Day yesterday at Attica Elementary!
It was a great day of learning (and fun) for our kiddos!
Full photo album over on our Facebook page at the link below.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=100057106403663&set=a.1047869053793298
Fifth graders in Ms. Heather Smith’s class competed in the Metric Olympics last week!
This activity was the brainchild of Ms. Rachel Sampson, Smith’s student teacher, and included a number of olympics-style events that tested students’ knowledge of the metric system.
Students estimated and then measured using different measuring tools in the events of Paper Plate Discus, Plastic Straw Javelin, Cotton Ball Shot Put, Right Handed Marble Grab and Left-Handed Sponge Squeeze.
Fun and learning was had by ALL!
(Photos courtesy of Heather Smith)
We are once again participating in New York Thursdays this school year!
A statewide initiative, New York Thursdays highlights New York-grown and produced food items during school meals once per week. It’s intended to maximize the amount of locally produced food students have access to at school while, at the same time, saving the district money in the form of increased state aid reimbursements.
Check out the image below to see what delicious, locally produced food we’ve got on the menu this month!
Our elementary school students and staff were thrilled to participate in this year’s Big Apple Crunch!
Sponsored annually by the FarmOn! Foundation, the Big Apple Crunch is a way of recognizing New York State apple producers and celebrating the bounty of apples they grow for us each and every year! In fact, if New York State were a country, its yearly apple harvest would rank just outside the top 20 globally - incredible, but true!
To mark the Big Apple Crunch, our students were each given an apple. Then, they assembled in our side lawn and arranged themselves in the shape of 3 apples - one yellow, one red and one green (shoutout to Ms. Brooke Schery for painting apple outlines on the grass).
Then, after a few photos, we counted down and had all our students take a bite out of their apples together in ONE. BIG. CRUNCH!
At the end of the day, each and every one of our more than 450 elementary school students were sent home with a bag of apples from Preston’s Farms in Albion, NY.
Many thanks to Preston’s for supplying today’s apples and to the Titus Fruit Stand for supporting this event. We encourage our district residents to get out there and explore the many fantastic producers that call Western New York home.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering what to do with all those apples your kiddos brought home, not to worry - the New York Apple Association has a bunch of great recipes over on its website at the link below!
Link: https://www.applesfromny.com/recipes/
Recently installed some new signage in the entryway to our district office.
Not sure about you, but we think it looks pretty sharp!
Most importantly, it communicates to visitors our district’s core values: Student-centered approach, positive and respectful culture, community and relationships, and innovation and creativity.
Congratulations to our high school Students of the Month for September!
Our freshman Student of the Month is Ilyssa George. Ilyssa was nominated by Ms. Jocelyn Pierce.
“Last year, the 8th grade class was hesitant about running for class office for their freshman year. I convinced Illysa to give treasurer a try and she has not disappointed. She has the main lead on her float. She is recruiting kids to help, offering her house to meet and initiating meetings at school. I am very impressed with her motivation and organization,” said Pierce. “I also was missing a secretary and two reps and she found me officers for those positions. Illysa is also an amazing student in the classroom. She contributes to class, always completes her homework, is respectful to her peers and teachers and received a 100 on her Algebra regents last year. Illysa is a super star!”
Our sophomore Student of the Month is Luke Mest. Luke was nominated by Mrs. Elizabeth Winters.
“Luke pays attention in class and asks thought provoking questions that relate to the topics we are discussing. He completes work when asked, is an active learner who deeply thinks about the information presented, and is not afraid to speak up in front of the class,” said Winters. “These are great qualities in general, but I especially appreciate seeing this in science where students should not accept everything without evidence and data to support a claim or conclusion.
Our junior Students of the Month is Rachel Rickettson, who was nominated by Ms. Jocelyn Pierce.
“Rachel came in before school and hung welcome back treats on all the lockers with help from Robert Beck. But Rachel also wrote individual notes to all of the teachers and gave them dove chocolate to welcome them back. She didn't even sign it to take credit,” Pierce said. “The time and thoughtfulness she puts in goes above and beyond. On top of that, Rachel is an honors students and respected by her teachers and peers.”
Our senior Student of the Month is Catharine Struzik. Catharine was nominated by Mrs. Michelle Pitkin.
“Catharine is a laboratory assistant in my classroom and is also assisting with Regents chemistry period 1 students this year. Her work is very thorough. She enjoys science and had room in her schedule to assist again this year,” said Pitkin. “It is a pleasure to work with her. Her interactions during 1st period with students is stellar. I appreciate her time and effort to assist students in this difficult subject material. She asks students why phenomena are occurring and helps students with experiments and data collection.”
Mrs. Jenna Linsey’s local outdoor sciences students headed - you guessed it - outside this afternoon to collect some water samples from Baker Brook.
After freeing an errant minnow that got caught in the collection equipment, Linsey’s students headed back to her classroom and to analyze their samples.
Students created wet mount slides and, using microscopes, looked for signs of microorganisms.
The day’s lesson was practice for students’ field trip to Seneca Lake next week where they’ll collect water samples alongside researchers with Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
FARM TO SCHOOL: During summer ag camp in August, a handful of our middle school students grew, harvested and processed a crop of onions and bell peppers for our food service staff to use in lunches during the 2024-25 school year.
Well today, the fruits of all that labor paid off as the onions and peppers campers grew were served to students as part of a chicken fajitas entree option!
Hands-on learning experiences that yield nutritious and delicious food for our students? Uhhh… yes please!
A huge thank you to our campers whose hard work and green thumbs made today’s fajitas possible: Blake Dominesey, Stacy Harris, Claira Deuel, Madalynn Perl, Laura Harris, Nathan Burns, Lucy Eddy, Caleb Lavrincik, Ryan Torrey, Caleb MacLane, Garrett Hirsch, Sophia Harper, Hudson Sphar, Nathan Stevens, Dylan Walek and Lexi George.
