Category: School Happenings

It’s time to hit the books, the big test that everyone has been waiting for is coming.

It’s time for the dreaded, but much celebrated, SATs.  It’s the test that often determines whether a student will get into the college of their choice.

But last year’s crop of Penn Manor students did not fare as well as some previous classes.

A recent Lancaster Newspaper story reported the average SAT scores from 2009-2010.  In those scores,  Penn Manor went from third place to twelfth place in the county.

Out of the whole junior and senior grade, 62 percent participated. Each section of the test had its own decline. In the reading section Penn Manor student’s average score decreased by 32 to 494.

In writing, Penn Manor average scores went down by 36 points to 480.

In the mathematics portion, the drop was 13 points and the average total score was 501.

Overall, the total score for last year’s SAT was 1490 compared with 1582 in the previous year.

Whether it’s from the pressure or the lack of preparation, Penn Manor’s reputation was put on the line. The faculty and parents were concerned for the students and intended to get to the bottom of it.

“Unfortunately, the averages were correct; however each class is different, some students slacked off while some had perfect scores in the math section,” said Penn Manor SAT prep teacher Gary Luft.

Some others students said they prepared themselves by studying through books, online sites, or even joined a class outside of school.

The SAT will be offered again in Spring of 2011.

By Sarah Gordon

The weight is on the shoulders of Penn Manor’s new incoming rocket team after last year’s team ended up winning the Third Annual Transatlantic Rocketry Challenge during the summer.

Penn Manor science teacher Brian Osmolinski, rocket club adviser, has a rebuilding year for 2010-11 after  five seniors graduated.

Last year’s performance went further than any team from Penn Manor had gone before, a lot further.  They were number one in the world, in fact.

Before they could conquer the world, the Penn Manor rocket team went up against 700 teams across the country at nationals. And they won.

Finishing with an average score of 26.32, sealed the deal for the win. The score was accumulated over two flights. The first flight was an outstanding score of thirty, followed by a score of 23.32 on the second flight. The challenge was to fly a rocket 825 feet staying airborne for 40 to 45 seconds, and return with a raw egg unbroken. Each team also has to present their rocket to the judges which could add to their final score.

From Nationals, the first place team had an opportunity to go across the seas to Farnsborough Air Show in England. The best teams from France and the U.K competed with Penn Manor’s rocket club. Penn Manor captured the win and the satisfaction of being international winners.

But it was not all fun and games.

Last year’s team put in hours and hours of preparation, flying rockets after rockets to beat the best, and to make a name for themselves. Osmolinski said.

“We lost half of our team members last year and must rely on the kids with some experience to teach kids that have no experience but want to be a part of the team,” Osmolinski said.

Rebuilding the team for Penn Manor will be a hardship, but past Marticville Middle School students Wyatt Shiffler, Tom Sowers and Jessee Stoner already placed in nationals right behind the high school team.

Repeating as international winners might seem like an impossible task for a rebuilding team, but Osmolinski is not counting it out.

“To maintain our title we will stick with the same game plan, which is heavy rockets, big motors, and more team work said Osmolinkski.

To maintain their budget, the rocket club will be selling food at the school from the snack cart, sell tickets for a raffle produced by Osmolinski and other fundraisers.

The rocket club is meeting on Saturdays to fly their rockets, be the best and defend their international title.

By Ryan Mays

The rain was pounding on the school building, an unfamiliar sound after weeks of drought.

Rising water around the school and the announcement of an early dismissal Thursday excited students, but brought troubles to the custodians of Penn Manor High School.

“Attention all students and teachers, due to the inclement weather, school will be dismissed at one o’clock,” said Jason D’Amico, assistant principle at Penn Manor over the loudspeaker at the beginning of block three.

Superintendent Michael Leichliter sent an e-mail to district employees at 11:30 a.m. telling them that  Lancaster County Emergency Management were not mandating a school dismissal, they were strongly suggesting it. The superintendent decided to proceed with caution and send students home.

“People were telling me that we were getting an early dismissal today, but I didn’t believe them. Then I heard the announcement Mr. D’Amico made, and now I’m really exited,” said senior Coty Johnson.

But not everyone greeted the storm.

Rain seeped through the walls in the girl’s locker room, dripped in the coaches room and flooded the hall below the big stairs.

Students were not allowed to travel these hallways and were forced to detour.

Ryan Connelly, a senior, was one student who was affected by the flooding.  “The stairwell by the entrance to the weight room was ridiculous,” he said.

Mike Weimer, a custodian at Penn Manor, was cleaning up puddles and pools of water all morning.  The low spot below the big stairs was filled with almost two inches of rain and took an hour to clean, he said.

Another school custodian, John Wealand, who was cleaning up the mess the rain caused said, “we’ll have to stay on top of it throughout the day.”

The custodians used shop vacuums to suck up the water and concluded that there was no damage done by mid day on Thursday.  Unfortunately, the water was still coming in the school.

According to The Weather Channel, Lancaster is under a heavy rain threat that has been dumping two to five inches of rain in the central Pennsylvania region.  The flow of moisture out of the tropics and the remnants of tropical storm Nicole following close behind is to blame.

The other good note about the storm is that weather officials say it is putting a dent in the deficit of groundwater the area has been experiencing since August.

But too much of a good thing can be a hazard.

Douglas Eby, dean of students at Penn Manor, said due to the amount of rain, roads are flooding, and is posing a safety hazard to motorists.

“It’s our responsibility to keep the students safe,” Eby said.

By Cree Bleacher

By Zeke Sensenig-

The tech and art programs at Penn Manor were well represented again at the Pennsylvania State Computer Fair.

Ryan Krause and Faith Walauskas, two juniors from Penn Manor high school, both competed at the PA State Computer Fair.

Krause was entered in computer animation, while Walauskas was entered in graphic design.

Both Krause and Walauskas went to the regional computer fair and placed first place in their respective competitions.

“At the regional computer fair, I had immediately noticed that the competition was not as thick as I had hoped. In other words, I figured i’d walk away with something right off the bat. But I never expected first,” said Walauskas.

In other words, Penn Manor has two extremely talented graphic designers, that have a more than bright future ahead.

While Krause was entered in the animation portion of the competition, he is an aspiring graphic designer and plans to attend college for this.

Krause did not place in animation, but he was one of five that was chosen for a scholarship to a Harrisburg university.

The Krause family is no stranger to the competition though, Ryan’s brother, Aaron Krause, placed fourth in the state competition when he attended Penn Manor.

“Now I know what I need to do for states next year to possibly place,” said Krause.

Walauskas was a strong catalyst in bringing the AP Studio Art class back to Penn Manor. Walauskas is the one who created the Facebook group that many of the Penn Manor student body joined.

Here is an article previously written about the AP art issue:

Some Sketchy News Hits the Art Department

“Actually, I do (representing the art department). Graphic design’s a tough and very competitive industry, or so I hear, and with this whole AP Art predicament, it makes Penn Manor look pretty bad art-wise. I feel what i’ve brought back to the school should make some sort of stand for the art department,” said Walauskas.

Faith ended up placing third for her grungy-feeling poster design; a design in which she got inspiration from her friend.

“The inspiration for the grungy feel of the piece was from my love of the Vietnam war and the 70’s in general. As well as one of my closets friends, Sidney Miller; the two divided faces in the piece are of hers and mine, representing the similar mindset we both share as friends. As for the term ‘Apple,’ that is an inside joke stating that she and I would one day form a band called Apple, and it would be the biggest thing. Many laughs,” said Walauskas.

Overall, the competition was a success for both the tech and art departments at Penn Manor, and also shined light on two very talented looking prospects in the graphic design field.

“I feel pretty good, I suppose. At first thought I didn’t even want to compete in the computer fair; ironically I had figured my stuff wasn’t good enough. All of this had snuck up on me.

By Zane Sensenig

Thursday evening palms were sweaty and thumbs were eagerly hovering over a  tantalizing red button.

No, there was not a video game conference in town. It was, however, the ninth season championship of Brain Busters with our very own Penn Manor quiz bowl team competing in the finals.

Coached by Chris Meier and Sallie Bookman, the quiz bowl team traveled to Harrisburg to compete against the Hershey quiz bowl team at the Whitaker Center – neutral territory for the two finalists.

Also accompanying the team was the Penn Manor Jazz Band, playing the breaks between rounds.

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“I came to support my friends.  It’s really exciting to see them [Penn Manor’s team] come this far,” said enthusiastic fan, Haley Blazer, on the bus ride there.

Penn Manor had a bus  full of avid QB fans with their faces painted blue.  Spirits were up and students and parents were ready to cheer the Penn Manor brainiacs to victory.

The atmosphere was charged with excitement and an “applause” sign was ready to be held up and a nervous hush plagued the crowd.

Lars Anderson, Grant Elledge, team captain, Henry Stewart, Brendan Stoeckle and Christine Sharp, the team alternate, were ready to bust their brains against Hershey’s team as they stood confident behind their podium.

This competition had, as its host, veteran master of ceremonies, Rich Rosen, firing questions at the two teams.  A player from either team could  “buzz in” if they knew the answer.  There were multiple rounds to this tense competition.

“We’re pretty comfortable getting use to competing.  We’re ready to go,” said Elledge before the match.

There was much truth to those words for Penn Manor took the lead after the first round.

Throughout the night both teams remained neck and neck.

“There’s a little more pressure [tonight] but we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” said Stoeckle.  This was Penn Manor’s sixth match of the season. They had won the first five.

Penn Manor was up by 30 after the lightning round, but there was still one more normal round, and an additional bonus round.

Nervous jitters consumed the audience as they sat on the edge of their seats.  Everyone was waiting to hear that soft beep coming from either team.

Slowly, Hershey started racking in the points, and in the end won with a final score of 470 Hershey 370 Penn Manor.

Though they were not victorious, fans, including Comet Man, bombarded the stage to congratulate the team as they walked away with a $4,000 check to split between all team members.

All-in-all, Penn Manor’s team proved that they are a force to be reckoned with.  Smiles, cheers and even a sing-a-long to the Pokemon theme song brought this bus home.

By: Dessie Jackson

Tune into WGALTV Saturday to watch the recording of the show.