Vassalboro Community School honor roll spring 2020

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Vassalboro Community School. (source: jmg.org)

GRADE 3

High honors: Caylie Buotte, Emily Clark, Keegan Clark, Basil Dillaway, Baylee Fuchswanz, Zoe Gaffney, Allyson Gilman, Kaitlyn Lavallee, Cheyenne Lizzotte, Mackenzy Monroe, Kaylee Moulton, Callen Pooler and Ava Woods. Honors: Ariyah Doyen, Jack LaPierre, Elizabeth Longfellow, Mia McLean, Jaelyn Moore, Weston Pappas and Landen Theobald. Honorable mention: Devontay Austin, Samuel Bechard, Gabriella Duarte, Preston Duenne, Bayleigh Gorman, Jeremy Hawk, Lillyana Krastev, Hannah McMurtry, Elliot McQuarrie, Noah Rau, Colby Shults, Grace Tobey and Naseem Umar.

GRADE 4

High honors: Jasmine Garey, Drew Lindquist and Paige Perry. Honors: Benjamin Allen, Tristyn Brown, Logan Cimino, Dylan Dodge, Jennah Dumont, Ryleigh French, Drake Goodie, Zachary Kinrade, Gabriella Lathrop, Caleb Marden, Bentley Pooler, Trinity Pooler, Abigail Prickett, Sovie Rau, Kayden Renna, Judson Smith, Hannah Tobey, William Trainor, Alana Wade and Reid Willett. Honorable mention: Taylor Agost, Bentley Austin, Jackson Bailey, Cooper Lajoie, Katherine Maxwell, Brandon Neagle and Landon Sullivan.

GRADE 5

High honors: Madison Burns, Scott Fitts, Cody Grondin, Kelty Pooler, Natalie Rancourt, Taiya Rankins and Bryson Stratton. Honors: Kayliana Allen, Nataleigh Brown, Tyler Clark, Tallulah Cloutier, Sophie Day, Ryley Desmond, Eilah Dillaway, Wyatt Ellis, Madison Field, Xavier Foss, Adalyn Glidden, Bailey Goforth, Spencer Hughes, Mason Lagasse, Jack Malcolm, Harley McEachern, Josslyn Ouellette and Mackenzie Oxley. Honorable mention: Peyton Dowe, Caspar Hooper, Alexis Mitton, Noah Pooler, Kole Pratt and Grady Sounier.

GRADE 6

High honors: Emily Almeida, Madison Estabrook, Jacob Lavallee, Ava Lemelin, Paige Littlefield and Hannah Polley. Honors: Elisha Baker, Addyson Burns, Quinn Coull, William Ellsey, Seth Hansen, Talula Kimball, Brayden McLean, Alexandria O’Hara, Mylee Petela, Leahna Rocque amd Addison Witham. Honorable mention: Saunders Chase, Mckenzie Duenne, Aiden Hamlin, Taylor neptune, Daniel Ouellette, Emily Piecewicz, Lilian Piecewicz, Abigail Sims and Leah Targett.

GRADE 7

High honors: Noah Bechard, Allison Dorval, Ellie Giampetruzzi, Ava Kelso, Greta Limberger, Phoenix Mills, Ava Picard ad Wallace Pooler. Honors: Brooke Blais, Landen Blodgett, Sofia Derosby, Brady Desmond, Kailynn Houle, Josiah Hussey, Bodi Laflamme, Noah Marston, Alysha Opacki, Seth Picard, Grant Taker and Emma Waterhouse. Honorable mention: Evan Brochu, Kaylene Glidden, Echo Hawk, Kyran Kinrade, Ava Prickett and Sterling Williams.

GRADE 8

High honors: Elizabeth Brown, Gage Dorval, Cole Fortin, Meilani Gatlin, Tara Hanley, Nathan Polley, Tristan Samuelson, Lara Stinchfield and Lilian Taylor. Honors: Hunter Brandt, Connor Coull, Isaballa Day, Aleigha Gooding, Lucas Haskell, Ethan Lyon, Carlos Michaud, Ann Prickett and Logan Rockwell. Honorable mention: Nathalia Carrasco, Madelynn Cimino, Lexus Field, Tyler Hansen, Sophie Leclerc, Brody Loiko, Hannah Piecewicz and Brandon Wood.

No awards from Oak Grove Foundation this year

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Oak Grove School Foundation will not be sending grant awards this Spring due to the Covid-19 virus and the stressed condition of our financial resources. We are thankful for all the people in our community who exert themselves for the well being of the young people that Oak Grove seeks to support. We look forward to recovering from this pandemic and returning to the major grant business in 2021.

Vassalboro school board members briefly discuss first draft of 2020-21 budget

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Vassalboro Community School. (source: jmg.org)

by Mary Grow

In addition to review of plans for operating during shutdown (see The Town Line, March 26), Vassalboro School Board members at their March 24 meeting briefly discussed the first draft of the 2020-21 school budget.

They and Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer intended to meet again March 31 to review a revised budget and to discuss it with the Budget Committee later the same evening. However, as of March 30 final figures for insurance were not available, and since the cost of insurance could affect staffing, both meetings were cancelled.

Last year, Pfeiffer reminded board members, “a perfect storm of good numbers” made possible a small reduction from the previous year. The March 24 version, if left intact through the budget review process and approved by town meeting voters, would have increased the tax rate by about one mil ($1 for each $1,000 of valuation).

Pfeiffer asked School Board members if that increase was acceptable, and if not, what would be. They unanimously asked him to aim for a maximum increase of half a mil. Jolene Gamage was unenthusiastic about even that amount, since the pandemic is costing people jobs. On the other hand, she could not see obvious places to cut proposed school expenditures.

Pfeiffer promised to “review, readjust, shave down” to try to meet board members’ target.

As of March 31, Pfeiffer said the school board planned to meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, with budget committee members joining them at 7 p.m. The meetings will be virtual; those interested can watch them on the Vassalboro School website, vcsvikings.org.

Central Maine Youth Hockey Association Black Mites 2019

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Members of the Central Maine Youth Hockey Association Black Mites team are, front, from left to right, Finnegan Cotter-Hayes, Tucker Hussey, Maggie Tibbetts, Lillian Wheeler, Stephen Spear and Landyn Caouette-Nye. Back, Coach Benjamin Wheeler, Owen Mitchell, Issac Dostie, Jude Espinoza, Amelia Castonguay, James Laliberty, Easton Gradie, Thomas Jewell, Maxwell Poulin, Coach Josh Mitchell and Coach James Laliberty.(photo by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography)

Local student named semifinalist in National Geographic’s GeoBee

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Anderson Buck

The results are in! The National Geographic Society named Anderson Buck, an eighth grade student at Lawrence Junior High School, in Fairfield, as one of the semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2020 National Geographic GeoBee State Competition. The contest will be held at the University of Maine in Farmington on Friday, March 27, 2020.

This is the second level of the National Geographic GeoBee competition, which is now in its 32nd year. To determine each school champion, GeoBee competitions were held in schools throughout the state with students in the fourth through eighth grades. This year, an estimated 2.4 million students competed in the GeoBee, with 8,661 students becoming school champions. School champions also took an online qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society. Up to 100 of the top-scoring students in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense Dependents Schools and U.S. territories were invited to compete in the State GeoBees.

State champions will receive a medal, $1,000 in cash, and other prizes, as well as a trip to Washington, D.C., to represent their state in the National Championship where they will compete for additional cash, awards and college scholarships. The second- and third-place State GeoBee winners will receive cash awards of $300 and $100, respectively.

The 2020 National Championship will take place May 18-21, 2020, at National Geographic headquarters. The National Champion will receive a $25,000 college scholarship, $1,000 in cash, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavour ll. The second-place finisher will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and $1,000 in cash; the student finishing in third place will receive a $5,000 college scholarship and $1,000 in cash; and seven runners-up will each receive $1,000 in cash. Visit www.natgeobee.org for more information on the National Geographic GeoBee.

Anderson is the son of Sharon Hood and Daniel Buck.

How would you fare as a National Geographic GeoBee contestant? At the school GeoBees this year, students had to answer questions like these:

  1. Which state is located west of Lake Huron—Minnesota or Vermont?
  2. Known for the tree nuts resembling deer eyes, which Midwestern state is called the Buckeye State—California or Ohio?
  3. A savanna elephant’s daily amount of dung contains more than 3,000 seeds. Savanna elephants can be found in Namibia and Mozambique on what continent?
  4. Volcanic activity under Yellowstone National Park creates great spouts of heated water that erupt out of the ground. These water eruptions are called what—geysers or cyclones?
  5. Which country does not border the Atlantic Ocean—Moldova, Angola, or Ireland?
  6. The ancient Babylonians of Mesopotamia developed an early example of what basic counting machine that is still in use today—abacus or sundial?
  7. Host of the 1984 Winter Olympics, Sarajevo is the most populous city in which European country that was once a part of Yugoslavia?
  8. Once the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Tacoma is a major port and industrial city in which northwestern state?
  9. Government designated preserves have helped protect giant tortoises in the Seychelles, a country made up of over one hundred islands located north of Madagascar in what ocean?
  10. The Matterhorn is an iconic peak in the Alps on the border between Switzerland and what other country?

Answers: 1. Minnesota; 2. Ohio; 3. Africa; 4. Geysers; 5. Moldova; 6. abacus; 7. Bosnia and Herzegovina; 8. Washington; 9. Indian Ocean; 10. Italy.

China Middle School JMG students awarded community grant

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Pictured is seventh grade students in JMG and representatives from Bar Harbor Bank and Trust; Jack Frost VP, Director of Community Giving (back left), and Nichole Lee, Branch Manager (front). (contributed photo)

China Middle School JMG and Bar Harbor Bank and Trust continue to strengthen their partnership. JMG was awarded a $500 Community Grant as seed funding for an empathy project, where students will learn the importance of philanthropy and community service. Students will research about nonprofit businesses, identifying businesses who serve youth in our communities.

An invitation to apply for funding will be sent to businesses chosen by the students. Businesses will be asked to present to students in the classroom about their organization and their needs to help better serve youth. To complete the project, students will vote on the business(s) that they would like to support.

The students thank Bar Harbor Bank and Trust for their continued support of the community and JMG.

Erskine’s Sarah Jarosz receives MPA principals award

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Sarah Jarosz

Sarah Jarosz, of Waterville, a senior at Erskine Academy, in South China, has been selected to receive the 2020 Principal’s Award, Headmaster Michael McQuarrie announced recently. The award, sponsored by the Maine Principal’s Assoc­ia­tion, is given in recognition of a high school senior’s academic excellence, outstanding school citizenship, and leadership.

Jarosz is a consistent high-honors student in a highly competitive academic program that includes all classes taken at the honors or accelerated level and numerous Advanced Placement courses and Concurrent Enrollment classes with nearby colleges. She has received recognition and accolades from within and outside the school for her standout accomplishments in the classroom, athletics, dance, and several hundred hours of voluntary community service.

“Sarah is universally respected and esteemed by the school community. She is an exemplary student, citizen, and fine representative of Erskine Academy and young people in general, and she personifies the school’s core values of scholarship, leadership, stewardship and relationships,” noted Headmaster McQuarrie when making the award.

Jarosz, McQuarrie, and other award winners and their principals will attend an Honors Luncheon at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer on Saturday, April 4, 2020, at 12:30 p.m.

The Honors Luncheon recognizes outstanding students, such as Jarosz, with the presentation of an individual plaque and the awarding of seven $1,000 scholarships in the names of former Maine principals and MPA executive directors.

Michael Oliveira earns fall 2019 dean’s list honors at Roger Williams University

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Michael Oliveira, of Waterville, has been named to the Fall 2019 dean’s list at Roger Williams University, in Bristol, Rhode Island. Full-time students who complete 12 or more credits per semester and earn a grade point average of 3.4 or higher are placed on the dean’s list that semester.

Oak Grove School Foundation offers grants

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The Oak Grove School Foundation is accepting applications for grants to support the education and cultural needs of students and non profit organizations in the greater central Maine area.

Recipients must be educational, charitable or religious organizations that are tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue service code.

Grant requests should be received by April 3rd, 2020. Funding decisions will be made in May and shortly after the funds will be distributed in July. Recent grants have ranged $500-$5000. The OGSF has also provided seed money for initiatives that last up to three years.

Groups interested in obtaining application forms and guidelines should contact Joann Clark Austin, Oak Grove School Foundation, PO Box 150 South China, ME 04358-0150 or Susan Briggs at briggsusan@gmail.com.

Please see this website: https://sites.google.com/site/ogsfoundationorg/

Tyler Dostie receives academic honors from Nichols College

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Tyler Dostie, a Nichols College student, in Dudley, Massachusetts, from Vassalboro, achieved dean’s list status for the fall 2019 semester at Nichols College, which ended in December.