Senior Wrestler, Nico

Megaludis, is a three-

time WPIAL and two-

time PIAA Class AAA

champion. His record is

121 to 1 as he starts the

new year, 2011 and his

last season at Franklin

Regional High School.

Nico won the recent

Powerade Tournament

and he looks forward to

going to Hershey again

this year.

He is only the third, four

time champion in the

history of the Powerade

Tournament. Great Job!

He will attend Penn

State University in the

fall and wrestle there as

well!

Coach Mausser and

FRHS will miss him!

FRHS students give their time

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Telethon 2

Band 3

PLC 4

Olweus 4

Scheduling 5

Keystone

Exams

5

F R S D

FRHS Panther News J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1 I S S U E 3

H I G H L I G H T S

I N T H I S I S -

S U E

H O L I D A Y

T E L E T H O N

P H O T O S

F R H S

M A R C H I N G

B A N D

O L W E U S

Ms. Judy Polczynski,

and her wonderful stu-

dents, give of their

time to our community

as part of the learning

process in the Life

Skills classroom. Ms.

Polczynski’s kids cre-

ated and sold Steelers

pins and Christmas

ornaments at the

Homecoming bonfire,

then donated their

earnings to the Food

Bank.

FRHS Wrestler is a Champion and headed to PSU

Photo from the Delmont Food Bank—Nov. 2010

Senior Nico Megaludis

P A G E 2

Everyone is

involved!!

Great job Ms.

Magness, TV

Students, Ms.

Pursglove and

KHK students!

Telethon High-

lights

Annual Telethon is a Success! Over $9,700 raised!

Mrs. Clause and the elf

make another appearance.

F R H S P A N T H E R N E W S

French Club raises money for others! Mer

ci Ms. Tonet Berlin and students!

WIRC has its annual book sale!

FRMS students serve as emcees too!

Dan and Hannah on TV!

Santa and his assistant elf hug a fellow student!

P A G E 3 I S S U E 3

2012 Tournament of Roses

Parade

The Franklin Regional High School Panther Band is one of 15 bands from around the

world invited to perform in the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade on January 2, 2012, in Pasa-

dena, California! The FR Band will proudly represent Pennsylvania in front of an audience of

almost one million spectators and an estimated world-wide television audience of more than

one billion viewers.

Support the FR Band Fundraisers!

Hoss’s Steak and Sea House (Route 22 in Murrysville) – This fundraiser is held every

month, on the 2nd of the month, most recently January 2, 2011. FRSD residents could

go to the band web site (www.frband.com) to print a coupon that will allow 20% of your

order to be donated back to the band.

Tambellini Gourmet Food Sale.

Sale runs January 11 – 25. Pick-up is February 12. See any band member to order.

Interstate Battery Sale – a year-round fundraiser!

Please see the fundraising page on the band web site (www.frband.com).

Donations are being accepted to help defray the cost of the band’s trip to Pasadena. Please

visit the band’s web site (www.frband) for more details!

FR Pep Band at the Petersen Center

The Franklin Regional High School Pep Band will perform at the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Center

on Saturday, January 8, 2011 during the men’s Big East Basketball game.

Jack R. Anderson, Pitt Band Director, extended the invitation to the band to perform in place of the Pitt Pep

Band while the Pitt Band is in Birmingham, Alabama for the Compass Bowl.

Sixty Franklin Regional Band students will provide the entertainment before and during the game with

Marquette. Tip-off is at 2:00 PM.

French Club raises money for others! Mer

ci Ms. Tonet Berlin and students!

P A G E 4

OLWEUS, ANTI-BULLYING INITIATIVE AT FRHS Update

Professional Learning Community Updates

PLCs or Professional Learning Communities continue throughout FRSD. At the high school, each Tues-

day, teams of teachers meet to discuss ―Essential Learnings‖ for their courses, design common assessments,

tests/projects, analyze the findings and decide how to better prepare students in that course. The process is

working well. Our students are dismissed each Tuesday at 1:57 pm so our teachers can meet quietly, with-

out interruption. We appreciate our parents’ understanding of no meetings during this time as well as no

practices/club meetings so the halls can be quiet for the teachers’ important work.

Some departments and grade levels are farther along in the process than other groups of teachers for several

reasons, but all teachers are working hard. The benefit is that teachers are talking/sharing information to

benefit our students! Continued success in 2011 to our PLC teams and students!

Olweus, a research-based anti-bullying initiative adopted by Franklin Regional School District for all stu-

dents, continues to go well at Franklin Regional High School. The imitative looks a little different in each

building, driven by grade level needs and maturation level of the students.

At FRHS, we surveyed our students to determine how much bullying/harassment is going on. Students

admitted they were bullied or observe bullying, particularly in areas that are not well supervised like the

bus, hallways, cafeteria, etc.

Currently, we are using the Class meetings, or once a month grade level meetings, to discuss key issues

related to bullying, harassment and cyber bullying, a relatively new way to offend others through elec-

tronic media like cell phones, texting, and social media—Face book.

And, bullying behaviors are not limited to just physical encounters, bullying can be in the form of verbal

abuse or ostracizing another classmate.

Many thanks to our FRHS Olweus Committee and teacher leaders! Our next class meeting dates are as

follows: Jan., 6, 2011; Feb., 3, 2011; March 23, 2011; April 20, 2011 and May 26, 2011!

P A G E 5 I S S U E 3

Scheduling Timeline A look ahead to 2011 scheduling for students in grades 8-11 is around the corner. Our dedicated counsel-

ors will be visiting the English classrooms during the first two weeks of February 2011. You, as an in-

formed parent, can review the Program of Studies which contains the course descriptions, credit require-

ments, prerequisites, etc.. This can be seen online in a link on the left hand side of the HS Webpage, enti-

tled ―PROGRAM OF STUDIES‖. It is over 80 pages so you might not want to print it to save those trees.

Please strongly consider what the teachers recommend. They see your child’s efforts, grades, homework,

etc. They are a very good judge of what course the student should take the following year.

Freshmen Curriculum Orientation will be on Jan. 19, 2011 at 6 PM-7:30 PM

Interested in a Senior Year Internship or information on Dual Enrollment, come to the session on Wednes-

day, February 2, 2011.from 6:30PM to 7:30 PM Call Ms. Mellon, assistant principal, for more informa-

tion.

PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Keystone Exams Program Overview General information

The Keystone Exams are end-of-course assessments designed to assess proficiency in

the subject areas of Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Literature, English Composition,

Biology, Chemistry, U.S. History, World History, Civics and Government.

The Keystone Exams are one component of Pennsylvania’s new system of high school

graduation requirements. Keystone Exams will help school districts guide students to-

ward meeting state standards—standards aligned with expectations for success in col-

lege and the workplace. In order to receive a diploma, students must also meet local

district credit and attendance requirements and complete a culminating project, along

with any additional district requirements.

For the graduating classes of 2015 and 2016, students must demonstrate successful

completion of secondary-level course work in Algebra I, Biology, Literature, and Eng-

lish Composition, in which the Keystone Exam serves as the final course exam. Stu-

dents’ Keystone Exam scores shall count for at least one-third of the final course grade

(Districts may choose to change the 1/3 of the final course grade in lieu of another cal-

culation method for graduation). Franklin Regional will meet to discuss these impor-

tant issues this spring 2011. We will need a policy change to be incompliance with the

state’s new, upcoming requirements of our students in multiple grade levels and build-

ings. For example, students in grade 8 (possibly grade 7) will have taken Algebra 1.

For more information go to this site on Pennsylvania Department of Education or http://www.pdesas.org/Assessment/Graduation