spring/summer 2017 issue i - marshall high...

George C. Marshall High School I PTSA Newsletter I Late Spring/Summer 2017 1

Thank you for your content to your PTSA trimester newsletter!

Designed by Jennifer Smyth Church

Message from the PTSA President • Linda Baker

Inside This Issue:Principal’s Letter . . . . . . .2

Library Newsflash . . . . . .3

Marshall Orchestra News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

PTSA Reflections Art Contest . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Statesmen Theater . . . . .5

Marshall Spring Sports . .6

GCM

It has been an honor and a pleasure to have served on the PTSA Executive Committee for the past four years; first as Treasurer for two

years and as President for the past two years. As I finish my term as President, I’d like to thank the many people that help the PTSA make an impact on the Marshall community.

Thank you to the many volunteers, from every grade, that helped us celebrate and recognize Marshall students at the GCM Awards Ceremony and helped us bid a fond farewell to our seniors at the Baccalaureate ceremony and All Night Grad Celebration.

To our amazing faculty and staff, we thank you for educating and caring for our children. Your dedication and hard work has not gone unnoticed and we appreciate the exceptional gifts you bring to our community. To the graduating parents who served on the PTSA board for so many years, our most heartfelt thanks. To our numerous volunteers and members, you’ve made a difference at our school and in your students’ lives. You’ve planned, shopped, baked, set-up, served, cleaned up, washed, ushered, proctored, sewed, painted, fed faculty and staff, and cele-brated Marshall students all year.

Please welcome next year’s PTSA Officers to their new positions and responsibilities as they carry on the many traditional PTSA activities and sponsorships, and also put their own imprint on the PTSA:

I know these new officers will look forward to your involvement in the PTSA next year. It’s a great place to get connected, to share your ideas, to learn from each other, to get involved, to make a difference, and to have some fun! We have the following open chairmanships for next year, so if you think any of these would be a good fit for you or someone you know, please email your interest or questions to [email protected].

All Night Grad Committee • Senior Baccalaureate Service • Student Directory Membership • Kilmer Liaison • Longfellow Liaison • Special Education

Class of 2021 Class Parent Representative

Volunteering at Marshall is rewarding because we make a difference by supporting commu-nication, providing supplementary funding, providing a forum for discussion and a mechanism for collaboration for our school community.

Thank you for your support and most importantly, your friendship. Have a safe and wonderful summer! m

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 ISSUE

George C. Marshall High School Home of the Statesmen7731 Leesburg Pike Falls Church, VA 22043

www.gcmptsa.org703.714.5400 • Fax: 703.714.5497 Attendance: 703.714.5447 Activities Hotline: 703.883.4740

GCM

PTSA ExEcuTivE OfficErS for 2017-2018President: Phil Pedlikin • Vice President: Carolyn KeehanTreasurer: Laura Eskeland • Secretary: Lorenne Schlaffer

Fall Sports Begin Tuesday, Aug. 1

Statesmen Start Wednesday, Aug. 23,

3-7pm

Freshmen/New Student Orientation

Friday, Aug. 25, 9-11:30am

UPCOMING KEY DATES


During his visit, Mr. Hertzler ate lunch in the cafeteria with our students. I am told this is something he enjoyed doing when he led our school. As he sat at a cafeteria table, many of our students visited with him and enquired about what it was like to create a high school from the ground up. Although he is 90 years old, Mr. Hertzler is sharp as a tack!

He had so many stories to share with our students. The most important thing Mr. Hertzler told me at the end of our visit was how proud he was of the student-centered culture that still exists and thrives at GCM. This is a testament to all of the principals, faculty, staff, students, parents, and community members who have nurtured this culture over the years.

The 2016-2017 school year was tremendously successful. Whether you look at test scores, sports accolades, music and art awards, academic competitions and accomplishments, DECA, FBLA, MUN, Life Smarts, our fantastic publications or any other measure, our students excelled. As the eighth prin-cipal of Marshall High School, I am most proud of the honesty, commu-

nity, spirit, responsibility and respect our students show each other, adults

and community members, and our school every day. This is the legacy Mr. Hertzler and those who came after him left behind to be instilled in all Marshall Statesmen. Yes, our students are here to learn,

expand their academic knowledge base and to think critically about a plethora

of issues that arise in class on a daily basis. More importantly, I believe we are here to help our students navigate adolescence, and in the end, become mature and caring human beings.

On June 20, as I shook the hand of every member of the Class of 2017 and handed them their diploma at DAR Constitution Hall, I began to think about Mr. Hertzler. I have no doubt he was just as proud of the first graduat-ing class as I am of the 54th. For, we are the Marshall Community. We are Statesmen.

I hope you enjoy your summer and I look forward to seeing many

of you in August. School starts August 28! m

Sincerely,Jeffrey D. Litz

Principal

Message from the Principal • Jeffrey D. Litz

Dear Marshall Families,

On June 7, I had the honor and privilege of welcoming our very first principal, Mr. Elam Hertzler, back to Marshall High School. Mr. Hertzler, his wife and I,

along with three members of the class of 1966, toured our newly renovated school for several hours while he met current faculty and staff, told stories about building Marshall (it cost seven million dollars to build the entire school) and specific teachers, meeting, on several occasions, with Mrs. Marshall at her home, and inviting Mrs. Marshall to be the first in our school’s history to accept a diploma.

View of graduation at DAR Hall in Washington, DC, on June 20, 2017.


Thank you!Thanks to the PTSA grant, we added

over 40 new books to our collection

— many new releases and several

titles in Arabic and Farsi. We appreciate your

support in getting the right books into your

students’ hands!

In addition, we want to send a special thank you

to our phenomenal team of parent volunteers

this year who help us stay organized with all the

books your students are reading. We appreciate

your time and dedication Amy, Jennifer, Zhen,

Zeina, and Holly!

Story Time for Teens!Pictured above, during SOL testing we took

advantage of the long class periods and read to

several classes all over the building! We worked

with teachers to select readings related to the

curriculum or of particular interest to the class.

Overdue Book NoticesIn June, we delivered our only paper notice of

overdue books to students in their 3rd period

classes. In an effort to save paper, we regularly

send overdue book notices directly to your

student via their FCPS Google email. Please

encourage your student to check that account

and clear up any obligations. m

Thank you for a great year and happy reading!

—Krissy Ronan and Elizabeth Toledo Marshall HS Librarians

LIBRARY NEWSFLASH

Summer Reading!Summer reading information is available for all English classes on our website: www.gcmhslibrary.com/summer-reading-2017/

ESOL CLASS FIELD TRIP: We took field trips with four ESOL classes to the public library (temporary home across the street) so they could get their library cards and know the resources available over the summer.

www.gcmhslibrary.com


Marshall Orchestra News

Arts contest asks what do you think is “Within Reach”? This fall’s PTSA

Reflections Arts

contest has already

kicked off —

creative students

can start working this summer on

entries for next school year’s contest.

Reflections is a national PTA contest

encouraging students to interpret

a theme through the arts. This

fall’s theme is “Within Reach,” and

students can enter their works in any

of six arts categories: Writing, music

composition, dance choreography,

photography, film or visual arts.

Students can start their entries

now— the deadline at Marshall will

be early in the school year, so work-

ing on entries in the summer is a

great idea! The Marshall entry dead-

line will be in late October, so watch

the PTSA newsletter for details.

Works judged to be “outstanding

interpretations” in each arts cate-

gory may move on to be judged at

district,county and state levels.

Parents, please encourage your

students to try Reflections! This

program is about letting students

flex their creativity outside the

classroom. In this contest, an origi-

nal and personal interpretation has

more weight than perfect artistic or

technical skills.

National rules for the 2017-18 contest

are online now. Visit www.vapta.org/

arts-and-education/reflections for

rules and the entry form. Please note

that entries must be the work of just

one student, so group entries are

not accepted. Questions? Have your

student contact Leigh Rivenbark at

[email protected].

The Marshall HS Strings orchestras celebrated the end of the school year with their annual “pops” concert. Students tightened up theirs

bows to eleven, and under the baton of Music Director Mrs. Catherine Bond played pieces such as “Romeo and Juliet” by Prokofiev, “Theme from Schindler’s List” by John Williams, “Sylva” as performed by Snarky Puppy and “Highlights from Beauty and the Beast” by Alan Menken. The concert acknowledged the dedication and musicianship of the 28 seniors graduating from the strings program this year with four of those students (Brian Anderson, Allison Park, Thea Prevalsky, and Alex Stenseth) going on to study music at college.

The Marshall Orchestra Parents Associations (MOPA) was delighted to award $375 scholarships to Colin Hill and Marwa Houalla to support their participation in summer music programs. We would like to acknowledge the long time support of Rafay Hassan and Cindy Nair who are leaving the MOPA board this year.

MOPA encourages all parents who wish to participate in supporting, fund raising and strengthening the strings programs to join MOPA. Look on the Marshall HS Orchestras web site — www.gcmorchestra.org — for our fall meeting date.

—Andrew Skinner MOPA President 2017-2018

SeekiNg creative StudeNtS

Graduating seniors at the Marshall Orchestra Pops Concert.


A Busy Spring Season for Statesmen Theatre Cry-Baby: The Musical Thrills Audiences

The cast and crew of the spring musical, Cry-Baby, delivered great perfor-mances filled with high energy, funny and irreverent songs, fabulous dance numbers and, most of all, great fun. Audiences packed the auditorium and enjoyed following the story of Cry-Baby Walker and Allison, two orphaned and misunderstood teenagers who, after meeting each other during an Anti-Polio Vaccination Picnic, were destined to be together, no matter who or what stood in their way.

Student-directed Much Ado about Nothing is Really Something!

On April 29, the student directed performance of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing premiered in the Blackbox. It was directed by Katie DeLong, Luke Hemmingson and Jessica Lewis and was a collaborative effort between the Theatre Honor Society, National Honor Society, English Honor Society and Marshall’s Future Business Leaders of America. The play was presented in a reader’s theatre style to a packed audience. The cast had great costumes and provided the audi-ence with a hilarious and fast-pace rendition of one of Shakespeare’s funniest plays.

Statesmen Theatre

New Technology for the County Debuts with Statesmen Theatre During Cry-Baby, a new FCPS

credit card system was launched

which, going forward, will allow

Statesmen Theatre audience

members to use a credit card to

purchase tickets online for our

productions, or purchase with a

credit card at the box office. After

its successful test run at Marshall,

this new system will now be avail-

able for use at all Fairfax County

Schools.

Theatre Boosters Award Scholarships At the annual end of year

banquet, the Statesmen Theatre

Boosters were pleased to award

three scholarships to members of

our graduating class. Over their

years at Marshall, the seniors

dedicated their time and talent

on stage and behind the scenes

giving our community years of

wonderful, and award-winning,

productions. They will be missed

and are wished the best in their

future endeavors.

Much Ado senior student directors: (l to r) Katie DeLong, Jessica Lewis and Luke Hemmingson.


to Marshall’s SPRING Sports Teams!congratulations!

SPRING TRACK & FIELD Girls team Capitol 5A Conference Champs Many event Regional and State wins as well!

GIRLS LACROSSE – Conference, Regional Champions & State Runners Up!

BASEBALL – Conference 13 Champions!

BOYS LACROSSE Capitol Conference Champions! David Bennett Coach of the Year

BOYS TENNIS Regional Play and James Macindoe Coach of the Year

GIRLS VARSITY SOCCER 2nd place in Conferences, Regional Play

GIRLS SOFTBALL Conference Champs!

GIRLS TENNIS – WAY TO GO! Conference, Regional & State Champions!

H

BOYS VARSITY SOCCER


President – Phil PedlikinVice President – Carolyn Keehan

Treasurer – Laura EskelandSecretary – Lorenne Schlaffer

Academic LettersLinda Baker

Jennifer Church

Activities BoosterJoan Sahlgren

All Night Grad— OPEN —— OPEN —

Baccalaureate— OPEN —

Band BoosterRose Ellen Eastman

Beautification— OPEN —

Choral BoosterAllie Jewsbury

CommunicationsPolly Colwell

Jenny Thompson

County Council • Legislation Rep

Julie Heiden

Directory— OPEN —

FundraisingChristine Kenny

Grocery RewardsAnne Allen

HospitalitySarah Shamlal

— OPEN —

International NightNancy Garcia

Annie Klockner

Liaison Kilmer— OPEN —

Liaison Longfellow— OPEN —

Liaison ThoreauMichelle Alonso

MembershipDebbie Tosi

Newsletter— (Editor) OPEN —

Jennifer Church

Orchestra BoosterAndrew Skinner

ParliamentarianJulie Heiden

Public RelationsJoanne Paul

ReflectionsLeigh Rivenbark

Special Education— OPEN —

Teacher WishlistZhen Brayman

Theatre BoostersNyka Feldman

Web CuratorPolly ColwellSusan Skaggs

CLASS PARENT REPS: 2018 (Seniors)Joanne Paul

Kerry Walton

Kate Feenick

2019 (Juniors)Faith Boettger

Dianne Gurdak

Kathy Brown

2020 (Sophomores)Rachel Stott

Ciaran Lusick

Beeda Lee-Pawlak

Liz Margiotta

2021 (Freshmen)— OPEN —— OPEN —

UPCOMING YEAR 2017-18 Marshall PTSA Board Officers

UPCOMING YEAR Standing PTSA Committees

Want to spread the word about something to the Marshall community?NOTE

Send us your info for the

following PTSA communication

tools:

1. Weekly PTSA Email Blast: Timely information sent each week, directly to email. To send content for the Blast, or subscribe: [email protected]

2. Through the Web: www.gcmptsa.org • Twitter • Facebook

3. The Trimester Newsletter: Coverage of past events at Marshall with a heads-up on events to come!

Email content for web or newsletter to: [email protected]

Be a part of the team! Contact PTSA President Phil Pedlikin to learn more about

different roles: [email protected]

spring/summer 2017 issue i - marshall high...

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