Good News! Good News!

A major component of any professional learning community is the celebration of excellence in teaching, outstanding academic achievement, and dedicated community service. When one of us shines, we all shine! With that in mind, we would like to share and celebrate the accomplishments of some of our colleagues and our students. Congratulations go out to:

**Nicole Dillon, Shannon Donohue, Maggie Fiacchi, Brielle Filtch, Molly MacLachlan, Nellie Ramsden, Molly Tice, Meghan Witkowski, and Nicole Wynne who were members of the Wildfire Soccer Team that won the Under 14 National Indoor Soccer Championship in Sterling, Virginia on February 13th and 14th. The Wildfire team is also comprised of a few girls from Westhill. The girls defeated teams from Virginia, Ohio, and Idaho on their way to the championship. Information on the Wildfire Soccer Team can be found at http://www.wildfiresoccer.net/

**K.C. Heffernan third grade students Patrick Morocco, Edward Plogman, and Bryce Kelly who formed a team in support of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. “On February 28, 2010 the boys shaved their heads to become a walking symbol of solidarity with kids who are fighting cancer!” Their team raised more than $1400 to support the “world’s largest volunteer driven fundraising event for childhood cancer research.” Recognition also goes out to KCH second grade student Jack McAuliff and his brother DMS fourth grade student Max McAuliff who also participated in the St. Baldrick’s fundraising event.

**Mary Morocco and Andrew Murphy who were selected as winners of the 2010 Marcellus Optimist Club Oratorical Contest. Congratulations are also in order to finalists Tyler Smith, Jake Downing, Amelia Gonella, and Mackie Anson. The Driver Middle School students presented their speeches at the March 3, 2010 Marcellus Optimist Club meeting. The oratorical contest topic was “Cyber Communication: Progress or Problem.” The finalists were judged on criteria that included poise, the content and organization of the speech, presentation skills, and the overall effectiveness of the speech. Morocco and Murphy will now move on to the next level of regional and national competition.

**Laurie Updike, Marcellus Girls’ Varsity Soccer Coach, who was honored by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America for “having achieved 200 career victories as a high school girls’ soccer coach”.

**Driver Middle School Chorus and Band members Michael Keegan, Meghan LaBombard, Kristen Goodwin, Jayme Lema, Abi Kankus, Hannah Abbott, Chris Torell, James Murphy, Meghan Powell, Jason Gerbsch, Trevor Costa, and Connor Lundrigan who were selected to perform in the 2010 Onondaga Elementary All-County Music Festival. The students performed in the All County Band, the All County Orchestra, or the All County Chorus. They rehearsed on March 5th and 6th and then performed in concert on March 6, 2010 at Corcoran High School. The students were selected based on teacher recommendations.