Put-in-Bay School News
By Steve Poe, Superintendent
Sixty-nine children in grades pre-kindergarten through grade twelve started the 2021-2022 school year. We wish a warm welcome to our new students: Cal Jackson, pre-K; Moxie Spatafore, pre-K; Wade Wertenbach, pre-K; Jaylyn Shulkers, 8th; Richie Scarpelli, 9th, and Geoffrey Luecke, 9th.
The 2021 Cross Country season began with a couple new faces, including high school students Kate Byrnes, Macy Ladd and Jacob Seaman, as well as 7th grader Lear Cooks. Lukas Kostura and Cody Kowalski returned this year as the team’s veteran runners. On September 11th, our runners competed in their first ever night meet at Seneca East High School commemorating the attacks this country faced on September 11th, 2001. The team must have felt some good energy as many of our harriers recorded “personal bests” in this race. Other races last month included the Miller Boat Line 5K on September 18th and the Ottawa County Meet on September 28th. Our high school runners will be competing at the OHSAA District Meet on October 23rd. Put-in-Bay School is very proud of these hardworking and dedicated student athletes.
The Panther Volleyball team has started the year strong and has handled adversity on its way to a 4 – 5 record. Kate Byrnes was selected as a team captain, and the other members include Macy Ladd, Lilian Frederick, Elora Hubner, El Kostura and Ava Heineman. The team has been working hard to improve its skill and accomplish team goals. The Panthers look to finish the year strong and finish with a winning record! Go Panthers.
After a year off due to Covid, grades five thru eight will be traveling to Oak Harbor High School again this year to participate in the Ottawa County Academic Challenge competition on October 19th and 20th. Students compete against teams from area schools to answer trivia questions on a wide variety of topics, including novels that the students were required to read. Good luck to all students that are participating!
Each year, Mrs. Cerny’s Spanish students invite one of the many Spanish-speaking island workers to speak to their class. This year, Ella Kostura invited one of her co-workers, Johan Portilla from Columbia. Johan conversed with the students in the Spanish language, answering their many questions about life in Colombia. This interaction gave students the opportunity to use their Spanish-speaking skills in an authentic context with a native speaker. The students were very appreciative of Johan’s willingness to take time to meet with them and help them hone their skills.
Several students in grades 9 to 10 are participating in a 7-week project under the guidance of the new art teacher, Jody Amsden. It is a collaboration between the art department and senior citizens from our community. The students and instructor work collaboratively to define and explore “other voices,” cultivate connections with those other voices by building a mutual relationship with a community partner, and finally, develop specific creative responses throughout the 7-week experience. Through sustained exploration of just one theme, this course structure is able to give priority to the development of specific cognitive skills and emotional intelligence for critical and creative thinking, empathy, iterative problem-solving, communication and collaboration.
At the end of the course the students will present their final artwork to their community partner.
The Put-in-Bay High School Quiz Bowl team hosted eight schools for the first competition of the season on Tuesday, September 14th. Our team includes: 12th grader Kate Byrnes; 11th graders Macy Ladd and Alice Lentz ; 10th graders Joe Blumensaadt, Hope Cooks, Elora Hubner, Ella Kostura and Emil Michael. Thank you to our volunteer readers, Gail McCracken, Dianne Smith and Doug Mehling!
Put-in-Bay played well, however lost all three matches against Upper Sandusky, Colonel Crawford and Saint Joseph’s Central Catholic. We look forward to future competitions when we will have many opportunities to improve our game.
The Seneca-Wyandot-Sandusky-Crawford-Put-in-Bay High School Quiz Bowl League includes the following schools: Buckeye Central, Bucyrus, Calvert, Carey, Clyde, Colonel Crawford, Columbian, Fostoria, Fremont Ross, Hopewell-Loudon, Mohawk, New Riegel, Old Fort, Ontario, Put-in-Bay, Riverdale, Seneca East, Shelby, St. Joseph Central Catholic and Upper Sandusky. Players meet every Tuesday and Thursday, September through December during lunch to practice strategy, speed and accuracy. Get your GROWL on Panthers !!
The Erie Island Library (a branch of Ida Rupp) has graciously donated kites to the art department at Put in Bay. Students in grades 1 through 6 have been working diligently creating their own kite designs. Weather permitting, Karen Wilhelm from the library would like to fly the student’s creations during the first week of October.
The High School Science Program is off to a great start this year with students in grades seven thru twelve participating in many hands-on activities. Students have already conducted several ‘citizen science projects’ including monarch tagging, bird banding, creating a field guide for use in the elementary, and identifying and cataloging island wildlife with the help of the “Naturalist app.” They’ve also started researching topics for their science fair projects for the annual competition in February. We’re excited to see what they come up with this year!
The “Goat Soup and Whiskey Restaurant” is tentatively planning a fundraiser dinner on Saturday, October 16th, that will benefit a scholarship that is being established by Woody Widmar. Details for this event will be forth-coming.
Our school utilizes “School Messenger” to inform parents of important announcements such as school closings or delays. We will now make this available to everyone in our community. If you would like to be notified by text or voice message of school closings or delays, announcements of events, etc., please contact the school at 419-285-3614 to sign up.
The previous piece is published in this month’s Put-in-Bay Gazette. The Gazette has been producing incredible independent Put-in-Bay island news for over 40 years. If you have any interest at all in what is happening on South Bass Island, we urge you strongly to subscribe to the Put-in-Bay Gazette. One-year online subscriptions are only $15, and print subscriptions are available as well. To subscribe please click here.
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