Middle School

A team of seventh-graders from Smithsburg Middle School recently finished first in the fifth annual 6th Congressional District Project Citizen Showcase at Hagerstown Community College. Springfield Middle School finished second in the event and Clear Spring Middle School placed third. The students presented a project about a local issue to a panel of judges comprised of educators and community leaders. All seventh-graders participated in the process, and each middle school selected one group for presentation at the district showcase.

On Feb. 7, E. Russell Hicks Middle School held Parent Night at the school. Students brought parents, grandparents, other family members and guests from the community for an opportunity to explain their academic data and success this year. Students also set goals for the remainder of the school year. The staff at the school believes that open communication between parents, students and teachers helps increase academic and social achievement. A spaghetti dinner was part of the activities. 

Some students at Western Heights Middle School have to walk through an empty room or a classroom with students to get to their own classroom. The school's Spanish and French teacher's desk is in a narrow storage room that exits onto the hallway. Her classroom is next door. Band class is held on the school's auditorium stage, said Principal Mike Kuhaneck, explaining the layout during a Wednesday tour of the 1300 Marshall St. school's ground floor. Those conditions will improve with renovations to the West End school's ground floor, expected to be substantially complete in time for classrooms to be ready for the first day of the next school year on Aug. 21, school system officials said.

Middle school might be a bit early for someone to decide on a career, but it's not too early to begin exploring. On Thursday, students from five county middle schools toured Washington County Technical High School, where they got a glimpse of courses ranging from cosmetology to carpentry, to computer game development and animation. “We were named the most outstanding science and technology program in the state of Maryland last year,” Sally Irwin, the Project Lead the Way biomedical science teacher told a group of eighth-graders from Boonsboro Middle School.

HANCOCK - The 181 students at Hancock's middle school were honored Friday for having the best attendance rate of all middle schools in Washington County. That attendance achievement earned the students a $250 check and an attendance banner from the Golden M Co. (McDonald's), according to Robert "Bo" Myers, principal of Hancock Middle-Senior High School. A steady increase in attendance by middle school students in the past five years is the result of efforts by parents, teachers and students who are committed to education, Myers said.

One of the two men who died Friday after a head-on crash in Chambersburg, Pa., was a media specialist at Western Heights Middle School, Western Heights Principal Michael Kuhaneck confirmed Sunday. Dean Schroeder was the media specialist at the middle school in Hagerstown's West End, Kuhaneck said. “He was a great guy, loved kids. He worked very hard,” Kuhaneck said Sunday morning. “He did everything. He ran the (student) morning announcement crew for the school,” Kuhaneck said.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Chambersburg Area Middle School Principal Timothy Bowers said Wednesday he is resigning to become superintendent of the Northern Tioga School District. "It's the district I attended as a kid. I'm going home," said Bowers, 36, who has been principal of the middle school for two years. The district on the New York border has about 2,600 students attending three elementary and three secondary schools, according to Bowers, compared to more than 8,000 students in the Chambersburg Area School District.

Builder wins contract to build new middle school By DAVE McMILLION / Staff Writer, Charles Town CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - The Jefferson County Board of Education agreed Tuesday night to pay a Martinsburg contractor $9.6 million, $2.2 million more than the state will provide, to build a new middle school. The board will ask for permission from the state School Building Authority on Friday to make up the difference with funds originally set aside for Jefferson High School's renovations, said Superintendent of Schools David W. Markoe.

Washington County Public Schools saw a slight increase in total enrollment from September 2007 to September 2008, according to projections presented at a meeting Tuesday between the Board of Education and the Washington County Commissioners. Elementary school enrollment saw the largest increase, while middle school enrollment stayed almost even and high school enrollment declined slightly. In September, 10,029 elementary students were enrolled, up 107 students from the 9.922 students enrolled in September 2007.

LaMarc Hilliard, a fifth-grader at Emma K Doub Elementary School who wrote a story on his iPad about a turkey helping a chicken find treasure that was stolen by a group called the “bling bling crew,” was able to project what he wrote from his iPad to a screen in the front of his class as part of the school's digital writing showcase event Tuesday. Students demonstrated to family and friends at the school digital portfolios they have built since the beginning of the school year after receiving an iPad or an iPod touch.

Fifth marking period Distinguished honor roll Grade six - Emily Burzinksi, Mary Colver, Cameron Eichelberger, Maggie Elliott, Maliek Fuller Williams, Alyssa Getz, Samuel Hardman, Jacob Hatcher, Lauren Healey, Krehl Kasayan, Alison Lee, Rachel Lum, Kira Lutz, Crystal Martinez, Angelina McCreesh, Michael Merrill, Andrew O'Connor, Jennet O'donoghue, Lars Ostmann, Jon Patterson, Nathan Roberts, Angelle Robison, Jared Shay, Baylee...

Dumbledore's Army, a middle school-level Destination Imagination team from Smithsburg Middle School, will represent Washington County at the Destination Imagination Global Finals competition taking place in Knoxville, Tenn., from May 21 to 25. The team will compete against more than 1,200 teams from around the world.   Destination Imagination is the world's largest creative problem-solving program. Teams solve one of seven challenges in the areas of science, technology, mechanics, engineering and theater.

The Waynesboro Area Middle School came alive with music last Saturday night. Waynesboro Communities That Care (CTC) hosted the fourth annual Waynesboro “You Have Talent” talent show and 19 contestants sang and danced for the audience. Four dance groups performed, including one solo dance act, and seven singers took the stage. Music ranged from ballet numbers to One Direction songs. Participants were judged in four categories: Grades kindergarten through five, grades five through eight, and grades nine through 12 for individuals; and a group category for other performances.

As teenage athletes left Chambersburg Area Middle School North on Wednesday evening, firetrucks and other emergency vehicles descended on the parking lot for a drill related to an mock attack at a nuclear power plant. Emergency services officials planned to set up decontamination tents and assess potential shelter operations related to a disaster at the Three Mile Island plant south of Harrisburg, Pa. Evacuees from the Steelton area near the plant are supposed to head to Chambersburg, Pa., if the worst happens.

Berkeley County Schools Superintendent Manny P. Arvon hopes renovations planned for Martinsburg North Middle School can begin at the end of the school year. Bids totaling $8.1 million for the project were awarded Tuesday night by the Berkeley County Board of Education, contingent upon anticipated funding decisions to be made Monday by the state School Building Authority. The SBA is scheduled to meet Monday to consider a recommendation by its finance committee to “recapture” a total of $6.9 million in state funds that were awarded for Spring Mills High School and Gerrardstown Area Middle School construction projects.

No one was seriously injured Monday afternoon when several wooden fence rails sliced through the windshield of a car that crashed through a fence on the south end of Hagerstown, police said. Hagerstown Police Officer T. Bartles said at the scene that the accident happened at about 1:30 p.m., when a Chevrolet Monte Carlo being driven by a 17-year-old male demolished part of a wood fence between Emma K. Doub Elementary and E. Russell Hicks Middle schools. The Chevrolet continued to travel for about 100 yards through a grove of young trees before it came to rest.

For the second straight day, Urbana Middle School closed at 12:30 p.m. due to a nonworking air conditioning system, Frederick County Public Schools announced in an email Thursday morning.

Some students at Western Heights Middle School have to walk through an empty room or a classroom with students to get to their own classroom. The school's Spanish and French teacher's desk is in a narrow storage room that exits onto the hallway. Her classroom is next door. Band class is held on the school's auditorium stage, said Principal Mike Kuhaneck, explaining the layout during a Wednesday tour of the 1300 Marshall St. school's ground floor. Those conditions will improve with renovations to the West End school's ground floor, expected to be substantially complete in time for classrooms to be ready for the first day of the next school year on Aug. 21, school system officials said.