Gurney Elementary School has been named a 2023 Hall of Fame School by The Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators (OAESA)...
Gurney Named 2023 Hall of Fame School
Gurney Elementary School has been named a 2023 Hall of Fame School by The Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators (OAESA).
The award recognizes schools for outstanding work in the following areas: school mission and vision, instructional systems and supports, student achievement, student development, personnel, administration, school management and stakeholder engagement.
The school submitted an application with extensive evidence in all areas and then earned an on-site evaluation. The on-site evaluation included a student-led school tour and group interviews with students, parents, community members, staff, central office administration, the principal and assistant principal.
On April 14, the school celebrated with the help of the Chagrin Falls High School Marching Band.
OAESA representatives will be presenting Principal Rachel Jones and Assistant Principal Sarah Read with the official award at an upcoming Board meeting. The award comes with $1,000 to be used at Gurney Elementary School.
“Congratulations truly goes out to ALL students and staff at Gurney Elementary School,” said Jones. “This is a whole-school award!”
Rotary Student of the Month
Chagrin Falls High School senior Madison (Madi) Machado has been selected as the April Chagrin Valley Rotary Student of the Month. Machado was chosen based on leadership and service qualities displayed in the community.
At CFHS, Machado earned a variety of awards and recognitions including CFHS Tiger of the Semester, CFHS Honor Roll, Chagrin Valley Conference Swimmer of the Year, USA Swimming Breakout Award, golf team captain, swimming team captain and Zenith design editor.
Machado is a four-year member of girls golf, girls swimming and girls track and field teams and two-year member of Zenith Yearbook.
Machado’s extracurricular activities include 14 years of club swimming, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summits, as well as Mental Health Summits. She enjoys taking on leadership responsibilities, photography and drawing. She has worked at the Chagrin Valley Country Club as a lifeguard, swim coach and synchronized swimming coach. She also is a babysitter and photographer. Her volunteer experience includes Lake Erie Swimming Junior and Senior Athlete Representative and a USA Swimming National Grassroot Athlete Representative.
While at CFHS, Machado took the following accelerated classes: AP United States history, AP environmental science, AP statistics, AP psychology, CCP English.
She plans to major in psychology and minor in sports media or photography at Indiana University and join research projects related to sports psychology and the mental health of college athletes.
Service-Learning Club Makes a Difference
Third-graders Parker Lower, Liam Dixon, Reid and Julliette Tucholka from Gurney Elementary School presented about the Gurney Service-Learning Club at the Chagrin Falls Board meeting last week.
According to Dale Tschappat, school counselor and co-advisor of the club, the third-grade Gurney Service-Learning Club was started back in 2004 –long before these students were even born. The club’s mission is for students to learn how to serve others by volunteering and giving their time, friendship, talent and selves. The goals of this club are to build leadership skills, take action to improve the community, build friendships, learn about the world in an interactive way and gain a sense of satisfaction from doing something meaningful. Students achieve these goals by partaking in service projects in the community.
One of the service projects the club did this past year was Pennies for Patients. Pennies for Patients is a charity event to help those with blood cancer. The club’s members met before and after school to create posters to advertise the upcoming fundraiser as well as count the donated coins to record how much money each class collected. Gurney students and staff helped raise $5,800 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The class that collected the most money got a pizza party sponsored by Augie’s Pizza.
In December, the club held a food drive for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. More than 400 pounds of food were donated.
Tschappat’s favorite service activity is when club members visit Hamlet Senior Living Community. Students visited the Hamlet community for Halloween, where they dressed up, ate candy, and played bingo. During one of their other visits, the students thanked the veterans who live there for their service and listened to the stories they had to share about that time of their lives. The students love building these connections.
And the club has proved that these connections truly do last a lifetime. Courtney Mooney, a reading teacher and the other co-advisor, was able to reunite with one of her Chagrin Falls teachers who now lives at Hamlet through a service-learning club visit. Moments like this prove how important this work is for the community.
“Service-learning was central to my own education,” said board member Robert E. Schleper, Jr. “It makes me so proud to see all of these young faces here tonight and it makes me hopeful for the world that they will build.”
Rats! The Story of the Pied Piper
“Rats! The Story of the Pied Piper,” a humorous fairy tale musical by Dave and Jean Perry, will be presented by Showtime Junior and sponsored by Chagrin Falls Community Education on April 28 at 7 p.m., April 29 at 2 p.m., and April 30 at 2 p.m. All performances will be held at the Chagrin Falls Intermediate School Auditorium.
Directed by retired Chagrin Schools music teacher and department chair Patricia Haynish with assistance from sixth-grade teacher Kathy Ohlrich and Gurney general music teacher Patrice Croglio, the 70 cast and crew members will introduce attendees to the town of Hamelin, which is overrun by rats. The citizens are in a tizzy until the mysterious Pied Piper appears, offering to solve their dilemma for a small fee.
Tickets will be available at the door and are $12 for adults and $9 for students.
Tigers of the Spring Semester
The Tigers of the Semester Award is presented to students who exemplify a positive attitude, work ethic, achievement in the classroom and service to fellow students and teachers at Chagrin Falls High School. Teachers nominate one student from their classes that impressed them with their achievement, attitude, hard work, willingness to help others and growth during the first half of the year. The award program is sponsored by Interact Club and advisors Karen Sindelar and Janet Coriell organized the interactive presentation that featured personalized messages from each teacher who nominated a student.
Tigers of the Spring Semester of the 2022-23 school year are Fraya Brattebo, Nate Bruce, Grace Calhoun, Ella Cimperman, Kai De Leon, Charlie Frederick, Theo Hawk, Julian Hink, Katie Jones, Matthew King, Megan Larkin, Kelsey Long, Jack Medhurst, Isabel Nerpouni, Brix Niethammer, Lilla O’Brien, Caydence Osinski, Ella Snyder, Bruin Spieth, Sviatoslav Sushko, Nicholas Tropf, Margaux Verdier, Will Wagner, James Wilkinson and Harper Wyville.
“During the Tiger of the Semester program, our teachers recognized many amazing students who continually stand out as great students and wonderful people,” said Principal Mike Janatovich. “It truly makes me proud to see the many things our students accomplish inside and outside the classroom and their positive impact on our entire school community.”
CEO of Progressive Visits CFMS
Last spring, Chagrin Falls Middle School Principal Laila Discenza collaborated with students to ask for speakers that would be interesting for middle school students. Eighth-grader Autumn Taylor did not take the easy route by asking a family member or a friend. Autumn thought of outstanding companies in the Cleveland area and decided to write to the CEO of Progressive Insurance. To Autumn´s surprise, Tricia Griffith, the CEO, personally responded.
The eighth-grade team excitedly scheduled Mrs. Griffith to speak to the entire middle school in the Performing Arts Center. She was a career speaker brought in to talk about leadership and effective teamwork. Prior to Mrs. Griffith speaking to the students, they discussed the key concepts of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens,” which was based on the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Mrs. Griffith touched on several concepts from the book in her speech.
She encouraged students to be proactive, like Autumn was, and reach out for what they want. She assured the teens that they don’t always have a direct path to success. They have to be flexible to take risks, try new things, and set daily attainable goals such as trying to make someone else’s day better each day. She talked about the importance of being a good listener to truly get along with others and be a good team player.
Prioritizing becomes essential for one’s personal and professional happiness. The example she gave was that one of her sons played football his senior year of high school. His team made it to the state championship game. Her interview with the board for the position of CEO of Progressive was scheduled for the same day. She prioritized and decided to reach out about attending the game and hope for a reschedule of her interview. The culture that Progressive breeds is win-win thinking. Her colleague that was up for the same position gave up his interview time slot to allow her to interview and attend that championship game, which her son´s team did win. She pointed out her gratitude for her colleague´s kind gesture and that a title does not always determine leadership; it’s how you treat others.
She stressed that synergy, accomplishing more as a group than as an individual, is an expectation at Progressive. When students asked about some of their favorite Progressive television commercials, they learned that it was a true group project to come up with the ads with Dr. Rick, who helps people who are ‘becoming their parents.”
Finally, she encouraged the audience to remember to “sharpen their saw. Take time to slow down, unplug and recharge. Remember one’s priorities and take time for oneself in order to truly have positive energy, which helps others and enables an individual to be a strong member of one’s team. Take time to exercise, eat right, take a break from social media or video games to reconnect and be one’s best self.
It was an honor to hear such a grounded and level leader. The mother of six children interacted incredibly well with her audience of 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds. She did not miss a beat when asked, “Do you have beef with Jake from State Farm?” She wished everyone success.
“It is no mystery as to why Progressive is one of the top 20 employers in the Cleveland area and a nearly $80 billion company,” said teacher Kathleen Aranavage. “It’s only with strong leadership, positive culture and great employees that we can reach such great success!”
