On March 4, Chagrin Falls Schools will be having its "Chagrin Cares Family First Night."
Chagrin Cares Family First Night
On March 4, Chagrin Falls Schools will be having its “Chagrin Cares Family First Night.” There will be no athletic practices or games, no homework, no club meetings or activities and no studying for tests. Students and staff will leave school at the dismissal bell and are encouraged to only focus on connecting with their families.
Chagrin Family First Night is in partnership with Community Education and Chagrin Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Coach Earns NEOIAAA Award
A Chagrin Falls High School alumnus and cross country coach and assistant track and field coach, Clay Burnett, has brought a proud accomplishment to his alma mater. Burnett, who owns a business called Final Forms, has won the Northeast Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administration Association (NEOIAAA) Ralph Quisenberry Service Award. Burnett is being recognized because of his company’s contributions to interscholastic athletics.
“I can say as one of the first schools to use Final Forms it was great when he first created the company, and each year it keeps on getting better,” said Athletic Director Charlie Barch. “Final Forms has saved so many hours for the athletic department and every student-athlete and parent. Previously, all parents/student-athletes had to fill out over 12 pages of paperwork before each season in which they competed. Then, each team had to make copies of the paperwork and give them to each coach. Now everything is electronic and prepopulated for each student-athlete and family so filling out information is very quick and easy. Physicals are easily tracked and communicated when they expire. Final Forms has also helped with communication to parents and student-athletes as well. There are new features being added every month.”
The Quisenberry Service Award recognizes special contributions, leadership and service to interscholastic athletics in Ohio as well as the local and state level. It is presented to an individual from outside the profession of athletic administration who has made powerful improvements and offered quality service to interscholastic athletes.
Clay Burnett is a member of the Chagrin Falls High School Class of 2000. He has previously earned the News Herald Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2018. He is invited to attend the annual NEOIAAA Annual Awards Banquet to accept the honor on April 7. The banquet takes place at the Sheraton Suites Hotel in Cuyahoga Falls.
NEOIAAA works to foster high standards of sportsmanship, ethics and integrity; provide opportunities for professional growth; recognize outstanding contributions to athletics; and encourage unity and fellowship to promote stronger relationships.
CFHS Promotes the Arts with Literary Publication
This year marked the 60th anniversary of the Chagrin Falls High School (CFHS) literary publication, “PRISM.” First published in 1959, PRISM displays students’ creative work including written pieces and visual arts. It is designed by CFHS students and is distributed once a year, free-of-charge to all high school students and staff at the end of the school year.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) created “REALM” or the Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines Award. This publicly recognizes excellent student-produced literary magazines and encourages schools to develop magazines that celebrate the art and craft of writing. The 2018 edition of CFHS’s “PRISM” was just rated “Excellent” and recognized with this award.
REALM submissions are judged by state and national judges based on a point system. Those that are scored with points between the 93 and 100 range will go on to be judged by the REALM Advisory Committee at the NCTE Annual Convention. The schools whose magazines are deemed to be REALM First Class, receive a certificate noting the award and the names of student editors, literary advisor and school appear on the NCTE website.
Staff adviser Jean Kanzinger is in her second year overseeing the publication but has been in the literary magazine business for many years. She previously advised a literary magazine at St. Peter Chanel and has been a judge for NCTE’s literary magazine program, REALM, since 2013. She continues to be a judge, but now only for out-of-state submissions.
“The combination of budgetary support and a strong art department makes our book visually spectacular,” said Kanzinger.
Though she believes the rating is worth celebrating, Kanzinger wants to continue to grow the CFHS publication to include more genres of creative writing. The top-rated publications for REALM have at least five genres, while currently, CFHS has mostly poetry. Kanzinger is a creative writing teacher at the high school, but even with the course, she feels there is little writing happening outside of that classroom. “Our art department is great about promoting submission, but we also need more writers,” said Kanzinger.
Any student can submit to “PRISM,” and the editors make sure that everyone who submits has at least one of their pieces in the book. No anonymous works are accepted, the student must attach their name to the piece. Submissions can be emailed to prism@chagrinstudents.org.
PRISM editors this year are Jeremy Cavanagh, Gus Jansen, and Nova Klein, plus one layout-specific editor, Molly Miller.
Kanzinger noticed that the majority of submitters were juniors and seniors. She realized that there is no culture of submitting creative work at the middle school level, so she decided to make a literary magazine for Chagrin Falls Middle School students as well. This year will be the first year for the middle school magazine called, “HORIZONS.” This will be a simple comb-bound publication of only creative writing as the art students have their work featured at the school art show. Kanzinger and her six middle school editors have designed a poster to encourage submissions and they are posted around the English classrooms and in the hallways.
CFMS Power of the Pen
Chagrin Falls Middle School (CFMS) students entered their first “Power of the Pen” competition at University School.
The Power of the Pen was designed for writers at the seventh and eighth grade levels to participate in interscholastic tournament competitions for young Ohio writers. Power of the Pen also assist teachers in the task of promoting better student writing by using the proper tools to identify excellence in the field. Teachers can also create an educational network to share ideas and instructional materials with other educators. The overarching goal of the program is to inspire students and teachers to embrace the art of creative expression by developing writing as a life skill.
The CFMS students competed with 15 other schools from Eastern Cuyahoga, Lake, Portage and Geauga counties. There were a total of 155 writers who participated. The team members were coached by teacher Larry Richmond and made headway in the competition with some impressive honors.
Lyndsey Neilson and Mila Gresh contributed high scores to the team’s overall point total. The seventh-graders Sofia Clark, James Wilkinson, Anna Baker and Duncan Scott all earned first place in one round of writing. Eighth-graders Ella Snyder, Kate Stephenson, Marie Kanzinger, Christina Bencin, Olivia Wirbel and Tina Logan all had combined scores which earned them a first-place finish for the tournament. Olivia had an overall finish of 11th place, Christina took 10th place and Marie ranked eighth overall.
