Category: School Happenings

By Michelle Zercher

Have you ever wondered what FFA students are talking about when they talk about their SAE projects, which are supervised agricultural experience projects?

A supervised agricultural experience is a project that a FFA member can complete and get a credit toward graduation. Students complete these projects with the help of their FFA advisors also known as agriculture teachers and can receive credit for up to four SAE projects.

If students want to do an SAE project, they have a lot of options. The two most popular projects are raising animals and working.

Some students will work at a farm or really any job. Students can also work at a flower shop or restaurant, for example, as long as they keep a record of their paychecks and what they do everyday. This kind of SAE project is called a work experience project.

Jesse Burkholder, a junior, works on his family’s dairy farm.

“I enjoy working outside and working with machinery,” said Burkholder.

Another possible SAE project is to raise animals. When students are raising animals, they have to keep records of what they do with the animals everyday, the money they spend on feed, vet bills and boarding costs, and the income they receive from selling and showing their animals.

When September comes around it becomes a very busy time for many of the Manor FFA members, because for most students it is time to show the animals that they have spent the past months raising, feeding and training for the fairs. Students can take their animals to the Solanco and Lampeter fairs.

The most popular animals that Manor FFA kids show are steers, pigs and lambs.

Margaret Drumm, a senior, has been showing steers for six years. She said that the normal time to get a show steer is in October or November.

Cameron Long, a senior, shows pigs and steers.

According to Long, fair pigs are bought in the middle of May. Long shows pigs at the Lampeter Fair, Solanco Fair and the Pennsylvania Farm Show. When asked his favorite part of showing he said, “my favorite part of showing is getting to compete with my friends”.

Katie Hess, a junior at Penn Manor High School, shows pigs and dairy beef.

“My favorite part of showing is getting the animals all ready so that they look nice,” said Hess. “I like to be able to show the judge that I really have been working with my animals, and I love when my hard work pays off. I also like selling them and making money”.

Kayla Major, a junior at Penn Manor High School, shows lambs.

“My favorite part of showing is the rush of adrenaline I get when I walk into the show ring and get to show off my hard work,” said Major.

Katrina Reiff, a senior at Penn Manor High School, shows lambs, pigs, and dairy beef.

“My favorite part of showing would have to be competition but also showing beside my sister and friends,” said Reiff, who shows her animals at the 4-H roundup, Solanco Fair, Lampeter Fair, and the PA Farm Show.

By Anthony Polaski

There’s a sweet chocolate scent afloat in the Penn Manor high school hallways thanks to Sweet Temptations, a class-created company that sells a variety of chocolate covered pretzels. This is part of the entrepreneurship class which teaches students how to start a business, how to run a business and how to liquidate the business.

There are three different kinds of pretzels for sale: candy covered, rainbow sprinkles, and crunchy toffee. The pretzels cost $1.50 each or two for a $2.

So far, the company has experienced success with sales with only a few minor setbacks.

Sweet Temptations ran into a problem when their original supplier stopped supplying at this time of year and a new source had to be found. The new source charges 10 cents more per pretzel but eliminates shipping costs so there is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

The entrepreneurship class has a standard business class curriculum but the class revolves around the creation of a student generated business idea. After determining what the business is going to be, students are elected or volunteer to be different positions of the company. Every company has a production, marketing, finance, public relations and human resources department. Each department has a vice president which leads the department and a company president is elected to oversee all activity.

Deion Valentin is a senior in the entrepreneurship class this semester.

“This class has been a great experience so far and taught me a lot about how to run my own business and just how I could become successful and profit from my own idea,” said Valentin.

To start off the company the students gain capital by selling stocks for the company. The company sold 50 stocks at $3 to anyone willing to buy. Stocks in entrepreneurship usually work out unrealistically well for buyers, giving them sometimes more than 200 percent profit.

When the company is started, the students create bylaws to determine things like how much employees would earn. For Sweet Temptations, students get paid a percentage of the profits once the company breaks even.

So far the company is experiencing  success through its pretzel sales and could even possibly do better than last semester when the class sold paracord bracelets.

Mrs. Christa Craig, who teaches the class, has advice for anyone interested in entrepreneurship,

“In entrepreneurship you need to work hard and be dedicated to your idea in order for your company to be successful.”

By Danielle Johnson

Manor FFA is receiving a donation from Hersheypark. Included in this donation are Kohler engines from amusement rides and tools including a valve grinder.

The engines are being donated because Hersheypark is upgrading the motors in the Turnpike and Speedway rides to Honda GX200. These new motors will be easier and cheaper for the park to repair. They should also be more fuel efficient and save around two gallons of gas every day of use.

The engines from the Turnpike cars have arrived at Penn Manor, and the engines from the Speedway cars will arrive in the coming weeks. Along with the engines, Hersheypark has also donated parts and tools used to work on the engines.

Rather than wasting or recycling the engines, Hershey Park decided to donate them to the Penn Manor Ag Department for educational use. Penn Manor was selected for this donation through an FFA advisor’s personal contact.

This donation will allow the Ag Department to put the money saved for upgrading engines towards other items.

The new engines will serve as demonstration engines for troubleshooting and diagnostics. They are different from the current demonstration engines and will provide expanded learning possibilities for Penn Manor students.

“The new equipment will allow our students to use industry standard valve service equipment,” said Mr. Jonathan Hess, agriculture teacher. “We feel this will greatly benefit our students’ education.”

By Alexis Cunningham

Penn Manor High School will introduce a 1:1 program for high school students in January of 2014. The 1:1 program will be giving each student their own personal laptop.

According to the Lancaster New Era, the technology department, lead by Charlie Reisinger, introduced the idea this past fall, but the 1:1 program was not presented to the school board until March 18. The board approved the plan on April 1.

The laptops will be monitored by the school’s network for appropriate use only. Each student is responsible for any damages and viruses to their laptop.

“Laptops will be connected to the school’s network. When off-campus, the Internet will be filtered via the district web-filter,” said Reisinger. “The laptops will be personally assigned to students and may be used both in school, at home and off-campus.”

With the 1:1 program, each student has access to the internet at school as well as at home.

“They are first and foremost a learning tool and we trust that students will use them for educational pursuits. The Penn Manor  Acceptable Use Policy applies in full—even when the laptops are off-campus,” said Reisinger on appropriate use of the laptops.

Although there was some debate over the type of technology to purchase, the teachers who helped create the program decided that a keyboard is essential for writing purposes. The district is considering netbooks.

“However, my team and I are still evaluating various models. We still have a great deal of testing to do before making a final model decision,” said Reisinger.

The 1700-student high school is due for laptop upgrades in the upcoming year. According to Principal Dr. Phil Gale, the cost to purchase laptops for each student is now much cheaper than it would be to replace all of the current laptops.

“Costs are estimated at approximately $580,000,” said Reisinger. “To put that figure in perspective, the Pennsylvania Classrooms For the Future (CFF) grant provided approximately $470,000 for the 400 current MacBooks.”

The 1:1 program offers many benefits, including the possibility of allowing the student to purchase their laptop when they graduate. This is due to the fact that every three to four years the laptops need replaced.

However, Reisinger says that the laptops will be reused for upcoming freshman as of right now. The tech department is also offering students with advanced computer skills to become a tech-support team in a form of an internship.

Dr. Gale said that the laptops will give the student body more opportunities to apply what they have learned in class.

According to Reisinger’s blog, the 1:1 program is intended to improve class engagement, school attendance, science and math skills and writing and language arts.

“That’s our whole purpose (of the laptops), to improve student achievement,” said Dr. Gale. Dr. Gale is hoping that the 1:1 program will eventually advance Penn Manor’s curriculum.

By Josh Lefever

Have you ever wondered who is behind the screen of the Dr. Gale Tho twitter account? This popular account has 550 followers and is a parody of Penn Manor High School Principal Dr. Philip Gale.

The account was made for more than one reason, but Dr.Gale Tho said he mainly made the Twitter account because he wanted to make people laugh.

“You know, the burn book made people cry, Danielle’s page [@Play_Nice_PM] made made people feel good about themselves, and I thought to myself, why not make people laugh?”

Dr.Gale Tho added that he is careful about the jokes he makes.

“This page was meant to be funny, not to hurt feelings”, said Dr.Gale Tho. “I have been very careful not to say anything that could be taken seriously, like in the movie  Mean Girls when Tina Fey’s character gets her apartment searched when the burn book said she was doing drugs.”

Although he is mostly anonymous, there is one Penn Manor student who knows who the twitter account is.

“There came a point where I was curious enough about who ran another page that the two of us arranged a meet-up,” said Dr. Gale Tho. The anonymous writer said that the meeting was in a random parking lot where one student set off a car alarm,  and Dr.Gale Tho reported to the car to meet.

What does the actual Dr.Gale think about all of this going on?

“Some of the things are funny, and I’m glad for the most part that things have been appropriate,” said Dr. Gale. According to Dr.Gale, the student would not get in trouble if his name was revealed.

Dr.Gale Tho was not sure about what kind of trouble he might actually get in if he is exposed.

“I’d have to check the planner to see what the consequences for the first offense of making a funny Twitter page would be,” said Dr. Gale Tho. “One thing I will say is that I think it’s sad how we live in a day and age where schools have the power to monitor what you say on social media.”

At this point, Dr.Gale does not see a reason the page would need to be removed..

“No [it should not be removed], as long as it remains appropriate and nothing more inappropriate goes up,” said Dr. Gale.

Dr.Gale Tho said at one time he was scared after he made this Twitter account.

“Initially, right after I made the page, every time the phone would ring in one of my classrooms I was convinced it was for me, and that sick feeling you get in your stomach would creep in.”

By Jordan Machado

Being asked to prom may be the best thing that could happen to a high school student. People ask their dates in many different ways, some very creatively such as at a school event with lots of people and some in the simplest forms through text. Either way, high schoolers look forward to prom and plan early.

“Prom is the best thing high school has to offer and being asked in a simple way just shows that to some people it’s just a dance,” said senior Amber Casey. “To me, it’s more than just a dance. It’s a great time to spend with a special person and friends and some people only do it once.”

Many Penn Manor students have been asked to prom in creative ways.

Senior Sarah Giuffrida was asked to prom by her boyfriend, senior Zach Plank, on March 19. Plank used lit candles to spell out a message to Giuffrida.

“I wasn’t expecting him to ask me this day. I was sitting outside with my friend senior Alex Kresh waiting for Zach to come over,” said Giuffrida. “Zach kept telling me he needed me to go inside because he forgot something in my room. It started to annoy me so then I finally went in, walked up to my room and my floor spelled out (Prom).”

Senior Natalie Pavlovec recently asked her boyfriend Donald Bender, a junior at Lancaster Mennonite, to prom using an art board disguised as homework.

“I pretended to go to the bathroom but went to his room and put the board on his bed,” said Pavlovec. “He looked at the board and thought it was amazing.” Pavlovec added a piece to the back of the board that said lift. When Bender followed the directions, there was a message asking him to prom.

Pavlovec said she was nervous he was not going to say yes. “I was wrong” she said. “He looked at me and smiled saying yes”.

Senior Andrew Glick’s method of asking his friend, senior Emily Adams, to prom ensured she would say has.

“I was on my way out to my car to leave school and saw all these sticky notes on my car. Every single note said (Prom?)” said Adams.

Emily was not expecting this to happen but said she wanted to be asked in a different way besides a text or asking verbally.

“He asked in this way because when I didn’t park correctly he would leave a sticky note on my car telling me about it” said Adams.