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Lions Club Recognizes JHS Artists

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This year's Lions Club International Peace Poster contest invited students to "Dare to Dream" by creating a poster that explored and visually expressed how they’ll turn their dream of a peaceful world into reality. From the Junior High, three 8th grade students were recognized and received cash prizes by the Exeter Township Lions Club for their outstanding interpretation of this theme through their original artwork, including first place winner, Kylie Milshaw (left); second place winner, Nohelia Ortiz (second from right); and third place winner, Madeline Bieber (right). They were joined by a representative from the Lions Club this morning to receive their certificates and cash prizes as well as a hearty congratulations from the Lions Club mascot, Leo. Our warmest congratulations to our talented Eagles and our thanks to the JH's art teacher, Mrs. Kimberly Lopez, and the Lions Club for their yearly support of our students and this fantastic project!

Exeter Inducts Four Into Academic Hall of Fame and 60 Into NHS

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NHS Officers: Gavin Marr, Hayden Adams, Brody Oswald, and Rebecca Cherry

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Mr. Matthew Goldstan inducted Dr. Timothy Wright into the Academic Hall of Fame

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Lt. Col. Brian Roberts' mother speaks on his behalf following his induction into the 2023 Academic Hall of Fame

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2023 Academic Hall of Fame honoree, Lucy Lutz

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2023 Academic Hall of Fame honoree, Julia Huckleberry

The Exeter Township School District celebrated the achievements of students as 60 juniors and seniors were inducted into the Claude W. Dundore chapter of the National Honor Society and four notable alumni, educators or community members were inducted into the Exeter Alumni Association’s Academic Hall of Fame on Saturday, November 11, 2023. Those inducted into the Academic Hall of Fame were Timothy Wright, Ph.D., an internationally-recognized biomechanical scientist; Brian Roberts, an infantry lieutenant colonel in the Army; Lucy Lutz, a retired science teacher from the Exeter Township School District; and Julia Huckleberry, one of the founders of the district’s Alumni Association. Inductees are chosen for their contributions to society and their impact and credit they've brought to the Exeter Township School District through their achievements, volunteerism and/or work.

During his career, Dr. Wright has developed biomechanical implant systems for knee, hip and elbow replacement that have gone on to commercial distribution to patients worldwide. He’s written more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and has lectured around the world at hospitals and medical schools. He has appointments in New York at Cornell University, and the Hospital for Special Surgery, where he currently serves in the Department of Biomechanics working with surgeons and other engineers to research and develop systems to improve care for patients with orthopedic conditions. He’s developed numerous patents and awards for outstanding research and significant lifetime contributions in orthopedics. He is a 1967 graduate of Exeter; a graduate of Lehigh University, where he received his undergraduate degree; and Stanford University, where he received his graduate degrees. Dr. Wright was unable to attend the awards ceremony; however, he thanked the committee for his recognition and selection through prepared remarks. “This is a wonderful honor. I”ve been fortunate to have an ongoing career of 47 years working at the intersection of engineering and medicine. Looking back at my time at Exeter High, the highlight was teachers like the late Harry Shank, who instilled in me a thirst for knowledge and the leadership and teamwork skills that I learned playing sports and serving on the Key Club.”

Lt. Col. Brian Roberts was commissioned as an infantry officer in 2006 from the United States Military Academy at West Point. As a system evaluator in the Army, he leads military and civilian teams to develop and modernize future combat systems. He holds a Masters of Arts in Defense and Strategy from the U.S. Naval War College and is a 2002 graduate of Exeter Township Senior High School.

Lucy Lutz worked as an Exeter science teacher in the Junior High and Senior High for more than 36 years, retiring in 2007 and continuing to substitute regularly until 2014. She began her teaching career at Albright College in the biology department as an undergraduate. Following her graduation from Albright in 1968, she studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned a master’s degree in Zoology, focusing on research of the physiology, life history and paleontology of bats. Despite her academic achievements and years of experience, Mrs. Lutz joked during her acceptance that “I will be remembered as the one who you called to fix the copy machine.”

Julia Huckleberry graduated from Exeter in 1966 and has spent most of her time since then serving the district either professionally as an administrative assistant or as a volunteer. In 2009, she was an instrumental figure in the creation of the Exeter Eagles Alumni Association, which is primarily responsible for the development, selection and distribution of scholarships to graduates. Since its inception, the scholarship committee of the association distributes approximately $30,000 through 30 different scholarships from alumni or friends of alumni. During his induction of her, Mr. John Fidler, an Exeter Academic Hall of Fame committee member, recalled the story of how a family called the association in the hopes of creating a scholarship in the name of Exeter’s football coach, Leonard Meckalavage. After a few moments of confusion, Mrs. Huckleberry realized that the family had meant to call the alumni association of Exeter High School in New Hampshire. Still, she proceeded to tell the family about the virtues of Exeter Township’s football program and coaches. The family was so impressed that they decided to award the scholarship to Exeter Township, where it is still given to a deserving student every year.

The Academic Hall of Fame began in 2005 as a project of the Exeter Community Education Foundation and typically selects four to six inductees each year. This year's class brings the number of honorees to 78, who are presented with a plaque, as well as their names added to a display in the Senior High's main office.

During the second part of the ceremony, the current members of the National Honor Society presented and inducted 60 new members from the Class of 2024 and 2025 into its chapter through its candle-lighting ceremony that represents the Society's four pillars: character, leadership, scholarship and service. To be considered for membership, students must be sophomores or juniors with a weighted cumulative GPA of at least 92.000, involvement in at least one school activity or club and completion of at least five community service hours. This year’s inductees are:

  1. Harper Adams
  2. Ryanne Ahmad
  3. Perla Alvarado-Rueda
  4. Griffin Beidler
  5. Hannah Benderoth
  6. Richter Bogust
  7. Sasha Bolonski
  8. Cheyenne Boyles
  9. Joshua Brown
  10. Ian Carr
  11. Gabrielle Casalenuovo
  12. Tyler Casiano-Rodriguez
  13. Kate Dewald
  14. Natalia Figueroa
  15. Gillian Foster
  16. Jysadee Giddens
  17. Madison Grider
  18. Taylor Hill
  19. Katharine Hoover
  20. Amy Ipsen
  21. Gianna Johnson
  22. Caitlin Jones
  23. Tyler Jones
  24. Cayden Juck
  25. Alison Keim
  26. Thaddeus Kidwell
  27. Lyndsey Kline
  28. Margaret Kopanski
  29. Abby Kravetz
  30. Rebecca Lee
  31. Dorothy Liu
  32. Molly Lubenow
  33. Addison Matthews
  34. Mary McGowan
  35. Addison McKittrick
  36. Kara Miller
  37. Morgan Miller
  38. Jack Mulhare
  39. Lucas Newell
  40. Trang Nguyen
  41. Stephania Nicoloudakis
  42. Alexis Nonnemacher
  43. Ethan Papich
  44. Margaret Prock
  45. Abigail Rathman
  46. Haley Readinger
  47. Ansel Reinbold
  48. Aaron Scardecchio
  49. Kayla Schafer
  50. Lydia Smith
  51. Alexa Speary
  52. Kira Spencer
  53. Alivia Spitz
  54. Connor Stoltzfus
  55. Finn Strauss
  56. Rachelle Toaldo
  57. Annabella Venezia
  58. Logan Wegman
  59. Ashton Wilson
  60. Jordan Wolfe

Jacksonwald Students Win Turkeys in Traditional Raffle

Thanksgiving traditions in Exeter include pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes… and elementary students winning and then hoisting frozen turkeys over their heads at Jacksonwald Elementary during the school’s annual turkey raffle. The weird-yet-wonderful school tradition returned today to exuberant cheers of "Turkey! Turkey! Turkey!" from the packed cafeteria where students and teachers waited with bated breath to see who among them would win the frosty fowls. For students, being selected as a winner was so joyful that all jumped from their seats on the floor to cheers, high fives and hugs from their classmates as they rushed up to Principal Matt Hathaway to collect their frozen turkey and show off their strength by lifting (with assistance) the bird over their head to the delight and cheers of their peers.

The tradition, which was started by retired Lausch and Jacksonwald principal, Dr. Joe Schlaffer more than 15 years ago, was resurrected last year following a pause during the pandemic and leadership changes at the school. Despite the pause, the turkey hoisting tradition is still a cornerstone of the school's school-wide monthly events that reward students for their good behavior.

“The time we saw the most misbehavior was right before the holidays,” said Dr. Schlaffer, who reminisced about the origins of the raffle last year. “The whole idea was that kids could go home with a turkey, and when they get home, their parents were going to say, ‘Where did you get a turkey?’” And they’d be able to tell their parents they got the turkey at school for good behavior. I thought it was a win-win-win situation for students, their parents and goodwill in the community,” he said.

Like last year, Weis Markets in Oley found humor and heart in the school's tradition, and agreed to donate 20 turkeys to give away to one student in each classroom. "Jacksonwald is so thankful for Weis and their generosity," Principal Hathaway said at the end of the event. "And we're thankful for our wonderful school community where we can celebrate student achievement and behavior with great traditions such as this." 

Exeter Schools & Police to Hold Parent Presentation

Tuesday, December 12th at 6PM in the LGI in Exeter Township Senior High School
PRESENTED BY:
Mrs. Alycia Lenart, Exeter Township School District K-12 Student Support Coordinator
Sergeant Detective Rocco DeCamillo, Exeter Township Police Department

Please RSVP in ParentSquare

“Make no mistake, this is an eye-opening, worldwide problem affecting our students here in Exeter,” said Sergeant Detective Rocco DeCamillo to the faculty of the Exeter Township School District during a professional development session held at the Senior High last Tuesday. “To make things worse, we know there are a lot of cases here that are not being reported because it takes a lot of courage to go to a parent, a friend or to the police. This is why I think it’s important for you to be aware of this issue in case you have a student who considers you a role model and decides to confide in you.”

The issue is called sexting, and it can often lead to an even more serious issue called sextortion. “One can lead to the other one, but they are two very different things,” said DeCamillo, who was joined during the presentation by his colleague, Exeter Township Police Detective Anthony Pendell.

In short, DeCamillo explained that sexting is sending sexually-explicit messages, images or videos to another person. Sextortion, however, is a form of cyber blackmail where a perpetrator often demands money to refrain from publicly releasing sexually-explicit messages, images or videos of the victim. These issues, said DeCamillo, are ones that affect adults–as well as minors, too. “You might think of this as a high school problem, but we’re seeing sexting more frequently at the junior high level,” he said. “But what’s even scarier is that we’re starting to see it more frequently in preteens, too, which is scary. The victims–and their offenders–are becoming younger.”

To complicate matters, minors are very savvy with finding ways to hide explicit content and conversations from their parents–and perpetrators are just as savvy at finding their victims. Rather than using traditional texting methods, DeCamillo said that minors and offenders alike use social media, texting or gaming platforms to send or receive content, such as WhatsApp, XBox, Instagram, Playstation, Roblox and Snapchat. On these platforms, adults often pose as minors, cultivating trust and a following by requesting mutual friends. Once a relationship and trust has been established, DeCamillo said that perpetrators will often start by requesting selfies of the minor victim. “Younger kids–those who are 11 or 12–almost can’t help but send these selfies of themselves out naked. They think they’re talking to a 15 year old, but it’s really a 43 year old who is harvesting child pornography.”

Currently, the most frequently used platform is Snapchat. “Snap is the devil,” DeCamillo said as he discussed the app’s encrypted feature called “My Eyes Only,” which is a hidden vault that erases all content as soon as a user asks for a password reset. This, he said, even prevents law enforcement from finding and recovering those photos once a report’s been filed, giving kids a false sense of security about hiding–or sending–naked selfies on the platform. “Kids often don’t think of the ramifications of when they hit that send button there’s a whole lot of things that can come out of it,” he said.

Minors who send sexually-explicit photographs lack the understanding that this is a crime under PA law; however, DeCamillo stressed that the focus of Exeter PD is more on education rather than on the arrests of minors. “This is not a situation where we can arrest our way out of it. It’s not that simple, and arrest isn’t always the answer.” Instead, he said that the department works to educate minors about the pitfalls of sending sexts and how repeated or more serious offenses can get them in serious trouble. Beyond criminal or legal issues, he also warned that sexting can lead to other problems, such as, grooming, destroying a person’s reputation, sextortion or mental health problems. The latter, he said, is unfortunately common, and is something that profoundly worries him and his department. “If the messages wind up in the wrong hands, it can be so mentally damaging to an adolescent teen.” Reflecting on cases outside of Exeter, he said solemnly, “Sometimes, it’s so extreme that children have taken their lives over it,” he said. “Sometimes therapy doesn’t quite work out, their reputation is destroyed and they feel they have no other option other than suicide,” he said with a pause, “It’s heartbreaking.”

Superintendent Dr. Christy Haller and Assistant Superintendent Mrs. Dawn Harris organized the session with Detective Sergeant DeCamillo and Detective Pendell to bring a greater awareness to teachers of this issue, which is only growing, according to the figures the detectives presented. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of reports involving sextortion doubled, according to their report, wth 45% of sextortion perpetrators actually carrying out threats, and 25% of victims seeking mental health help following an incident.

Like last year’s edibles presentation, the professional development session proved to be so popular with educators that Detective Sergeant DeCamillo and Detective Pendell, along with the district’s K-12 Student Supports Coordinator, Mrs. Alycia Lenart, have decided to offer a similar session to parents and families so that they, too, could learn what police are seeing in the local community, as well as how to talk to their kids about sexting and sextortion. The parent and family session will be held on Tuesday, December 12, 2023 at 6PM in Exeter Township Senior High School’s Large Group Instruction (LGI) room.

Tickets Now on Sale for “The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree”

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Starring (left to right): Top: Tanner Garret as Captain Jennings and Kailey Batzel as Captain Bree. Bottom: Zander Boardman as Professor Bidwell; Elizabeth Schwenk as Madam Prescot; Niko Frederick as Samuel Prescot; Jacinda Motley as Julia Prescot; and Ben Bulles as Admiral Moore

Showtimes: Friday, November 17th and Saturday, November 18th at 7PM with a free senior citizen performance on Thursday, November 16th at 9:45AM 

Huzzah! Shiver your timbers with the Junior High's swashbuckling musical comedy, "The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree!" When Captain Jennings (played by Tanner Garret) crew jumps ship upon sighting the lady pirates in the distance, he's left with a makeshift crew of motley prisoners and Fergus, a sailor who can’t swim, to protect his wealthy passengers, the Prescots (played by Elizabeth Schwenk, Niko Frderick and Jacinda Motley), from the inevitable attack. As the lady pirates, led by Kailey Batzel as Captain Bree, take over the defenseless Kayla May, you’re in for swashbuckling musical comedy with a host of hysterical characters, including Zander Boardman as Professor Bidwell and Ben Bulles as Admiral Moore, on deck and a spectacular Bill Francoeur score.

Tickets are $7 for shows on November 17th and 18th at 7PM in the Exeter Township Junior High School's auditorium. Purchase your ticket at the door, or reserve your seat online at https://exeterjhs.seatyourself.biz

Senior High Students Celebrate Life on Day of the Dead

The lights at the entrance to the Senior High’s auditorium were dimmed today, yet the mood inside was cheerful as students and teachers gathered in the transformed space to honor, remember and celebrate their loved ones who had passed during “Día de los Muertos,” or “Day of the Dead.” A collaborative project between students of all grade levels in Spanish and art, along with help from students from Life Skills and Wood Technology, students and teachers throughout the high school were invited to bring in photos of departed loved ones to place on tables in an act of honor and celebration, rather than mourning. 

The holiday, which is celebrated on November 2nd in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, came to prominence for American students in “Coco,” a Disney movie released in 2017, which is around the time that high school Spanish teacher, Señorita González, brought the idea to all students in the high school. Soon after the new yearly tradition was launched, however, Covid forced Señorita González to pause or scale back the celebration to just the senior high’s students in Spanish classes. Sadly, it was also during Covid that she lost her sister–a tragedy that gave her the motivation to continue to grow the event once social distancing restrictions were lifted. Her sister’s death allowed her to recognize that many students may have lost ones during the pandemic whom they never had an opportunity to properly say goodbye to or mourn. “If anyone passed away during Covid, you know that there were no funerals and we didn’t have that closure.” she said. “I’ve appreciated that I’ve been able to share (this event) with students as an outlet with others to have a moment like that and to find closure.”

On each tiered and black-draped table, beautiful arrangements of food, sculptures, photos and candles were arranged, meant to entice souls to visit from the dead. Ceramics students in Ms. Pinkerton’s class had sculpted candle holders shaped like flowers or skulls, while Spanish students had created sugared skulls that the Life Skills students had helped them decorate. Freshly baked pan de muerto (bread), apples, bananas and water were placed on each table to entice souls to the tables and give them nourishment from their long journey. Spanish students crafted and painted papier-mâché animals to represent the dead’s spirit animal, a protector of their family after their departure. Framed photos (called a nicho) of departed ones and notes to them were tucked in between the objects, some written in Spanish and others in English. Art students in Ms. Buchholtz’s and Ms. Pinkerton’s classes created beautiful papel picado banners, skull (calaveras) prints using various printmaking methods, as well as paintings with patterned watercolors. Brightly-colored skeletons created by Spanish and art students finished off the decor on the walls and ceiling, creating a festive and celebratory vibe.

While people may think that students in World Languages only focus on learning vocabulary, Señorita González said that she and her colleagues appreciate educational opportunities to bring authentic experiences to their students–as well as the entire high school. “It’s so much more than just the language. We try to be as authentic as possible, and this is something where students can really feel that authenticity through the culture.” Further, she said that students from all nationalities, cultures and religions appreciate the event–many of them finding something to appreciate and take away. 

She said that although many people outside of Latin America may view the holiday as morbid, she said that her focus and the holiday’s origins are on keeping the event joyful. “I’m from Berks County and I know that the way that we view death can sometimes be morbid–or a finite thing where when someone passes away we bury them and have a funeral but we never celebrate them again. I wanted to show our students that Day of the Dead is a beautiful celebration of life.”