Lorane

Owatin Creek Places First in Berks K’Nex STEM Challenge

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owatin creek team poses with their k'nex design

"The Blue Takis" from Owatin Creek with their solar charging recycling robot

lorane team poses with their k'nex design

"The Lorane Drops" from Lorane with their eco-friendly carwash

jacksonwald team poses with their k'nex design

“The Soaring Eagles” from Jacksonwald with their sustainable greenhouse

Using K'Nex and loads of imagination and intellect, Exeter teams from each of our elementary schools competed in the STEM Design Challenge at the BCIU this week. Placing first in the competition against 44 other elementary schools from across the county was Owatin's team of Nora Hart, Owen Kercher, Avery Manndel and Olive Weis who designed a solar charging recycling robot! Meanwhile, Jacksonwald's team of Abraham Cepeda, Bradyn Gowdy, Katie Nguyen and Anniston Stevens created a sustainable greenhouse, and Lorane's team of Anthony Cocchimiglio, Drew McClain and Shashanth Tummeti designed an eco-friendly carwash. Owatin's first place finish may allow them to compete with other winners across the state in Harrisburg this spring! We're so proud of these Eagles for their teamwork, brain power and problem solving ability! Congratulations to them all!

Josie Whitney Sets A Goal to Collect 12,000 Cans of PlayDoh

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mrs whitney holds cans of playdoh

In 2014, third grade teacher Mrs. Josie Whitney had a modest goal to collect 2,000 cans of PlayDoh in March to help honor the late brother of a Lorane student she taught the year before. His name was Jason Heckman, and through his battle with brain cancer, she discovered that the four year old loved to play with PlayDoh during the time he was being treated at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. 

Although Jason never had a chance to be a student at Lorane like his sister and brothers, he’s left an indelible impression on the school and community as he’s remembered each year and honored through Mrs. Whitney’s annual PlayDoh drive, which she holds every March. Last year, her collection netted a record-high 12,338 cans of the colorful doh, which she personally delivers to CHOP to help other children who can only use one can one time since it can’t be sanitized between uses. 

This year, Mrs. Whitney hopes to collect another 12,000 cans of PlayDoh to help honor Jason. If you’d like to help her reach her goal and donate to her drive, you may drop off PlayDoh donations at Lorane anytime during school hours, or you may send donations directly to the school, which is located at 699 Rittenhouse Drive, Reading, PA 19606. To learn more about Mrs. Whitney’s annual collection, please see our story from last year, or WFMZ’s story here: https://bit.ly/403LoSF. 

District to Host Drug Awareness Workshop for Families in January

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picture of assorted edibles and vapes
picture of edibles
picture of teachers crowded around a table

“This,” said Exeter Township Detective Sergeant Rocco DeCamillo as he pointed to a table filled with confiscated THC-laced gummies, brownies, cookies and treats, “was not manufactured to appeal to adults. It was manufactured to look like candy to appeal to kids.” 

As part of the district’s professional development sessions with educators and staff last month, Detective Sergeant DeCamillo spent his day walking teachers, administrators and staff through the ever-complex and constantly-changing landscape of what drugs police are seeing being sold and being used in Exeter Township by adults and minors alike. “Things have drastically changed in the last 20 years. When the majority of us were in high school, marijuana was natural and looked like pot. Now, there’s so much synthetic stuff out there that’s chemically-produced with no regulation or oversight–and much of it’s been disguised to look like candy.”

Superintendent Dr. Christy Haller and Assistant Superintendent Mrs. Dawn Harris organized the session with Detective Sergeant DeCamillo and the district’s Student Services Coordinator, Mrs. Alycia Lenart, to bring a greater awareness to teachers of what’s out there, what it looks like, and how to engage students and their families with help for substance abuse. The sessions proved to be so popular with educators that Detective Sergeant DeCamillo and Mrs. Lenart decided to offer a similar session to parents and families so that they, too, could learn what police are seeing in the local community, and how to receive support through the district when families are faced with substance abuse. The parent and family session will be held on Thursday, January 12, 2023 at 7PM in Exeter Township Senior High School’s Large Group Instruction (LGI) room. 

During his presentation to teachers, Detective Sergeant DeCamillo said navigating the “new normal” of drug use and drug accessibility is not easy. Oftentimes, he said as he pointed to all of the items on the table, local retailers don’t even know what’s legal to sell and what isn’t since laws vary from state to state. “Most of this stuff is perfectly legal in New Jersey,” he said. Mrs. Lenart added, “I think there’s also a perception that since it’s legal in certain states, it must be perfectly safe, and it’s really not,” she said, as she ticked off statistics that indicate that 90% of ER admittance for marijuana or THC overdoses are from edibles. “It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours for kids to feel the effect from an edible. Since most teens don’t have great patience, they think it’s not working, so they eat more, and more and more and then wind up in the hospital. That’s why it’s so important to bring awareness to this very scary issue.”

Budget Workshops Announced

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As the Exeter Township School District begins to shape the budget for the 2023-24 school year, the District will hold a series of workshops to discuss budget topics with the community. Parents, taxpayers and all members of the Exeter community are invited to join us for these meetings. The schedule for the next two upcoming workshops and topics are below. The District will also post a synopsis of each budget workshop on our website shortly after each meeting.

The next two meetings are scheduled for:

October 26th at 6PM
Location: Junior High
Topic: Overview and Purpose of Workshop Meetings/Index Review

November 30th at 6PM
Location: Senior High
Topic: Revenue

Exeter’s New Supervisor of Transportation Earns National Recognition

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school bus driver holds magazine

It's National School Bus Safety week, and we're so very proud to announce that Exeter's Kaisha McCulley was recently selected as one of ten "Rising Stars" by School Transportation News, a nationwide trade magazine for school bus drivers and professionals. Ms. McCulley, who was named Exeter's Supervisor of Transportation during last night's board meeting, has been a bus driver for the district for 8 years. Last year, she became the district's permanent route substitute, which meant she had memorized every route in the district without using a GPS, and could substitute for any bus driver–a monumental task, said Ms. McCulley’s supervisor, Benjamin Bernhart, Director of Transportation. Last year, she also earned accreditation as a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation CDL school bus instructor trainer, allowing her to manage the district's training program for new and existing bus drivers.

“We’re so proud that Kaisha earned this distinction,” said Mr. Bernhart. “She is an incredibly dedicated bus driver and bus professional who is committed to safety and always learning more to enable Exeter to have the best school bus drivers. We are so very lucky to have her, and congratulate her for receiving this national recognition.”