Duneland Schools Update, April 15, 2016

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Learning about the life cycle
Liberty Elementary second graders had a visitor from the Porter County Parks Dept., Naturalist Tyler Perry of Sunset Hill Farm Park, visit all the second grade classrooms to teach how a butterfly grows and develops throughout its life cycle through a hands-on approach to learning. Perry assists second grader Jacob Bell in building the body of a caterpillar as classmates, left to right, Ella Bollinger, Polly Frye, Jacklynn Kahn, Ruthie Ridley and Peyton Ello look on. This program helps students understand how a butterfly grows and develops throughout its life cycle.

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Westchester Intermediate Young Citizen Award
The Duneland Exchange Club recently presented Westchester Intermediate sixth grade student Madelin Billings, center back row, with the Young Citizenship Award. Also pictured, front row, left to right, her teachers Nicole Wilson, Cheryl Muller, Candi Kautz, Cara Ellerthorpe and Dawn Flasch. Back row, her teacher Don Justak, Duneland Exchange Club representative Emily Hoge, her grandparents Shawn and Judy Rue, her father Mike Billings and grandparents Karen and Tom Billings and Principal Shawn Longacre. Absent from the photo is her mother Mindi Billings. This award is given to a sixth grade student who is an all around good citizen. The club presents this award to one, fourth grade student at each of the five Duneland elementary schools, at the sixth grade level at the each of the intermediate schools and at the eighth grade level at Chesterton Middle School.

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Liberty Intermediate Young Citizen award
The Duneland Exchange Club recently presented Liberty Intermediate sixth grade student Miles Ellman, center, with the Young Citizenship Award. Also pictured, front, left to right, his brothers Marshal and Jack Ellman. Back row, Principal Greg Guernsey, his sister Margaret, his parents Mathew and Courtney Ellman, Duneland Exchange Club representative Emily Hoge and his teacher Tim Ray. This award is given to a sixth grade student who is an all around good citizen. The club presents this award to one fourth grade student at each of the five Duneland elementary schools, at the sixth grade level at the each of the intermediate schools and at the eighth grade level at Chesterton Middle School.

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Duneland Elementary Spelling Bee Winners
Ten Duneland Elementary winners and their alternates gathered at Chesterton Middle School for a district wide spelling bee recently. Pictured, front, left to right, are elementary school spelling bee winners Corinne duMont of Bailly, Manal Salahuddin of Brummitt, Adrian Dooley of Jackson, Kylie Campbell of Liberty and Caysen Bontrager of Yost. And runners-up, back row, Addisyn Torres of Bailly, Amalia Escalante of Brummitt, Ryan Gengnagel of Jackson, Brody Mehling of Liberty and Ryan Reno of Yost. The overall Duneland spelling bee winner was Adrian Dooley of Jackson Elementary and runner-up was Manal Salahuddin of Brummitt. The five individual elementary school winners will represent the Duneland Schools in the Porter County fourth grade competition hosted on Thursday, May 5 at 6 p.m. at Ben Franklin M.S. in Valparaiso.

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Author visit at Duneland Schools
Author and Illustrator Troy Cummings visited the five Duneland elementary schools over the past two weeks. Cummings is responsible for the very popular Notebook of Doom series, among other great books. He spent time at each school talking about his path to becoming what he is today. He gave the students tips about creating their own stories and illustrations. Pictured with Cummings (center back) are Brummitt Elementary students, front row, left to right, Gavin Zizzo, Troy Barrett, Eshaal Ali, Kaelyn Palisoc, Jiselle Torres, Liam McCormick and Lorelai Simmons. Back row, Ryleigh Connor, Aubree Lockhart, Rylie Fine, Endee Cole, Patrick Hansen, Manal Salahuddin, Arianna Berry and Lux Mountford.

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Westchester 5th Grade Spelling Bee
Westchester Intermediate School recently hosted their fifth grade school spelling bee. Pictured are fifth grade participants who qualified to participate in the WIS event. Front row, left to right, Sophia Palmer, Ingrid Hurst, Kaylei Bayliss, Jessica Hopkins and Ava Clancy. Back row, Jimmy O'Connor, Riley Hawksworth, Connor Caton, Nick Furmanek and Ethan Boedeker. Ingrid Hurst won the Bee and will represent Westchester Intermediate School at the Porter County Spelling Bee on Thursday, May 5 at Ben Franklin Middle School.

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CHS to celebrate High School Radio Day
High school radio stations in the United States will come together for one day of celebration again this year on April 20. This will be the 5th Annual High School Radio Day. Since there are so few high schools with radio stations, as in previous years organizers hope that High School Radio Day (HSRD) will raise a greater awareness of the high school stations that are broadcasting over-the-air and newer ones who are streaming online.

High School Radio Day was created after College Radio Day launched in 2011. Even though high school stations were able to register, organizers felt high school stations should have their own day. Pete Bowers, station manager at WBFH-FM in Bloomfield Hills was the High School Radio Day founder. Michigan scheduled the first HSRD in May, 2012.

Chesterton High School’s Radio Station, WDSO-FM 88.3, will participate in HSRD for the fourth year in a row on Wednesday, April 20. To celebrate this year, WDSO will start off the day by broadcasting live from the CHS Cafeteria from about 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The station will be giving away coupons for free pizzas from the Chesterton Pizza Hut to students during the four lunch periods.

Later in the day WDSO DJ’s will assemble at the Red Cup Cafe & Deli in downtown Chesterton at 115 Broadcast from 3-5 p.m. for a remote broadcast from that location. There will be also be giveaways at the Red Cup. Winners must be present to win.

WDSO would appreciate it if you would tune into the station on High School Radio Day and other days as well. The station broadcasts continuously seven days a week, 24 hours a day so you can listen at any time day or night. Regular programming takes place between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.

Tune into WDSO-FM 88.3 on your radio dial or go to www. duneland.k12.in.us/wdso on the internet. There will also be a High School Radio App available at the App Store for iPhones or Google Play for Android phones.

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Chesterton and Valpo Win Japanese Olympiad State Titles
Valparaiso High School won the state championship in the fourth-year division at the Japanese Olympiad of Indiana at Ball State University in Muncie. Chesterton High School won the third-year division and was runner-up in the second-year and finished in third place in the fourth-year division.

The Japanese Olympiad of Indiana is an academic competition for second, third and fourth-year students with categories including speaking, culture, kanji (Chinese characters), proverbs, listening, and history.

The Valparaiso fourth-year team of Eavan O’Brien Cleveland, Theo Tripodis and Gabi Rodea narrowly defeated Connersville and Chesterton in the final round of the ten-team division. Chesterton’s third-place team consisted of Sydney Ghoreishi and Krysllyn Villones.

The CHS third-year team of Josh Guzek, Bryan Pamintuan and Nolan Poczekay defeated Indianapolis North Central and Bloomington North in the final round to win the state championship. It was the second consecutive championship for Guzek. To make it to the final round, the CHS team had to defeat the other CHS third-year team of Jason Hebblethwaite, Camma Duhamell and Nick Lane in a playoff round.

In the second-year division, the team of Keilee Willer and Harley Wines was runner-up to North Central and ahead of Bloomington North. The other second-year team of Orion Bohren and Casey Roberts also turned in an excellent performance.

Forty-one teams from twelve high schools competed in this year’s competition. During the competition, team members had an opportunity to watch a musical performance and a kendo demonstration.