Attica Central School District

TONIGHT: Superintendent Dr. Kiel Illg and representatives from Gordon Jones Architects and Buffalo Construction Consultants will give a presentation on and take questions about our proposed capital project. The presentation begins at 5:30 p.m. in our Performing Arts Center, 3338 East Main Street Rd., Attica. For more information about our proposed capital project, visit our website at the link below. We hope to see you tonight! Link: https://www.atticacsd.org/page/capital

Remember earlier this week when we told you about the Cow for Now program? Well today, Mrs. Baker's kindergarten class was able to try making butter as part of the program. Our kiddos were excited to learn the process behind butter-making and were REALLY excited when they got to try the butter they’d just made spread on some crackers!

Last week, our first grade team hosted a family paint night for their students and families! Elementary School Art Teacher Sara Lewinski walked students and family members through the painting, which showed a pair of ladybugs in the grass, on a step-by-step basis. “I do paint nights with adults and kids on my own time throughout the year and after the last one I did with a group of doctors Sherry Bennett, our elementary school principal, asked if I'd be willing to do it at the school with our first graders,” said Lewinski. “Sherry really wanted to get the parents into the school more since COVID kept the community out of the building for so long, so this was a way to offer something fun for families to do together here in school.” We had about 70 people attend and everyone had a great time! A huge thank you to Lewinski, Bennett, our entire first grade team and everyone who attended - we had so much fun! (Photos courtesy of Sherry Bennett and Sara Lewinsk)

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For our latest taste test last Friday, students sampled homemade zucchini bread, courtesy of our food service staff. Yum! (Photos courtesy of Alicia Spoth)

Shout out to Attica’s own Joe Parkhurst, who was named the News 8/Primetime 585 Small Schools Elite Award winner in boys swimming last night! Joe scored more points at meets than any other Section V swimmer this season and capped his senior year with a third place finish in the 50 free and 4th place finish in the 100 breaststroke at states. Check out Joe’s segment in last night’s livestreamed awards ceremony at the link below. Congrats, Joe! Link: https://www.rochesterfirst.com/sports/high-school-sports/news8-primetime585-elite-awards/news-8-primetime-585-elite-awards-boys-swimming/

Only two more New York Thursdays before May arrives - don’t miss ‘em!

DON’T FORGET: Superintendent Dr. Kiel Illg and Assistant Superintendent of Business & Operations Meaghan Matuszak will give a presentation on our proposed capital project TONIGHT - Tuesday, April 16 - at the Bennington Fire Department, 1353 Clinton St., Attica. The presentation begins at 6 p.m. There will be an opportunity for questions after the presentation. For more information about our proposed capital project, visit our website at the link below. Link: https://www.atticacsd.org/page/capital

Our 6th graders took in a special, virtual demonstration yesterday afternoon courtesy of Leanne Reynolds, an educator with King Arthur Baking Company’s Bake for Good program. Bake for Good is King Arthur Baking Company’s outreach program for students in grades 4 through 12. Students learn the math and science of making bread from scratch and, with supplies from King Arthur, bake a bread recipe at home! Reynolds led a demonstration for our sixth graders, showing them every step in the bread-making process. Then, students made themselves a bread-baking kit using all the supplies King Arthur had donated. Each student received a 2-lb bag of all-purpose flour, a 2-lb bag of whole wheat flour, a packet of yeast, a bench scraper, a recipe booklet and a canvas tote bag for them to carry it all home with. The recipe Reynolds made during the demo that students also received in their recipe booklets makes two loaves of bread - one for students to keep and one for them to share with someone else in need or as an act of kindness. Such is the guiding principle of King Arthur’s Bake for Good program, which seeks to create positive change in the world by helping ensure everyone has enough to eat A huge thank you to King Arthur Baking Company for bringing the Bake for Good program to Attica Middle School and for their generous donation of baking supplies!

Our Future Farmers of America chapter recently collected about 42 lbs worth of aluminum can tabs as part of a drive to benefit Ronald McDonald House! It takes about 1,128 tabs to equal one pound, which means our FFA members collected about 47,000 cans’ worth of tabs! The FFA plans on donating the tabs to American Legion Six Star Post in Strykersville in memory of Bill Reuman, a U.S. Army veteran and American Legion member who died in a car crash last May. “He was a big supporter of collecting the tabs,” said High School Counseling Secretary Cheryl Conrad, Reuman’s stepdaughter. “Tonight I will be taking the tabs to my mom, Cindy Roth, who will donate the tabs to The American Legion Six Star Post in honor of Bill. Thank you to everyone who donated tabs and thank you to Michelle Barber and the Attica FFA!” The Ronald McDonald House will sell the aluminum tabs to its recycling partners to help fund its mission of helping care for sick and injured children and their families. (Photo courtesy of Attica FFA)

We hope you’ll join us in congratulating our Physical Education Students of the Month for March, senior Zakry Howad and sophomore Abigail Wilkinson!

Shout out to Lily VanSon, Stasia Struzik, and Harley Midkiff, proprietors of the Western Rodeo Shack food truck and winners of Mrs. Janet Koepsell’s Food Truck Rally! The seventh graders’ food truck, which specialized in fruit bowls, salads, burgers and pizza, earned the most “sales” from Middle School teachers and staff last week. The trio will be treated to lunch from a local restaurant later this week and also won a $15 gift card from Bey’s Bites, Attica’s own food truck owned and operated by Sharin and CJ Bey. Congratulations Lily, Stasia and Harley! (Photos courtesy of Janet Koepsell)

This week at Attica Elementary, Mrs. Baker's Kindergarten class and Mrs. Fagan's first grade class will be participating in the Cow For Now dairy education program, presented by Farm 2 Table and Milk for Health. Throughout the Cow For Now program, students will learn about a chosen cow, where she lives and how the dairy farmer takes care of her. Each weekly topic will include multiple learning tools such as videos, activity sheets and hands-on activities to do in the classroom or at home. Mrs. Fagan's 1st grade class was pretty excited to receive their Cow for Now kit this week and have officially named their cow - Cowmeow - we can’t wait to see how the week goes for our first graders!

REMINDER: Superintendent Dr. Kiel Illg and Assistant Superintendent of Business & Operations Meaghan Matuszak will give a presentation on our proposed capital project tomorrow - Tuesday, April 16 - at the Bennington Fire Department, 1353 Clinton St., Attica. The presentation begins at 6 p.m. There will be an opportunity for questions after the presentation. For more information about our proposed capital project, visit our website at the link below. Link: https://www.atticacsd.org/page/capital

Students in the elementary, middle and high schools taste tested SideKicks before Spring Recess. SideKicks is a smooth frozen cup of real fruit juices that is free of artificial flavors, dairy-free and non-GMO – just great flavors and fun for the whole family. Annemarie Norton, director of K-12 sales for Affinity Group, brought in two SideKicks varieties for students to try - BlueRaspberry-Lemon and BLOOM!, a watermelon-lemonade flavor for our students to try. Both were a hit and our students can’t wait to see it on their trays again. Kudos to Food Service Director Kris Wicks for identifying this new product! (Photos courtesy of Attica food service staff)

Attica welcomed some of the best student musicians from across the region this weekend as our district played host to the Genesee Wyoming Music Educators Association’s All-County II Music Festival! Students rehearsed in Attica the afternoon of Friday, April 12 and again the morning of Saturday, April 13 before putting on an incredible performance Saturday afternoon. Attica was well-represented at the All-County Festival with 18 students selected to participate among the three ensembles. They were: Elementary Band Lucia Eddy: Clarinet Kate George: Trumpet Alexandria Landphair: Flute Caleb MacLane: Saxophone Elliana Vincton: Flute Jr. High Chorus Melinda Driesel: Soprano Octavia Farney: Soprano Amy Ennis: Soprano Balyee Mills: Alto Ilyssa George: Alto Quinn Jerge: Alto Lucian Countermine: Baritone Trevor Gromek: Baritone Jakob Easton: Baritone Sr. High Band Anna George: Flute Kara Hassenfratz: Clarinet Elizabeth Gouinlock: Clarinet Konner Rippel: Euphonium Congratulations to all our All-County musicians!

STATE CHAMPS: Our middle school Odyssey of the Mind team captured the New York State Division 1B Problem 5 title Saturday at the State Fairgrounds in Syracuse and will represent Attica and New York State at the World Championships next month at Iowa State University! Team members Caden Morrison, Claira Deuel, Erin Murphy and Amara Brinkman competed against 19 other teams in the Rocking World Detour long-term problem, which challenged teams to create a performance about a touring rock band that is suddenly transported to an unexpected location in the middle of a song that must figure out how to use music to get them back to their tour. Our team earned a perfect 200/200 in the long-term performance category, a 47.04/50 in the style category and a perfect 100/100 in the spontaneous category for a near-perfect overall score of 347.04 out of 350. When they travel to Iowa for the Odyssey World Finals in May, our students will compete alongside 850 other teams from schools from all over the world including Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, Poland, Russia, Hungary and India, among others. “I’m really excited for this team,” said Attica Odyssey Coach Stacey Donahue. “This opportunity is something they will always remember.” (Photos courtesy of Stacey Donahue)

Students in Mrs. Kayla Eick’s 6th grade math class practiced calculating the surface area and volume of three-dimensional shapes with the help of some new, dry erase board-topped tables! Mrs. Eick uses these tables and other tools in her room to spread her students out at the start of class to review past material and introduce students to the topic of that day’s lesson. In the accompanying photos, Ally Landphair and Eden Dome are pictured at the rectangular table and Daxon Spink and Isabella Myers are pictured at the circular table (Photos courtesy of Rob Crowley)

Not sure what we would have LEAST expected to run into walking through the Middle School this afternoon but a food truck rally definitely would have made the top 5. Nevertheless, there it was, laid out along one side of the hallway between our 5th/6th and 7th/8th grade wings. After a bit of investigating, we figured out these miniature food trucks and their accompanying menus were made by Mrs. Janet Koepsell’s 7th grade health students as part of their nutrition unit. “The project required students to create a food truck based on nutritional knowledge about the MyPlate diagram and special dietary needs such as gluten free and vegetarian or vegan options,” explained Koepsell. “Students were also encouraged to develop unique themes and marketing strategies when developing their food trucks.” Middle school staff stopped by the rally Thursday and Friday to submit “orders” for whichever menu items they wanted at whichever food truck caught their eye. The food truck team with the most items sold will be declared the winner and earn themselves lunch, courtesy of Mrs. Koepsell, from a local restaurant. Mrs. Koepsell plans on totaling up the orders this weekend so she can declare a winner bright and early Monday on the morning announcements.

Shout out to Stephanie Wilson, Amanda George, Jakk Chaplin and John Perl for their eclipse photo submissions! Didn’t get a chance to snap a shot? Not to worry, Attica’s next total solar eclipse is only 44,027 (ish) days away!