Senior Wrestler, Nico
Megaludis, is a three-
time WPIAL and two-
time PIAA Class AAA
champion. His record is
121 to 1 as he starts the
new year, 2011 and his
last season at Franklin
Regional High School.
Nico won the recent
Powerade Tournament
and he looks forward to
going to Hershey again
this year.
He is only the third, four
time champion in the
history of the Powerade
Tournament. Great Job!
He will attend Penn
State University in the
fall and wrestle there as
well!
Coach Mausser and
FRHS will miss him!
FRHS students give their time
I N S I D E
T H I S I S S U E :
Telethon 2
Band 3
PLC 4
Olweus 4
Scheduling 5
Keystone
Exams
5
F R S D
FRHS Panther News J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1 I S S U E 3
H I G H L I G H T S
I N T H I S I S -
S U E
H O L I D A Y
T E L E T H O N
P H O T O S
F R H S
M A R C H I N G
B A N D
O L W E U S
Ms. Judy Polczynski,
and her wonderful stu-
dents, give of their
time to our community
as part of the learning
process in the Life
Skills classroom. Ms.
Polczynski’s kids cre-
ated and sold Steelers
pins and Christmas
ornaments at the
Homecoming bonfire,
then donated their
earnings to the Food
Bank.
FRHS Wrestler is a Champion and headed to PSU
Photo from the Delmont Food Bank—Nov. 2010
Senior Nico Megaludis
P A G E 2
Everyone is
involved!!
Great job Ms.
Magness, TV
Students, Ms.
Pursglove and
KHK students!
Telethon High-
lights
Annual Telethon is a Success! Over $9,700 raised!
Mrs. Clause and the elf
make another appearance.
F R H S P A N T H E R N E W S
French Club raises money for others! Mer
ci Ms. Tonet Berlin and students!
WIRC has its annual book sale!
FRMS students serve as emcees too!
Dan and Hannah on TV!
Santa and his assistant elf hug a fellow student!
P A G E 3 I S S U E 3
2012 Tournament of Roses
Parade
The Franklin Regional High School Panther Band is one of 15 bands from around the
world invited to perform in the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade on January 2, 2012, in Pasa-
dena, California! The FR Band will proudly represent Pennsylvania in front of an audience of
almost one million spectators and an estimated world-wide television audience of more than
one billion viewers.
Support the FR Band Fundraisers!
Hoss’s Steak and Sea House (Route 22 in Murrysville) – This fundraiser is held every
month, on the 2nd of the month, most recently January 2, 2011. FRSD residents could
go to the band web site (www.frband.com) to print a coupon that will allow 20% of your
order to be donated back to the band.
Tambellini Gourmet Food Sale.
Sale runs January 11 – 25. Pick-up is February 12. See any band member to order.
Interstate Battery Sale – a year-round fundraiser!
Please see the fundraising page on the band web site (www.frband.com).
Donations are being accepted to help defray the cost of the band’s trip to Pasadena. Please
visit the band’s web site (www.frband) for more details!
FR Pep Band at the Petersen Center
The Franklin Regional High School Pep Band will perform at the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Center
on Saturday, January 8, 2011 during the men’s Big East Basketball game.
Jack R. Anderson, Pitt Band Director, extended the invitation to the band to perform in place of the Pitt Pep
Band while the Pitt Band is in Birmingham, Alabama for the Compass Bowl.
Sixty Franklin Regional Band students will provide the entertainment before and during the game with
Marquette. Tip-off is at 2:00 PM.
French Club raises money for others! Mer
ci Ms. Tonet Berlin and students!
P A G E 4
OLWEUS, ANTI-BULLYING INITIATIVE AT FRHS Update
Professional Learning Community Updates
PLCs or Professional Learning Communities continue throughout FRSD. At the high school, each Tues-
day, teams of teachers meet to discuss ―Essential Learnings‖ for their courses, design common assessments,
tests/projects, analyze the findings and decide how to better prepare students in that course. The process is
working well. Our students are dismissed each Tuesday at 1:57 pm so our teachers can meet quietly, with-
out interruption. We appreciate our parents’ understanding of no meetings during this time as well as no
practices/club meetings so the halls can be quiet for the teachers’ important work.
Some departments and grade levels are farther along in the process than other groups of teachers for several
reasons, but all teachers are working hard. The benefit is that teachers are talking/sharing information to
benefit our students! Continued success in 2011 to our PLC teams and students!
Olweus, a research-based anti-bullying initiative adopted by Franklin Regional School District for all stu-
dents, continues to go well at Franklin Regional High School. The imitative looks a little different in each
building, driven by grade level needs and maturation level of the students.
At FRHS, we surveyed our students to determine how much bullying/harassment is going on. Students
admitted they were bullied or observe bullying, particularly in areas that are not well supervised like the
bus, hallways, cafeteria, etc.
Currently, we are using the Class meetings, or once a month grade level meetings, to discuss key issues
related to bullying, harassment and cyber bullying, a relatively new way to offend others through elec-
tronic media like cell phones, texting, and social media—Face book.
And, bullying behaviors are not limited to just physical encounters, bullying can be in the form of verbal
abuse or ostracizing another classmate.
Many thanks to our FRHS Olweus Committee and teacher leaders! Our next class meeting dates are as
follows: Jan., 6, 2011; Feb., 3, 2011; March 23, 2011; April 20, 2011 and May 26, 2011!
P A G E 5 I S S U E 3
Scheduling Timeline A look ahead to 2011 scheduling for students in grades 8-11 is around the corner. Our dedicated counsel-
ors will be visiting the English classrooms during the first two weeks of February 2011. You, as an in-
formed parent, can review the Program of Studies which contains the course descriptions, credit require-
ments, prerequisites, etc.. This can be seen online in a link on the left hand side of the HS Webpage, enti-
tled ―PROGRAM OF STUDIES‖. It is over 80 pages so you might not want to print it to save those trees.
Please strongly consider what the teachers recommend. They see your child’s efforts, grades, homework,
etc. They are a very good judge of what course the student should take the following year.
Freshmen Curriculum Orientation will be on Jan. 19, 2011 at 6 PM-7:30 PM
Interested in a Senior Year Internship or information on Dual Enrollment, come to the session on Wednes-
day, February 2, 2011.from 6:30PM to 7:30 PM Call Ms. Mellon, assistant principal, for more informa-
tion.
PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Keystone Exams Program Overview General information
The Keystone Exams are end-of-course assessments designed to assess proficiency in
the subject areas of Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Literature, English Composition,
Biology, Chemistry, U.S. History, World History, Civics and Government.
The Keystone Exams are one component of Pennsylvania’s new system of high school
graduation requirements. Keystone Exams will help school districts guide students to-
ward meeting state standards—standards aligned with expectations for success in col-
lege and the workplace. In order to receive a diploma, students must also meet local
district credit and attendance requirements and complete a culminating project, along
with any additional district requirements.
For the graduating classes of 2015 and 2016, students must demonstrate successful
completion of secondary-level course work in Algebra I, Biology, Literature, and Eng-
lish Composition, in which the Keystone Exam serves as the final course exam. Stu-
dents’ Keystone Exam scores shall count for at least one-third of the final course grade
(Districts may choose to change the 1/3 of the final course grade in lieu of another cal-
culation method for graduation). Franklin Regional will meet to discuss these impor-
tant issues this spring 2011. We will need a policy change to be incompliance with the
state’s new, upcoming requirements of our students in multiple grade levels and build-
ings. For example, students in grade 8 (possibly grade 7) will have taken Algebra 1.
For more information go to this site on Pennsylvania Department of Education or http://www.pdesas.org/Assessment/Graduation