Category: News

Photo: Stafford Public Safety Services Students with Northeast School First Graders  

All the students atStafford Technical Center this year have had pen pals in the first grade this year. The program, developed by Stafford English teacher Melissa Patterson, is designed to improve the writing skills of both groups of students and to instill a love of the long-lost art of letter writing. The Public Safety Services Program at Stafford was matched with Mrs. Jennifer Pew’s Northeast School first grade class. Each high school student wrote to his or her pen pal about 5 times during the year, and got a letter in return.

   At the end of the school year, the high school juniors and seniors visited their pen pals at Northeast School. The first graders showed their friends their desks, some of the work that they did in the first grade, how they can write their names on the whiteboards, and other fun things that they have done in school. Afterwards, the pen pals went out on the playground and had a great time getting to know each other.

  All in all, this experience was a wonderful opportunity, and both groups learned quite a bit from the experience. Everyone is looking forward to doing this again next year. The members of Mrs. Pew’s first grade class that got to meet their pen pals were: Karsyn Bellomo, Marleigh Cary, Max Crowley, Damien Hewitt, Kyle Kravitz, Jaryn Mazzariello-Peer, Naudia McAuley, Griffin Melen, Samantha Neilson, Ryan Pare, Jillian Perry, Mason Porter, Carmen Ragins, Aiden Reitz, Grace Stoutes, Cayley Tanner, Stephanie Walton, and Emma Worton. Their high school pals were: Kody Baker, Megan Barber, Colton Benoit, Logan Clark, Alison DeRoy, Brandon Ellis, Zachary Field, Chelsea Fitzgerald, Dylan Goad, Aaron Hildebrand, Porsche Lowell, Tyler Manning, Stephen Marcoux, Brian Raiche, Kim Rupe, Kayla Temple, Vincent Venturella, and Brian Ward.

Stafford Technical Center Pre-School recently held their annual closing ceremony on May 23rd, in the Rutland High School Theater.  The children along with their “Big Friends” from Stafford’s Human Services Program performed a special musical program for their family and friends.

Bottom row (L-R) :  Landon Lathrop, Peyton Book, Ava Bishop, Aliah Stilwell, Maddyx Eastman, Madison Fernan, Emma Tenner, Preston Flanders, Brayden Schutt

 Top row (L-R):  Allie Powell, Emma Surething, Alex Washburn, Allie Surething, Evan Lathrop, Ethan Wideawake

The National Financial Capability Challenge is an awards program designed to increase the financial knowledge and capability of high school aged youth across the United States so they can take control over their financial futures. It challenges high school teachers and other educators to teach the basics of personal finance to their students, and rewards students, educators, schools, and states for their participation and their success.

Stafford Technical Center Hospitality and Entrepreneurship students Breeauna Frazier and Nick Sweet, both from RHS, scored in the top 20% of  84,000 students who took the test nation-wide.  Rob Peterson, also of RHS, placed in the top 10% of the nation. Congratulations to these students for their achievements in Financial Literacy.

Photo by Dave Warrender, Video and Multimedia Instructor

Attached Photo:  L-R: Front Row seated: Brandon Tift (Fair Haven), Kristi Denko (Proctor) and Colby Champine (Otter Valley), Middle Row: Sierra Gregroire (Fair Haven), Tamika Piper (Otter Valley), Anya Smith (RHS), Cody Hooker (RHS), Tyler Bathalon (West Rutland), and Shania Brown (Fair Haven), Top Row: Gavin Gearwar (Otter Valley), Joshua Frasier (Otter Valley), Christian Loomis (Poultney) and Jaron Mullan (Proctor)

Stafford Technical Center is to proud to announce that 13 of their students were awarded medals at the 2012 Vermont SkillsUSA Competition held on April 5th in Burlington, Vermont.  SkillsUSA is a national non-profit organziation serving teachers, high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trades, technical, and skills service occupations including health occupations.  Stafford students competed on a statewide level and those who received the highest honor of “Gold” are qualified to participate in the National Competition held in June in Kansas City, Missouri.

The following students received medals in their competitions:

GOLD

Photography (Gold): Tamika Piper-Otter Valley Union High School, Cabinetmaking (Gold): Brandon Tifft-Fair Haven Union High School, Team Works Team #1 (Gold): Tyler Bathalon-West Rutland High School and Christian Loomis-Poultney High School, Gorilla Communications Skills (Gold): Kristi Denko-Proctor High School, Shania Brown-Fair Haven Union High School, Gavin Gearwar-Otter Valley Union High School, and Cody Hooker-Rutland High School

SILVER

Prepared Speech (Silver): Kristi Denko-Proctor High School, Medical Math (Silver): Anya Smith-Rutland High School, Team Works Team #2 (Silver): Colby Champine-Otter Valley Union High School and Joshua Frasier-Otter Valley Union High School, Plumbing (Silver): Jaron Mullan-Proctor High School

BRONZE

Food and Beverage Service (Bronze): Sierra Gregoire-Fair Haven Union High School

*Those Medalists traveling to Kansas City in June are Tyler Bathalon, Christian Loomis, Tamika Piper, and Brandon Tifft

Cheryl Niedzwiecki, Hospitality & Entrepreneurship Instructor for Stafford Technical Center, was the recent recipient of the Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education on March 17 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel in Philadelphia, PA.  Mrs. Niedzwiecki was one of 15 educators in the United States to receive this prestigious award and the only educator from New England to be recognized. The award, established in 1977 by the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation honors outstanding elementary, middle, high school and college teachers who inspire students to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the free enterprise system. These educators act as role models for others to teach students to create value for society through innovative and sustainable ways. The award also included $7500 that Mrs. Niedzwiecki will use to purchase equipment for her program.

She received this honor for her “Entreprenuership and the Triple Bottom Line” which was implemented by the students in Stafford’s Hospitality and Entreprenuership Program. People, the planet, and profit represent the triple bottom line and are seen as goals to be achieved by individuals and corporations. The students put these components into practice with the daily operation of the school based enterprise, Campus Common Grounds (school store) which serves over 1200 students and sells food and clothing items.  The “people’ bottom line was met through community service which included a fundraiser for the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund. The “planet” bottom line was met by being the first and only school based business recognized as “green” by the Vermont Business and Environmental Partnership. In terms of “profit”, this past school year Campus Common Grounds made nearly $16,000.  But “profit’ is not only about money-the students also realized a profit from the experience and knowledge gained by running a business.

The Stafford Technical Center SADD Chapter has entered the ActOutLoud.org contest, which is designed to promote teen driving safety. The contest is open to any co-curricular organization in any public, parochial, or private high school or junior high school in theUnited States. About 300 schools entered the contest, and formed teams of five student members, an advisor, and a community leader. The first phase of the contest is a contest designed to make a “safety-tee” t-shirt which warns of the dangers of operating a motor vehicle while texting.

   The Stafford SADD members came up with a theme for the T-shirt; the theme was “Decide Your F8, Texting Can W8”. The SADD members ran a school-wide contest to design the shirt, with the prize being a pizza party for all the students in the winner’s program area. The winning design was made by Sierra Quenneville, a student fromOtterValleyUnionHigh School, who is in the Hospitality and Entrepreneurship Program.  The T-shirt competition will result in 25 winners, one of which will be chosen by voting on ActOutLoud.org’s Facebook page as the winner.

   The Stafford SADD Team consists of RutlandHigh School’s Megan Barber, Kayla Temple, and Rachel Ray, as well as Stephen Marcoux and Brian Ward from Fair Haven Union High School.