April/May

2020

Volume 1, I
	
ssue 7

STEELER Nation News

Farrell Community Parade rings pride through city

Inside this issue:

Farrell Community Parade to honor the school students and thank essential em-ployees took place on Saturday, May 2, and brought out the best that our community has to offer. Ms. Megan Mishata, parade organiz-er, had a vision and she thanks city and school oficials for making that vision come to fruition.

“Farrell is not just a city of athletic champions, we are small, but a mighty village, and it takes a village,” Ms. Mishata comment-ed. She wants students, school district and

essential employees to know that we recognize and thank them for all they are doing. “I was overwhelmed with the amount of support, it was really humbling,” she stated.

Over 50 cars and emergency vehicles rode through the parade route, that included UPMC Hospital, Farrell, where employees waved and cheered on parade participants. Many of those participants and spectators alike were brought to tears as they were reminded of the strength and love that our community has in this uncertain time.

Senior Plans
	2
	
Retirement Spotlight / Stock market
	3
	
Thank You Es-sential Employ-ees
	4-6
	
Photographer
	6
	
National Honor Society
	7
	
Parade photos
	8

Celebrating our Senior c/o 2020

Seniors will be the first in FHS class in history to graduate re-motely! A date and further details for this virtual graduation ceremony will be provided soon.

In the meantime, Principals, Mr. Fowler and Mr. Veccia, distribut-ed Senior yard signs to commemorate our Seniors in this time of pandemic.

Mr. Joe Tuchek and Ms. Karen Korab working to prepare daily lunch and breakfast for our district.

Volume 1, Issue 7	Page 1

FHS Seniors: Focused and moving FORWARD “Even though we won’t get to experience the milestone we’ve all been waiting for, I’m glad that we’ve spent the most important years of life together and I will miss you guys dearly.” ~Chardell Stewart

Page 2	Volume 1, Issue 7

Retirement Spotlight: Mr. Rupert By MELONN WELLS

“parked in the same spot for Mr. Karl Rupert has been working here at Farrell Area	30 years” . One of his favorite
School District for 30 years and will retire at the end of this year. I had	memories is when he took his the opportunity to interview him. Rupe, as we call him, remembers	class on a trip to go canoeing. his first day working at Farrell School like it was yesterday, he said.	He explained why that was his When he first began, he worked with Mrs. Donatelli in the “Hot Lab,”	favorite memory because of which was located in the elementary, where they taught 5th grade in	what happened to him and his 1990. Throughout these 30 years Mr. Rupert has taught Pre-Algebra,	class after they found out they Algebra 1, Robotics, Physics, and General Science to his middle and	couldn’t go canoeing. Mr.
high school students. He said, “I chose to teach here at Farrell be-	Rupert doesn’t really have a cause of the ‘Divine Appointment Tragedy’ of Mr. Forman, who was	worst memory at Farrell he the Physics teacher here at Farrell before he passed away in January	just said, “the only thing that of 1991”. Now, Mr. Rupert said that if he could have chosen to work	breaks his heart is teaching in any other position or job besides being a math and physics teacher	students that are no longer at Farrell, that he “WOULDN’T because I LOVE it here,” and believe it	here. May they be at rest and or not this is the ONLY teaching job he’s EVER had! I could not even	peace!!”
Throwback yearbook picture of
believe it when he told me.	Mr. Rupert has Now, being that Mr. Rupert is literally everyone’s favorite            some advice for new students
Mr. Rupert in 1999. He hasn’t
changed in 20 years!
“I just want to know how you
teacher. We should all make his retirement not a sad moment, but a	and staff. Advice for teachers: proud moment. And I say a proud moment because of all the time he	“make sure you build a con-has spent with his students teaching us, growing                                                                                  nection
get the kids to believe abso-
lutely everything that you
with us, caring about us, yelling at us, and leting                                                                                  with your students and actually get to know the kids”. us leave detention early if we brought him                                                                                             Advice for students: “live your life with INTEGRITY and
snacks at the end of the day. We also want to	good things will happen.” I would take that advice and thank him for everything he has ever done for         say…” ~Mr. Tim Dye	run with it just because, if you know Rupe, you know
any of us even if it was throwing our detention	he doesn’t lie !! And now that Rupe has other busi-slips away or not writing us up for not serving it. Mr. Rupert said, “ the       nesses and opportunities to invest in and to explore it is almost that time list of things I will miss the most about FHS is so long, but the most              to say our goodbyes to him until we see him again.
important thing I’ll miss is the interactions with young people, and I’ll	And I, Me-Lonn Wells want to say thank you Rupe for always miss trying to convince them how successful and great they can be.”           being the BEST TEACHER I'VE HAD SINCE ELEMENTARY! I will miss you
Mr. Rupert isn’t retiring from working yet though, he just	telling me off, yelling at me for no reason, but I’ll miss your corny jokes wants to move on to new things and decided he wants to change	the most. Also, thank you for helping me prepare myself for Mr. Lewis’s careers. Retiring from FHS, he says, “is a stream of emotions.” Sad-	class my 10th grade year! I couldn’t have done it without you and your ness only because of the memories he has had and being that he has	weird way of teaching, but it definitely helped.

“I just want to wish my good buddy Rupert a wonderful retirement. The last 4 years have been great having you across the hall from me. The halls of FHS will never be the same without you. We have had some wonderful times together over the past 4 years. I can honestly say that you started as a co-worker to me but now I consider you a close friend. I wish you all the best in retirement, be-cause you deserve it. Get the kayaks ready!” - Mr. Derek Burda

“We always had agreed on two things; If I was not the Secretary he probably would of been fired and there is no other Mama from Farrell that loves him unconditionally!”

- Mrs. Joanne Retone

Sophomores PLACE 2nd in Stock Market Challenge

Farrell High School 10th graders, under the direction of Mrs. Kladitis, competed in the Spring Stock Market Challenge and won 2nd place out of 21 competitors in the region.

Students researched, and following the advice of Mrs. K., chose conservative stocks. This choice paid off. As the simula-tion runs in real time, the COVID 19 crisis sent many stocks plum-meting. The team of Marquan Freeman and David Bonner re-mained consistently on top with their “safe” bets, Amazon, Google, Nike, etc. and lead our school in this fine achievement!

Volume 1, Issue 7	Page 3

THANK YOU Essential Employees...

Photo credit: Mr. Brad Hoagland
Administrative team, pictured in a Zoom meeting above, include (from top, left), Mr. Brian Veccia, Mr. Joe Tuchek, Ms. Nichole Colum-bus, Ms. Japraunika Wright, Dr. Lora Adams-King, Mr. John Seybert, Mr. Matthew Fowler and Mr. Brad Hoagland. Not pictured, Mr. Russ Laird.

Farrell Area School District essen-tial employees are hard at work every day to ensure that our community is taken care of from breakfast and lunches, building maintenance and custodial, school packet deliveries, and our administrative team keeping tech services up to date, liaising with city and state oficials to make im-portant educational and safety decisions and keep the rest of the community in-formed of evolving regulations.

Our food services staff, lead by Mr. Joe Tuchek, is serving approximate-
ly 1,000 breakfasts and 1,000 lunches to our children each week. There are four distribu-tion sites: Centennial Place, Chavers Center, Wheatland Administrative Ofice, and Valley Baptist Church. Cafeteria staff members are assembling freshly made meals in the morn-ing then distributing them to our these four sites. The “grab and go” breakfasts and lunches serves meet the USDA nutritional guidelines. They are preparing and serving meals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:30-1:00 at each site. Each child gets two days worth of meals ( 2 breakfasts and 2 lunches) on Monday and Wednesday, and one day of meals on Friday
Dedicated cafeteria staff members working tirelessly throughout this pandemic:

Ms. Karen Korab, Ms. Phyllis Bolling, Ms. Stella Butler, Ms. Mary Frankovich, Ms. Tam-my Faight, Ms. Mavis Said, Ms. Alice Crosby, Mr. Colombo Obregon, and Ms. Tracy Robin-son.

Maintaining the buildings and grounds, under the direction of Mr. Russ Laird, are Ms. Latrese Morgan, Mr.Brian Pollock, Mr. Anthony Pegues, Mr. Glenn Barrow, Mr. Ray Donohue. Taking on the task of sanitizing, among many other vital roles, is our beloved custodial crew of Ms. Linda Odem, Ms. Pat Harrison,
Ms. Becky Pendel, Ms. Mona Pendel, Mr. Mark Zimmerman, Ms. Anita Craig, Ms. Mary Al-bert, Mr. Melvin Boggs, Mr. Keith Boulware, Ms. Kathy Testani and Mr. Richard Ellis.

Steeler Nation News would like to also recognize all those essential employees not

Admin Team (pictured left, from top, left) Ms. Abby States, Ms. Joanne Retone, Ms. Linda Howard, Ms. Kim Gargano, Mr. Shane Wiesen, and Ms. Cindy DeCarmen not pictured: Ms. Judy Loftis

pictured or mentioned above. Not only is our school district operating thanks to the many essential workers, but our community is as well. We thank you. Our high school students and district teachers are working part-time jobs, parents and other family members in food re-tail, delivery, medical, postal, government, banking and countless other domains should be recognized for all that they do. We thank you. Last, but certainly not least, teachers, students and parents, working to make remote learning work for the students in our district. We thank you.	Photo credit: Mr. Brian Veccia

Page 4	Volume 1, Issue 7

Photo credit: Mr. Brian Vecc a and M
Photo credit: Mr. Matthew Fowler and Mr. BrianiVeccia r. Matthew Fowler

Of Farrell Area School District

Maintenance and cafeteria personnel preparing, packaging, transferring and distributing food to the children of our community, (from top, left) include, Ms. Tamara Faight, Ms. Tracy Robinson, Mr. Joe Tuchek and Mrs. Phyllis Bolling, Ms. Stella Butler, Ms. Karen Korab, Mr. Colombo Obregon, Mr. Brian Pollock and Mrs. Phyllis Bolling, Mr. Ray Donovan and Ms. Alice Crosby, Mr. Glenn Burrows and Ms. Tamara Faight, Mr. Anthony Pegues, Mr. Bill Wade and Mr. Charles McSwain, Ms. Phyllis Bolling, Ms. Alice Crosby and Ms. Mary Frankovich. Thank you all!

Volume 1, Issue 7	Page 5

him to practice more and get into photog-
Some of Cameron's favorite pictures
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” ~Malcolm X

Teachers and School Nurses, THANK YOU!

Afternoon custodial staff (from top, left): Mr. Rich-ard Ellis, Ms. Mary Albert, Ms. Kathy Testani, Mr. Keith Boulware, Ms. Mona Pendel, Mr. Mark Zim-merman, Ms. Becky Pendel, Mr. Melvin Boggs, Ms.
Photo Credit: Ms. Mona Pendel	Anita Craig.

Zimmerman’s photos making an impression

By OMAR STEWART

Readers of Steeler Nation News	about what his brother had said, Cameron de-this year may have noticed an abundance of cided to take his brother's advice and get into pictures used from Photographer, Cameron photography. Cameron decided to go independ-Zimmerman. On March 5,2020, I had the	ent with photography. Cameron came up with a honor of interviewing this local photogra-	name for his pictures which is called Camfilmz. pher. Cameron Zimmerman graduated in	Cameron came up with Camfilmz because he the Farrell class of 2019. Cameron had no	wanted to use his name and for the first part interest in pursuing a career in photog-	which would be Cam and used Filmz as the oth-raphy; he just wanted to attend his favorite     er part of the word. What makes his name college, Slippery Rock University.	different from other photographers is that most
Cameron was introduced to Pho-
ent.
photographers had “films” with an S, Cameron tography while in taking pictures in 10th	decided to use a Z at the end to make it differ-grade, in Mrs. Phanco’s Photography Class.
What made Cameron decide to start taking	Cameron started doing portrait pho-pictures seriously was when he was taking       tos and photoshoots. Cameron also takes pic-pictures of his older brother one day, his          tures of high school sports here at Farrell and brother had recommended that he used a       some other local schools. Cameron decided to camera that he had already owned. After         take pictures one time a week when he can taking the pictures, Cameron's brother had     make one of the athletic events here at Farrell. seen the pictures and realized that he took
some really good photos and persuaded	are of Sophomore football players, Antho-
raphy.
ny Jackson and Taidon Strickland coming out of the locker room to play the Reynolds Raiders.
Cameron had never viewed him-     What made that picture special to him was the self as being a photographer. After thinking     lighting. He did not have to set any filters and

Page 6

the picture just came out cool. Another picture was of Senior Eric Hopson wearing his Kobe Bry-ant shirt. Cam stated that he liked the angle of the picture because of the angle it was taken at and the lighting.

Cameron explained that he gets posi-tive feedback on his pictures now and it keeps him motivated to keep going and take pictures. What keeps Cameron more educated on taking pictures is YouTube and other photographers. Cameron uses a program called (VSCO) for his photos. Cameron explained the key of taking a good picture is to make whatever he is taking a picture of the main focus of the picture and get the best angle.

Cameron’s goals in 5 years as far as photography is to be a professional sports pho-tographer. Places Cameron wants to travel are Los Angeles, California, and New York City. Since Cameron is a 2019 graduate, I asked him to give a word of advice about high school and after high school, Cameron said to always have a plan B because you never know what life will bring you!

THANK YOU CAMERON!!!!

Volume 1, Issue 7

National Honor Society 2020

The National Honor Society was founded by the National Association of Secondary School Principals in 1921. Our local chapter, is named after the English Teacher who founded it in the 1950’s, Mary V. Scardina. The Four Pillars of the National Honor Society have remained the same throughout the years, Scholarship, Service, Leadership and Character.

Farrell Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors, with a GPA of 3.3 and above are invited to apply for membership into this selective honor society. The following six students not

Laven Day Grade: 12

Accolades: 8th Grade Chorus, Honor Roll, out-standing attendance.

Service: Community Clean-up, volunteering at Prince of Peace, Salvation Army, and area food banks.

only completed a rigorous application process, but were also selected by a faculty/administrative review panel to represent Farrell’s National Hon-or Society class of 2020.

Although the extenuating circumstances of COVID 19 prohibit students from participating in a formal induction ceremony this year, stu-dents will have this honor in the upcoming school year. Questions regarding our Farrell Chapter of
the National Honor Society can be addressed to Madame Kotb, NHS Advisor.

Toni Austin Grade: 11

Activities: Varsity Cheerleading Cap-tain/Co-captain, Class Vice President, Span-ish Club, JCPenny’s Seasonal Associate, Volleyball, Choir

Quote: “I think it is more meaningful when someone provides a service and does not expect anything in return.”

Kamira Brown

Mariyana Amos (picture not available)

Grade: 11

Activities: Varsity Cheer Captain, Spanish Club, Class President, Senior Breakfast server, Volleyball, FBLA, Dual Enrollment, Thoughtful Needs Assistant, Choir, Mayoral Election Volunteer, Wendy’s part-time job.

Quote: “My dad has always taught me that it is better to give than to receive, to never look down on those in need, because of this I have always made it a point to help others as much as I can.”

Demariah Burns Grade: 10

Activities: Varsity Basketball and Volleyball, Spanish Club, Track and Field, Golden Girls, Student Council, Dual Enrollment, Backpack Program, JV Cheerleading

Service: Has assisted in Special Olympic Games, Blood Drives, FHS School Store and helping elderly persons in her neighborhood.

Page 7

Grade: 11

Activities: Cheerleading Co-captain, French Club Treasurer, High Honor Roll, Class Treasurer, JCPenny’s part-time asso-ciate.

Quote: “Being in NHS, being a role model, admiting to mistakes, showing respect and concern for others, being unique, and posi-tive communication and interactions are a great responsibility that I do not take light-ly.”

Nevaeh King Grade: 10

Activities: Basketball, Dual Enrollment, Upward Bound, Class Historian, Talent Search, Backpack program.

Plans: “I plan on enlisting in the Navy or Air Force, I plan on joining the R.O.T.C. and then going on to active duty.”

Volume 1,

Farrell Community Parade

Parade photo credit: Mr. Matthew Fowler
Page 8	Volume 1, Issue 6