Congratulations to all of the student, staff and school honorees from the Feb. 27, 2020 Awards & Recognitions Night. The Wicomico County Board of Education, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Donna Hanlin and Wicomico County Public Schools are proud to celebrate everyone’s achievements.
Photos are posted here, on Wicomico County Public Schools Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/wcboe/photos/?tab=album&album_id=3008021029228200
Cyber Safety Poster Contest Winners
Some 1,450 Wicomico fourth-graders participated in the school system’s annual Cyber Safety Awareness Month. Students attended a multimedia presentation by school counselors and student advisors on the importance of being cyber safe. They were then invited to participate in a Cyber Safety Poster Contest to reinforce the message of staying safe online. We had the largest number of entries for the contest in the eight years since we started the fourth-grade focus on Cyber Safety.
Gift cards and certificates of recognition for the winners of the Cyber Safety Poster Contest:
1st place and a $100 gift card: Will Duncan, Fruitland Intermediate
2nd place and a $50 gift card: Melody Johnson, Delmar Elementary
3rd place and a $25 gift card: Emily Oglesby, North Salisbury Elementary
2020 Shorebirds Hit the Books Bookmark Design Contest
The Delmarva Shorebirds’ Hit the Books program, with sponsor Dr. James M. Crouse at The Brace Place, encourages elementary and middle school students on the Delmarva Peninsula to read outside of their regular classroom assignments. Students who complete their reading goals receive two free ticket vouchers to a Shorebirds home game during the 2020 season. The Delmarva Shorebirds visited Pittsville Elementary and Middle School to congratulate fifth-grader Madison Wheeler with the news that she was the winner of the 2020 Shorebirds Hit the Books Bookmark Design Contest. Her winning design will be featured on bookmarks distributed to more than 50,000 students at 100 area schools. Madison will have the opportunity to throw out a first pitch before her school’s Hit the Books date at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium this spring.
Earth Science Week Contest
The American Geoscience Institute invited students from around the country to enter the 2019 Earth Science Week Contest. Finalists and top winners were chosen for photography, essay, video and visual arts. Congratulations to Emily Oglesby, a fourth-grader at North Salisbury Elementary, for her visual art entry on the theme of “Earth Science and Me” being selected as a finalist.
SHAPE Maryland and SHAPE America Awards
In 2019 Wicomico had three outstanding staff members who received state and national recognition from the Society of Health and Physical Educators of Maryland and SHAPE America. They were honored in November at the annual SHAPE Maryland Awards Banquet for coordinating and advocating for physical education, health, and/or physical activity.
SHAPE Maryland Simon A. McNeely Award winners:
Dr. Harlan Eagle, West Salisbury Elementary School physical education teacher. He was recognized for planning and implementing an Employee Wellness annual 5K and fun walk event and providing professional development to teachers and administrators in implementing technology integration in the gymnasium and classrooms. In 1990 Dr. Eagle started the Beyond the Limits Ropes Course, which has positively influenced thousands of people over 30 years.
Terry Budd, Westside Intermediate School physical education teacher. She was recognized for her continued efforts to support before, during, and after school events and activities at her school. Terry has led Westside Intermediate staff and students in physical activity and health-related events for more than 30 years.
2019-2020 SHAPE America Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year:
Jennifer Hill, Pinehurst Elementary
Jen Hill believes that all students can learn and that by providing meaningful instruction to every student is a necessity not a choice. She serves as a coordinator for Unified Sports, is a Past President of Eastern Shore Special Olympics, and organizes fundraising efforts for Adapted Physical Education programs. She has piloted the Young Athletes program at Pinehurst Elementary and was recognized as the Pinehurst Elementary Teacher of the Year and the County Intermediate Finalist for Teacher of the Year in 2017. She was selected as a finalist in Wicomico County in 2017. She currently serves as a liaison with the Maryland Adapted Physical Education Consortium and provides support to physical educators in Wicomico County Public Schools where Adapted Physical Education best practices are shared for students in all schools. She will receive recognition in April 2020 from SHAPE America in Salt Lake City, Utah at the annual national convention.
2019 Maryland STEM Festival Art Contest
Congratulations to Vernon Keaser of Salisbury Middle, a winner in the 2019 Maryland STEM Festival Art Contest! The seventh-grader entered work in the Middle School Traditional Art Category, and finished 3rd. He won a $25 Amazon gift card and made his family and art teacher very proud.
2020 All State Music Ensembles
Six Wicomico students who were chosen for the 2020 Maryland All State musical performing groups were recognized. These students have proven themselves to be among the best in the state, as selected by audition from among thousands of candidates.
All State Junior Band:
Kara Lewis, 9th Grade, trumpet. Kara is a student at James M. Bennett High, Band Director Douglas Miles.
All State Junior Chorus:
From Parkside High, Antoinette Daniel, Choral Director:
John Schmuff, 9th Grade, bass
Angela Vaughan, 9th Grade, soprano alternate
All State Senior Chorus:
From Parkside High School, Antoinette Daniel, Choral Director:
Abigail Cuesta, 10th Grade, soprano, All State Senior Treble Chorus
From James M. Bennett High, Megan Centineo, Choral Director:
Quinn Hastings, 10th Grade, alto, All State Senior Mixed Chorus
Treyce Wilson, 12th Grade, bass alternate
2019 AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award
Many of our high school students take advantage of the opportunity to challenge themselves and earn college credit in Advanced Placement (or AP) courses. This school year one of our schools earned special notice for its efforts to engage students in AP Computer Science. Mardela Middle and High is the proud recipient of the College Board’s AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for attaining female student representation in AP Computer Science Principles. Out of 20,000 institutions offering AP courses, just 639 received this recognition in 2019. We congratulate Mr. Josephus Hastings, Business & Computer Science Teacher, and Mardela Middle and High, for receiving this award.
Maryland “I Voted” Sticker Design Contest and Ocean City “Play It Safe” Poster Contest
Karina Ramos Vega, a Wicomico High student and a student in the Wicomico County Visual and Performing Arts program, was one of 650 students statewide who entered a sticker design in a contest conducted by the Maryland State Board of Elections in partnership with the Fine Arts Office of the Maryland State Department of Education. A panel of artists reviewed the submissions and selected Karina’s sticker design as one of the three high school finalists. Her work was seen online by thousands during voting on the elementary, middle and high school sticker designs, and in the end her sticker finished with the second-highest high school vote total.
Karina Ramos Vega also won the 2020 Ocean City Play It Safe Poster Contest, which is conducted each year by the Ocean City Drug & Alcohol Abuse Prevention Committee Inc. and the Worcester County Health Department. The Play It Safe campaign targets new high school graduates with messages of being safe at the beach. Each year the winning design by a Maryland high school student is used on printed brochures, the website playitsafeoceancity.com, and T-shirts. As the winner, Karina will receive $100 at a major press event in Ocean City.
Wicomico County Tourism Awards
The Parkside High School Athletic Department received two recognitions at the 2019 Wicomico County Tourism Awards, and we are proud to celebrate their great work in service to their community.
Burt Cashman, Head Coach of Parkside Wrestling, was honored with a Tourism Award for his leadership in running the MAWA Tournaments, among the largest wrestling tournaments on the East Coast.
Parkside High Football, under Head Coach Brendan Riley, was honored for the team’s outstanding volunteer support of the Wicomico County Department of Recreation and Parks.
Unified Strength and Conditioning Gold Medalists
Wicomico Schools is proud to partner with Special Olympics Maryland to offer Unified Sports seasons in our high schools. Students with and without disabilities join to have fun, master the skills of a sport, and compete. Competing against Unified Strength and Conditioning teams from around the state, teams 1 and 2 from James M. Bennett High advanced through the brackets to gain the most points in their division. Each of these two teams earned the gold medal at the Interscholastic Unified Strength and Conditioning State Invitational on February 6th at Chesapeake College.
Certificates of achievement for these gold medal-winning Unified Strength and Conditioning Teams:
James M. Bennett High Team 1:
Evan Smith, Riley Bozman, Morgan Riley, Katie Moisan, Jack Van Dopp, Riley Watson, Jordan Reading, Noah Mason, Jenna Tilghman, Jayceon Moss, Treyce Wilson, Aris Morgan, Rafael Hernandez-Solis, Oden Atkins
James M. Bennett High Team 2:
Naythan Lewis, Sophie Harrell, Ally Johnson, Sam Blackmon, Tommy Rollins, Daelyn Gregory, Kennedy Hudson, Ella Floyd, Nicole Nieberding, Myah Blackmon, Tavon Cyr-Townsend, Austin Brinkley, Cameron Hill, Logan Duncan
Coaches: Rebecca Gregory, Kathy Elliott, Julie Morrow, Mark “Babe” Wilson
