Miss New York will visit George F. Johnson Elementary in June thanks to the efforts of fifth grade student Colleen Denmon.

She made it her mission to raise enough money to invite Miss New York - Shannon Oliver - to bring her anti-bullying message to the school. Thanks to help from the community, Denmon has raised $350 to bring Oliver to GFJ for an anti-bullying program at 2 p.m. on June 4. Oliver, a trained diversity educator, travels around the state teaching students the importance of accepting their peers as unique individuals, rather than as members of a stereotyped demographic.

Colleen Denmon at her bottle drive on May 13

Denmon held a bottle drive on May 13 and also received support from the Union-Endicott Education Foundation and the GFJ Parent-Teacher Association.

UE High School student Austin Reese has found a new outlet for his woodworking hobby - creating works inspired by books he is reading in his 9H English class with Mrs. Krieger.

Reese has chosen to forego what the rest of the class is doing for assignments, and instead use wood as his medium for projects. It all started when he read about the seven-sided die in "The Book Thief," by Markus Zusak. Austin asked Mrs. Krieger if he could recreate the die instead of doing a video, and she agreed. Austin later wrote a sonnet on a piece of wood he carved and listed his ideas of modified rules for the school inspired by "Animal Farm" on another block of wood.

Austin with his creations

Reese said his love of woodworking began with a family trip to Canada when he was in elementary school and he carved his own walking stick. Since that trip, he has been asking for the tools of the trade as birthday presents. Austin hopes to continue his woodworking hobby on the side while he pursues a career in the chemistry field.

The Food and Cultures class at U-E High School has been busy this year studying and sampling food from across the world.

Class sitting down to an Irish meal

Mrs. Rathfon said they welcomed two speakers recently: Cheryl Naslund, who presented a program on Argentina and Frank Roma, a UE graduate who presented a program on his many work related trips to Russia for consulting on their power plant facilities. Each speaker brought a new dimension to what local life is like for citizens of these countries.

Argentinian Meal

In addition, the class prepared menus with food from: Thailand, Madagascar, France, Argentina, Australia, and Ireland.

All four UE elementary schools have received bronze level awards from the US Department of Agriculture as part of its HealthierUS School Challenge.

From the May 6 UE BOE Meeting (l-r). Back row: BOCES Food Services Director Mark Bordreau, Legislator John Black, Legislator David Jensen, UE Food Services Director Tom Nunn, Food Service Site Manager Josie Henningsen. Front row: CFJ Principal Pamela Riddleberger, GFJ Interim Principal Pam Selitto, TJW Principal Emily Regan, AGM Principal Tim Lowie.

Ann G. McGuinness, Charles F. Johnson, George F. Johnson, and Thomas J. Watson are part of the three percent of 101,000 schools in the nation that will receive a HealthierUS status this year. Each school received a plaque, a banner, and a $500 check in recognition of their efforts. The school's principals and food service staff members were officially recognized on May 6 by the UE Board of Education as well as Broome County Legislators John Black and David Jensen.

For more information about the Challenge, please click HERE.

Local musician Jared Campbell performed two assemblies at George F. Johnson Elementary on May 6 to help with the school's anti-bullying efforts.

Campbell's performance was part of his "Blue Project." His visit was paid for and coordinated by the GFJ Student Government and PTA.

Jared with the GFJ Student Government

For more information on the Blue Project, visit Jared's website: http://jcblueproject.com/

Mrs. Appel's first grade class at Charles F. Johnson spent May 2 harvesting fresh vegetables from the hydroponic garden in their classroom and preparing a delicious lunch.

Lunch included scrambled eggs with fresh dill, a lettuce salad, and a main course of rice with parsley and cilantro.

The hydroponic garden was started with funds from a Union-Endicott Education Foundation Innovations Grant (more info about the UEEF can be found HERE). This was the second harvest for the class; they grew pesto in the fall.

Turner Pecen is Union-Endicott's recipient of the annual Student Community Service Award.

Pictured (l-r): Broome-Tioga BOCES Superintendent Allen Buyck, WBNG News Director Candace Chapman, Turner Pecen, State Sen. Thomas Libous

The UE High School senior was honored with a certificate and a $1,000 scholarship during a special ceremony on April 25. The program annually selects a deserving senior from each school district in state Senator Thomas Libous' 52nd District.

Sen. Libous is a sponsor of the Student Community Service Award program along with Broome-Tioga BOCES and WBNG-TV.

Pecen was selected for his volunteer efforts in the community and his academic successes (he is the valedictorian for the UE Class of 2013). Turner will attend Penn State University in State College, PA this fall to pursue a degree in Biochemisty.

Union-Endicott has received a safety award from Utica National Insurance for the tenth straight year.

The district was awarded with a School Safety Excellence Award - Titanium Level - the highest level possible in recognition of UE's efforts to create a safer school environment. This is the tenth straight year that UE has received the titanium level award from Utica National. All 10 plaques are now hanging in the UE District Office.

The 2013 plaque was presented to Director of Buildings and Grounds Gerald Abbey and School Safety Specialist Callie Kavleski by the UE Board of Education before their May 6 meeting.

Some classic authors were celebrated at Jennie F. Snapp's "Author Fair" on May 1.

Click on the photo to see more from the event

The students of Mrs. Kish's eighth grade Enriched English class were tasked with selecting an author and researching their life - with the ultimate goal to create a fictional Facebook profile for each author.

In all, 29 students participated in this year's event.

Kate Brennan and Cara Dufresne have been recognized at the district level in the annual Tri-Cities Woman's Club Writing Contest.

Brennan's short story, "Lament," won the district level after winning locally and will advance to the state competition. Dufresne's poem, "Sandy Hook," took second place at the district level.

The district level includes schools from Broome, Delaware, Otsego, and Onondaga counties. Congratulations to both Kate and Cara!

All three teams from the Union-Endicott High School placed well in the Regional Envirothon Competition on April 26. UE teams placed first, third, and sixth in the county.

The "Angry Ash Borers" placed first in Broome County and also first in the five county region. Liz Anderson, Dominic Kozaitis, Allison Kelley, Michelle Knuepfer, and Lauren Smales will now compete in the state Envirothon competition at Morrisville State College. They are only the second Envirothon team from UE to advance to the state competition.

All three UE Envirothon Teams

The other two UE teams - "Creamed Zea Mays" (Zach Rowe, Matt Burnett, Jacob Konecny) and "Steinettes" (Shreen Dubey, Dylan Gates, Huzma Syed, Morgan Sylvester) - placed third and sixth in the county, respectively, and the Zea Mays finished third in the region.

UE has been competing in Envirothon since 2003. Any parents or students who are interested in learning more about Envirothon, please contact advisor Terre Trupp by email at ttrupp@uek12.org.

Twelve Union-Endicott High School students spent three weeks in Italy as part of the district's Italian Exchange Program.

The students left for Bolzano, Italy on April 1 and returned on April 20. Besides staying with their host families in Bolzano, the students also visited Florence, Venice, and Rome. This was the 30th year of the exchange program between UE and Bolzano and it was celebrated with stories in the local newspapers and a television interview. The school in Bolzano even flew the American flag in front of the school for the three weeks that the UE students were in town.

Here are the students who attended: Donna Cimini, Cassie Conrad, Delaney Dupuy, Liana Hall, Nick Henenlotter, Aurora Hollenbeck, Erin Koral, Calli Nedbalski, Andrew Newman, Brianna Sullivan, Sam Sylvester and Liz Thompson. UEHS Italian teacher Mr. Angelo De Michele was the group's chaperone.

Check out the pictures from this year's trip attached to this story.

If you have a district event to publicize, please send the details to:
Chris Schmidt, Public Information Coordinator, uetigers@uek12.org