NEWS
At Tuesday's Board of Education meeting the board named Monica Merritt, currently the interim superintendent, as superintendent of P-CCS, to become effective on July 1, 2016.
Merritt will remain interim superintendent until former superintendent Michael Meissen’s contract expires. Merritt will not receive the superintendent’s salary until July 1.
“I am humble. I consider no greater honor than to lead this district,” said Merritt.
The job of superintendent was never posted on the district’s website; the school board stated that they did not wish to conduct a national search, and that they would prefer an internal candidate to lead P-CCS.
“None of them (previous superintendents) worked out because they were not familiar with our district; it takes an internal candidate to understand it,” said Board of Education Vice President Sheila Paton.
The board took responsibility for not communicating the process for selecting a superintendent.
At the meeting, citizens were given an opportunity to comment on the hiring of Merritt. Some citizens noted that they were not allowed to form a parent committee to evaluate if Merritt was the best choice. Others were disappointed with the board for not disclosing the process for choosing a superintendent with them. After citizens’ comments were made, the school board voted unanimously to appoint Merritt as superintendent.
The school board also took time to defend their choice of Merritt as superintendent before citizens made their comments regarding the matter. “She has demonstrated great leadership and performance. She has stepped up time and time again,” said Board of Education President Kimberley Crouch. “She has managed, from board member to board member, to earn their respect and work for them.”
“We believe Ms. Merritt has the ability to move (the district) forward in the best interests of our students,” said Paton.
The board also stated Merritt’s 23 years of working in public education, including 16 years as a teacher and an assistant principal, as a reason for hiring her.
One of trustee John Barrett’s comments at a forum on Monday stirred controversy. He said, regarding Merritt, “Teachers respect her and she respects them.” Following questions via email from Bob Williams, president of the Plymouth Canton Education Association, Barrett said at the Tuesday meeting that he did not speak for teachers as a whole or on behalf of the PCEA, the union that represents the teachers of P-CCS. Merritt was the main negotiator for the contract, which PCEA rejected.
Merritt gave a superintendent’s report after officially being named superintendent. “I pledge to you my undying support,” said Merritt, “but I know we have a lot of work to do.”
Merritt Named P-CCS Superintendent
By: Hannah Saad
News Editor
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
On Wed. Feb. 3 two National Honor Society students, Emma Burek, Plymouth senior, and Josh Dunn, Canton senior, put on a trivia night event to raise money for the American Heart Association.
Dunn said that the trivia night was overall, “very successful, we raised over $3000 for the AHA.”
Burek and Dunn chose to partner with AHA because heart disease has personally affected Dunn’s life; Dunn’s grandfather passed away from heart disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, with over 600,000 deaths per year.
As for Burek, she said, “I was introduced to the AHA at the Individual Service Project fair that NHS hosts and felt inspired.”
Burek said that they “ran through the event over and over to get things correct.”
For the trivia night, students of NHS could form teams of up to eight people, and come up with a theme for their group. Such themes were ninjas, dads’ night out and fancy dress attire. In order to participate there was a fee of $15 per person; that money would go directly to the AHA.
Dunn said in order to plan the event they had a lot of help from Rebecca Kraft, the director of NHS.
The teams then competed in six categories, each having about 25 questions and lasting 10 minutes long. The categories consisted of art, science, entertainment, history, sports and geography. The three teams with the highest scores would win bragging rights and a small prize.
A similar event took place last year to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Photos by Jordan Anheuser
Top: Emma Burek and Josh Dunn ran Trivia Night to raise money for AHA. Bottom: The "Dads' night out" themed team, from left: Alex Aresco, Maddie Leyden, Sam Fontana, Gwen, from right, Michael, John, Reagan.
AHA Trivia Night Success
By: Jordan Anheuser
Staff Writer
Thursday, February 11, 2016
HOSA Medals in Regionals, Heads to States
By: Jordan Anheuser
Staff Writer
On Jan. 30, Plymouth-Canton Educational Park brought home a total of 56 finalists, including 42 medals, from the Region Five Health Occupations Students of America regional competition. 50 members from the Park will be traveling to Traverse City for the state competition April 14-15.
Francine Girard, Health Occupations teacher at Canton, advisor of the P-CEP HOSA organization said about the state competition: “I am extremely excited. I think we will do very well. Students this year are very prepared and serious.”
HOSA is a nationwide organization that allows students to explore the wonders of possible medical careers in addition to competing, learning, fundraising, and becoming part of a science-loving community.
Every year, HOSA hosts a competition for its members, and this year, the Park brought 61 students to compete. There are many categories to compete in, such as medical spelling, medical terminology, public service announcement, nursing assisting, veterinary assisting, and more. Depending on the event chosen, participants can either compete alone, in pairs or in teams.
Plymouth junior Rithvic Jupudi competed with a team in the PSA event and brought home the gold medal. Jupudi said, “Winning felt really really cool. Our preparation really paid off.”
The HOSA competition is split into three parts; the first is regionals, the second states, and the third is nationals. In order to advance to the next stage, an individual, or individuals must medal or place in the top 10 of their group, depending on the number of people competing in the event.
Girard said about this year's regionals: “We took about 20 more students than last year, and we definitely took home more medals.”
All these medals did not come without hard work. Plymouth senior Jessica Lutkenhoff, who competed in nursing assisting, said that in order to prepare she, “attended many HOSA meetings, and took a lot of time studying notes.
As for junior Athrava Kajkar, a member of the PSA team, said his group prepared by “taking a lot of time to film scenes, bringing in other people besides those in our group, family, cousins, teachers, exedra. Editing the 30 second PSA took three to four hours alone.”
Although the deadline has already passed for this year, HOSA will be welcoming new members excited about health science throughout the following years, it does not matter what grade you are in.
Plymouth senior Michael Pham also a member of the PSA group said for students thinking about joining HOSA, “Put in effort and you will get something out of the experience, even if it’s not winning a gold medal.”
Lutkenhoff said, “HOSA presented me with opportunities that I would not have had otherwise.”
For students looking to be a part of the organization, Girard said, “See what you can give to HOSA, instead of what HOSA can give to you.”
This PSA group won first place at regionals. Top(left to right): Sohini Pandit, Michael Pham, Rithvic Jupudi. Bottom(left to right): Atharva Kharkar, Ria Mahesh, Sameed Khan.
Photo illistration by Atharva Kharkar
Monday, February 26, 2016
The Plymouth-Canton Educational Park Figure Skating A and B team will compete in states March 5-6 at Novi Ice Arena. Only the top two teams in the division makes it to states, and P-CEP has done it after 12 practices and three competitions.
Sam Howell, a senior at Plymouth High School, has been on the team for four years, said, “We worked incredibly hard to get here, we started off strong and still kept working hard throughout the season.”
Alyssa Dews, a senior at Salem High School, who has also been on the team for four years, said, “Everyone put their best foot forward, and even if we didn’t succeed the first time, we worked harder the next.”
Mikaela Hazergian, a junior at Canton, said “we believed in all our teammates and put everything we had out on the ice for every competition.”
Now the team is practicing for their states competition. The first day of the competition is when some of the girls compete individually to their own programs or, in some cases, duets. The second day is when the whole team competes in the jumps, moves, and spin categories.
Dews said all of the team is really excited and that they are ready to show the state what they can really do.
Howell also said that “all the skaters are ready to bring their A-game, especially for the seniors this year, since it is most of their last skating competition ever.”
Hazergian said, “There is going to be some really tough competition there, but as long as the team does their best then that’s all that matters.”
P-CEP Figure Skating Team to Go to States
By: Ally Schwinke
Staff Writer
Monday, February 26, 2016