National Merit Semi-Finalists

Congratulations to Guilderland High School seniors Karl Barber, Yifan Chen, Katherine Haas, Kathryn Matthews, Adrian Valverde, and Matthew Williamson, who were named semifinalists in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship (NMS) Program and will have an opportunity to continue in the Merit Scholarship competition. They are among 16,000 students chosen from more than 1.4 million students nationwide who entered by taking the 2006 PSATs as juniors. About 15,000 NMS semifinalists are expected to become finalists, based on criteria including an application, academic performance, recommendations and SAT scores. Finalists then compete for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards, to be offered in the spring for college undergraduate study.

Guilderland Staff Members presenting at Capital Region BOCES Turnkey Training Workshops

On October 5, 2007 Lynne Wells, Middle School Language Arts/Social Studies/Reading Supervisor, will present a workshop on Grade 5 Social Studies Exam Turnkey Training to provide trainers with the information necessary to train district staff to score the grade 5 Social Studies Assessment that will be administered this fall.

On November 26, 2007 Nancy Andress, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Lynne Wells, Middle School Language Arts/Social Studies/Reading Supervisor, and Castilia Commisso, secretary who deals with testing, will be presenting a workshop on Scoring Administration and Operations for grades 3-8 ELA & Math to administrators and secretaries from area schools who will be responsible for the administration and operations of the scoring staff, site, and materials.

Guilderland Music Faculty & Friends Recital

The Guilderland Music Faculty and Friends Recital will be presented on Thursday, October 25, 2007 in the high school auditorium at 7:00 p.m. A wide variety of musical genres, from classical to pop, will be performed with groups ranging from soloists to large ensembles. Featured performers include teachers from every grade level, administrators and Guilderland students. This enjoyable evening offers students and community members an opportunity to listen to their teachers in a different role as performers. 

While there is no admission for this event, each year donations are collected and given to a charitable organization. This year, funds will be raised for Compassion in Action. This organization offers healthcare to the underserved communities of the Capital Region of New York.

GCSD students selected to perform with NYSSMA Conference All State Music Ensembles

Each year, thousands of student musicians in New York State compete for an opportunity to be selected for the prestigious NYSSMA Conference All State Music Ensembles. Admission to these highly selective groups is based upon the score received the previous spring during the NYSSMA Solo Evaluation Festival. Each student performed before a certified adjudicator who carefully evaluated every aspect of their performance.

The Guilderland High School music department is proud to announce that ten students were recognized this year including: Elizabeth Barber, Katie Boyagian, Meredith Hall, Emily Kidd, Kathryn Matthews, Silvia Roma, Hyeon Soh, and Nicholas Tariello who were selected to attend Conference All State. In addition, Kevin Lovely and Hillari Patschureck were selected as alternates.

These students will spend four days rehearsing in Rochester with gifted students from across the state with the event culminating in a concert at Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music. Meredith will be playing oboe with the Symphonic Orchestra and Hyeon will be playing violin in the String Orchestra. Katie, Silvia, and Kathryn will be singing with the Women’s Chorus.

Congratulations to all the musicians, their teachers and parents on this outstanding accomplishment.