DeWitt Middle School Orchestra Takes the Stage with Stephen Spottswood and DJ Ramsey in the School’s First Hip Hop Performance
DeWitt Middle School will present its Orchestra Hip Hop Concert on Friday, May 26, at 7 p.m. in Kulp Auditorium at Ithaca High School. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade orchestras will perform with guest violinist Stephen Spottswood and DJ Ramsey on the turntable.
“We are so excited to be jumping into a different type of music than we have done in the past,” Aaron Buck, DeWitt Middle Orchestra Director, said. “It is fantastic to be able to collaborate with so many talented people with this project. It definitely shows the power that music has to bring people together. The orchestra students and I are so excited to put on this concert for all to see!”
The entire Ithaca City School District (ICSD) community is invited to gather for the concert at 7 p.m. ...
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Ithaca High School Receives National Recognition for Commitment to Empowering Students
Ithaca High School has been recognized as a 2022-23 Project Lead The Way (PLTW) Distinguished School. It is one of 262 high schools across the U.S. and one of eight in New York State to receive this honor for providing broad access to transformative learning experiences for students through PLTW’s engineering pathway. PLTW is a nonprofit organization that serves millions of pre-K-12 students and teachers in more than 12,200 schools across the U.S.
The PLTW Distinguished School recognition honors schools committed to increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in their PLTW programs. To be eligible for this designation, Ithaca High School met the following criteria in the 2021-22 school year:
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Northeast Scholar Equity Team Helps Make School Better for the Community
The Northeast Scholar Equity Team is a group of scholars committed to helping make their school a better, more welcoming place.
Since January 2023, the scholars, who self-selected onto the team, have met biweekly to discuss and implement different initiatives to improve the school for their peers. In February, they established their official equity statement - to be a welcoming school community that honors all identities and voices - and three overarching goals:
Share who we are and our purpose
Get input from everyone at the school
Make the school a better place for everyone
In pursuit of these goals, the Northeast Scholar Equity Team has had locks installed on the K-3rd bathroom stall doors, presented to all classrooms about their efforts, and set up ...
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Ithaca High School Sophomore Organizes Fun Run for Equality
As an 8th-grader at Trumansburg Central Schools, Izzy Laforge and one of her classmates created a fun run to bring awareness to racial inequality and injustices and raise money for the Southside Community Center. The event was so successful that she decided to do it again the following year at Trumansburg, raising another $1,200 for Southside.
Now a sophomore at IHS, Izzy is bringing the fun run to Ithaca and expanding upon it. Everyone is invited to participate on Sunday, June 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Moresco Stadium track . Come run or walk, donate money, eat free ice cream, get a t-shirt, and win local prizes in a raffle! All money raised will be donated to the Southside Community Center.
“I’m so excited for this year's Equality Fun Run and look forward ...
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Ithaca High School Ukrainian Exchange Student Luba Kryshchuk Shines on Tennis Team
When Luba Kryshchuk first arrived in America in 2021, she packed her tennis racket ‘just in case.’ Today, Luba is one of only six players to compete in sectionals, state qualifiers, and (hopefully) a trip to the state tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in June.
Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, Luba started playing tennis when she was only five years old. “I wanted to be Serena Williams,” Luba recalls. “I wanted to be a professional tennis player as a career.”
By the time she was ten, Luba had competed in the Kyiv Cup, a competition for 10-12-year-old professional tennis players. She became the number ten player in Ukraine in the 12-14 age division and started playing in matches across Europe.
However, ...
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ICSD Music Education Program Receives National Recognition for 11th Consecutive Year
The Ithaca City School District has been honored with the Best Communities for Music Education (BCME) designation from the NAMM Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education. This is the 11th consecutive year that the ICSD has received this designation.
The BCME award program recognizes districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement in efforts to provide music access and education to all students. Districts are evaluated on a number of factors, including funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music programs, and community music-making programs.
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Cayuga Heights Elementary Student Council Spreads Student Voice (and Composting Knowledge!)
In 2021, the Cayuga Heights Elementary School (CHES) Student Council started a discussion using the simplest of tools: a suggestion box.
Comprised of 5th-grade students, the Student Council meets every Monday to turn suggestions from their peers into actionable projects. The team was established to create a loudspeaker for student voice throughout the school, and now in its second year, these student leaders are proudly getting things done.
Last year, the most common topic in the suggestion box was gender identity and expression. Students wanted to learn and provide more educational tools to staff and students about LGBTQIA+ topics and language, including information on respecting others’ pronouns. In collaboration with students from Belle Sherman Elementary, ...
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Ithaca VEX IQ Robotics Team Competes in World Competition This Spring
UPDATE : On April 29, the ICSD VEX IQ Robotics Team 639E traveled to Dallas, TX, to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship, the largest robotics competition in the world. The team finished in fourth place out of 82 teams in their division ! Congratulations and well done, Camille, Theo, Shai, Abraham, and Bohan!
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Code Red Robotics Team Attends Finger Lakes Regional Competition
By Jennifer Zhao, 22-23 PR Officer | jiefei.zhao@icsd.k12.ny.us
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics team Code Red, based in Ithaca High School, has ended their build season! For the last seven weeks, students have been working up to 28 hours each week to design, build, and program this year’s 120 pound robot for competition - Tyrannosaurus Red.
The competition this year involved picking up cones and cubes, and placing them on a grid to score points. The game starts off in a 15 second autonomous period, in which the robot moves around and scores points without human control. Once the autonomous period is over, drivers and controllers maneuver the robot for a little over two minutes to place as many ...
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South Hill Fourth-Graders Start Newspaper Club
In December, Clara Wilson, a fourth-grader at South Hill Elementary, left a note for her teacher, Consuelo Yanez, asking if they could start a student newspaper.
“I knew Clara enjoyed writing because whenever she got a chance after completing her work, she would work on a personal story,” Ms. Yanez said. “Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to find her note on my desk before break inquiring about creating a newspaper.”
Ms. Yanez asked around to the other fourth-grade classes and found there was a lot of interest among the students. And so the South Hill Student Newspaper Club began! Since January, the club has grown from seven to 12 fourth-graders. The students meet every Friday during their recess and lunchtime to research and write for the newspaper, ...
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DeWitt Students Explore Intersectionality in Spanish Class Through Afro-Latinidad Mini-Lessons
In Theodora Baranowski’s DeWitt Middle School Spanish class, students are learning more than a new language; throughout the month of February, Ms. Baranowski’s “el foco” for each day included a lesson in intersectionality , or the simultaneous experience of social categories such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. Each lesson featured a personal history of an Afro-Latino public figure - from artists and performers to scientists and physicians. The central questions of the unit included: What is the difference between race and ethnicity? What is the meaning of Afro-Latinidad?
Students explored the lives of Jean Michel Basquiat, Kid Kudi, Felipe Luciano, and many more. When the focus of the lesson was ...
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Ithaca High School Orchestra Performs with Cornell Chamber Orchestra
On Sunday, March 19, the Cornell Chamber Orchestra and Ithaca High School (IHS) Orchestra performed together in an exploration of the intersection of art and music. The backdrop for this concert featured multimedia artwork inspired by the music and created by the IHS Art Department.
ABOUT THE ART
Reflection by Jesse Wright
Sunday’s concert was an amazing opportunity to celebrate collaboration and community through art and music in Cornell’s prestigious Bailey Hall. The IHS Art Department was grateful to receive the invitation from Kirsten Marshall to contribute visuals. Selections came from all of the IHS art courses featuring digital photography, paintings, drawings, sculptures, digital art, collages, and ceramics. Also featured was a timelapse video of a ...
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Ithaca High’s Community Closet Provides More Than Essentials: Structures of Support for the IHS Community
As a student at Ithaca High School (IHS), Rachel McDonald knew that some of her friends and peers lacked access to everyday essentials, such as winter gear and toiletries. When she joined IHS as a Library Media Specialist, Rachel realized the need was still there. Staff would send out an email blast for clothing or sneakers in a particular size for a particular student. Moving from reactive to proactive, she established the IHS Community Closet in 2019.
Located just off the library, the Community Closet is set up as a store where clothing, shoes, toiletries, and more are free for students. The Closet is a permanent space at IHS where students can shop for whatever they need, all free and confidential . Kasey Wszolek-Crandall and Nicholas Carbonaro have since joined Rachel, and together, ...
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Chorale Participates in 43rd Annual Ithaca College Choral Composition Festival
On Saturday, February 11th, the Ithaca High School (IHS) Chorale participated in the 43rd Annual Ithaca College Choral Composition Festival. The festival is nationally recognized for its efforts in championing new choral works, honoring up-and-comping composers, and celebrating the joy and connection of choral communities. IHS has been participating in the festival since its inception.
This year, four high school choirs from New York State participated, each having prepared a piece selected for competition. After a day of concerts, workshops, and rehearsals with Ithaca College choral ensembles, conductors, and composers, the competing pieces were shared during an evening concert for friends and family. The IHS Chorale premiered a new piece by composer Nathaniel ...
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IHS Seniors Named Finalists in 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has now determined which of the 16,000 semifinalists will advance to the finalist standing. All five of our Ithaca High School semifinalists have advanced:
Wali Afridi
Divya Bhojraj
Mika Gazit
Boaz Ng
William Thomas
The winners will be announced in March. Congratulations, scholars!
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Enfield Elementary Leaders Harrington and Grainger Rally in Albany to End School Hunger
When federal meal waivers expired in June of 2022, more than 726,000 New York State students lost access to free school meals. Among those impacted were ICSD students and families, which, in part, prompted the ICSD’s effort to prioritize healthy learners by providing meals for a student if they request one, regardless of whether they have the ability to pay.
A bill proposed in May would provide all students with free lunches, yet it did not pass. Still, according to Feeding America , 1 in 7 children in New York experience hunger. This month, students, school leaders, and lawmakers traveled to Albany to call on Governor Kathy Hochul to fund free school meals for all New York students in the 2024 budget.
Enfield Principal Keith Harrington and Associate Principal ...
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New Elementary Learning Maps Center Student Voice and Provide Restorative Reflection for Teachers
In the summer of 2021, a group of Ithaca City School District (ICSD) elementary teachers gathered to think critically about what shifts could be made to enhance elementary learning. In collaboration with the Equity Consulting Group , the team’s initial efforts have since evolved into a massive project to evaluate exactly what is engaging to students in regard to content and skills. The team is also working to build out a system that captures existing and emerging curriculum and practice to better support teachers in their lesson planning. Ultimately, the group is hoping this project empowers students to make sense of who they are and safely question the world around them.
The Learning Maps leaders gather to think critically about the stories
students ...
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KickOff! High School Robotics Team Starts Robot Construction
By Jennifer Zhao, 22-23 PR Officer | jiefei.zhao@icsd.k12.ny.us
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics team Code Red has kicked off a new season! On Saturday January 7th, 89 students, 16 mentors and advisors gathered at Ithaca High School, to watch the release of this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition game called “Charged Up”.
"It's scary not knowing what to expect going before the season but when it was revealed at Kickoff I was so excited!" said Annalise Thompson, one of the team’s two Build Team Managers and Vice Presidents, “I think this is my favorite game yet.”
This year’s competition involves picking up cones and cubes, and arranging them on ...
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ICSD Commendation Ceremony January 2023
On January 10, district leadership and the ICSD Board of Education recognized the extraordinary achievements of students and staff at the first Commendation Ceremony of the 2022-2023 school year! ( Check out photos of the event on Instagram )
The purpose of the quarterly Commendation Ceremonies is to celebrate the success of Team ICSD members who go above and beyond in the arts, athletics, and the community. Special recognition is also paid to individuals who embody the ICSD’s Culture of Love .
Congratulations to everyone recognized!
DeWitt Orchestra Section Leaders – working tirelessly to advance orchestra
Winners of the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission 2022 Arts Contest
Henry Bopp (6 th grade) - winner of ...
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