Latest news with #MifflinHighSchool
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Berks' Best 2025 Taylor Seitzinger Community Service and Leadership winner: Garrett Hyneman has dedicated his life to helping others
Garrett Hyneman knows that learning extends far beyond the classroom. It's something that the Gov. Mifflin High School senior has seen firsthand since he was around 7 years old. That's when he first joined the Cub Scouts and discovered the joy of being of service to others. Over the year, his passion for community service and leadership has only grown, becoming an intrinsic part of who he his. 'My life purpose is to make a positive difference to the most number of people I can,' he said. That mindset, and his willingness to back it up with action, has earned Hyneman the distinction of being named the winner of the 2025 Berks' Best Taylor Seitzinger Community Service and Leadership Award. 'In my 27 years of teaching, I have encountered many outstanding students, but Garrett stands out as one of the most driven and involved individuals I've ever had the pleasure of working with,' Kristi Jo Bonanno, Gov. Mifflin's internship and school-to-work program coordinator, said in a letter supporting Hyneman's nomination. 'He takes full advantage of every opportunity presented to him and approaches each with remarkable initiative and passion.' That has led Hyneman to be incredibly busy, with running through the list of projects and activities he has been involved with enough to make most people's heads spin. Take, for example, his Eagle Scout project. As someone who is extremely passionate about preserving and protecting the environment, he got 80 homeowners on a local street to band together and beautify their neighborhood by planting two dozen shade trees. That led to another project, this time working within the Gov. Mifflin School District to plant trees. Starting with the high school and middle school campuses, he has been soliciting donors — who can pay $250 to have a plaque installed — to cover the costs. 'The goal is to beautify the campus and recognize donors who are able to honor somebody special in their lives,' Hyneman said. 'It's a passion project, and it's 100% student-run.' That project is in the planning stages for phase two, which will see trees planted at Cumru Elementary School. 'The ultimate goal is to get the students there a step closer to being steward of the environment,' he said. Hyneman is also a member of several local community organization. He sits on the youth advisory board of the Berks County Community Foundation, where he has worked to battle food insecurity and to protect the environment, and as a member of What's Up Berks has been helping to lead an effort to ban single-use plastic bags in the county. He has also created his own What's Up Berks youth board at Gov. Mifflin, which helped the district transition from using plastic utensils in its cafeterias to using metal versions. The switch will help protect the environment, he said, and save the district about $30,000. Hyneman said he plans to continue his community service and leadership work as he heads off to college this fall at Lehigh University. There, he will study mechanical engineering with a focus in the environment and sustainability. 'I'm really interested in getting involved in the realm of green energy,' he said. 'I'm doing college research on a thermal electric generator. I'm working on a patent. I'm trying to create a more environmentally friendly, more efficient model.' Hyneman said he is also interested in getting involved with politics, saying he feels he can make the biggest impact on the world that way. And, he said, his long-term plans include trying to give back to the community by becoming an educator. Related Articles * May 16, 2025\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009Berks' Best 2025 mathematics winner: Jasper Platt intrigued by the theoretical side of math\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009 * May 16, 2025\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009Berks' Best 2025 communications winner: Sydney Guida has a passion for storytelling\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009 * May 16, 2025\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009Berks' Best 2025 career and technical education winner: Devra Longacre headed toward bright future\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009 * May 16, 2025\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009Berks' Best 2025 overview: 418 students nominated for 11 awards\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009\u0009
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Americorps cuts hit Ohio classrooms
(Stock photo from Getty Images) My partner is a 10th-grade geometry teacher at Mifflin High School, a Columbus City Schools secondary school on the northeast side. For the past three years, she has had an assistant from the City Year program. This is an AmeriCorps program that places qualified full-time volunteers in schools to support teachers and the development of children. Her City Year volunteer was a kind person who supported children and helped with her workload of teaching math to high school-age children. It wasn't rare for her to come home telling me she didn't know what she would do without her City Year volunteer. She will have to figure that out soon. Earlier this week, she arrived at school to find her City Year volunteer was gone. By the end of the day, an announcement was made to the school: Columbus City School's 30-year relationship with the City Year program was over. This was a direct result of the federal Department of Government Efficiency's decision last week to cut 41% of the AmeriCorps program budget. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX AmeriCorps was the beginning of my career. I enrolled as a full-time volunteer a few months after graduating from Denison University and was selected to serve as a community organizer supporting neighborhood associations for the mayor of Omaha, Nebraska. At the same time, my mother, back in the workforce with her three children out of high school, enrolled in AmeriCorps to evaluate literacy instruction programs for young children. In 2020, my firm Scioto Analysis conducted a cost-benefit analysis of AmeriCorps programs in Ohio. We found that the programs have significant impacts on the trajectory of participants. People who enroll in the program have much higher future earnings and lower chances of criminal justice involvement. The best evidence available tells us cutting AmeriCorps will result in lower wages and higher crime rates for Ohio. We found that the net benefits of the program in Ohio range somewhere from from $1 million to $30 million and that expansions of the program could push net benefits into the nine-figure range. It seems that the decisions being made at the federal level are blind to one side of the accounting ledger. In the fervor to reduce spending and cut administrative offices at the federal level, DOGE leader Elon Musk and other decision makers are failing to consider the benefits of programs they eliminate. I have no doubt in my mind that there are reasonable cuts that can be made to federal programs. The problem is that the current approach is not reasonable: it is the public finance equivalent of conducting open-heart surgery with a chainsaw. The sad thing about this from the perspective of the fiscal hawk is that these cuts will have very little effect on the federal debt. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, even a spending cut 1,000 times the size of the AmeriCorps cut last week would only reduce the federal-debt-to-GDP ratio by one percentage point in the next decade. Cutting AmeriCorps is a drop in the bucket in the context of U.S. debt. The benefits of cutting Americorps funds are hard to divine. Its costs are clear. In the meantime, volunteers will be lost and children from low-income families in a high-poverty school district will have one less resource available to them in their already under-resourced classrooms. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Yahoo
3rd shooter sentenced in killing of Gov. Mifflin student at Reading park
A third shooter charged in the 2022 killing of a Gov. Mifflin High School student after a fight at a Reading park will join the other two shooters behind bars in state prison. Julian Evans pleaded guilty Wednesday — the day before his 21st birthday — before Berks County Judge Thomas Parisi to two counts of aggravated assault, possessing a firearm without a license and perjury. He was sentenced to six to 15 years in state prison. Evans was one of three men charged in the March 14, 2022, shooting death of 18-year-old Amier T. Bibbs following a fight at Brookline Park. Anthony Boria, 20, of Reading and Henry Madera, 19, of Spring Township were each convicted in October of third-degree murder and related charges. Each was sentenced in December by Parisi to 23 to 46 years in state prison. Three others were injured in the shooting. A 16-year-old girl suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her torso and left thigh, and males ages 18 and 17 suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and buttocks, respectively. The shooting took place after dozens of teenagers gathered at the Brookline Park baseball field in the 1300 block of Meade Street to watch a prearranged fistfight between two boys. The group mostly consisted of current and former students from the Gov. Mifflin School District. After the fight, several people in the crowd began arguing. Three people — Boria, Madera and Evans — began firing gunshots into the crowd. Bibbs and three other teens were struck. Bibbs died at the scene. Investigators recovered 43 shell casings in the park. 'This was another example of being young and dumb,' District Attorney John T. Adams said Thursday. 'This was a classic example of young people, of teenagers, just shooting randomly and not realizing the gravity and the consequences of pulling that trigger. 'A life was lost and another young life was impacted forever as a result of this reckless and spontaneous use of a firearm.' Adams said that Evans' sentencing brought to close a very difficult case in which normal investigative methods did not result in any charges. That was largely because all three shooters wore masks — which was common as the COVID-19 pandemic was coming to a close at the time, he said. 'It was difficult for us to obtain the cooperation and evidence we needed from many of the individuals who were there to identify the perpetrators,' Adams said. The case was given to an investigative grand jury, Adams said, which was able to develop additional evidence and identify Evans as a suspect. After he was charged, Evans cooperated with authorities and helped move the cases against his fellow shooters forward. Charges against all three came about nine months after the killing. 'As we prepared for trial, he provided additional corroborating evidence that was, quite frankly, essential in the identification of the other individuals who were also shooters in this case,' Adams said. 'His cooperation was really very intrinsic in providing us the needed evidence to prove our case.' Adams said he is glad all three shooters have been brought to justice and will each serve a lengthy prison sentence. 'This is what I consider one of the most tragic cases that our office has be involved with in years,' he said. 'The bottom line is that we had one young man shot and killed and we had another young lady who was injured very badly and has probably suffered injuries that will affect her for the rest of her life. 'It is again another reminder of the dangerousness of young people with guns.'
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Mifflin teacher wins 2025 Annie Sullivan Award
A life skills support teacher from Gov. Mifflin High School has been honored for her work supporting students with disabilities. Tracey Miller was chosen from 21 finalists as the winner of the 2025 Annie Sullivan Award. Named after the famed teacher of Helen Keller, the Annie Sullivan Award is presented each year by the Berks County Intermediate Unit in recognition of an individual who has worked to encourage the understanding and promotion of students with disabilities in their school or community. Gov. Mifflin School District life skills support teacher Tracey Miller, center, is the winner of the 2025 Annie Sullivan Award. With her, from left, are William Bennett, Mifflin supervisor of special education; Dr. Michelle Reichard-Huff, director of early childhood and student services at the Berks County Intermediate Unit; Brian Bell, Mifflin director of student services; Dr. Lisa Peterson, Mifflin supervisor of special education; Gary McEwen, BCIU board president; and Dr. Jill Hackman, BCIU executive director. (Courtesy of BCIU) Miller has worked in the Mifflin district since 1995. During her time there, she has developed the middle school life skills support program and later expanded her efforts at the high school level by establishing a simulated house setting for independent living skills. She has also created and still manages a school-run thrift store, diner and coffee shop that provide students with real-world job skills. 'Tracey has consistently demonstrated unwavering dedication to supporting students with disabilities, creating innovative programs and fostering inclusion,' a nomination statement from her colleagues said. 'She continues to give back, balancing her work with a deep commitment to her family and community. 'Her passion, creativity and compassion make her an ideal candidate for the Annie Sullivan Award. Through her remarkable contributions, Tracey has positively impacted countless lives and is a true advocate for all students.' Along with teaching, Miller coaches Unified Sports Bocce, advises the Unified Mustangs club, organized a countywide Job Skills Olympics and guides future special education educators. The 21 finalist for the Berks County Intermediate Unit's 2025 Annie Sullivan Award. (Courtesy of the Berks County Intermediate Unit) In addition to Miller, the following were the other finalists: • Anna Legg, life skills and autistic support teacher, Antietam School District. • Susan Schwartz, service occupations instructor, Berks Career and Technology Center. • Cheri Heebner, early intervention lead teacher, Berks County Intermediate Unit. • Edith Bennet, physical therapist, Boyertown School District. • Rita Kayhart, paraprofessional, Brandywine Heights School District. • Winston Kendell, custodian, Conrad Weiser School District. • Rachel Christman, learning support teacher, Daniel Boone School District. • Kaisha McCulley, director of transportation, Exeter School District. • Melissa Majewski, student services administrative assistant, Fleetwood School District. • Nicholas Adams, emotional support teacher, Hamburg School District. • Elizabeth Wessner, first grade teacher, Kutztown School District. • Elizabeth Chapman, special education coordinator, Muhlenberg School District. • Kelly Herrmann, special education teacher, Oley Valley School District. • Elizabeth Allen, paraprofessional, Reading-Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center. • Keesha Scott, paraprofessional, Reading School District. • Christine Nguyen, special education paraprofessional, Schuylkill Valley School District. • Hanna Woolf, life skills and autistic support teacher, Tulpehocken School District. • Regine Glass, life skills teacher, Twin Valley School District. • Monica Lawrence, autistic support teacher, Wilson School District. • Jillian Disla, special education paraprofessional, Wyomissing School District.
