Feb 2, 2022 6 min read

Upper St. Clair High School senior Eddie Albert has been recognized with a National Hispanic Recognition Award by the College Board.

To qualify, students must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or higher and score in the top 10% in the state on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test or earn a score of 3 or higher on two or more Advanced Placement exams before 11th grade.

Eddie is a member of the high school’s National Honor Society, Cereal Club, Student Council and varsity baseball team. He plans to continue his academic and baseball career at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.

The College Board’s National Hispanic Recognition Program is an academic honor that can be included on college applications. Colleges use these honors to identify students from underrepresented groups who have excelled in classrooms and on the PSAT or AP exams.

Teams excel in STEM competition

Two Upper St. Clair High School teams were among the top teams in the Real World Design Challenge Pennsylvania State Competition.

The Panther Projects team finished second and received a wild card invitation to compete in the national/international competition. The Engineers of Upper St. Clair team placed third.

Panther Projects team members are Scott Cheung, 12th grade; Andrew Xu, 11th grade; and ninth-graders George Abdel-Messih, Paige Kline and Krishna Sathya Vagheeswar.

Members of the Engineers of Upper St Clair are Henry Zheng and Nitin Chandran, 11th grade; Anuj Shah and Emily Neiberg, 19th grade; and Rohan Mehta, ninth grade.

Students worked and competed in this challenge independently through the high school’s Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Club.

Members of the Panther Projects team now have the chance to improve their engineering design notebook and compete for the RWDC national and international titles and merit awards on April 23.

Wild card teams were recommended by judges and reviewed by the RWDC Technical Committee. No more than five teams are selected each year to compete in the wild card slots.

Both teams were recognized for their demonstrated ability and significant achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The Real World Design Challenge is an annual competition that provides high school students the opportunity to work on real world engineering challenges in a team environment. Student teams are asked to address a challenge that confronts the nation’s leading industries.

Students utilize professional engineering software to develop their solutions and generate presentations that convincingly demonstrate the value of their solutions.

Feedback accepted for proposed calendarUpper St. Clair School District has posted its proposed calendar for the 2022-23 school year. Community members are invited to provide comment and feedback through Feb. 23. Final calendar approval is anticipated at the Feb. 28 school board meeting.

The proposed first day of school for students is slated for Aug. 24, with the academic year concluding June 9, 2023. High school commencement would be held on June 8.

Thanksgiving recess will be Nov. 23-25, and school resumes the following Monday.

Under the proposed calendar, the 11-day winter bBreak begins Dec. 23 and continues through Jan. 2. A 10-day spring break is set for the week preceding Easter, March 31 through April 7.

Feedback regarding the proposed calendar can be submitted via an online form or email to Tina Vojtko, communications specialist, tvojtko@uscsd.k12.pa.us.

View the proposed 2022-23 Calendar at www.uscsd.k12.pa.us/cms/lib/PA01000033/Centricity/Domain/1/2022-23ProposedCalendar.pdf. Provide comment regarding the calendar at forms.gle/Qk21eyS5mnM8MUkR8.

USC limits potential tax increase

Upper St. Clair School Board approved a resolution limiting any possible 2022-23 real estate tax increase to within the inflationary index determined by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Upper St. Clair’s current rate is 27.6772 mills. Passage of the resolution assures taxpayers that any proposed increase to the real estate tax rate will not exceed 3.4%, or 0.9410 mills.

Act 1 of 2006 sets an upper limit that school districts can raise property taxes. The index amount is calculated annually and reported to school districts. To exceed the index, school districts can apply to the Department of Education for exceptions for pension and special education costs or by holding a voter referendum.

Throughout the next several months Superintendent John Rozzo and Scott Burchill, director of business and finance, will provide budget updates during regularly scheduled school board meetings.

By law, the district’s final budget and tax rate must be approved by June 30. The board is scheduled to take action on the final budget and tax rate during its meeting on June 27.

To calculate the maximum annual impact on a specific property value in Upper St. Clair Township, multiply the property’s county assessed value by 0.0009410, or approximately $94 per $100,000 of assessed property.

District receives safety grants

Upper St. Clair School District recently was awarded two 2021-22 Safe Schools Targeted Grants totaling $43,960 from the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Office for Safe Schools.

The district received an equipment grant of $24,720 to purchase 10 laptops for its school police officers.

“This will replace and upgrade the current computers for our officers, providing increased functionality with the district’s camera and electronic access systems,” Sean Bryson, Upper St. Clair’s chief of school police, said. “This new equipment will greatly enhance the work of our officers.”

In addition, a program grant in the amount of $19,240 will be used to implement an Active Bystander Train-the-Trainer program, as well as associated costs to train other members of the school community. The program is intended to empower bystanders to help provide care during an emergency until professional help arrives.

“This program is the first step in training a cross section of our school community on a voluntary basis to provide interim crisis care in an emergency,” Bryson said. “Providing basic training for what to do until first responders arrive can make a significant difference in the outcome during a medical crisis.”