Avon Central Schools

For the vast majority of our students, their bus driver is the first person they see on their way into school in the morning and the last person they see on their way home in the afternoon. This morning, we gathered members of our Transportation Department at Peppermints Family Restaurant to thank them for the work they put in each and every day to get our students where they need to go quickly and safely. We appreciate you!

Mark your calendars, Avon. This Friday, Feb. 9, our Middle School Student Council is sponsoring TWO awesome events - one for 5th and 6th graders and one for 7th and 8th graders! First up is the 5th/6th Grade Fun Night from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Middle School Gymnasium. We’ll have pizza, movies, board games and a whole lot more. Then, from 7 to 9 p.m., the gym will transform into the venue for the 7th/8th Grade Dance complete with games, a photo booth and a live DJ! Admission is $6 for each event. Teachers will also be chaperoning both events, so parents don’t need to stay. We hope to see you Friday for our forthcoming, festive functions, which are firmly fated to be fully flush with farcical frivolity!

Over the past few weeks, students in Mr. Mike Dale’s sophomore principles of engineering class have been working to design, build and improve machines as part of their units on gear ratios and fluid dynamics. Working in small groups, Dale’s students created a box-crusher, a forklift, a wrecking ball and a crane using gears, hydraulic and pneumatic systems and a range of out-of-the-box and custom, 3D-printed parts. We stopped by this afternoon to see how they all work - check it out at the link below! Link: https://youtu.be/zFpmkFF6QVQ

Join us in congratulations Avon eighth grader James C., who captured the Section V Class B2 124-lb Wrestling Championship Saturday at East Rochester High School! James pinned his first two opponents inside 2 minutes to make the finals where he earned a 15-0 technical fall victory to claim his first sectional title. In addition to capturing the 124-lb title, James was also named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler for the lightweight divisions. Other top finishers for Avon-Geneseo at sectionals were: • Connor D. (Avon), who took second place at 101 lbs • Ethan C. (Geneseo), who took third at 215 lbs • Brady D. (Avon,) who took sixth at 190 lbs • Patrick H. (Geneseo), who took fifth at 285 lbs James and his fellow, top 5 sectional finishers will compete at the Section V State Qualifiers this Saturday, Feb. 10, at SUNY Brockport. (Photos courtesy of Armdrag.com)

Shout out to our student musicians selected for All-County II this weekend at Letchworth Central Schools! Students selected for Senior Chorus and Junior Band will perform tomorrow at Letchworth alongside the best student musicians in the Genesee Valley! Avon students selected for All-County II are: Senior Chorus (Grades 10-12) • Emma D. (soprano) • Isis S. (soprano) • Hannah C. (alto) • Olivia N. (alto) • Mason B. (tenor) • Sean M. (bass) Junior Band (Grades 7-9) • Stephen B. (flute) • Gerard L. (clarinet) • Elena G. (clarinet) • Megan K. (bass clarinet) • Zuniel C. (trombone) • Avery D. (trombone) • Julia S. (tuba) (Photo courtesy of Luke Selby)

Michael R.’s record-setting shot came in the fourth quarter last night off a feed from junior forward Brody M. After getting the ball in the short corner, Michael pulled up and sank a 6-foot floater to give Avon the 53-48 lead and capture the career points record. Check out the special moment at the link below! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIHK3yddUco

Get out some pen and paper, Braves Nation. Time to re-write the record books. A huge congratulations to senior Michael R., who moved into sole ownership of our boys basketball career points record last night during Avon’s 64-59 win over York. Michael, who finished the night with 13 points and 7 rebounds, now has 1,048 career points, breaking the old record of 1,041 set by Zach Colvin in 2022. Did we mention we’ve got 3 regular season games left to go? Incredible! Teammate Trevor S. led the Braves in York last night, amassing 5 assists, 6 rebounds and 25 points. Josh H. also had a big night with 20 points and 7 assists. The Braves are next in action tomorrow - Friday, Feb. 2 - at home against an 8-8 Warsaw squad. (Photos courtesy of Doug McFarland Photography)

Mark your calendars for the Avon PTA’s “Let’s GLOW Family Valentine’s Dance” coming up this Saturday, Feb. 3, in our Elementary School Gymnasium, 161 Clinton St., Avon. While the dance is free, PTA volunteers will be accepting donations for the Avon Food Pantry. At present, the pantry is particularly in need of cereal, oatmeal, syrup, cake mix, brownie mix and spaghetti sauce. Thank you in advance for your generosity! PLEASE NOTE: PreK - 4th Grade students MUST be accompanied by a parent/adult. Parents/adults MAY accompany 5th-8th Grade students, but it’s not required. We hope to see you there!

Last week was the Great Kindness Challenge in Avon Elementary School and to help our younger students get in the spreading kindness spirit, Counselor Alexis McTarnaghan decided to partner up with Six Sprouts Farm Market on Lakeville Road in East Avon. “They were so kind and ordered a bunch of coffee sleeves for me, so I had each of our students in the elementary school write a kind message or color something that represents kindness on the sleeves,” McTarnaghan explained. “I brought the sleeves down to them and they’ve been handing them out whenever someone purchases a hot coffee!” Our kiddos came up with some GREAT designs so if you see someone coming out of Six Sprouts gripping a hot coffee with a big smile on their face, you know why! A huge thank you to the folks over at Six Sprouts Farm Market for their willingness to partner on this! (Photos courtesy of Six Sprouts Farm Market)

Our LivCo Special Needs Resource Fair this past weekend was a huge success! We had more than 40 attendees and 40 vendors handing out information on everything from recreation programs and summer camps to transition support services and respite care. “We got a good number of people from beyond Avon too,” said Kerri Levine, Avon’s director of pupil personnel services. “We also had representatives from some other local schools who attended to bring information back to their districts’ families.” Levine said her hope is to turn the fair into an annual event and thanked Avon parent Becky Stewart, who helped organize the fair, with making it such a success. “Finding resources to support a child with any type of disability can be overwhelming,” said Stewart. “It can be difficult to know where to start. So many times, families miss out on supports that can have true positive impacts on their child’s life. Our goal with this was to connect families with support so their children can thrive and I think we did just that.” (Photos courtesy of Kerri Levine and Becky Stewart)

Best of luck to the 18 (!) Avon students who will perform alongside the best musicians the Genesee Valley has to offer this weekend at the All-County I Festival at Keshequa Central Schools. Student musicians from each of the Genesee Valley School Music Association’s 12 component school districts selected for 5/6 band, junior chorus and high school jazz band will rehearse together as groups this afternoon and tomorrow morning before a concert Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. Members of the Elementary Band were selected based on teacher recommendations while members of the Junior Chorus and High School Jazz Band were selected following an audition process at solo-festival. Avon students selected for one of these prestigious ensembles were: Elementary Band (Grades 5 and 6) • Eli B. (clarinet) • Tyler B. (alto saxophone) • Preston M. (alto saxophone) • Carson E. (trumpet) • Samuel D. (trumpet) • Gavin S. (trombone) • Owen S. (trombone) • Caitlyn L. (trombone) • Finley H. (tuba) Junior Chorus (Grades 7-9) • Clara D. (soprano) • Ellie T. (soprano) • Quinn K. (soprano) • Lucy M. (alto) • Delaney J. (alto) • Alanna S. (alto) • Gabe R. (tenor) • Jackson L. (tenor) • Wyatt K. (tenor) • Teddy R. (bass) (Photo courtesy of Meaghan Stambaugh)

Alex Brasky and Ajay Cybulski manning the Batavia Daily News livestream tonight as your 14-1 Avon Braves travel to Le Roy to try to hand the Oatkan Knights their third loss of the season. Tonight’s Class B2 showdown is also a rematch as our boys handed Le Roy their first defeat of the season by a 42-34 margin back on Dec. 20. Tip-off’s at 7 p.m. Don’t miss it! Use the link below to access the livestream. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xSxHz5xfDg

Reminder, Braves Nation: Tomorrow - Friday, Jan. 26 - is a professional learning day for our staff and there will be no school for students. Enjoy the long weekend!

Got some numbers for you, Braves Nation… 1,041: The number of points scored by current Avon boys basketball career points leader Zach Colvin during his five years on varsity (2017-18 to 2021-22). 1,019: The number of career points scored by senior Michael R. following Avon’s win over Rochester Prep on Tuesday. 23: The number of points Michael needs to score to become Avon’s all-time career points leader in boys basketball. 5: The number of games left in the regular season. 1: Days until Avon’s B2 showdown against Le Roy. (Photo courtesy of Carole Volpe/Hudson Street Studios)

Avon alum Thomas Herberger getting it DONE at the collegiate level for SUNY Cobleskill. Herberger won two events for The Fighting Tigers last week at the Hamilton Indoor Track and Field Invitational. The 2023 Avon grad won the high jump with a jump of 1.77 meters (5-9 ¾), then claimed the triple jump victory with a jump of 12.72 meters (41-8 ¾). Read more at the link below and keep it up, Tom! (Photo courtesy of SUNY Cobleskill) Link: https://fightingtigers.cobleskill.edu/news/2024/1/20/mens-track-and-field-shine-at-hamilton-invitational.aspx

Spotted this morning in Avon. Not saying it was a River Hawk but he DOES look like a hawk and he WAS perched near a river. Just saying. Is it a sign?!

We’ve got some good news about our National Honor Society chapter’s blood drive with the American Red Cross last week and we’ve got some bad news. The bad news is we collected 18 units of blood, two units short of our goal of 20. The good news is that we collected 18 units of blood! Since one unit of blood can help up to three people, that means the generosity of our students and staff has the potential to impact 54 lives - just incredible! Thank you to all those who chose to donate last week - we appreciate you! (Photos courtesy of Lena A.)

We stopped by one of Katlyn Bennetti’s first grade physical education classes last week and stumbled into a bean bag bonanza! Mrs. Bennetti kicked things off with a game of bean bag tag. Each student, armed with a bean bag, tried to slide the bag on the ground and hit one of their fellow students in the foot. If a student was tagged, they had to go to the side of the gym and do five jumping jacks before they could re-enter the game. After that, students worked on hand-eye coordination by tossing their bean bags up in the air, then catching it. To challenge students even more, Bennetti added different variations to each bean bag toss, such as having students do a 360-degree spin or clap three times while the bag was in the air or catch the bag on their back or foot. To finish off the class, Bennetti gave students a few minutes to come up with their own variations, which they then demonstrated for their classmates.

This Friday, Jan. 19, our National Honor Society chapter will be working with the American Red Cross to host a blood drive in the High School Gym, 245 Clinton St., Avon! This blood drive is open to students, staff and members of the Avon community. Students must be at least 16 years old to give blood. Students who are 16 must bring a signed, parental consent form to their appointment. Students 17 and older don’t need a consent form. Parental consent forms can be picked up from Mrs. Alexe Dunham in Room 829. All students regardless of age must bring a photo ID (driver’s permit, license or school ID) with a picture and date of birth to their appointment. The drive will run from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Use the link below for more information about how to sign up and book a time slot. We’ve got plenty of open slots, so come on out on Friday and help us meet our goal of collecting 20 units of blood! Link: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=14414

Law Enforcement Appreciation Day was last week and our elementary schoolers wanted to make sure our School Resource Officers knew how much we all appreciate them!