Corinne Mason, Director of Finance and Support Services, uses Power Point to explain the projected budget.

The York Suburban School District held a Community Budget Presentation to outline projected expenditures and income for the 2014-15 school year.

Dr. Shelly Merkle, Acting Superintendent, welcomes the audience to the budget presentation.

Acting Superintendent Dr. Shelly Merkle welcomed the attendees to the session and explained the purpose of the meeting.

Corinne Mason, Director of Finance and Support Services, used Power Point to explain the projected $49,717,389 budget.  Both Ms. Mason and Dr. Merkle emphasized this is a preliminary budget and it is expected that it will be trimmed before it is presented to the school board.

An audience question and answer period followed the presentation.

Next steps would include:

— The school board was to vote on the preliminary budget on February 10.

—  A final vote on the budget is scheduled for May 27.

—  The state-required deadline to adopt the final budget is June 30.

The community budget presentation was held in room 160 of the York Suburban High School.

When you were in high school, do you remember all the paperwork involved in submitting college applications?

At York Suburban High School, that process has gone electronic.

Principal Brian Ellis reports this year the school is using a software program called “Naviance.”  The program is a comprehensive career and college planning tool.

“Students can access career profiles and inventories to help identify their areas of interest,” he says, “and they have access to a wealth of information about colleges all within this same tool.”

The tool “culminates” in assisting students with the college application process.  Students list all their prospective colleges in the system and invite their teachers to submit letters of recommendation all within the tool.  In many cases the students will also submit their electronic applications through the system.  “This enables the student and school to keep electronic ‘checklists’ of all the steps in the process, helping to ensure all materials are submitted in a timely manner,” he adds.

The tool also provides efficiencies for the district as well as a wealth of data.  “It enables us to submit school materials such as recommendation letters and transcripts electronically, saving preparation time and the cost of postage.  It enables monitoring of applications without keeping numerous folders/files.  It also warehouses all our college application data.  We can pull lists of the schools to which our students have been accepted, denied, wait listed, and also where they are attending.”

Over the years, the program will build profiles of the type of York Suburban student (test scores, activities, GPA,) who has been accepted or denied at school.  “This will help our students make more informed decisions when applying to schools.”

A final component is that it provides a link to the National College Clearinghouse.  “We can pull information on all of our graduates in regards to their college enrollment status and their major/degrees, allowing us to monitor how well the students do after they leave York Suburban,” he said.

Several of the lead actors in “Cinderella” include: Seated in front, Skylar Volz; standing first row (left to right) Katie Traynor, Isabelle Pemberton, Waverly Speranza, Ben Salazar, and Sophia Nicholson; standing in back, Madison Ehrhart and Thomas Hoover.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “Cinderella” will be presented by students of the York Suburban Middle School on Friday, February 28, and Saturday, March 1.

Show times are:

Friday, February 28, at 7 p.m.

Saturday, March 1, at 2 p.m.

Tickets are priced at $5 for adults and $3 for students.  The ticket booth will open one half hour before show time.

The York Suburban Education Foundation’s 5^th Annual “Celebration of Excellence”  event will take place on Saturday, April 12, at the Historical Society Museum, 250 East Market Street, in downtown York.

Parents, teachers, alumni and York Suburban Education Foundation supporters are invited and encouraged to attend.

Guests will enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres, music and the opportunity to bid on exciting items during the event’s Silent Auction.  Spring 2014 grants will also be announced.  Formal invitations will be mailed in March.  More information on the Celebration of Excellence event, including a list of auction items, will be available on the YSEF website, www.ysef.org.