PAVCS Newsroom

It is my honor to welcome you to the 2010-2011 School Year at the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School. Here at PAVCS we are honored to have you with us as we celebrate our 10th Anniversary. Moreover, as Director of Special Education here at PAVCS, I represent the entire Special Education Department as I welcome you to a year of growth, achievement, challenge, and excitement. The PAVCS Special Education Team looks forward to:

• Insuring ALL students in our school reach their fullest potential
• Assisting Parents/Learning Coaches during the Individual Education Plan Meeting and Plan Development journey
• Delivering state-of-the-art, research-based, quality specially designed instruction to our students with special needs
• Preparing our students with special needs for any and all Pennsylvania mandated or PAVCS selected standardized tests – a continuation of the great accomplishments achieved by the Students in the Special Education Department at PAVCS.
• Meeting our great families at Family Support Outings and PAVCS Discovery Days
• Partnering with our General Education Colleagues
• Having Fun!
• Finally: the PAVCS Special Education Team hopes to solidify your decision to choose PAVCS as the right fit for you and your child!

Having come "on line" as the Director of Special Education Director here at PAVCS in October of 2010, I was immediately impressed with the dedication of the entire PAVCS Team from FSCs to the Norristown Office personnel, to the teachers, to my fellow administrators. However, I was even more impressed with the students, Learning Coaches and families. I was privileged to meet families that have chosen PAVCS for a myriad of reasons and families that found PAVCS to be a great place.

It is hard to believe that the 2010-2011 school year is hear already. We are sure you are all saying to yourselves, “Where did the summer go?” For those of you returning to the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School, welcome back to what we know will be another stimulating year for you and your child/children.

For those of you just joining the PAVCS family, we are happy you have chosen to join the most comprehensive virtual school program in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We are sure that everyone will have a productive, fun-filled, learning-rich year in 2010-2011, the 10th year of excellence for Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School.

We are happy that you have joined us on this journey and hope that you will be as enriched and enlightened as we know your children will be!

Thank you for becoming a member of the caring, connected, collaborative learning community known as PAVCS.

Good luck to you and yours this school year as we celebrate “Ten Years of Excellence, Innovation and Partnership in Education.”

Name: Jessica Eby
Years Attending PAVCS: 2008-2010
Accomplishments at PAVCS: During my time at PAVCS I became a completely different person. I became President of Student Council, organized many high school events with student council, became secretary of yearbook, and Senior Class Representative in 2009-2010.
Accomplishments in the Community: I completed 20 hours of volunteer work at Holy Spirit Hospital and took a motherly role to my boyfriend’s two-year-old daughter.
Senior Project: A Journey of Volunteering and Self-Satisfaction at WITF - I completed 60 hours as a production assistant and script writer at WITF. I also took calls at Pledge Drives and learned how a public broadcasting television station is run.
Future Plans: I will be attending Kaplan University to attain my Bachelor’s Degree in Legal StudiesPlan .
 

Name: Mandy Heard
Introduction: I am excited about the upcoming school year. I am hopeful that it will be a great year for PAVCS.
Birthplace: Ephrata, PA
Hometown: Pen Argyl, PA
Position at PAVCS: Intermediate Teacher
Experience prior to coming to PAVCS: East Stroudsburg School District teaching 4th grade and Bangor Area School District teaching 5th grade
Education: BA in Early and Elementary Education at East Stroudsburg University
Family: Husband-Jeff, Daughters Allyson and Reagan, Pets: Golden Retrievers Packer and Grace, Guinea Pig Sparkles, Turtle Ceasar, Fish Oscar
Top 10
10 out 10 almost describes my passion for: I obsess about traveling/vacationing. If only I had the time and money
9 times out of 10 I'd eat (calories aside): Spicy food, I'll try almost anything
8 hours a day at my dream job (besides PAVCS) would be: Ice cream tester for Ben and Jerry's
7 days on a dream vacation would be spent: anywhere on a beach or close to water
6 seconds after I launch my Internet browser I'm on: Southwest Airline's web site
5 minutes is all the time I have for (pet peeve): Rude people
4 stars is my rating for (TV/Movie/Book): Grey's Anatomy
3 things always on my desk: family picture, gum, calendar
2 people (living or dead) I wish I could meet: Bill Nye the Science Guy and Ronald Reagan
1 thing that might surprise most people about me: I played field hockey in college

Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School seventh grader Anna Hallett has an interesting hobby, she works with alpacas. Her work with the fuzzy, lama-like animals with the 4-H club and the Painted Spring Farm Alpacas and Fiber Store resulted in a recent mention in the York Dispatch. The article highlighted the hard work she puts in during the summer working with alpaca "Sea Splash," and even features a picture of  her and the alpaca prior to the program.

If the link to the York Dispatch article is not working, you can click on this icon to see a screen capture of the article.