Fast Five

Fast Five: Parkway West Football Faces Parkway North for Pink Night

Patch asked Parkway West Head Football Coach Jeff Duncan five quick questions about the team and their next opponent.

Parkway West varsity football team is poised for a home game this week against rival Parkway North Vikings (2-4). West is still looking for its first win this season with a handful of games remaining. The Longhorns are also ready for Pink Night, honoring October as Breast Cancer Awareness month and joining other West athletic teams in donning pink during competition. Ballwin-Ellisville Patch asked Head Coach Jeff Duncan about the team, the season and their competition. Patch: How is the team faring this week in preparation for Parkway North?  Duncan: We have had a really good week of practice and preparation.  Patch: What is something to look for in play this week?  Duncan: Mistake free football. Start fast and finish strong.  Patch: What …

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High Scores Earn Honors for 26 Parkway Seniors

The students were received letters of recognition from the National Merit Scholarship program for their academic achievement.

The National Merit Scholarship program has named 26 seniors from the Parkway School District as commended students.  The designation is given to only 5 percent (about 50,000) of the 1.5 million students who enter into the annual competition. Their selection is based on their performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship qualifying test and weighed against a nationally applied selection index.  The students will receive letters of commendation and, although they do not continue in the competition to become finalists, they are eligible to receive a variety of special scholarships. The students and their schools are listed below: West High Central High North High   South High    About the National Merit Scholarship Corporation…

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Students Can Bring Their Electronic Devices to Parkway North, Central Middle

The Parkway School District is using two Parkway schools to test their new initiative, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

The Parkway School District is using two Parkway schools to test their new initiative, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Students at Parkway North High School and Parkway Central Middle will be allowed to bring their own electronic device to class this year. The initiative, called BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), aims to catch up with modern times. “I think it was time for us to try it out,” said Parkway School Board president Beth Feldman. The program, Feldman said, will have to be tested out at the two schools before implementing it district wide. “The teachers will have to establish the parameters,” Feldman said. “They will need to determine what the students can use, what they can see, what the teachers are going to do with this technology …

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Parkway Students Fatigued by Earlier Start Times

Parkway moved high school start times to 7:35 a.m. Some students and sleep researchers say it's too early; Parkway officials say school day length puts them in a time crunch, too.

This year, the Parkway School District moved high school start times back from 8 a.m. last year to 7:35 a.m., subtracting precious minutes of slumber from students’ sleep schedules. The move was recommended by the Project Parkway task force, which included parents and staff. The change move the middle school start time from 7:25 a.m.—even earlier than the current high school schedule—to 8:15 a.m. Becker, a sophomore at Parkway North High School, is in the marching band, which meets before school. During band season, the group met at 6:30 a.m. for practice, meaning Becker had to get up at 5:45 a.m. to get to school. “I’m averaging six hours of sleep a night,” he said. Sleep researchers recommend at least nine hours of sleep a night for …

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Overcrowding Forces Parkway Vote Wednesday To Re-Draw School Boundaries

District tweaked the plan for re-districting in response to community input.

The Parkway School District Board of Education is scheduled Wednesday to take action on proposed boundary adjustments that would impact students primarily in the northern reaches of the Chesterfield-based district. The changes come as the district struggles with overcrowding, particularly at the elementary school level in the north side of the district. Previous Reporting: What would the new boundaries look like Administrators gathered feedback at community forums held at each elementary school attendance area that would be impacted. In documents prepared for Wednesday's meeting, a district report said "the most frequent request and appeal was for administrators to consider providing transportation for students who wished to continue to …

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Parkway Central Ruins Parkway North's Homecoming Fun With 26-7 Football Victory

Junior Alan Gasanli had 165 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead Central to big win over district rival North.

PARKWAY NORTH HIGH SCHOOL – The Saturday morning Homecoming festivities celebrated everything wonderful about Parkway North High School and its wonderful 40 years of football history. But the afternoon Homecoming football game itself, belonged to the party-crashers from Parkway Central, who quieted the celebration-minded North fans early, and kept them that way for the rest of the day, with a 26-7 win over the beloved host Vikings. “This one sure feels good,” Central head coach Mark Goldenberg said. “We lost to those guys three years in a row. My seniors and I, my staff, we we’re just getting tired of it. So it feels good to finally get one on those guys.” Central’s last win over North came on October 26, 2007, when star running back …

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Whiz Kids

Whiz Kids: Students Named National Achievement Semifinalists

The students from Parkway North and Parkway Central are eligible to compete for college scholarship dollars.

The Parkway School District announced this week that a pair of Creve Coeur area high school students have been named National Merit Scholarship Achievement scholarship semifinalists. Parkway Central's Ahmed Eltahir, and Parkway North's Paa Imbeah are among a pool of approximately 16,000 students nationwide to have reached this stage, thanks to performance on standardized testing. The field will be winnowed down to 15,000 students nationwide who have demonstrated strong academic performance throughout high school and will have been recommended and endorsed by their principal. The students will also write an essay, have strong SAT scores, and be evaluated on their leadership, community involvement outside of class. Next spring, roughly 8,300…

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Parkway Family Day At Busch Provided Good Luck Charm for Cardinals

District students led the singing, and Cardinals snagged a win to keep them in the game.

History will show an attendance of 41,469 in the crowd at Busch Stadium Sunday as the Cardinals won their final home game in the 2011 regular season. However, with the team making an unlikely run at post-season playoffs and the added drama over first baseman Albert Pujols' pending contract, many more people may claim to have been at the ballpark when Adron Chambers crossed home plate with the winning run for the Cardinals against the Chicago Cubs. But a contingent of Parkway School District administrators, teachers, students and their families really were there Sunday, and saw it all firsthand, as the Cardinals hosted Parkway Family Day at Busch Stadium. Parkway North's Russ Barton, the 2011 Parkway School District Teacher of the Year, …

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Parkway Talks Re-Shuffle of Elementary Students and Schools

Crowded elementary schools may disperse students to equalize school sizes.

After years of increasing enrollment and overcrowding in schools in its northern attendance area, the Parkway School District has developed a plan to shift school boundary lines. The plan will be the subject of a series of meetings with parents, starting Monday night at Craig School. The plan will affect students at Craig, McKelvey, River Bend and Ross Elementary Schools, and eventually, Parkway Northeast Middle School and Parkway North High School. Current students at those schools would not be impacted. While boundary changes are difficult for families, Nicole Evans, principal at Craig Elementary is keeping her focus on what it will mean for students. “We must keep kids in the forefront of our decisions,” Evans said. “Smaller class sizes…

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Parkway High Schools Prepping for Football Season

Synthetic turf installation is under way at two schools and the school board has OK'd equipment repairs and purchases.

Football season may be months away, but Parkway schools aren’t inactive during the off-season. Between field improvements and equipment repairs, the district is working to keep everything in tip-top shape. Synthetic turf installation is under way at Parkway North and Parkway South high schools. Crews had to dig down about 3 feet in order to install the drainage system and base for the turf, Mike Gohn, Parkway’s director of activities and athletics, said. That work has been done at both schools. Rain will drain directly to pipes under the field, which will run to a retention area, Gohn said. Crews will also lay down a level of heavy gravel and then smaller gravel, plus a liner to protect the turf. Gohn said that construction would begin at …

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