School News

Last Updated on Friday, 01 December 2023 14:55

Pleasant Hills Middle School (PHMS) students were recognized by the West Jefferson Hills School District Board during its monthly meeting for a variety of accomplishments, including the school’s successful Thanksgiving Food Drive.

A total of 15 PHMS students were honored by the Board, including four for their efforts with the annual food drive: Mycah McCabe, Emma Murtagh, Natalie Sear and Vanessa Warden. Each of the students donated at least 100 items and they combined to collect more than 600 food items. Approximately 20,000 lbs. of food was donated to the food bank at the Olivet United Presbyterian Church in West Elizabeth on Nov. 15, with PHMS students and staff loading and unloading the donations from all WJHSD schools and community.

A quartet of Jaguars were honored for their patriotic service to the school by regularly raising and lowering the American flag. The students are: Santino Ciccanti, Ben Galluppi, Henry Leidy and Isaac Stiteler. The quartet of Boy Scouts recently recognized that the flag needed to be lowered when the school’s spotlight on the flag went out and needed to be replaced.

Six PHMS 7th grade students enrolled in Architecture class were feted for the designs they created in the class’s recent competition "Re-Imagining Century III Mall." Two classes of PHMS students worked on a re-design of the vacant West Mifflin mall in small groups. The students could either use the existing Century III Mall structure for their re-design or use the land that would be available if the structure was torn down. The three re-designs and six students recognized at the Board meeting were:

The Nerd Center - Claire Hogan, Madelynn Oates
West Mifflin Social Center - Neka Kamberis, Danielle Parsons
In-N-Out Pleasant Hills Motorsports Park - Isaac Fernandez, Drew Opferman

Alex Lauver, a PHMS 7th grade student, was lauded for his recent achievements in cross country. At the Lock Haven University Middle School Cross Championships, Lauver placed 17th out of 124 middle school runners from across Pennsylvania and finished No. 5 among all 7th graders to earn a medal. He also was invited to participate in the USATF Youth 5K National Championship the day before the New York City Marathon and finished sixth in the Boys 13-14 race and 17th overall in all Boys age groups (13-18). Lauver and three other district runners have qualified for the USATF National Cross Country Junior Olympic Championships in Louisville, Ky. on December 9.