Public Invited To Meet With Octorara Superintendent Tonight

Per LancasterOnline Superintendent Tom Newcome will host his first Superintendent Advisory Committee meeting of the new school year this evening.

The Superintendent's Advisory Committee, hosted by Octorara Superintendent Thomas Newcome, will next meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, in the district conference room next to the superintendent's office.

Newcome said the committee is open to interested community members and parents.  The meeting will be a forum for questions and suggestions.  Newcome, who also often holds town meetings in the district's communities, plans to hold these advisory committees at 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month.

The district office is located between the junior and senior high schools on Highland Road.     

LancasterOnline Launches Octorara News Site

LancasterOnline launched their long awaited Octorara focused news site this afternoon when they rolled out My Octorara News.

Driven by the local reporting of Debbie Wygent and Marcello Peyre-Ferry, a journalist who frequently writes for the Community Courier, the well designed My Octorara News intends to  keep visitors to the site aware of developments, events and activities across the Octorara region and into eastern Lancaster County.

The launch page contained a wonderful story about Christiana's The Quilt Ledger quilt shop and the Enola Low Grade rail line, a walking trail stretching 23 miles from Atglen to the Susquehanna River.

In addition the site features sections for community announcements, obituaries, sports, entertainment, local bloggers and a ton of local links.

The site is a welcome addition to an area of Lancaster County and the Octorara region long starved for current news and community awareness.

Check out the site here.

School To Open On Time Without Teacher Contract

The big question all summer for parents and observers of the Octorara School District is whether school would start on time even though the district and their teacher's union had yet to announce a new labor agreement.

The fear school wouldn't start on time was put to rest Monday evening when School Board President Lisa Bowman stated emphatically, "Get your books ready, school is starting."

As reported in LancasterOnline in an article written by local reporter Debbie Wygent,

Bowman was responding to a question from West Sadsbury Township resident Hank Cochran, who told the board that parents were concerned there might be a strike since the board's contract with the Octorara Area Education Association ended June 30.

"Should parents be making backup plans for students during the day?" Cochran asked. "The community needs to know what we need to prepare for."

Bowman said the OAEA and board will not "negotiate the contract in public," but the community should have no worries about the coming school year.

"Things are going positively," Bowman said. "There's nothing to report. There's no reason to prepare" for a strike.

Read Debbie's entire story including an update on rennovations at the high school, one teachers multi-year efforts to find grant monies for fitness equipment and Board member John McCartney's urging that the district do more cooperative purchasing with other districts, something Octorara has been doing for at least 10 years, here

Local Newspapers Notice Vogelsong

LancasterOnline takes notice of Octorara's Ryan Vogelsong who is enjoying a stellar season with the San Francisco Giants. 

"Octorara's Vogelsong revives career as key member of Giants' pitching staff"

So reads the headline on LancasterOnline's sport page this morning.

The money quote:

"Beat the bushes for the past five years as Octorara grad Ryan Vogelsong has done, spend more than a few of the 1,760 days you're out of the big leagues questioning yourself and your future, and you learn what's important."

Read the entire article here.

And in the Daily Local News this morning a wonderful article by sports writer Andy Edwards detailing Vogelsong's long and winding road from playing infield for Sonny Skiles' Octorara High School squad, becoming a full time pitcher at Kutztown, being drafted by the Giants, then traded to the Pirates, then to Japan, then being cut by the Phillies last Summer and finally signing with the Giants this year.

The Daily Local News article is full of great money quotes.  Here are a few:

Expressing the pain he felt when he was cut by the Phillies in 2010:

"Obviously, being a Philly guy and growing up in the area, they were always my team.  It hurt when I got released, but more so because a dream of mine to be a Phillie died that day. It happens to a lot of people but when it's a team that you really want to play for, and you've always dreamed of playing for them, it hurts, man. At the same time, it took that kind of incident to reevaluate my career and what I was doing to get me to that point."

On playing in Japan:

"It's tough, but it is what you make it.  You can go over there and shelter yourself and not experience Japanese culture, you can go over there and lock yourself in your apartment and do nothing but go to the field, which I saw people do, and those guys didn't really play too well. It's important to try, at least for me and my wife, to live as close to a normal life as we were living in the states. I think trying to live a normal life helped me play better on the field."

About his wife Nicole whom he met while playing in Pittsburgh:

"We balance each other out well.  She's an optimist, I'm a realist, and when I think things are going down the drain she always tells me they're going to be all right. She's been great. I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at without her. Everything I've been through, she's been through with me."

Read the entire Daily Local News article here.