Chester County Press 02-28-2018 Edition

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Chester CountyPRESS

www.chestercounty.com

Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas

Volume 152, No. 9

INSIDE

60 Cents

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Township enters into purchase agreement for St. Anthony in the Hills

A new season for artist Peter Sculthorpe...1B

Photo by Richard L. Gaw

On Feb. 20, after ten years of negotiations between New Garden Township and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Wilmington, the township’s Board of Supervisors approved the township’s acquisition of the 137.5-acre St. Anthony in the Hills property, for an undisclosed price.

By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer At its Feb. 20 meeting, the New Garden Township Board of Supervisors remembers approved the township’s

New film Nancy Hannum...1B

acquisition of the 137.5acre St. Anthony in the Hills property for an undisclosed price, contingent upon the details expected to be ironed out during a 90-day agreement of sale. The cost of

the purchase will be paid for through the township’s Open Space funding. At the board’s authorization, township manager Tony Scheivert will sign a letter of intent to execute

the agreement between the township and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Wilmington, the current owner of the parcel. The acreage is located in the area just southwest of the

intersection of Gap-Newport Pike (Route 41) and Limestone Road (Route 7), just north of Somerset Lake, and sits on the headwaters of the Broad Run Creek. It Continued on Page 2A

Young Down Syndrome athlete inspires coaches, teammates and fans

Sophie’s got game By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer Earlier this season, a singular moment occurred Oxford parking garage during a game in the Kennett again in the spotlight ...4A Area Park and Recreation Girls Basketball League that defied not only logic, but the general tenants of athletic competition. With her team leading Opinion........................7A by a wide margin, Olivia, Obituaries...................2B playing for the opponent’s Calendar of Events.....4B team, suddenly and inexClassifieds..................5B plicably handed the ball to Sophie Kail, an 11-year-old guard with the Regester Associates, Inc. Blue Ducks. She has known Sophie since kindergarten, and with the encouragement of her teammates, Olivia helped guide Sophie in the direction of the Blue Ducks’ basket and soon, members

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of both teams formed a wall of encouragement around Sophie as she prepared to shoot. Standing beneath her team’s basket, Sophie took three shots. When the third made its way through the basket, parents, coaches, scorekeepers and players on both sides erupted in applause that reverberated around the entire gymnasium, in a joyous echo of noise. “I began to cry at the scorer’s table,” said Pam Ramagano, Kennett Area Park and Recreation League director. “I thought it was such a great moment, because it was a very selfless thing for that player to do. I think Sophie’s made us all love this league even more, if that’s possible. I

Photos by Richard L. Gaw

Sophie Kail celebrates a recent win with her Regester Associates, Inc. Blue Ducks teammates in the Kennett Area Park and Recreation Girls Basketball League.

love teachable moments like that. These girls are 9, 10 and 11 years old, and to have that foresight already at such a young age has allowed these girls to begin teaching me. The best part is that I get to see greatness in all of the kids, especially the opposing team.” For Sophie, being a member of the Blue Ducks is merely an opportunity to

extend her young athletic involvement a step further, which has also included intramural cheerleading, swimming lessons at the Kennett Area YMCA and the Special Olympics. Yet, for everyone else, the opportunity to coach and become teammates with a young athlete with Down Syndrome has given youth sports a new perspective.

For Nicole McGlothin, the first-year coach of the Blue Ducks, helping Sophie learn the game of basketball has allowed her to erase the original assumptions she had about coaching. “At first, I went into coaching expecting that my players already knew the fundamentals,” said McGlothlin, who shares coaching duties with Continued on Page 2A

Students, superintendent Student discipline talk safety of schools policy again in Avon Grove debated by U-CF School Board By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer

The Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during which 17 people were killed and 14 others were wounded when a gunman opened fire with an AR-15 rifle, has put the topics of school safety and gun control at the forefront. At the Avon Grove School Board’s first meeting since the tragic school shooting in Florida, several students at the high school shared their concerns about the security of the school buildings in the district, and Superintendent Dr. Christopher Marchese made an effort to assure the students, their parents, and the staff that Avon Grove has already improved security measures and will continue to do so moving forward. During his superintendent’s report to the school board at the Feb. 22 meeting, Marchese noted that

it has been a very difficult week for schools across the country as more and more details are learned about the Parkland, Florida shooting—the 17th school shooting in the U.S. in 2018. Marchese explained that one of the things that he noticed when he visited the district for the first time in 2013 was that security measures needed to be bolstered. He became the superintendent of schools in November of 2013, and by the start of the next school year a number of steps had been taken to improve security of all the district’s buildings. Updated equipment was installed to ensure that the doors to the school buildings remained locked. Teachers were provided with access badges. A new camera system with widespread coverage of the inside and outside of the school buildings was added. Marchese also explained that the staff and students

are trained on how to respond in the event of an active shooter situation. “We have crisis plans in place and we practice drills,” Marchese said. He added that the district has an agreement in place with the State Police to have officers make regular walk-throughs of the schools. Searches by K-9 units are also conducted. Fencing has also been installed around portable classrooms outside the schools. “It deters people from entering into those areas,” Marchese said. Marchese noted that because the district’s school buildings are older, especially the high school and middle school, it is more difficult to make them as safe and secure as modern school buildings because they simply weren’t designed with safety as a top priority. Avon Grove is in the process of evaluating its long-term facilities needs,

The fallout from student suspensions at Unionville High School continued on Feb. 26 as the UnionvilleChadds Ford School Board got embroiled in a lengthy debate over student discipline. Last September, students were suspended after a football game at Unionville High School for smoking and other infractions. Parents complained to the board that some of the teens did not deserve the outof-school suspensions that could show up when it is time for them to apply to colleges. The board has wrestled with the district policy ever since, and the conversation has expanded to include the nature of infractions and what consequences they call for. Over the past couple of months, the board has looked at revising the language of the disciplinary policy to allow a student to ask for a recision of their penalty. The district administrator, John Sanville, was selected as the ultimate judge. At the Feb. 26 meeting, board member Tom Day asked Sanville generally how many students get suspended in a typical year. Sanville said, “Walking the halls right now, we have 59 students who have been suspended, out of the 1,400 students at Unionville High School. Of those 59,” he added, “20 have no other discipline.” That 20 is apparently the number of students who faced suspensions due to the incidents at the football game. Many parents have complained that

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By John Chambless Staff Writer


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