March 16, 2015 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Lawrence M. “Larry” Klevans of West Grove

Lawrence M. “Larry” Klevans, 82, of West Grove, died Sunday, March 15, 2015, at his home in Jenner’s Pond Retirement Community.

Son of the late William and Bertha Klevans, he was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but grew up in Roaring Spring, PA. He was a graduate of Penn State University with a BS Chemical Engineering in 1954 and received a MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1956. While at Penn State he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi social fraternity, Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Tau, engineering honor societies, the America Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Chemical Society. Also, he was a long time member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark, where he served in many organizational capacities. He was a member of the Cecil County Board of Education from 1982 to 1992 and served as President for two of those years.

Mr. Klevans was employed by the DuPont Company from 1956 until 1981 at the Chambers Works, and from 1981 to 1988 at the Barley Mill Plaza by the Agricultural Chemicals Department, retiring as a senior engineer. He worked an additional nine years for the US Army Chemical Weapons Disposal Project, retiring in 1997 as chief of the Systems Acquisition Branch.

After retirement, Larry was involved in many non-profit organizations. He served as treasurer of the Fair Hill Nature Center, as president of the Cecil County Maryland School Board Nominating Convention, as a trustee for the Cecil County Public Library System, and as a tax-preparer and district coordinator for the local AARP Foundation Tax Preparation Group. Later, when he moved to Jenners Pond Retirement community, he was active in the following committees: Residents’ Council,Arts and Entertainment and Woodshop.

Larry was a hot air balloon pilot and enjoyed flying his balloon, the Black Eagle, over the local area for 14 years. Also, he participated in major rallies such as the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival.

Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Judith Berman Klevans, his brother Edward Klevans of State College, three daughters, Mary-Lynn Jensen of Orlando, Fla., Jennie Lucier of Bradenton, Fla., Barbara Klevans of Golden, Colo., a son , Richard Klevans of Cary, N.C., and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark, 420 Willa Road, Newark, DE on March 21st at 2 p.m.

The family suggests rather than flowers that contributions be made the UUFN Endowment fund or the Jenner’s Pond Benevolent Care Fund.

Online condolences may be made by visiting www.griecocares.com

Arrangements by the Foulk & Grieco Funeral Home, West Grove.

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Yolanda Ciarrocchi Bush of West Grove

Obituaries

Yolanda Ciarrocchi Bush, 89, of West Grove, died Saturday March 14, at Neighborhood Hospice in West Chester. She was the wife of the late John M. Bush who died in 1989 and with whom she shared 36 years of marriage.

Born in Toughkenamon, she was a daughter of the late Charles and the late Maria (Pappone) Ciarrocchi.

Yolanda was a 1942 graduate of Kennett High School and a longtime parishioner of St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Avondale. From the 1970s to 1996 she was a travel agent for Bon Vivant Travel Agency and more recently for Worldwide Travel from 1996 – 2011. She loved traveling, cooking for everyone and most importantly spending time with her family and grandchildren.

Survivors include two sons, John C. Bush and his wife Mary of West Grove and Jim T. Bush of Toughkenamon; two brothers, Henry Ciarrocchi and his wife Edith of Avondale and Albert Ciarrocchi of West Grove; two sisters, Edith Haney of West Grove and Mary DiSerafino of Aston; four grandchildren, Christopher, Melissa, Cory and Brian and sisters-in-law Mary Ciarrocchi of Greenville and Helen Downing of Kelton. She was predeceased by a brother Charles Ciarrocchi.

You are invited to visit with Yolanda’s family and friends from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, March 19, and 9-10 a.m. Friday, March 20 at Assumption BVM Catholic Church 300 State Rd. West Grove, PA 19390. Her mass of Christian burial will be 10 a.m. Friday. Interment will be in St. Patrick Cemetery. Contributions in her memory may be made to Neighborhood Hospice 795 E. Marshall St. Suite 204 West Chester PA 19380 or to American Macular Degeneration Foundation PO Box 515 Northampton, MA 01061-0515. Arrangements are being handled by the Kuzo & Grieco Funeral Home (610-444-4116) of Kennett Square. To view her online tribute or to share a memory with her family, please visit www.griecocares.com

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Letter to the Editor: Going backwards at U-CFSD

Opinion

Unionville-Chadds Ford High School is ranked seventh in Pennsylvania and is a top 500 school nationally, according to US News and World Reports. More than 50 percent of U-CF students take AP courses and more than 92 percent of students score proficient on benchmark exams. If parents are looking for a place to settle down and raise their kids, you can’t go wrong with U-CFSD.

Look at the School District’s Website, the sheer quantity of community events happening in the District is staggering: books sales, Relay for Life, art shows, fashion shows, Walk for Water — and that’s just in the last two weeks.

There is a lot of reasons school districts reach gold-standard status like we have in Unionville-Chadds Ford. At the top of the list is the teaching faculty. All the high test scores, nationwide rankings, bevy of community events, are all achieved, in part, by the hard work of the district’s teachers. Teachers volunteering their time to provide AP test prep, before or after school tutoring and mentor and advise all these student and community events, many of which help to raise money to fight disease, support our veterans or help our most vulnerable citizens.

The outcome of all this service and sacrifice — a school board that wants to strip away even more from its staff. Many teachers in the district haven’t had a raise since 2012, have paid more for their healthcare and, what’s worse, the district wants to extend these practices for another three years. If the School Board succeeds, many teachers would find themselves making less money next year than they did in 2012. Is the School Board really looking to go backwards? Why would a teacher want to work in U-CF if they can find better pay and benefits in at least four other Chester County districts?

You are going to hear a lot from the School Board as negotiations move forward. This is a district in the heart of one of America’s wealthiest counties. The teachers aren’t looking to fleece anyone of their hard-earned money, but after years of making sacrifices to help our community, a fair raise and reasonable benefit costs are warranted.

What the School Board is proposing to do would erode much of what has been accomplished over the last generation in this School District. If our residents, parents and community members want to maintain the high quality services and standards that make this community one of the area’s most sought after locations to buy a home and raise a family, then please get involved and help us stop what this School Board is looking to do. You can start by visiting: www.facebook.com/UCFEA.

Scott Broomall, President Unionville-Chadds Ford Education Association

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UHS hosts top percussion ensembles Saturday

Arts & Entertainment

Drumline1 — Unionville to host indoor drum competition on Saturday.

Enjoy music, excitement and artistry as 40 indoor percussion ensembles from 6 states compete at the Unionville Regional WGI “Sport of the Arts” show at Unionville High School on Saturday, March 21.

The elite ensembles use an array of equipment, movement and skills to create thrilling shows. Percussive instruments and other props bring music and themes to life while showcasing technique, creativity and expression. Competition is divided into classes based on each program’s complexity and the group’s affiliation. Among the local units competing are Unionville, Abington, Downingtown, Kennett Square, Horsham and West Chester. Groups are travelling from as far as New Hampshire, New York and Virginia to compete.

Doors open 8:30 a.m., with the preliminary round starting at 9 a.m. Doors will reopen at 5 p.m. for the finals beginning at 5:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $10 for prelims, $15 for finals, $20 for a combination ticket. Cash and credit cards accepted. Food – including pulled pork, chicken and meatball sandwiches, hot dogs, nachos, chips and baked goods – will be available all day.

Since the event will be proceeding the entire day and evening, patrons are invited to drop by for a thrilling treat of live music and artistry in support of talented student musicians.

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Unionville High math star adds another win

School & Education

America’s most promising young scientists, including a Unionville High School senior, were celebrated last week in the nation’s capital as they received a total of more than $1 million in awards through the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search.

Shashwat Kishore explains his project at the — Shashwat Kishore explains his project during a public session at the National Geographic Society last week.

Shashwat Kishore, 18, of Birmingham Township, one of 40 students nationwide and the only Pennsylvania resident in the finals, won the $35,000 Third Place Medal of Distinction for Basic Research. However, it’s not likely that the average person would consider his high-level work anywhere near basic.

His math project, entitled “Multiplicity Space Signatures and Applications in Tensor Products of sl2 Representations,” involved an object of recent interest called a quantized quiver, in which a “quiver” is an orientation on a graph, an Intel press release said. Kishore identified, for the first time, a family of unitary matrix representations for a quantized quiver. He also developed a new relationship between representation theory and topology, the release said.

Administered by the Society for Science & the Public, the Intel Science Talent Search encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions in an effort to improve people’s lives. During an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. from March 5-11, the finalists experienced a rigorous judging process, interacted with leading scientists, displayed their research to the public at the National Geographic Society, and met with national leaders, including President Obama.

Shashwat Kishore (third from left in the front row) joins the other finalists for a photo opp with the President. — Shashwat Kishore (fourth from left in the front row) joins the other finalists for a photo opp with the President.

Kishore said he was thrilled to be in such great company for the week. “I had an absolutely amazing time and made so many new friends,” he said. “It was a huge honor to visit the White House and meet Obama, and to interact with all the scientists and researchers.”

Having excelled in math for years, Kishore credits his successes to his family. He said his 25-year-old brother, Shaunak, an MIT graduate who now works for Google, piqued his interest in math in first grade. He said he attended the “buzzer round” of one of his brother’s 8th-grade math competitions and got hooked. He has also benefitted from supportive parents: his father, Sheel, studied engineering in college while his mother, Smita, pursued chemistry.

Kishore, a repeat winner in annual Delaware Valley Science Fair competitions, has also gained acclaim in the USA Junior Mathematics Olympiad’s summer program. In 2012, Kishore was one of 14 winners nationwide in the 10th-grade and under. He won again in 2013 and was invited to participate in the Olympiad’s summer program.

In June, Kishore was one of 83 students selected from around the globe to attend the 31^st annual Research Science Institute (RSI), an intensive, six-week program at MIT that provides students with the opportunity to conduct original, cutting edge research in state-of-the-art facilities.

When he’s not solving math problems – “on a good day” that amounts to a few hours – Kishore has kept busy as a varsity letterman on Unionville’s cross-country team; captain of the Academic Team, which just qualified for the finals of the county competition; and as a clarinetist in the school’s symphonic band.

Kishore, who has not yet decided which college he will attend, knows that he will study both math and computer science, which he believes “hold the keys to solving major problems in biology, economics and technology.”

He explained that much biological and economic data has been collected. “The main challenge currently is to make sense of that data in a useful way,” he said. “I think that in general, quantitative approaches are very promising for analyzing this data and drawing conclusions from it.”

For more information on the Society for Science & the Public and the Intel competition, visit https://www.societyforscience.org.

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Police: White pickup truck driver hit, ran

Police

The Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department is seeking assistance from the public with locating a white pick-up truck that was involved in a hit-and-run accident on Monday, March 16, at 6:22 a.m., a press release said.

Police said the crash occurred on Manley Road at the intersection of Diane Drive in Westtown Township. A westbound white pick-up truck, possibly a Ford, with a snowplow set-up, left the roadway and stuck a utility pole. This pick-up truck suffered moderate front-end damage and fled the scene eastbound on Manley Road.

The driver, who was identified as a male, struck a township street sign and then caused damage to a lawn in the area after shearing off a utility pole that contained lines for PECO, Verizon and Comcast. As a result, police said Manley Road will be closed to traffic for several hours, and utility service in the area will also be impacted during the repair work on the pole and lines.

Anyone with information about the driver or vehicle is asked to call the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department at 610-692-5100.