DANVILLE SCHOOLS

News Release

The John W. Bate Middle School academic team won top honors at the 2018 KAAC Governor’s Cup Finals. The team advanced to the sweet sixteen at the KAAC, Kentucky Association for Academic Competition, state competition on Saturday, March. 20, at the Galt House in Louisville.

The Governor’s Cup, founded in 1986, is Kentucky’s premier academic event, involving over 20,000 students and nearly 1,200 schools. The competition consists of eight events including five written assessment examinations in mathematics, science, social studies, Language Arts and arts/humanities, composition, quick recall and future problem solving.

Forty-eight teams from 24 regions advanced to KAAC Governor’s Cup Finals in both quick recall and future problem solving. To qualify for the Governor’s Cup finals academic teams must finish first or second in their region’s quick recall tournament. For the written assessment portion, students must score in the top five at their regional Governor’s Cup or score at least a 40 to advance to the state finals. Approximately 120 students advance in each subject area.

During the event, 350 middle school teams from across the state competed in a double elimination quick-recall competition. John W. Bate Middle School was one of sixteen teams to emerge as finalists from that round of competition. Quick recall team members are Ramona Pierce, Kira Pusateri, Hank Helmers, Evan Sanders, Trinyte Welch, Isabella Murray, Grace Haines, Carson Wastell, Jackson Erwin, Kesean Jones, Elena Griffith, and Ethan Streciwilk. Seventh grader Ramona Pierce serves as the team captain.

Overall, the bulldog academic team earned 33rd place in the 2018 KAAC Governor’s Cup. The team members are Ramona Pierce, Kira Pusateri, Hank Helmers, Evan Sanders, Trinyte Welch, Isabella Murray, Grace Haines, Carson Wastell, Jackson Erwin, Kesean Jones, Elena Griffith, Ethan Streciwilk, Abigail Anderson and Naomi Israel.

“This is certainly my youngest team ever, but I have never had a young team work this hard,” said Tony Carney, John W. Bate Middle School teacher and academic coach. “I never imagined my young team would beat the fourth place team in the state – at state! I am proud of their accomplishments.”

At the Governor’s Cup students compete not only as a team but also as an individual. John W. Bate Middle School students earned the following awards:

• Seventh grader Kira Pusateri finished eighth in Arts/Humanities and 27th in social studies

• Eighth grader Abigail Anderson earned 12th place in Language Arts

• Seventh grader Ramona Pierce took 17th place in Language Arts

• Four John W. Bate Middle School students ranked in the top 60 for Arts/Humanities and mathematics assessment examinations.