# Sherburne-Earlville Central School

Sherburne-Earlville Central School is a public school located in Sherburne, New York, United States.
The campus consists of two buildings. One building is an elementary school, consisting of levels from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade. The second building is a combination middle school and high school. The middle school is located on the second floor of the building, and includes sixth through eighth grade. The high school, which teaches students from freshman year on, is on the first floor.

## Administration

The district offices are located 15 School Street. The current superintendent is Robert Berson.

### Administrators

* Robert Berson – Superintendent
* Todd Griffin – Assistant Superintendent for Business
* Lacey Eaves – Director of Special Programs
* Dr. Antoinette Halliday – Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
* Joanne Palamaro – Director of Finance and Technology
* Jeffrey Morris – Primary School Principal
* Jolene Emhof – Intermediate School Principal
* Randy Smith – Middle School Principal
* Brad Perry – MS Assistant Principal
* Michael Waters – High School Principal

### Board of education

* Debra Kurtz – President
* Susan Osborne – Vice President
* Rachel Amann-Burns
* Cristina Baker
* Harmon Hoff
* Peter Karaman
* Gary Miller
* Jennifer Griffin – District Clerk

## Sports

The middle school and high school offer an array of sports: field hockey, soccer, swimming, baseball, softball, basketball, cross country, track and field, football, wrestling, volleyball, golf, indoor track, bowling, and cheerleading. The sports teams are known as the Sherburne-Earlville Timberwolves, and the mascot is a wolf. There are three different sports levels: modified, junior varsity, and varsity. The modified sports level consists of students who are in middle school, while junior varsity teams generally include freshmen and sophomores; varsity-level teams include mostly sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

## Course offerings

The high school offers many different subject courses and also "free" electives. SEHS offers not only high school-level courses but also a few college-level courses, mainly through the Advanced Placement Program. AP courses include English Literature, Biology, Psychology, Economics, Calculus, and American and European Histories. Sherburne-Earlville also offers certified college-level courses, such as Spanish and French IV, statistics, physics, and more, through the TC3 concurrent enrollment program. When time allows, Sherburne-Earlville students may participate in classes and certain seminars at nearby Colgate University.

## The arts

Sherburne-Earlville houses a relatively strong arts department. The SE marching band hosts the annual Sherburne Pageant of the Bands, a prominent event featuring competitions in marching band, concert band, jazz ensemble, small ensemble, drum line and color guard. The competition attracts many surrounding high schools as well as out of state schools. The Sherburne Pageant of Bands is the largest and oldest high school band pageant in New York State. Several music electives are offered at the school, including music theory, concert band, and chorus. Many visual and digital arts courses are also available. Additionally, a substantial drama department, the "Drama Club" (often in correlation with the Sherburne Music Theatre Society), has developed extracurricularly. The school puts on an average of two shows each year (with a showcase of short one-act plays in the fall, and a longer, multi-act play in the spring), as well as an annual musical through the high school chorus.

## Odyssey of the Mind

One of Sherburne-Earlville's extracurricular strong points is its participation in the Odyssey of the Mind problem-solving program. The school frequently sends teams to the international-level finals competition (which requires having placed first at the regional-level competition and first or second in the state-level competition). In 2000, for the first time in many years, a Sherburne-Earlville team advanced to World Finals (that year held at the University of Tennessee). In 2002, a Sherburne-Earlville team with five of the same members traveled to World Finals in Boulder, Colorado, and placed third in Division III Classics. In 2003, the same Division III Classics team returned to World Finals in Ames, Iowa, for the problem "Put a Spin on It", and placed first, achieving Sherburne-Earlville's first world championship in any competition. The team (with one different member) then traveled to World Finals again in 2004. The team was coached by Heather Pfohl, who has been involved in Odyssey of the Mind at Sherburne-Earlville for many years, and is renowned within the Sherburne-Earllvile community for her coaching success. She also coached Division III teams that traveled to World Finals in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, Pfohl's team placed fourth at World Finals in the vehicle problem, "The Great Parade." In 2007, two teams (Divisions II and III, in the problem "The Large and Small of It") went to the World Finals competition at Michigan State University, receiving 1st and 4th place, respectively. At the competition, the division II team also received a Renatra Fusca, an honor awarded to teams that exhibit commendable creativity in their problem solution. From the late 1990s to the present, Sherburne-Earlville teams advancing to World Finals has gone from being a very rare occurrence to the norm.

## Notable alumni

Notable alumni of Sherburne-Earlville include:
* Benjamin Busch — actor, writer, veteran of the United States Marine Corps, portrayed Anthony Colicchio on The Wire
* Randy Glasbergen — cartoonist
* Svante Myrick — Ithaca's first African-American mayor and youngest mayor
* Charlie Palmer — chef
* Andy Straka — Shamus Award-winning crime novelist