(Credit: Wissahickon School District).
Four Montgomery County middle school students, including one from the Wissahickon School District, were acknowledged for their efforts by Montgomery County officials at the latest Montgomery County Commissioners Meeting for placing second in the National Middle School Math Competition in April.
Tyler Schaffer, a Wissahickon School District sixth grader; Max Baxter, a Lower Merion School District sixth grader; Tony Wu, an Upper Merion School District seventh grader, and Sadie Zavada, a seventh grader at North Penn School District, were recognized as North Wales Mayor Neil McDevitt, who is deaf, signed the proclamation during last Thursday’s board meeting.
“Thank you to all the commissioners for welcoming me here. I did a quick Google search, and this is the first time that a deaf elected official is doing a proclamation in the United States, in American Sign Language,” McDevitt said. “Thank you for giving me this opportunity.”
“Thank you, Mayor Neil for the proclamation,” said Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairman Neil Makhija. It’s really fantastic to make history today for you to be able to do that and celebrate our mathletes here in Montco.”
McDevitt shared information pertaining to the premier Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Middle School Mathletes as they prepared to compete.
“They met weekly to practice not just the mathematical concepts used in the competition but how to support each other as a team,” McDevitt said.
Hosted by the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the MCIU Middle School Mathletes participated in the April 5 competition in upstate New York. Max and Sadie also competed individually during the competition, placing first and fourth, respectively, according to the proclamation.
