Fox Chapel Area School District

Two teams of Fox Chapel Area High School students won awards at the BotsIQ state finals competition.

The “Trident 2.0” battle bot won the “Best Engineered Bot” award, second place in the “Engineering Documentation” category, and tied for 13th place in the battle portion of the competition. The team members are juniors Zhanyu “Eric” Jiang, Ayush Patel, and Georgy “Gosha” Pistsov, and sophomore Cecilia Sumrok.

The “Rockem Sockem 2.0” bot won third place in “Engineering Documentation,” as well as tying for ninth place in battle. Those team members are seniors Jackson Biehl, Benjamin Sun, and Yixin “Amy” Zhang, and juniors Mateo Phelan-Vidal, Nicholas Spector, and Brady Stocker.

Students from both teams have been invited to participate in national tournaments in Ohio and Colorado based on their performances throughout the season.

Additional members of the club include juniors Zachary Chan, Holden Driver, Ethan Kabus, David Kong, Benjamin Kirby, Tristan Kobylinski, Zekai Lin, Mikhail Lukichev, Gabriel Mahone, Parick Pohl, and Rayyan Saidi; sophomore Zachary Chao; and freshmen Luke Shin and Brandon Tilstra.

Fox Chapel Area High School’s industry sponsor is Aerotech Inc., located in RIDC O’Hara.

A total of 68 teams from 48 school districts participated in the BotsIQ state finals. The competition was held April 10 and 11, 2026, at PennWest California.

The Dorseyville Middle School Philharmonic Orchestra earned the highest rating possible at the Cedar Point Festival of Music. The orchestra was rated “Superior” and was the only middle school orchestra to earn that rating. The group received a plaque for its performance.

The festival was held May 15, 2026, at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.

The Dorseyville Middle School Philharmonic Orchestra includes 48 students in grades six, seven, and eight. The orchestra is under the direction of teacher Jeffrey Bryer.

WE'RE NO. 1 (AGAIN)! 🥇

For the third consecutive year, the Fox Chapel Area School District tops the rankings in the Pittsburgh Business Times' Guide to Southwestern Pennsylvania Schools!

Read more:

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2026/05/20/2026-school-guide-rankings-sw-pa-top-districts.html?csrc=6398&link_source=ta_first_comment&taid=6a0dcc838d027a00015324bf&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawR6tBFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEwZWJLVFdOTEZZaDlTY0ZVc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHpFtIQNgiI8sF9xkQpoKnXIqwcGHwZETQM-Mme9m_gJo5k6wqv-2ZFTA4h5W_aem_ZOdqj8mrBefkYuH-W77e9w

2026 School Guide rankings: Southwestern Pennsylvania's top-scoring school districts - Pittsburgh Business Times Find out which district landed at the top for the third consecutive year. The rankings analyze three years of test scores across 105 local districts.

Young squad defies expectations in first-ever flag football season ➤ http://fcasdathletics.org/spring-sports/flag-football/young-squad-defies-expectations-in-first-ever-flag-season

Fox Chapel Area High School seniors Arman Alborzi and Ian Wellman qualified to take the 2026 USA Physics Olympiad (USAPhO) exam. The exam, sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), was administered April 10 and included topics in advanced physics, such as mechanics, electricity and magnetism, thermodynamics, fluids, relativity, and nuclear/atomic physics.

The top-scoring students on the USAPhO exam will be chosen to represent the United States as part of the U.S. Physics Team at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO).

Prior to the USAPhO assessment, Arman and Ian qualified by excelling in the AAPT F = ma exam in February. There were 6,000 students who participated in the F = ma exam, and Arman and Ian qualified for the USAPhO with 440 other students.

Leadership sets tone for girls lacrosse's sixth consecutive postseason run ➤ https://www.fcasdathletics.org/spring-sports/lacrosse-girls/leadership-sets-tone-for-sixth-consecutive-postseason-run

Here is Dr. Reljac's weekly message to the Fox Chapel Area School District community.

To download a PDF version of this message, please visit https://www.fcasd.edu/other/2025-2026.

Dorseyville Middle School eighth-grade literacy teacher Scott Vensel was honored Tuesday as the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh 2025-2026 Holocaust Educator of the Year.

Mr. Vensel has taught at Dorseyville Middle School since 2007. He is also a track and field coach.

He has led an annual Holocaust remembrance assembly at DMS since 2010. Mr. Vensel is a LIGHT Education Initiative Coordinator and was named a LIGHT Education Initiative Fellow in 2025. Through LIGHT, Mr. Vensel and his students have co-designed and painted several murals at the school, and have donated teddy bears to Family House Pittsburgh each year in honor of late Holocaust survivor Shulamit Bastacky.

Congratulations, Mr. Vensel! 🦊

Fox Chapel Area boys lacrosse wins first title, gears up for playoffs ➤ https://www.fcasdathletics.org/spring-sports/lacrosse-boys/boys-lacrosse-wins-first-section-title-gears-up-for-playoffs