A number of students in the Butler School District won awards and excelled at several recent competitions.

High school television production students took home two awards of excellence April 13 at the 18th television teachers Spring Student Festival at Robert Morris University.

Butler Tornado Television, BTTV, operates from the high school. Their videos can be viewed at www.schooltube.com, a free video-sharing website for students.

At the annual Brain Drain competition April 9 at Blairsville High School, gifted students on the ninth-grade team finished first in one advanced preparation game and fourth overall. Gifted students competing in the senior division did the same.

AP English 11 students beat more than 1,000 students in competitions at the Youngstown State University English Festival April 6.

Shannon Kovalchick won first place in the Festival Art Contest and an honorable mention in the Candace Gay Memorial Essay Contest.

Emily Donato and

Shannon Zangas, and Shannon each won an honorable mention for their impromptu essays.

Casey Arn won second place in the Not So Trivial Pursuit Games.

Stephanie Miller won third place in a writing games competition and

Adam Suter won fourth place. Adam also won second place in Renga Riot Games.At the Point Park Spring Media Day seminar April 1, Butler journalism student

Crystal Chilcott won first place for news writing.

Brandon Gohn won second place in that category and

Robert Punchur won second for a broadcast package.Butler students also excelled at Future Business Leaders of America state finals.

Kathryn Claudy placed first in Accounting 2 out of 311 students.

Ben Thomas placed third in digital design and promotion out of 138 students, and

Skyler Bittner placed 7th in computer game simulation and programming out of 189 students.