The Fox Chapel Area High School Music Department will present its annual major works concert Oct. 19. This year's concert will feature choral performances of Antonio Vivaldi's "Gloria," accompanied by members of the Fox Chapel Area High School Chamber Orchestra, and Jackson Berkey's "Cantante 2000," accompanied by a student percussion and string ensemble.

Members of the concert choir, madrigal singers, women's and men's choirs and Vulpes Cantantes will participate.

The concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the Richard E. Rauh Theater of Shady Side Academy's Hillman Center for the Performing Arts . Tickets are $12 and available online at www.fcasd.edu/tickets. Tickets also will be sold at the door, pending availability.

Shady Side Academy Senior School is at 423 Fox Chapel Road, Fox Chapel.

• Fairview and Hartwood elementary schools will each hold a Community Awareness Day on Oct. 24. Parents and community members are invited to visit the schools from 9 to 11 a.m. and observe the various educational programs.

All visitors must check in at the school office and receive a visitor's badge.

Fairview Elementary is at 738 Dorseyville Road in Indiana Township and Hartwood Elementary is at 3730 Saxonburg Boulevard in Indiana Township.

• The Fox Chapel Area High School Marching Band won first place at a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Marching Band Association competition held Oct. 4 at Woodland Hills High School.

The band won first place in the Class A category performing its 2008 program, "Outside the Box." It also swept the awards for High Music, High Visual, and High General Effect. This is the third consecutive first-place win for the Marching Foxes at a PIMBA competition.

"Anne of Green Gables" will be presented at North Allegheny Intermediate High School at 350 Cumberland Road in McCandless.

Performances are scheduled for Oct. 22 at 3:30 p.m., a special senior citizen performance; Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., and Oct. 25 at 3 and 7 p.m.

Tickets, $6, will be available at the door. For more information call 412-369-5530.

The school board approved a six-year agreement with the union that represents approximately 80 transportation, custodial, maintenance and food service employees.. The contract is retroactive to July 1 and is effective through June 30, 2014.

Employees will receive an average annual wage increase of 3.2 percent, while more than doubling their contribution to health care insurance. Employees with family coverage will contribute $400 per year toward their health care costs during the first three years of the agreement. Beginning in 2011-12, the contribution will be commensurate with the rate negotiated with the district's clerical support staff.

The school district and its employees agreed to begin phasing in the use of subcontracted transportation services effective this school year. By the end of the six-year agreement, Quaker Valley's transportation services will be 100 percent contracted.

Quaker Valley is expected to save more than $400,000 annually by outsourcing transportation, district officials said.

The union ratified the agreement Sept. 11.

Kathleen Novakovich, Connoquenessing Valley Elementary reading teacher, was named a winner in the OfficeMax "A Day Made Better" National Contest on Oct. 1.

Ms. Novakovich, who received $1,200 in classroom supplies from OfficeMax, was nominated and chosen for the award based on her dedication and innovative approaches to education.

DeeAnn Graham, principal, and the CVE staff surprised Kathy with a ceremony during the official awards presentation at the school earlier this month.