Sentinel photo by BUFFIE BOYER     WHP 21 anchor Shannon Davidson interviews, and photographer Jim Stanton tapes Lewistown Area High School student David Laughlin Friday morning at the school, while Principal Vance Varner watches in the background.

     LEWISTOWN — A TV news station in Harrisburg will broadcast part of a morning show live from Lewistown Area High School next month.
     WHP 21, a CBS affiliate, has chosen the high school for its “School Bus Tour” after the station received a flood of e-mails about what makes Lewistown Area High School special. The station will bring a satellite truck and broadcast part of its Friday, Nov. 11, morning show from 5 to 7 a.m. at the high school’s gym.
     A crew came to the high school Friday morning.
     Anchor Shannon Davidson interviewed students and staff, while photographer Jim Stanton shot footage. WHP will use the interviews and footage during the live broadcast on Nov. 11.
     Davidson said the interviews focused on the atmosphere of the school. What she said she took from the interviews was a great improvement at the school, “not just academically, but across the board.
     “The morale across the school seems to be the best it’s ever been, according to the people I talked to,” Davidson said, noting she talked to four students, a guidance counselor and a 30-year teacher.
     Davidson said the students told her the teachers at the high school have prepared them to move on after they graduate, be it with a post-secondary education or a career.
     “We try to build a family, a house,” said Principal Vance Varner, who agreed wholeheartedly that morale is up.
     Proof of that is the school’s score on state achievement tests. Last year’s juniors who took the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test improved the school’s math score by 13 percent and reading by 17.8 percent. The results show 51 percent of Lewistown Area High School juniors are proficient in math and 68 percent of those students are proficient in reading.
     “The attitude we have,” Varner said, is “we’re going to make a difference.”
     The attitude at the high school on Friday was particularly spirited, as the WHP crew happened to come on Blue and White Day, the last day of the high school’s spirit week. The high school holds Spirit Week to lead up to the Old Iron Kettle football game against Indian Valley.
     During WHP’s broadcast, viewers can see the live shots at the high school four separate times. The first should be around 5:08 a.m., Davidson said.
     A 1998 Lewistown graduate, Aaron Hoffman, works for WHP as a senior production assistant, and he will assist with the broadcast.
     Local folks can thank themselves for bringing WHP here. Davidson said more people sent e-mails supporting Lewistown than any other school in its coverage area.
     Those responding praised the administration, the environment it creates at the school and its zero tolerance for drugs.
     One e-mail called Varner and Assistant Principal Jeff Miles “strong educational leaders who actively work at solving weaknesses.” The writer said the two administrators have a “sense of humor and zest for life,” citing their performances in the school play last year.
     “The students know our principals enjoy being here!” the response said.
     A teacher said “Mr. Varner and Mr. Miles are enthusiastic, upbeat and supportive ... They help us find ways to be innovative and creative, and they support us when we want to try new ideas in our classrooms.”
     The teacher concluded, “They are the backbone of our school, and they make this a special place to teach and learn.”
     A student wrote the principals “are caring and extremely interested in all the students, as well as the well being of each student.”
     WHP makes its first visit Nov. 4 to Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg. Lewistown is Nov. 11, followed by visits to Cumberland Valley in Mechanicsburg on Nov. 18 and Steelton-Highspire High School on Nov. 23.
     Varner said school officials will permit only students to be at the high school during the early morning broadcast.