ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE TOGETHER
March 4, 2015
In This Issue
Student Delegate Assembly
School Board Notes
Read Across America
Elementary
Middle School
High School
Quick Links
Boone County Schools
 
Free/Reduced Lunch Online Form
 
 
Board of Education Meetings
 
 
 WINTER SCHOOL NEWS
Student Board Delegate Assembly
  
Student Board Representative Election
 
This Superintendent's Student Advisory Committee will soon hold its annual Student Board Representative Delegate Assembly.  Each High School nominates candidates for Student Board Representative.  The candidates then each make a 45 minute campaign video outlining their qualifications and platform.  The videos are then broadcast at each school to allow all Boone County students the opportunity to become familiar with all candidates. 
  
The Student Board Member election will take place, in April, during the Superintendent's Student Advisory Council meeting after candidates give their campaign speeches.  All student delegates then cast ballots for Student Board Representative with the results certified by the Boone County clerk. 
 The candidate that is elected as the Student Board Representative also presides over the Superintendent's Student Advisory Council (SSAC).  The SSAC meets once a month during the school year and focuses on developing council member leadership skills. The current Student Board Representative for the 2014-15 school year is Sam Gormley.

 SCHOOL BOARD NOTES 

 

Francine Kemper

Break The Mold Award

 

Francine was nominated by Cooper High Instructional Coach Butch Hamm, Camp Ernst Instructional Coach Rhonda Shriver and Stephens Instructional Coach Amy Mintchell. She is an itinerate ELL teacher in the Cooper Cluster which means she floats to a variety of buildings and grade levels. Her nominators all said Ms. Kemper manages her time equally and professionally with all of her students.

  
Good News Items:
  
Marcie Kelly and Patricia Kaylor
  
The following seven (7) Boone County teachers have achieved National Board Certification.
Patricia Kaylor of Burlington Elementary, Briana Smith of Goodridge Elementary, Marcie Kelly of North Pointe Elementary School, Katie Carelock of RA Jones Middle School, Heather Bates of Conner High and Stephanie Rogers and Misty Cornett both of Ryle High.
National Board Certification is the highest symbol of professional teaching excellence. 
  
  
  
 The following seven (7) parents have recently become Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership Fellows. This 6 day course, offered through the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, brings together parents, teachers, community members, and school administrators for training, information, and experiences that help them work as partners to raise student achievement. Not pictured: Sabrina Ishmael.
  
  
L to R between Dr. Brown and Dr. Poe: Wynne White, Karen Hargett, Mark Evans, Holly Hall, Toni Wade, Jennifer Klayer

 

Sportsmanship Award

  

This award is presented every other month at the Board of Education meeting to deserving High School students who have demonstrated outstanding school spirit and leadership.

  
From Cooper High School -  Patrick Dragan
Patrick Dragan
  
Patrick is a senior leader and guard on the Cooper basketball team. He is the perfect example of a young Student/Athlete who does whatever it takes to help the team win. Patrick has shown great leadership in his senior season having a great attitude & giving everything he has to Cooper High School. While earning great honors in his classes academically, Patrick is a guy that can be counted on to be there to pick up his team or teammates when needed!
  
  
  
From Ryle High School - Abby Kalany  
Abby Kalany
 

Senior Abby Kalany is a member of the swimming and dive team. She swims the breaststroke and butterfly for the Raiders and is also a KHSAA state qualifier during her swimming career at Ryle. Abby has many outstanding qualities that make her a model student-athlete. She was voted by her teammates to be a captain and shows outstanding leadership in many ways. Coach Erica Ware states that "Emily is a tremendous team leader who initiates many team activities and is a great role model for our younger swimmers." Abby is also a tremendous student. She has a GPA of over 4.0 and takes multiple Advanced Placement classes. Congratulations Abby for a job well done and good luck in your future endeavors.


 Read Across America  

 

 Thornwilde Elementary School is attempting to reach their goal of 200,000 minutes of reading. This video below was produced by Thornwilde parent Alexandra Snyder for their Read-a-thon.    

 

2015 Thornwilde Read-a-thon
2015 Thornwilde Read-a-thon

 

 Read Across America continues through Saturday March 7th by celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday at Florence Mall.  Bring your children.  Local celebrities will read Dr. Seuss books to them from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the lower level in front of JCPenney.  Click here to get more information about the event.

 

 

 

 

 

   
ELEMENTARY NEWS
  
  
Lunch Buddies
  
North Pointe Elementary has started a mentoring program this school year called Lunch Buddies. A student is paired with a district employee who volunteers to have lunch with that student once a week, together they are called Lunch Buddies.
  
      
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Volunteer mentors come to the school at lunch time on Tuesday's and join the student in the lunch line to get lunch.  They then take their lunches together to the library where they can eat with other lunch buddies.  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  North Pointe Principal Michael Shires started the program and says, "the goal is to provide a positive, encouraging experience once a week to that student. Lunch Buddies has already helped students in the program to get better grades. I want my students to feel loved and have a sense of belonging, says Shires."
  
  
  

 

 

  
 Family story time and movie night at Collins Elementary
  

Students made "star studded" glasses, had a movie popcorn treat, took
Accelerated Reader (AR) tests, received a book from a recent movie that was popular this past year, and walked the red carpet! 

 

 

      
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Florence Elementary Celebrates 100th day of school
  
Kindergartners created 100th day projects that displayed their creativity on counting 100 days of school.
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
FES 4th Grade Service Learning Project 
  
The fourth-graders are learning about the earth's natural disasters; hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes. The group was focusing on earthquakes. 

The students found that the most common cause of injury from an earthquake happens when someone attempts to leave a building. Therefore they were challenged to brainstorm/design/compare designs within their team and formulate a final design to build a structure that would sustain a simulated earthquake. The teacher provided a variety of box sizes and the students brought in personal belongings to enhance their California hotel or home.

The students learned that many homes and business in California contained a panic/safe room. These rooms are not only used for catastrophic weather but are also set-up in case of intruders. The safe room's furnishings are bolted down to the walls or floor and they most likely contain survival supplies for several weeks. Most Kentucky homes have a basement that could be used as a safe location during bad weather and all homes should be stocked with emergency items in case of a power outages or any other disasters.  

  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
Right: Teacher simulating an Earthquake by shaking the table
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Goodridge Elementary STEM Museum on Wheels
  
 Goodridge Elementary School recently had their gymnasium turned into a state-of-the-art hands-on children's museum focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) education. Each workstation not only augmented the students' existing science and math curriculum, but exposed them to high-tech fields of study they may wish to explore in the future. One of the most popular stations was the kinetic energy station.  Students were able to ride a stationary bike and create enough energy to light up a multi-colored pole.

The highlight of the activity was meeting NAO, an autonomous, programmable humanoid robot that showed the students how he exercised including leg thrusts, laying down toe touches, and quick ninja type punches as well as shared his vocal skills by singing "Happy Birthday." Read more about it here.
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
New Haven first year Archery Team Tournament results:
  
6 Individual Medals:

3rd place for 4th grade girls - Amelia Vogel
3rd place for 4th grade boys - Austin Bailey
1st place for 4th grade boys - Jaden Hunt
3rd place for 5th grade boys - Garrett Seibert
2nd place 5th grade girls - Kyra Isbell

1st place 5th grade girls - Avery Griffin

   
MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS 

 

  

 

 

OMS Speech Team Regional Champions

 

 Ockerman Middle competed at the KHSSL regional competition Saturday February 14th where they placed first!  The following students are runners up and regional champions: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Broadcasting Regional winner: Evan Bales, Runner up: Macy Buerstein

Extemporaneous speaking Regional winner: Tyler Kennedy, Runner up: Greg McMillan

Impromptu speaking Regional winner: Tyler Kennedy Declamation, Runner up: Greg McMillan

Public Speaking Runner up: Greg McMillan

Humorous interpretation Regional winner: Evan Bales

Storytelling Runner up: Robert Saner

Duo acting Runner up: Ellie Nelson and Amelia Hughes

Due improv Regional winners: Ellie Nelson and Grace Sparrow

 

 

Conner Middle Schools club Colts Care recently partnered with North Pointe Elementary, Kelly Elementary, and Goodridge Elementary to collect items for Pooky Pouches. Pooky Pouches are care bags that are assembled in order to provide comfort for children that are placed in emergency foster care due to abuse, neglect, etc. They worked with the non-profit Hope In Heels.  Hope in Heels is the group that distributes the pouches to the necessary agencies. Normally, a group will assemble 30-100 bags, however, with the help of all 4 schools, they were able to assemble 401 bags. The story was picked up by WLWT TV 5 News. Watch the story here. 

 

 

Congrats to Gray Middle School for sweeping the Regional Quick Recall/Governor's Cup competition recently at St. Paul's

 

 

 
HIGH SCHOOL NEWS 

 

 

 

 

 

Boone County Youth Cabinet
   

 The Boone County Youth Cabinet (BCYC)traveled to Frankfort. The group toured the capital, met with our NKY legislators, attended a "SMOKE FREE KY" rally, and attended a senate session. 

Applications will be available the beginning of March for those leadership students that will be juniors next school year and are interested in serving on the cabinet.   More information to follow concerning next year's application process.

 

 

 

The purposes of the BCYC are to: improve the County's ability to positively affect the lives of young people; help students develop in the areas of leadership and civic responsibility; encourage teens to become familiar with the legal and judicial process; engage them in decision-making and service learning and better coordinate our community's efforts and services for young people.

 

Congrats to 2015 National Merit Finalists recipieints:  Michael Thompson and Sarah Lucas both of Conner High.

 

  

These students were selected as two of roughly 15,000 students nationwide to be Finalists from an initial selection pool of approximately 1.5 million students.  In March, NMSC (National Merit Scholarship Corporation) will begin mailing scholarship offers to winners selected from the 15,000 finalists. The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships.  The highest achieving students in the National Merit Scholarship Program are designated as National Merit Scholars.

  

 

 

 

 

Scholarship jumpstarts manufacturing careers

 

A scholarship program funded by Duke Energy and Partners for a Competitive Workforce is enabling nine Northern Kentucky high school students to attend Certified Production Technician training at Gateway Community and Technical College.   Congrats to the three students listed below.  Click here to read about it.

 

*Alisha Bagley of Cooper High School

 

*Jordan England of Boone County High School

 

*Meghan Knisely of Ryle High School

 

 

Latin is Not Dead at Conner High

 

 

52 Conner High students recently attended the Kentucky Junior Classical League Latin Convention. The National Junior Classical League (NJCL) is an organization of junior and senior high school students sponsored by the American Classical League. This group is composed of local and state chapters across the United States, and several international members. The purpose of the group is to encourage an interest in and an appreciation of the language, literature and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.Read more here.

 

 

 

Off to the state meet for Boone County Schools swimmers

As reported in The Cincinnati Enquirer by James Weber

 

 

Courtesy James Weber/Enquirer

Boone County swimmers and divers had a successful Region 4 meet Feb. 13-14 and will send several athletes to the state meet Feb. 26-28 in Louisville.

Ryle qualified in the girls 200 medley relay after finishing fifth in the regional behind Taylor Malkemus, Grace Bank, Savanna Bolin and Ania Campbell. Also, the 200 freestyle relay after placing sixth with Campbell, Bank, Katie Kalany and Katy Dunham. And the 400 free relay as well after placing fifth with Campbell, Malkemus, Kalany and Bank. Read the full article here. 

 

 

 

 

Wrestling results

 

The region wrestling finals were last weekend and between Boone, Conner, Cooper and Ryle High Schools. 20 of 56 available state qualifying spots were filled by Boone County schools. Ryle qualified 8, Cooper qualified 7, Conner qualified 3 and Boone qualified 2. The competition is tough in region 6 which is ranked #1 in the state. Our region includes Campbell , Scott, Holmes, Newport, Walton Verona, Covington Catholic, Simon Kenton and Dixie Heights.