Reading Fair Winners 2015

Superintendent Milton Kuykendall Gives a "Thumbs Up" to Winners

     Area schools recently sent their first place reading fair winners to vie for opportunities to represent the district in Oxford on February 14. The Mississippi Department of Education Reading Fair enables students to synthesize skills in research, compilation and creativity to create book projects that are shared with the community. Regional winners will eventually advance to state competition in Jackson.

Pictured district winners of Categories A-I include from L. to R., First row: 

Anna Rhodes Bridgforth, Northpoint Christian Academy; Kyleigh Steele, Northpoint Christian Academy; Millie Martin, Lewisburg Primary; Ava Tucker, Greenbrook Elementary; Emily Ashmore, Southaven Elementary

 L. to R., Second Row: Sarah Taggart, Oak Grove Central; Supt. Kuykendall, Reed Simmons, Center Hill Middle; Dalton Sartain, Lake Cormorant Middle

CHHS State Champions! 

 Front row: (seniors)  McKenzie Willis, Katie Neergaard, Shelby Stuber.

Horn Lake High School Choir

Performs at National Cathedral in Washington, DC

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Back row (left to right):  Kennedi Pigues, Keegan Jones, Lexie Harrington, Abbie Parker, Karson Thomas, Sarah Beth Dickey, Amber Kaminski, Allie Davis, Katlyn Tidwell

Middle row (left to right): Emily Pearson, Lauren Lashlee, Daysha Spann, Brittany Wright, Kaley Eldred, Kathryn Osborn, Shea Waddell, Olivia Milliorn, SeLane Ruggiero

Bottom row (left to right): Raven Ruggiero, Leigh Kathryn McDonald, Hannah Honeycutt, Kristin Moore, Amanda Johnson, Denisse Diaz

     "When you play one of us, you play all of us."

That is a slogan that has given DeSoto Central High School something to cheer about as their cheerleaders have just been named the top cheering squad for large high schools in Mississippi.

Win County Spelling Bee

Sophia Davis, a 6th grade student at DeSoto Central Middle School, left, received a second place trophy from Associate Supt. Van Alexander, and Emily Suh, right,  was the winner of the DeSoto County Spelling Bee that was open to all schools in DeSoto County.

   It was the word in the 11th round that decided first and second place in the 2015 DeSoto County Spelling Bee, a county-wide event that included Northpoint Christian, Sacred  Heart and DeSoto County Schools.

   First place went to Emily Suh, a seventh grade student at Southaven Middle School, and second place was awarded to Sophia Davis, a sixth grade student at DeSoto Central Middle School.  Both Suh and Davis will continue spelling, this time at the Mid-South Spelling Bee in Memphis on March 7th, and both received trophies almost as large as they were.

   Van Alexander, associate superintendent at DeSoto County Schools, welcomed participants and guests and awarded the trophies at the end of the two-hour event.

   "All students studied very hard and each one of them is already a winner," Alexander said.

Jay Baird served as the "pronouncer" for the Spelling Bee and Andrienne Sim-Goss was the recorder.  There were 44 students participating in the event and the room was filled with parents and friends of the students.

  A total of 44 students began the competition before a packed room of family and friends at DeSoto County Schools' Central Office boardroom in Hernando. All students participating won school competitions to be a part of Saturday's spelling bee.  Each school, representing grades 4-8, was represented by two students per grade.  They received a syllabus of the words that would be used and given by the pronouncer, DeSoto County Alternative Center Principal Jay Baird, himself a top speller when he attended Horn Lake Junior High School in 1978.

   Judges for the spelling bee were Olive Branch Intermediate School Principal Claudette Smith, Overpark Elementary School Principal Lisa Love, and Lake Cormorant Elementary School Principal Dr. Margaret Boyd.  Adrienne Sims-Gross, assistant principal at Career Center West, served as the recorder. Jo Cox, director of Continuing Education at DCS, was the Spelling Bee Coordinator.

Tension ran high as students like Lillian Amy Gregory spelled words for a panel of judges in the DeSoto County Spelling Bee.

   All students approached the microphone and stated their name, grade and school, and all received a certificate for winning the right to participate in the county-wide Spelling Bee.

   The first round took out about half of the participants.  Round 3 had 14 students remaining. Students continued to correctly spell words such as "inferno," "topography," "wiseacre," "paprika," and "sayonara." It was a close match in the final rounds between the two middle school students.  Suh correctly spelled "sayonara" and "cruller" to win the Spelling Bee.

   Both winners said they maintain a straight "A" average in all subjects and studied over Christmas holidays and after school in the weeks precluding competition.

   "My first grade teacher told me about a website called 'Spelling City'," said Davis.  "I look at it often to learn words and I use dictionary.com to learn pronunciations."

   The Champion said she and her mother practice spelling words.

   "In the past few weeks we have spent more than an hour a day practicing, and if I get them wrong we review those words," Suh said, noting that her mother speaks three languages.

   Since both winners will attend the next level of competition which could take them to a national stage, they said they were excited about the possibilities ahead.

   "I would be excited if I get to skip school," Suh added.

   At the conclusion of the event, Davis had already looked up "megalopolis-a chain of roughly adjacent metropolitan areas."  Chances are, she won't miss that word a second time.

Members of SYLC raised money to purchase more than 300 stuffed animals to deliver to children at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.

     Eva Jeter knows first hand what it is like to be a patient at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, having spent a week there. She also knows how comforting it was when strangers brought her a blanket and doll, easing her anxiety and fears.

     Eva, now a junior at Southaven High School, is a member of the DeSoto County Schools' Superintendent's Youth Leadership Council (SYLC), a group of 32 student representatives from the district's eight high schools. This leadership program fosters growth in communication skills, develops leadership abilities, teaches financial literacy, entrepreneurship and opens their eyes to the political world.

     It is also a program that encourages students to help others.

Students select a community service project. This Christmas season the students have raised money to purchase high-end stuffed animals for patients at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.

     "Others helped me when I was a patient," Eva said.

Zac McDonald began loading the stuffed animals to deliver to sick chldren. Zac was a leader in the project.

     Jordan Shuman, a junior at Olive Branch High School, said this was an enjoyable project to be doing during the Christmas season. "It is the season of giving. We hope to help sick children feel better. It is a blessing for us as well."

     "The students in the Superintendent's Youth Leadership Council are outstanding leaders in their schools and communities," said Jim Ferguson, a sponsor for the program and the chief academic officer for secondary education at DCS. "Many unique challenges arise when this caliber of student and strong personalities are challenged to work together. I let them choose their service projects and execute them. I facilitate the program, but it is student-led."

     SYLC has been in existence for eight years, and 100% of the students involved in the council have attended college. It started with a grant from the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi and now is supported through the Homer Skelton Foundation, Maddox Foundation and Delta Regional Foundation.

     This is a two-year program. One year the students study entrepreneurship. The council reads a book and each month a group presents a chapter to the council for discussion. The students hear from many business operations. In the spring, the Council travels to New York City.

     On alternating years, the students study government and politics. The students study local, state and national politics through reading, meeting local politicians, taking a trip to Jackson to attend a legislative session and going to Washington, DC. The students work to help pay for their travel.

     Zach McDonald, a senior at Lake Cormorant High School, has been the student in charge of the stuffed animal drive, making arrangements with the hospital and planning the deliveries.

     "We wanted to give back to kids that will not be home for Christmas," he said.