Upcoming News and Events

• Legislative Caucus-February 20, 2010- Just a reminder that this Saturday, February 20th the NKY Legislative Caucus will hold a public forum at Boone County High School starting at 10:00 AM. It is recommended that you plan to arrive by 9:30 if you wish to sign up to speak. It is crucial that we have a large turnout like last year; an even larger turnout than last year would be outstanding!! Our legislators need to hear from us again about the importance of maintaining funding for P-12 and postsecondary education in Northern Kentucky. Please wear red and plan on being there to give your personal input on the needs of education for our children.
• NKEAT (The Northern Kentucky Education Action Team) includes many stakeholders. Northern Kentucky Superintendents attend these meetings which are held in support of education and collaboration with the community. To learn about NKEAT's legislative priorities and to contact your legislators in support of our students and their education, click on this link: http://www.erlanger.k12.ky.us/news/2010-02-NKEAT.pdf .

ACCOLADES

• Arnett Elementary: Arnett is a finalist for a 21st Century Learning Grant. They have made it to the next round and were visited by KDE as a part of the process. They will find out if they will receive the grant after the new year!
• Howell Elementary: Howell hosted their first men of Howell event with fathers of students at Howell. It was well received and the group has plans to take the children bowling for their next meeting.
• Lindeman Elementary: Lindeman has been working with Viox and Viox to design a plan for landscaping for their school. Viox and Viox kindly donated their services to develop a formal plan. Lindeman plans to work through BEST partnerships, the extension office, FRC student programs and local businesses and organizations to eventually fulfill the plan through donations and programs.
• Miles Elementary: Mr. Bryant Gillis, Principal, Mrs. Della Kemper, Teacher, and Mrs. Gina Danks, Teacher were asked to speak before the Education Committee of the Legislative Research Committee. They shared some of the work they are doing with standards based instruction, interventions, and all that they are doing to help students succeed. The Office of Education Accountability was also present and was extremely complimentary of Miles Elementary. Thank you to these three individuals for representing Miles and our district in sharing some of the wonderful things that are being done to ensure student learning.
• Tichenor Middle School: Tichenor received an aquatic grant and has been working with students through hands-on activities and events to provide students real-life science opportunities.
• Lloyd Memorial High School: This week Mr. Riehemann and I met with our first student advisory committee. The students were very insightful and informative. We look forward to collaborating with them to make our district the best it can be! Thanks to everyone involved that made this possible.
• Maintenance/Transportation: The maintenance/transportation department has been working diligently to make repairs and fulfill work orders and to transport our students safely. These staff members have accomplished quite a bit . Most of the maintenance department will be working over the winter break to continue that work. We appreciate all of their efforts!
• Food Service: More students than ever are participating in breakfast and lunch. This is largely attributed to the work being done by our staff members of the food service department. Thank you for providing our students with nutritious and delicious meals!

News and Events

• The Lloyd Girls' Varsity Basketball Team defeated Newport Ind. High School in the first round of the Grant County Tournament that began yesterday. The tournament started yesterday and will end on December 23rd.
• The Lloyd Boys' Varsity Basketball Team will host the Lloyd Memorial High School Invitational Tournament from 12/26/-12/28. Their first game will be on Sunday, December 27th at 8PM against North Laurel.
• The Fall Cycle for KTIP has concluded. Interns, you are halfway through your internship program. Resource Teachers, the district deadline for the spring timesheet will be April 23, 2010. Thanks to everyone for getting your timesheets submitted.
• ACCESS Testing for ESL/ELL Students will begin in January. This testing is a requirement of the state testing and NCLB and ALL ESL/ELL students must be tested at all schools. ALL STUDENTS SHALL BE RELEASED FROM THEIR CLASSES WHEN CALLED FOR ACCESS TESTING. NO STUDENTS SHALL BE PENALIZED IN ANY WAY FOR HAVING TO MISS ANY PORTION OF THEIR CLASSES FOR ACCESS TESTING.
• MAP TESTING winter testing window is January 11-January 29th.
• Tumble Books is a program that has been purchased for all schools. Please contact Mr. Palmore, Ms. Hellmann, or me if you have any questions about how to access this great resource for all grade levels.
• Site visits went very well and we learned a great deal about the strategies being implemented to move students toward proficiency.

ACCOLADES

• The district team has conducted 3 site visits and have had some wonderful discussions with teachers at Arnett, Tichenor, and Lindeman. Site visits at Howell, Miles, and Lloyd will occur in the next few weeks. We are very appreciative of the work teachers and principals are doing to focus on student learning, use real-time MAP data, other formative data, and the strives to improve instruction and increase student learning. Once all site visits are conducted we will post and share some of the great initiatives and ideas going on at the schools that other schools may be interested in replicating.
• On November 13th, all of the elementary teachers will be getting together for a district PLC. The school principals and teachers collaborated to create a fantastic agenda. Mr. Riehemann, the principal at Lloyd High School and Dr. Jennifer Cottingham will also be joining to help facilitate the grade level PLCs.
• Tichenor Middle School Student, Hayden Molitor participated in the Junior National Young Leaders Conference (JrNYLC) in Washington, D.C. He was nominated by teacher, Linda Noll.
• Lloyd High School is learning about and applying Developmental Assets for students. Chris Reeves, the school counselor has become a certified trainer and is collaborating with teachers.
• October 11th Tichenor Middle School students Beth Sheriff and Morgan Campbell as well as other Tichenor students participated in the Walk for the Cure in Downtown Cincinnati. Ms. Rainone and Ms. Campbell also walked with Tichenor Middle School Students.
• Tichenor Middle School Teachers and Administrators are collaborating with Joyce Harris, Literacy Consultant, and Tammie Sherry, NKU outreach literacy consultant to focus on literacy for students in all content areas. The staff has been pre-assessing and developing strategies to be implemented schoolwide.
• Lloyd High School held a Holocaust Assembly on October 27th. The guest speakers were Holocaust survivors who shared their stories with our students. It was a very moving experience for everyone in attendance. The presentation was a collaboration between the YSC and the teachers.
• On October 24th, Special Olympians and their families showed up for this year's Special Olympic Bowling Competition. There were over 50 people from Erlanger in attendance. Olympians from Tichenor, Lloyd, and graduates competed for the gold. Thanks goes out to those involved and Candace Campbell, Officer Brendel and Sam for their part as dignitaries handing out the medals.
• Lindeman Elementary will host a parent-involvement night with a live band, Salsa dancing and activities for parents and students on November 20th.
• Howell Elementary students partnered with Mazaak to conduct a penny war. The collaboration raised over $800 for the Elsmere Fire Department.
• I had the opportunity to conduct walk-throughs at Miles and Howell with Mr. Sayler and Mr. Gillis. We saw many great things occurring in classes we visited.