March 2009 - Kennewick School District

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KSD Communications & Public Relations, Lorraine Cooper, Director / Ellen Love, Secretary
WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE DISTRICT. . .
Kamiakin Student Athletes Sign on to Colleges
Front row: Shawn O’Brien – Baseball at St. Mary’s College; Elise Jepsen
– Track at Eastern Washington
University; Meagan McKinney –
Soccer at The College of St Rose in
Albany, NY; Megan Carreras -
Soccer at The Columbia Basin
College; Becky Long - Soccer at
The Columbia Basin College Back row: Coach Rex Easley, Coach Cheryl
Schauble, Coach Chris Erikson
Kennewick High Students Donate a Saturday to Spruce Up Campus
Several Kennewick High Students donned work gloves, picked up rakes
and shovels, and pitched on a cool Saturday in February to help make
Kennewick High look better and make
way for spring growth. During the
“Campus Beautification Winter Work
Day” students and staff volunteers cut
down grasses, pulled out dead annuals,
raked leaves from flower beds, pruned
shrubs and moved dirt to make way for
a forthcoming project.
Fun Frenzy-O-Fun Night Choir Fundraiser at Kamiakin - Board Games,
Kid Stuff, Open Gym with Basketball and Volleyball,
Dance Revolution, Karaoke, Hot Dogs, Cotton
Candy, Popcorn, and much, much more. Friday,
March 6th from 6 to 9 PM in the cafeteria and gym.
Cost is $5 or $3 for kids 12 and under. Pre-sale
tickets before and after school in the cafeteria $1 off!
Come and have a GREAT time and help the choir
raise money for their upcoming trips.
The Desert Hills Middle School Math Team won second place in the
MATHCOUNTS competition held in Richland last month. The members of
the team were: Alexandria Miskho, David Zilar, Paul Pierson,
and Sangeetha Thevuthason – who won second place over
all. The team now moves on to the state competition to be
held on March 21, 2009 on the Microsoft Campus in
Redmond. We are very proud of you!
At Amistad, Family Reading Night “A Whale of a Tale” will
be held on March 5th with lots of games and activities for
the whole family. Amistad also reports that students Heidy
L. and Carlos I. are the most recent winners of brand new “Bikes for
Books” by Kennewick Masonic Lodge 153.
Breakfast for Bikes for Books Fundraiser On the fourth Sunday of every
month, the Kennewick Masonic Lodge will hold a breakfast
fundraiser to support the Bikes for Books Program. The next
opportunity is Sunday, March 22 – at 601 W. 6th Ave. across
from Kennewick High, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Spanish Ready! for Kindergarten classes are March 21 at 10 a.m. and
March 23 at 6:30 p.m. Kennewick parents of preschool age children may
register by mail, phone (222-5035) or online at readyforkindergarten.org.
Flyers are available at the district office, local libraries and will be sent
home with district elementary students. Classes are 1 ½ hours long and
give parents free, fun and valuable tools and activities to use with their
children that ultimately contribute to Kindergarten readiness!
Edison Elementary will host a Kids Art Night on March 26, from 6:00
to7:30 p.m. Planned are some great interactive art
projects for students and their Families!
Kennewick High American Sign Language students will be cohosting
Marble Races at the KEHS cafeteria from 3:00-6:00 p.m. on
March 7. This event features carnival type booths and
games, food, piñata, prizes and a silent auction. It is a
fundraiser for Camp Hands Up, a summer camp
program for local deaf children.
March is
in our Schools Month
Desert Hills Middle School Band means cool tunes, great times, and
lots of activities. Thursday, March 5th the jazz bands will be having
their winter jazz band concert and they will be featuring guest artists:
Bob Keefe on guitar and Jon Ladines on trumpet. Concert is in the
commons at 7:00 a.m. and again at 5:30 p.m.
Desert Hills and Park MS Bands will also participate in the CBMEA
Large Group Contest at Chief Joe Middle School in Richland.
Tuesday, March 24th and Wednesday, March 25th. The bands will be
adjudicated in front of four professional musicians. The ratings vary
from: superior, excellent, good and fair. Good luck!
The Southridge Chamber Choir, Jazz Choir, and Concert Choir will
perform an evening of fun, uplifting selections on March 26. While
the concert begins at 7:00 p.m., those arriving early will enjoy a
prelude of soloists starting at 6:30. A short reception will follow the
concert in the cafeteria. Following the concert will be a short
reception. All are invited to attend! The concert is in the Southridge
Auditorium, and admission is free!
Park Middle School 6th, 7th, 8th Grade and Jazz Bands will perform a
spring concert at Kennewick High’s Art Fuller Auditorium on
Thursday, March 19 at 7:00 p.m.
Celebrate Music in our Schools Month with 1,000 5th Graders at
Choral Fest! The Kennewick School District is sponsoring the 28th
annual All-City Fifth Grade Choral Festival on Monday and Tuesday,
March 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Kamiakin High School
Gymnasium. Edison, Cascade, Ridge View, Westgate, Canyon View,
and Washington schools will perform Monday the 16th. Southgate,
Lincoln, Hawthorne, Amistad, Vista, Sunset View, and Eastgate will
perform Tuesday the 17th. This year’s theme is “On The Radio!”
Come hear songs from the Depression,
WWII, Elvis, the Beatles, Disco and more!!
Each concert will feature over 500 students
from Kennewick Schools. Admission is
free. You and your friends and family are
invited.
KSD Communications & Public Relations
February 2009
lorraine.cooper@ksd.org
Teachers Enthusiastic About Getting GLAD in the Classroom
You may have heard teachers referring to using “GLAD strategies” in their
classrooms. GLAD stands for Guided Language Acquisition Design and is
gaining popularity in our district. Although primarily designed for classrooms
with students who do not speak English at home, the approach is catching on
with teachers in all kinds of classrooms.
GLAD was developed in the mid-eighties by two California teachers, Marcia
Brechtel and Linnea Hailey. They were teaching in a K-8 school with over 30
languages. Project GLAD was the result of their research on how kids best learn.
It became a successful model of teaching strategies that was acclaimed as an
exemplary model for the state of California. In addition, GLAD has gone on to
be acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Education.
The strategies presented through GLAD are research-based and represent the
best teaching practices available. They include many methods of delivering
instruction for any subject and at any grade level, such as the use of graphic
organizers; authentic pictures; vocabulary in poetry, chants or songs; color
chunking information for better retention; and grouping students in a variety of
configurations.
Kamiakin Senior Organizes Teen Arson
Awareness Kick-Off Event
Brooklyn Watts, a senior at Kamiakin, held a press event to kick off a
teen arson awareness campaign last month at her school. The purpose of
the program is to encourage youth to come forward with information
about criminal fire setting within our community. At the event, a
Southridge High Student, Rachel Schlosser, was awarded $1,500 by the
Arson Alarm Foundation of Seattle for bringing forward information to
School Resource Officer James Canada that proved critical in solving two
arsons!
Kennewick and Yakima were selected for this pilot program due to our
abnormally high rate of juveniles arrested for arson and reckless burning.
This effort will also promote the existing
Arson Alarm Foundation reward fund
where students can call a toll free
number similar to Crime Stoppers.
Representatives from the Arson Alarm
Foundation joined School, Fire, and
Police officials at the press conference.
Members of the Tri-Cities Media
covered the event, raising awareness
community wide about the project.
Rachel Schlosser, SRHS
Kennewick teachers have been using GLAD since 2000 and presently over
400 teachers have been trained K-12. Janie Easton, our present GLAD coach,
has been Kennewick School District’s full time GLAD coach since 2005. Janie
trains teachers and works with staff throughout the district. She is joined by
Naomi Puckett, Cathy Guajardo and Corie Kelly as key trainers for the district.
Teachers interested in training need to contact Janie to get on the waiting list.
Each year there are six to seven trainings in both elementary and secondary
classrooms. The training is in two parts; the first being a two-day theory
workshop given to teachers to build their background knowledge of GLAD
theory. The second part is a five-day classroom demonstration training given in
a Kennewick classroom with students. The trainers “take over” a classroom for
five mornings to demonstrate the different strategies using a unit of study. The
afternoons are spent with the trainers working on materials for teacher’s
classrooms.
GLAD in the Kennewick School District is becoming a way of teaching. You
will see evidence of GLAD strategies on the walls of every elementary, middle,
and high school in the Kennewick School District. For further information,
please contact Janie Easton GLAD Coach, Janie.easton@ksd.org or 222-6113.
Southridge Dance Team Performs
at NFL Pro Bowl!
The Southridge Heatwave
Dance Team performed as
part of the pre-game and
half-time shows of the 2009
NFL Pro Bowl Football
game in Honolulu, Hawaii,
last February 8. They were
invited to participate in this
event by earning superior
marks and First Place on
their Home Routine at camp
last summer. The team
raised funds over the
summer and fall to
participate and thanked sponsors and supporters by doing numerous
community service events over the fall and summer. This March, the team
is on their way to the District and State competitions. After earning state
titles the last three years in a row, the pressure is on to get back to work in
competing for Southridge. Performing for the Pro Bowl was an once-in-alifetime
experience for the dance team and they are very grateful they had
the opportunity to perform in such a program.

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Larry Roberts has a big heart for kids and a love
of literature. It’s no wonder that he loves his job.
As the Librarian at Highlands, Larry gets to share
his love of literature with students every day. His
day starts at 6:50 in the morning and he’ll have
classes coming in every hour throughout the day.
For each class, Larry prepares a Power Point
lesson that may deal with literary topics or authors
as well as topics as such as ethics or bullying.
After the lesson, he helps students check out
books related to the topic.
KSD Communications & Public Relations, Lorraine Cooper, Director / Ellen Love, Secretary
Meet Larry Roberts, KSD Librarian
Larry’s goal is to really engage the students in
his lessons. For the lesson about bullying, he went
all out portraying “differences” by dressing up
with a long haired wig, black rimmed glasses, bad
teeth and big ears. The purpose was to illustrate
how kids pick on other kids. “Middle schoolers
want to be different but they want to fit in,”
explains Larry. “They might have colored hair, a
pierced nose or whatever but we want students to recognize that those kids want
to fit in too. We want to be a community that is accepting of other people. We’re
trying to teach students that when we see people acting as bullies, the only thing
these bullies are doing is showing what low self esteem they have.” After the
lesson, Larry will share with them a list of books from the library for further
reading about the subject. “In my classes I always try to make a point and ‘sell’
a book - the object is to clear a shelf off of all the books and get those kids
reading!”
Larry Roberts,
Desert HillsMiddle School Librarian
If you’ve ever attended an assembly at Highlands, you would know that he
often performs special readings that he hopes will touch the hearts of the
students. “If I can make them cry, I’ve done my job!” says Larry. For Larry it
is all about making that personal, emotional connection to really try to get
through to the kids. He did a week long series about “Rachel’s Challenge” that
teaches a message of kindness, compassion and the concept of paying forward
good deeds. He was gratified when so many students from Highlands went
online and accepted the challenge. (www.rachelschallenge.com)
Larry’s activities at Highlands are many. He advises a team of 18 students
who produce Highland’s “Scottie Tales” videos. The students film and edit
events going on at the school which are broadcast each day in the classrooms.
He also is involved in beautification projects such as keeping up the rose and
rhododendron gardens with the help of student volunteers, PTO members and
parents.
He is a member of the Action Team at Highlands that is working to make
Highlands a model school by identifying best practices and finding ways to
implement them. “For example,” explains Larry “we’ve changed our schedule
to flex block scheduling. The idea is to provide extra help for struggling kids
while offering enhanced learning for those who have already achieved their
basic skills. It allows teachers to collaborate and shift their schedules to
accommodate the needs of the child. For example, if fractions are being worked
on in Math class, kids that are struggling with fractions can have more time to
master the skill in their enhancement class.”
Larry started his career in the Kennewick School
District in 1989, working for 17 years as Highland’s
technology education teacher. He taught electronics,
drafting, and woodworking as applied mathematics
and language arts. “Students always come back and
tell me they learned a lot of math in my class and they
used it all the way through high school. Every project
I had the students produce had a required reading,
writing, and math component.”
Larry decided to make a change when he learned
the Highlands Librarian was planning to retire in a
couple of years. Highlands was making a shift to
focus on reading and Larry saw it as an opportunity.
You see, being a Librarian, may have been a calling.
“When I was in sixth grade I was the student
librarian,” recalls Larry.” There was always
something in the back of my mind that said this was
the work I wanted to do. Larry went back to college
for three years at Central Washington University over two summers and two
winters to get his in Library Media Science endorsement.
Outside of work, Larry is the Education Minister for Hope and Prayer
Fellowship, where he leads the Thursday night services. He also has an interest
in tracing family histories and genealogy research, which combines another
interest, which is working with Adobe Photoshop. “I’ll restore and repair
genealogy photos,” explains Larry, “but my favorite thing is morphing photos.
I have done a morphed photo for almost every teacher at Highlands turning
them in to characters – I have Connie Fow as Glinda the Good Witch!” On the
weekends, “I tinker with stuff,” says Larry. “I have built two electric cars over
the years. I converted a Honda 600 and a 1994 Ford Festiva to electric, drove
both around for a few years and then sold them.
Larry has been married for 32 years to a Southern Bell, Deborah, who also
works at Highlands as a para-educator. They have two daughters. Sadie is 24
and works with disabled adults in a group home. “My other daughter passed
away when she was nine,” Larry says quietly. “I wrote a book about her called
‘Christ’s Unfailing Love’. She was an autistic child who had seizures. One day
the seizures took her breath away and I couldn’t revive her. Life is precious. I
suppose that is why I try to reach out and touch these kids and make their lives
different and take the pain away from some of their lives.” (Editor’s note: You
can find Larry’s book online on Amazon.com)
He and Deborah have plans to take a road trip to the southeast United States
this summer. They will be driving to North Carolina where Deborah was born.
On the way, Larry plans to do some genealogical research on his great, great
grandfather, who was a Civil War Captain in several towns. “We are also going
to stop at the National Park in Arkansas where you can mine diamonds and hit
some historical places. Oh – and Deborah wants to have dinner at Paula Deen’s
restaurant!” Sounds like a great time.
KSD School Bond - March 10 is the Deadline to Vote!
Remind your family, friends, and neighbors to vote!
The bond referendum must receive at least 60%
approval by voters to pass. This is a $68 million dollar
bond that would pay for four completely renovated
elementary schools, a new elementary school in Badger
Canyon, and health, safety and infrastructure upgrades
district-wide. If approved, construction on the new
elementary school would begin in July. Renovations to
Canyon View elementary would also begin in July and
both schools would be ready for occupancy in the fall
of 2010. The district would then complete one
elementary renovation per year starting with Southgate,
then Sunset View, Cascade, and – if state matching
funds allow – Lincoln elementary schools. We are
ready to get to work!
Now is the time. Our community’s tax dollars will
go to work and benefit us locally. Construction projects
like these can help stimulate the economy. Interest rates
are at all time low, reducing the amount the district
must pay back thereby putting more of the funds into
the construction, renovations and major projects
throughout the district. The cost to
taxpayers is an increase of thirty
cents per $1,000 of property value.
That’s about five dollars a month
on a $200,000 home. A tax rate
calculator, project lists, photos and
more information are available on
our website at www.ksd.org.
KSD Communications & Public Relations, Lorraine Cooper, Director / Ellen Love, Secretary Page 3
“Classified” Information
By Betsy Dickinson, Classified Human Resources manager
Classified week is just around the corner. We honor our classified staff the
week of March 9th. The Board will be doing a formal recognition of classified
staff at the Board meeting on March 11th at 5:30 p.m. in the Administration
Building Boardroom, and we encourage PSE union officers as well as any
classified staff to attend this meeting. In honor of Classified Week, I have
written this little ditty in hopes it will bring a smile or two.
A Day in the Life of a Student
Today was a day that I can’t say was bad
Cuz no one would let me be sad or mad.
My bus driver smiled as I got on the bus
She loved my new shoes and made quite a fuss!
I hopped off of the bus and there were adults all around
My teacher’s helper was there and picked me up off the ground.
I’d fallen, you see but I didn’t get hurt.
I felt pretty stupid with my face in the dirt!
But the teacher and her helper got me back on track
We worked on my reading and math (Fractions? Can’t quite get the knack.)
Finally at last we got to eat lunch!
Teriyaki Dippers today! I can’t wait to munch!
The cooks and cashiers are so nice to talk to.
They know me by name and ask what I do.
Today they just smiled and said “It’s OK”
When I tripped and fell over and dumped my whole tray.
Our custodian helped pick me up off the floor
And cleaned up behind me and helped me get more.
He came by the classroom later today
To ask if I ate and if I was OK.
I told my mom when I got home after school
How nice everyone was, though I felt like a fool.
Some days are better than others, I guess.
If it weren’t for my helpers, I would be quite a mess!
In honor of all of you who make a difference in the life of every student,
thank you.
A HUGE
Thank You!
Thank you to everyone at the KSD Print Shop and Mailing Departments
who – on short notice – dropped everything to quickly print and prepare
more than 30,000 School Bond Q&A flyers for bulk mailing last month.
Your effort is very, very much appreciated!!!! Pictured Left to Right:
Christine Hughes, Roxie Hawkins, John Albertson, Jeff Gerrard
Motor Activities Training Program
Special Olympics Event
Seeks Volunteers!
KSD's physical therapy department is planning its second annual
Motor Activities Training Program (MATP) Special Olympics event and
Keewaydin Discovery Center Field Day. The KDC Field Day will be
held on May 28th and the MATP on May 29th - both at the Fruitland
Building. The MATP program is designed for persons with the most
severe disabilities or for individuals who cannot compete in official
Special Olympics sports because they physically cannot perform the
skills or are unable to follow the rules due to behavior/cognitive
problems. MATP emphasizes training and participation rather than
competition. The "sports" events have no strict rules. Participants
demonstrate their "personal best" and there are fun competitions in
which rules and equipment are modified to accommodate each
participant's unique abilities. We welcome volunteers. We need people
to help with set-up and clean up as well as to help with activities on the
day of the events. We could also use people to help adapt equipment to
be used for the events. If anyone is interested in volunteering or knows
of a group who would like to volunteer, they can e-mail either Bev Mey
at bev.mey@ksd.org or Wendy Brown at wendy.brown@ksd.org.
Walk for Food Allergies:
Move Toward A Cure
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Seattle, Washington
Warren G. Magnuson Park
FAAN is a 501(c3) nonprofit organization whose
mission is to raise public awareness, provide
advocacy and education, and advance research on
behalf of all those affected by food allergies and
anaphylaxis. Twelve million Americans have food
allergies, approximately 61,144 children in
Washington State, and 3 million nationwide cope
with food allergies daily. There is NO CURE for
food allergies. Strict avoidance of the allergy-causing
food is the only way to prevent a reaction.
For more information on FAAN and the 2009
Walk for Food Allergy in Seattle, please go to -
www.foodallergywalk.org.