Fall/Winter 2008-09 Issue - Center Grove Community School ...

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happenings around the district Coming Soon! Center Grove High School to Host Johnson County Choral Festival The 2008 Johnson County Choral Festival will feature choirs from Whiteland, Edinburgh, and Center Grove. Rhythm Masters and Expressions will be performing from Whiteland High School. Edinburgh’s Lancer Singers Show Choir will also be featured. Host Center Grove will present performances by CG Singers, CG Sound System and the Debtones. The Festival will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, November 17, 2008 at the The Debtones Perform Center Grove High School Performing Arts Center. The public is invited to attend. Tickets are available at the door for $3.00 each. 2nd Annual Community Literacy Night with Safari Steve “Reading Adventures,” the second annual Community Literacy Night will be held from 5:30 until 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18 at Pleasant Grove Elementary School. Come for a pizza dinner (proceeds to benefit Riley Hospital for Children), and stay for the fun! Don’t miss special guest Safari Steve and his animal friend (Silly Safari Show at 6:00 pm), along with guest readers Superintendent Dr. Steven Stephanoff, Colts Cheerleaders, Safari Steve & Friend State Representative Woody Burton, and others. You may even win a fabulous door prize from the Colts, Pacers, Fever, Indians, Ice, Cheesecake Factory, or Connor Prairie. It’s an adventure for the whole family! Each student who donates five children’s books will eat dinner for free! Overheard “I can’t believe my senior year is almost half over. I wish CG had a college, so I could just keep going to school here!” - CGHS Senior Four Center Grove Seniors National Merit Semifinalists Four Center Grove Seniors were named as Semifinalists in the 54th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Semifinalists, (left to right) McKenzie Weeks, daughter of Tim and Kim Weeks; Zachary Stallard, son of Linda Stallard and Donald Stallard; Aaron Cox, son of Patricia Giever and Thomas Cox; and Brian Devault, son of Ron and Marcia Devault. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for a National Merit ® Scholarship. Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. Approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar ® title. To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. The Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, which includes the student’s self-descriptive essay and information about the Semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities. National Merit Scholarship winners of 2009 will be announced beginning in April and ending in July. Six CG Seniors also received National Merit commendation. Commended: (left to right) Alexander Kuka, son of Joe and Anne Kuka; Chase Coy, son of David and Kim Coy; Garrett Knutson, son of Mark and Juli Knutson; James Kramer, son of Tim and Christine Kramer; Dan Kindervater, son of John and Vicki Kindervater; and Sam Karozos, son of Jim and Amy Karozos. Center Grove 4-Star Schools The Indiana Four Star Awards program was established to recognize schools that have demonstrated academic excellence during the past year. Schools that place in the state upper 25% in student attendance rates, mathematics proficiency scores, language arts proficiency scores, and the Percent of Students passing both Language Arts and Mathematics are eligible to receive a Four Star Award. Schools must meet all legal standards and also make Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind for the appropriate year. Five Center Grove Schools have been named four-star schools: Center Grove High School, Center Grove Elementary, Pleasant Grove Elementary, Sugar Grove Elementary, and West Grove Elementary. Congratulations to all the students, faculty, and staff of our four-star schools! CGHS Day of Caring Center Grove juniors held their annual Day of Caring on September 16. The students were busy cleaning, painting, and sprucing up our community! Drew Calvert, Justin Spicer, Chase Brown, and Shawn Bui work on landscaping at PGES Justin Spicer, CGHS junior was working hard, but enjoying the time off from classes. Smiling, he explained, “It’s great! It gets us out of school, and it’s helping out the community.” The students were readying Pleasant Grove Elementary to host a fundraiser for the “A Little Wiggle Room” fund, benefitting students with autism. Thanks to all the juniors and staff who participated! Katie Sparks (pictured) and Liz Brown stained the wooden bridge in front of Pleasant Grove. School Review Page 6
election 2008 welcome new board members November 4, 2008 was a truly historical election day. In the shadow of all the national excitement, Center Grove is fortunate to have elected two dedicated community members to our Board of School Trustees. Welcome to Carole Tumey and John Steed, who will take office on January 1, 2009. Both have long standing connections to Center Grove, as Tumey spent 40 years employed by the district as a teacher, coach, and assistant athletics director. She retired in 2003. Steed is a former school board member, having served from 1993 until 2003. Tumey and Steed will replace current board member Jackie Ponder and President Matt Carol S. Tumey (Photo of Steed not available) Shepherd who did not run for reelection. We want to thank both Mrs. Ponder and Mr. Shepherd for their tireless dedication and service to the Center Grove school board throughout their terms, and we are confident that we can count on their continued support and interest in our school district after their official service is completed. Their many contributions and valuable insight are such an asset to our community, and we very much appreciate the significant time and effort they have provided as school board members. According to school board policy, the annual Board Organization Meeting will be held on or before January 15, 2009 to select officers. The New 3 R’s, continued from page 3 create an environment where students achieve at a higher level and rarely fall through the cracks. Students in smaller schools are more motivated, have higher attendance rates, feel safer, and graduate and attend college in higher numbers.” Our goal at CGHS is for at least one adult to know each student well. We want student contact with adults to be positive and encouraging. We don’t want our kids to only hear, “Don’t do that,” from teachers and administrators at school. To accomplish this goal, our extensive research and observation has led us to the recommendation of creating smaller learning communities. “The point about relationships is that learning is personal. When students have strong, trusting relationships with their teachers, they work harder and achieve more.” – Willard Daggett Our efforts to meet the “personal” mandate began with the implementation of a 90-minute Instructional Resource Period, or IRP. This worked exceptionally well for some departments, but not for others. To improve these efforts, mandatory study hall for each student was implemented, and IRP was replaced with a 30-minute STaR (Students, Teachers and Relationships) period. STaR classes are designed to be small, with about 15-16 in this year’s freshman classes. Three days a week, students have open STaR periods, during which they can meet with teachers to get help if they need it. Thursdays are closed STaRs, allowing teachers and students to work on relationships. With the implementation of smaller learning communities, students will likely have a mixed grade level and/or interest based advisory period. “This is where we believe relationships will be nurtured, as adults learn the aptitude, interests, and personalities of the students in their communities,” said Mr. Buck. Built in tutoring and mentoring opportunities are also expected to result. Upon this relational foundation, relevance will then help to engage students in their education by making real-world connections like community service, service learning projects, internships, and mentoring. We will involve our community members and businesses in the shift toward project and problem based learning. “The more students understand how what they are learning is relevant to them, to their community, or to the world at large; the more motivated they will be to learn.” – Willard Daggett This will start with New Tech High and Early College, then the other SLC’s will follow suit. This will allow students the opportunity to collaborate, produce, and present to the community and parents, thereby externalizing the enemy, or placing the teacher on the same side with the student. Relationships and relevance will bring us to the rigor piece; these engaged students will be equipped to meet academic standards and state requirements. We are also making sure that students take the right test, the ACT or the SAT. This will make our students college eligible. By shifting from teaching to learning, with teachers accountable to ensure the students master the instruction, they will also be college ready. “We are gearing our curriculum to make college an option for every student… by equipping kids with 21 st Century Skills.” – Paul Buck At Indiana University, about 33,000 applications are made for 7,000 freshman slots. According to Dr. Connelly in his book, College Knowledge, “High schools do a good job of making students college eligible, but a poor job of making them college knowledgeable, or ready.” We want CGHS graduates to be as versatile as possible, explains Mr. Buck. “We are gearing our curriculum to make college an option for every student, even those who don’t go immediately following high school graduation. By equipping kids with 21 st Century Skills, whenever the light bulb comes on, they will be ready to go back to school,” he said. Page 7 Fall/Winter 2008-09
Page 1 and 2: school review The New 3 R’s: Rela
Page 3 and 4: long-range facilities plan the new
Page 5: class of 2008 scholarships Local Sc

Fall/Winter 2008-09 Issue - Center Grove Community School ...

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