February 2011 - Turner School District USD #202

February 2011 www.turnerusd202.org The Turner Page 11These Oak Grove Fourth Graders, willing to don red noses toenhance their holiday music concert, exemplify the numerousprograms offered by Turner schools prior to the winter holiday.Oak GroveElementary School288-3900Gayle Bertram, PrincipalOak Grove Elementary NewsBy Gayle Bertram, PrincipalOak Grove students and staff have been extremely busy thepast nine weeks. They have been working diligently to preparefor the upcoming Kansas Assessments and have participated inmany school and community activities. Before Winter Break ourstudents held a canned food drive to donate to families in need.We were also fortunate enough to celebrate our wonderful cafeteriastaffs’ hard work. They were recognized by The Turner Boardof Education for the month of December’s Outstanding CustomerService. We celebrated the beginning of the holiday season byholding two music programs. The children did an outstandingjob on their performances.Additionally we continue to strive for academic excellence. Werecently held the annual Spelling Bee where third, fourth, fifth,and sixth graders participated. Diego Acosta placed first in theSpelling Bee and Gianelli Vargas was runner up. Our teachersare working diligently to meet the needs of all of our students.We continue to individualize instruction as much as possible sothat our students will be successful in their academics. Teachersalso continue to hold our students to high standards and weexpect to perform very well on the upcoming assessments. Allof our accomplishments could not happen without the supportof our families and community. We thank you for continuing thetradition of excellence at Oak Grove Elementary!Looking forward to a successful second semester,Gayle BertramPrincipalJunction Elementary School288-3600News from the NestBy Jay Douglas, Principal, Junction ElementaryJay Douglas, PrincipalFirst semester has now come to an end. Is it just me or has it gone by super fast this year? Weare now at the time of year when all of us will feel like we are in school and then out, in and thenout. The winter break starts it all off, followed by the other holidays in January and February, aswell as staff development days. Soon, we will have the state testing windows open, usually justbefore Spring Break, so please be aware and watch for the notices coming home about these dates.I would like to thank everyone in the community and at Junction for your kindness and openingof your hearts to help families in need during the holiday season. Canned good items were collected,and with the PTA’s help, we helped 7 families. The kids also brought in enough items forMr. Douglas to cut stripes in his beard. This was a big hit, although many hoped he would spendthe night on the roof. They missed that goal by about 200 items. But, it turned out for the best,the day the collection stopped, the temperature dropped and it was raining, Mr. Douglas wasn’ttoo crazy about staying on the roof in the rain.I want to give a special thank-you to the PTA. They put the “Dinner with Santa” night together,and it went very well. Lots of parents and students turned out for Chris Cakes, to buy from theworkshop, and to getpictures with Santa.They also got parentsin for the Winter Partiesand helped withsnack items. Thankyou,PTA!To end the semester,we had two nightsof Music Concerts.First grade throughthird grade was theStudents from Rosemary Miller’s first grade class depict dancing pumpkinsduring their Halloween class play.initial concert. Ithink we had almost400 people turn outfor the concert. Thefourth through sixthgrade came the secondnight. I thinkthere were over 300people in attendancefor it. They were twogreat nights of singing,dancing, and celebrating the holiday season. Students worked very hard to get ready and didan awesome job on the night of their performances. Kudos go to Ms. Ebberts for all the hard workthat went in to both nights’ performances. In fact, congratulations to all, I heard a lot of positivecomments about the two evenings.As we enter a new year and start the second half of the school year, I want to wish everyone asuccessful and productive semester.Turner High School KU ScholarsEach year, the University of Kansas recognizes the top ten percent of high school seniorsin its service area, designating them KU Scholars. The KU Scholars group from Turner HighSchool are pictured at left. They are:(all left to right)Back Row: Marcos Cedeno, Harley Herd, Jake Nagy, Audrey Mcguire; Third Row: AreliAguilar, Amanda Wilkinson, Callie Edmundson, Marisa Ortiz, Shayne Thoman, Kailey Lane,Nicolette Thompson; Second Row: Stormy Burnett, Jordan Handley, Amara Bland, VictoriaEveridge, Jessica Hardman, Ashley Atteberry; Seated: Rachel French, Lacey Burgard, IsabellaPaniagua; Not shown: Nicholas Bowlin, James Dick, Lauren Hambleton, Shelby Hanna(As you can see, this picture was taken on PJ Day in KCK.)