Hasn T This Been an Interesting and Intriguing Start to the School Year? a Hale and Hearty

Hasn’t this been an interesting and intriguing start to the school year? A hale and hearty thanks and congratulations to the Miami Trace Team on earning another EXCELLENT rating from the Ohio Department of Education on the Local Report Card. What more can I say except, “Nice job!” There is renewed commitment to identifying areas of needed improvement by all of our building personnel. I am proud to say we are already looking ahead and working hard for the students. That is wonderful and indicative of your dedication to children.

The hot and humid weather has been quite a struggle for some folks in the district. In case you're new to the district, not all rooms have the benefit of A/C in them. In fact, there are places at the high school and middle school that are downright HOT. Thanks to all persons for bearing with this discomfort and forging ahead. I am not certain which will occur first; the air conditioner units we ordered finally arriving or the weather breaking for good and fall arrives.

Let’s get right into the Great Things submitted for your reading leisure. The high school checks in with several early highlights to the school year. A thank you is extended to the Library Media Staff in welcoming our new employees to their work stations and assisting the ACT instructors to have the necessary equipment needed to do their work.

In a nice show of class and character, Miami Trace High School offers their congratulations to the middle school for earning their second consecutive Excellent rating. The high school also congratulates the entire district on earning an Excellent rating citing the well known fact it was a great team effort to achieve this.

A "hats off" to the staff members this past summer who endured daily dust and mild chaos around the high school facility throughout the renovation process. It took plentiful amounts of patience with the many interruptions, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. Those persons making it possible were Carl Clickner, Roger East, Becky Bloomer, Barbara Huff, David Gibbs, Jim Swayne, Gina Andrews, Nanci Sexten, Kim Pittser, Rob Enochs and Jeff Spears. The high school staff appreciates the extra assistance given them by the elementary custodial crew in helping prepare the school right before the start of the year.

Thanks to A.D., Bryan Sheets, who provided two cookouts for the workers this summer. Chefs Carl Clickner and Roger East grilled to perfection. It was a very nice gesture and one that was certainly appreciated by employees of Active Electric, Marquee Construction and Weller’s Plumbing.

A genuine appreciation is offered to Scott Sanson of Active Electric; Mike Craig of Marquee Construction; Steve Hunter of Weller's Heating and Cooling; Jim Jaeger with Integrated Building; Mike Maust, Lonnie Hixon and Bill Franke, all of Miami Trace, on the work done to renovate the high school.

Thanks to the Board Of Education and district administration of the Central Office for the new renovations to the high school. This is a welcome change and will benefit learning. Funding for the project was made possible by being able to utilize the interest monies from the elementary construction project. The wise investment practices of our Treasurer, Debbie Black, greatly aided this effort. The work done at the high school allows us to keep our promise that we would not come back to the voters to replace the high school in the foreseeable future.

Congratulations to our high school Curriculum Director, Mrs. Kim Pittser, and all of the department head teachers for their effort in reaching the building goals for our school. A lot of guidance and hard work was put forth in this effort.

Thanks to the Guidance Department staff, Matt Barga, Shirley Preston, Joni Henderson and Heidi Jinks, for dealing with all of the schedule changes, parent meetings, teacher discussions, class size distributions and many late requests for immediate schedule changes. This has been a rough start and we appreciate your diligence in moving forward with this process. The new office space for the guidance personnel should be a great asset to the building.

Thanks to all persons who helped make the high school Open House a very successful event. All staff had to hustle at the last minute to open the building for the public. The event was well attended. Thanks to Gina Andrews, Nanci Sexten, Joni Henderson, Heidi Jinks and all of those who helped pass out the schedules.

Congratulations to all fall sport programs and the Miami Trace Panther Pride Marching Band as they enter their competitions and performances. A lot of preparation has gone into summer practices. Good luck and help bring home another “All Sports Banner” to Miami Trace. Just a reminder, Miami Trace has won the banner every year since the SCOL reformed. GO PANTHERS!

The Middle School has a plethora of things to shout out to the school district. They voice their happiness first with an appreciation to the MTMS staff and students for another great start to the school year. It follows up a great 2009-2010 school year which saw the building get its second EXCELLENT rating from the Ohio Department of Education.

A Panther Praise for the secretaries and aides at the middle school who had everything set up for opening day meetings to start the school year.

A “thumbs up” to Tom Dean and Victoria Cockerill and all the staff who helped with scheduling and leveling students this summer.

Miami Trace Middle School students will have the advantage of having two teachers in several of their CORE academic subjects with team teaching and our colleague assistant program. These are both new ideas being implemented at the middle school.

The Middle School would like to welcome back Rachel Darling to the building who is teaching Global Studies again this school year. James Stutzman will be teaching two sports medicine classes with an emphasis on health and science concepts. Mary Myers is again running the CORE intervention program this school year.

Miami Trace Middle School welcomes Julie Kingery to the team. She transferred from the elementary school. Mark Bihl joins the MTMS family as well. We are confident that they will be wonderful additions to the team.

There is excitement in the air in Bloomingburg at the middle school. It won’t be long until they will be moving to the new facility. Perhaps one of the biggest pluses in the equation is that there are no bats residing in the new middle school.

A new twist in facility usage is occurring at the middle school this year. The former WFL/FCCLA room is now a teachers' workroom. The area, dedicated to veteran home economics teacher, Betsy McFadden, is a great addition and aptly called the McFadden McStaff McLunch McRoom.

MTMS formed Teacher Based Teams to push the Ohio Improvement Process initiative forward with a guiding hand from Kim Pittser.

Thanks to the Middle School custodial staff for getting our tired old building up and running one last time.

Not to be outdone by the high school in their display of gratitude, the MTMS staff congratulates the high school and district for earning another Excellent rating.

We have several new faces here in the district. Let’s start at the elementary school where Melissa Conley joins us on the fifth grade team as a CORE Intervention teacher. Jay Caulley comes to us in an intervention specialist role at the elementary in grade five as well. Holly Weiss is a new face working with students with speech disorders at the elementary school. The middle school welcomes Mark Bihl to the Special Education department.
The high school rolled out the welcome mat for Matt Pressler in the Industrial Technology Department. Tom Pieratt, here last year in the woods department, now is part of the Great Oaks satellite program opposite of Matt Pressler in the industrial technology classrooms. Maribeth Mitchell is our third addition to the Special Education program with her presence at the high school.

The Special Education team strives to meet the students’ individual needs while providing instruction in their least restrictive environment. We continue to focus on developing the inclusion model and have professional development opportunities planned throughout the school year.

Our curriculum folks chime in with some really neat things going on in the district. Dee Funari and Amy O’Dierno are piloting “Learning” in their work to address Goal #1 of the OIP. “Learning” is a reading/language intervention which offers an instructional complement to the computer-based learning program.

Mark Bihl receives accolades for his work with the middle school intervention specialists team. He replaces the retired Shirley Newell. He enables the middle school to continue to expand the effectiveness of the inclusion model for academics, providing services to identified students in the context of general education classrooms.

Curricular work at the high school involves adding another staff member to their intervention specialists team. Maribeth Mitchell provides specialized instruction to identified students in the area of English/Language Arts.

MTHS teacher, Toni Writsel, is now providing intervention services to identified students placed at the Fayette County Alternative School and those attending American School. These are both unique educational settings for our students. She works closely with David Creamer, Director of the American School, in providing specialized instruction to students who have opted for this educational option. In addition, she will also work with the Alternative School staff to provide individualized instruction to identified students assigned there.

You cannot slight the curriculum folks for their acknowledgment of appreciation for work being done in the schools. Quincey Gray offers the following praises:

I would like to recognize our Miami Trace Elementary School STEPS mentors for providing training to our teachers before the start of school. They were able to relay information on upcoming changes to our progress monitoring system in a supportive, effective way.

A GREAT BIG "thank you" to all who shared their knowledge with the MTES team on waiver day. Our presentations on technology, PBS, bullying/cruelty and DIBELS were all thorough and informative.

Thank you to all whoparticipated in the waiver day activities. A lot of good discussion and planning occurred. Change is not always easy, but with keeping in mind what is best for our students, we will succeed!

Miami Trace Elementary has a lot of things to share that are great. Thanks are offered for the Box Top monies which were used in part to purchase playground equipment for all the classrooms. The various balls for different sports were color coded according to the grade level. Another round of thanks goes out to the parents and staff for supporting the Box Tops effort that netted $50,000.00 for the elementary school.

The Welcome Mat is extended for all the new Kindergarten students at Miami Trace Elementary School. A fantastic Kindergarten Team is working feverishly to make the students’ first days of school a positive experience.

Moving up the grade levels, the first grade team has reviewed student data, collaborated and attacked meeting our students’ needs. They are well on their way to providing excellent instruction and intervention for our 1st graders.

The second grade team is off to a blistering start. They are doing a great job practicing and meeting TEAM expectations with their students throughout the building.

On the top floor, the third grade team has done a wonderful job collaborating and using their resources to find creative ways to differentiate their reading instruction for their students.

Great job by the fourth grade team working on their schedule, collaborating to maximize available resources to find the perfect fit for the students’ needs.

Topping off the kudos to the kid oriented staff members, the fifth grade team is given a shout out for their work reviewing data and creating intervention strategies and stations that will benefit our students in math and reading.

Principal Julie Reisinger shares her appreciation for Mrs. Debbie Southward, Asst. Principal, Mrs. Quincey Gray, Elementary Curriculum Director, and Ms. Angela Hudson, Director of Primary and Elementary Special Education, for providing a great start to the 2010-2011 school year.

Thanks to the MTES custodial crew for making our building absolutely beautiful for the Open House event and Opening Day for the students. I might add, it looked pretty spiffy at the First Day Back for staff on August 16th!

Great job to the cooks for filling all the tummies each day! The elementary loves the Bosco Sticks!

Our aides and handicapped attendants are doing a fantastic job reviewing TEAM expectations with the students at lunch and recess.

Kudos to our secretarial staff at the elementary who greet, direct, enroll, support and assist our students, staff and parents everyday.

Great job to our intervention specialists and Special Education support teams for their work on the inclusion model at MTES. Collaborating with staff has been very positive and productive.

Thanks to our nurses for cleaning scrapes and holding heads (what does that mean???) as we’ve started our new school year.

Great job Jeannie Williams, teacher, for her quick thinking in using the Heimlich Maneuver to rescue one of our 4th grade students.

Great job art, music, physical education and media staff for making a new idea and schedule work wonderfully for our students!

Thanks to the elementary school counselors for sharing "RESPECT" lessons throughout our building during the month of September.

Congratulations to Lindsey Mincey on the birth of her beautiful son, Isaac Mitchell.

Have you ever heard of the saying, “Busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs”? Well, Mr. Bill Franke can attest to that phenomenon right now as the many and various projects progress nicely toward completion. He still takes time to give thanks to his troops.