A Weekly Insight into the Mad River School District
Weekly Highlights
Superintendent's Message
The Mad River School District is off to an excellent start in the 2010-2011 school year. We thank our students, staff, and par-ents for their help in making the beginning of the year a success. We are really looking for-ward to an outstanding year.
Even though our start has been successful, there can always be minor problems. If you have concerns with your child's bus stop or route, please contact our Trans-portation Department (237-4280) or Student Service Office (259-6603). If possible, we try to make adjustments to en-sure a safe bus stop and ride for our students.
One issue that may arise at the beginning of a new year is enrollment for new students. Please remember that not all areas of Riverside are a part of the Mad River Local School District. Some areas are actually in Fairborn City Schools or Dayton Public Schools. School district boundaries were de-termined many years ago, and local school districts have no authority in the matter. If you are not sure which district you reside in, feel free to call our Central Office at 259-6606.
An additional enrollment issue may be the age of kindergarten students. At Mad River, students must be five years old by August 1st in order to enroll in kindergarten. We do have an early entry assessment for those students born between August 2nd and September 30th . However, those students often do not qualify.
Although winter is still months away, it is not too soon to develop a plan for your child in the event that we have a delay or early dismissal. It is possible that these could occur due to fog in the morning, power outages, or other unplanned events. Although dismissing early is not ideal, it can occur.
News Around Our Schools
Early Childhood Center:
This past week at the Mad River Preschool, teachers taught students the Treasured Behaviors, "Be Safe, Be Kind, and Do Your Best". Students are doing a good job of learning the school rules and procedures.
The Turtles began learning the Zoo-phonics chants to help students identify the letters and letter sounds. Students are doing a great job learning the chants and also enjoy using the Zoo-phonics motions when singing to "Who Let the Letters Out?" Everyone had a fun first week of school at the Preschool and are looking forward to an excellent year.
Beverly Gardens:
I do not know who has been more excited about the start of the school year, the students or the staff? Students are busy learning about each other, establishing rou-tines, setting goals and beginning instruction. Everyone is off to a great start! Thank you to our dedicated staff and wonderful families to help make this great start possi-ble.
The staff has introduced our school rules and expectations to the students with their PBS program. Students have practiced how to behave in the classroom, cafe-teria, hallways and playground. A PBS kick off assembly is planned for the students on Friday, September 3rd . Teachers are excited to start passing out tickets to stu-dents for exhibiting their Beverly Gardens Behaviors: Citizenship, Fairness, Caring, Trustworthiness, Respect, and Responsibility. Students must earn tickets to attend school-wide rewards. The PBS committee has planned some fun activities for the students which will begin with a sock hop at the end of September. The school would like to thank the parents in advance for encouraging positive behavior both at home and at school!
Stevenson:
School got off to a great start on Tuesday with first through fourth graders quickly finding their classrooms and starting the business of learning. While those students were busy, kindergarten parents brought in their children to be assessed using the state KRAL (Kindergarten Readiness Assessment of Literacy). They also listened to a story, played with other children and did a few exercises. While they were busy for an hour, parents learned all they needed to know about kindergarten, or at least all they needed to know for a few days. On Friday at 5:30 p.m., Stevenson kindergarten parents and students had an open house to meet their new teacher.
Stevenson's meet and greet was a huge success! Ms. Root introduced staff and changes for the upcoming year to our families. In addition, students were able to come to school and say hello to their new teachers as well as visit their previous ones.
Mrs. Kipler's third grade class started out the year with a bang! Mrs. Kipler had 19 balloons posted on her board. As each student popped a balloon...a letter opened up on the back. It spelled out Third Grade Really Rocks! Each balloon had a writing prompt...."What questions would you ask an animal if animals could talk?" and a mint inside. All the writing prompts were original so each child could write about some-thing different. They loved poking the dart into the balloon. Of course, Mrs. Kipler demonstrated the correct way to use the dart. The students had a blast!
Spinning Hills:
Spinning Hills Middle School parents are invited to attend the schools' annual Open House on Thursday, August 26th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Spinning Hills is trying something new this year by having parent meetings as part of their Open House for-mat. Parents of fifth graders are invited to attend the parent meeting at 6:00 p.m. Classroom visitation for fifth grade parents will follow the meeting. Parents of sixth graders are invited to attend the parent meeting at 6:45 p.m. Sixth grade parents may visit classrooms prior to the meeting.
Please feel free to visit classrooms even if you are unable to attend the parent meetings. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet your child's teachers for the up-coming year. Everyone is looking forward to seeing you on August 26 th .
Mad River Middle:
The Achievers are off to a great start this year! There have been many positive behaviors on the part of students. The school would like to thank parents and stu-dents for signing and returning forms promptly. Parents, please check your child's agenda book for homework assignments and other important information. Students received Camp Kern permission forms recently; please read this info carefully. Thank you!
Team Chippewa eighth grade language arts students created a list of recom-mended books from what they read over the summer. Some books they read are: Twilight, The Teacher from the Blue Lagoon, Body Farm, The Lightning Thief, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Time Traveler's Wife. Mad River students are such great readers!
Mrs. Miller's eighth grade art students are working on a name logo design for their first project in art this year. Students design their name and can craft their letters out of any design they choose, and then they write down characteristics about them-selves and things they like or dislike. This project is a great way for students to ex-press themselves, for the class to get to know each other, and Mrs. Miller to get to know her new students.
Mrs. Toomey's eighth grade Spanish students enjoyed getting into groups to practice asking and stating each others names in Spanish. A cardboard tie was used to identify some students as adults and therefore special grammar was practiced when addressing those individu-als using the more formal Usted form.
Stebbins:
Best wishes to our Stebbins Football Team as they take on the West Carrollton Pirates this Friday (at West Carrollton 7:30 p.m.). GO INDIANS!!!!
We welcome the following new members to the Stebbins High School Family...
J. R. (Joseph) Bryan - Lt. Col. - ROTC Teri Toscani - Secretary/Attendance
Anne Cantrell - Spanish – Language Dept.
Joshua Hazelrigg - Intervention Specialist
Jennifer Holder - Intervention Specialist
Keera Huron - Assistant Band Director
Jesse Maxfield - Dean of Students
Rhonda Pearson - Receptionist
Christy Rambacher - Science Dept.