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| Home | Parent to Parent | Calendar | Our Success Is Public Knowledge |
| January 2010 |
Nurses bring unexpected benefits to JCPS schools
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Nurse Vickie Mulac helps a student at Rangeland Elementary. |
Healthier students and higher attendance—these are benefits you expect when a school has a full-time nurse on staff.
But school nurses also provide unexpected benefits, says Rangeland Elementary Principal Mashelle Kiggins. Nurses make sure immunizations and medical records are up to date, provide health education, and handle health-related paperwork, which gives the office staff more time to deal with day-to-day operations, Kiggins says.
Nurses also dispense medication, provide follow-up care for students who have been sick, enroll families in the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program (KCHIP), and stand ready to help in an emergency. “The nurses are properly trained to handle a number of different
medical and emergency needs,” Kiggins says, “and they are knowledgeable about symptoms of illnesses to describe to parents. They’re able to contact parents to recommend a doctor visit.” Last month, Jefferson County Public School (JCPS) District nurses conducted H1N1 vaccine clinics at several schools.
In the 1970s, nurses were assigned to many JCPS schools, but these positions were eliminated during the following decades. Two years ago, JCPS Superintendent Sheldon Berman started a pilot program that brought nurses back to the district. Initially, three nurses served seven elementary schools. At the beginning of last school year, the program was expanded to hire more than a dozen full-time nurses, and by the end of the year, it was obvious that the program provides the range of benefits that Kiggins describes.
According to Bonnie Ciarroccki, JCPS Health Services coordinator, her department has received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback on the program from students, parents, principals, other school staff members, and community agencies.
The early success of the program ensures that it will continue and expand even further as funding becomes available. “Ultimately, we want to have a nurse in every school,” Ciarroccki says. Part of the current funding is provided through the Every 1 Reads More initiative because research has shown that students who have a full-time nurse in their school do better on reading tests than those who don’t.
Ciarroccki points out that JCPS has been “lucky to hire dedicated and knowledgeable nurses even though there is an extreme nursing shortage nationally, statewide, and locally.”
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Frayser Elementary nurse Lisa Stretch gives a student the H1N1 vaccine. JCPS social worker Valerie Johnson is on hand to help comfort students. |
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Got a question about applying to elementary schools?
Mon., Feb. 1, through Mon., Mar. 1, will be the application period for students who will enter kindergarten in the fall, current kindergarten students, and older students who will enter a Jefferson County public school for the first time or who want to apply to a magnet school or a magnet or optional program. Application forms will be available at all schools during the application period. JCPS will offer the following information sessions for parents who have questions about the application process. All sessions will be held at 7 p.m. The Jan. 19 session also will be held at 11 a.m.
Thurs., Jan. 7, Jaeger Education Center (auditorium), 502 Wood Road 7:00 p.m.
Tues., Jan. 12, JCPS Gheens Academy (Flex Room A), 4425 Preston Highway
Thurs., Jan. 14, Dawson Orman Education Center (cafeteria), 900 South Floyd Street
Tues., Jan. 19, DuValle Education Center (auditorium/gym), 3610 Bohne Avenue
Thurs., Jan. 21, Atkinson Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (gym), 2800 Alford Ave
Tues., Jan. 26, Fairdale High School (large cafeteria), 1001 Fairdale Road
Thurs., Jan. 28, Newburg Church of Christ (Fellowship Hall), 4700 Indian Trail
Tues., Feb. 2, Middletown United Methodist Church (Building C, 1st floor, cafeteria), 11902 Old Shelbyville Road
Thurs., Feb. 4, Pleasure Ridge Park High School (cafeteria), 5901 Greenwood Road
Tues., Feb. 9, Iroquois High School (auditorium), 4615 Taylor Boulevard
Tues., Feb. 16, Jeffersontown High School (auditorium), 9600 Old Six Mile Lane
Thurs., Feb. 18, Louisville Urban League, 1535 West Broadway
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Newburg Middle students perform science experiments. |
Many JCPS middle schoolers have been sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for reading, writing, math, and science with the district’s elementary students.
Several students from Newburg Middle, for example, have been traveling to elementary schools to teach interactive science lessons.
In one lesson—a fifth-grade lesson on chemical reaction—an older student wearing goggles drops a piece of Alka-Seltzer into a film canister filled with water. When the student turns the canister upside down, it shoots up like a rocket, leaving only a small amount of water residue behind.
Newburg teacher Barbara Rogers says the traveling science show “instills a passion for science early on in the students’ lives, resulting in more students choosing math and science courses and careers.” So far, the Newburg middle students have visited Wheeler, Bates, and Watterson Elementary Schools.
At Portland Elementary, about 50 students from Western Middle shared their love of literature. The older students wrote short stories, bound them, and decorated them.
The middle schoolers then ate lunch in the Portland cafeteria and read their stories to the elementary students. The Western Middle students also presented the bound stories and gave decorated bags of treats to the Portland students.
Tianda Johnson, Portland Family Resource Center (FRC) coordinator, says the visit encouraged the younger students to develop their reading and writing skills because it “showed our students that there are some older students in middle school who like to write and who can write some neat stories.” Andrea Beatty, eighth-grade language arts teacher at Western Middle, says some of her students were so excited about the project that they wanted to write more than one story.
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Winter weather may cause JCPS to cancel or delay the school day or to dismiss classes early. Official announcements will be posted on www.jcpsky.net and broadcast on local television and radio stations. If school is cancelled, all Early Childhood classes and all scheduled activities, including athletic practices, will be cancelled too, but athletic and academic tournaments may still be held. Contact your child’s coach or sponsor.
If schools open on a delayed schedule, bus pickup times will also be delayed. For example, if elementary schools open on a one-hour delay, bus pickup times also will be delayed by an hour. Early Childhood classes will be held as scheduled, but there will be no bus transportation for Early Childhood students. Parents will be responsible for transporting Early Childhood students to and from classes when schools are on a delayed schedule.
If schools are dismissed early, all after-school activities, classes, and programs—including Extended School Services (ESS), Community School programs, tutoring programs, Jefferson County High classes, and Adult Education classes—will be cancelled. Check with your child’s school to see if the early dismissal will affect evening competitions. Students transported to school for full-day Early Childhood classes will be transported home after elementary school students are delivered. If transportation was provided to an Early Childhood student for a half-day class, transportation will be provided home if school dismisses early.
If school is cancelled or dismissed early on Friday, the following ESS Saturday School will be cancelled. If severe weather occurs on Friday night or if it’s forecast to occur before Saturday School activities, monitor local television and radio broadcasts for cancellation notices. Athletic practices and games may be held on Saturday at the discretion of each school’s principal.
If your child participates in the Childcare Enrichment Program (CEP), remember that only the CEP snow sites will operate when school is cancelled. If classes are delayed at any grade level—elementary, middle, or high—CEP sites will open at their normal time (7 a.m.). If schools are dismissed early, CEP students will be transported to their regular CEP site and parents will be encouraged to pick up their child as soon as possible. The sites will remain open until all students have been picked up.
Schools will offer e-mail alerts
JCPS is developing an e-mail alert system that will offer parents instant school information on their children. For example, a school may send an alert to parents if their child has to visit the school nurse. The alerts will be available to parents who have provided an e-mail address to the office staff at their child’s school or entered the address via the See my student’s profile link on the JCPS Parent Portal.
Cotillion honors future educators
The Multicultural Teacher Recruitment Program/Future Educators Association (MTRP/FEA) held its second annual Debutantes and Masters Cotillion in December. Rebecca Donovan-Hughes, the MTRP/FEA advisor at Seneca High, says the cotillion “features the social graces of our program. We educate middle and high school students to respect and enjoy their roles in society as future educators, while instructing them in the importance of the art of social education.”
Twenty-five debutantes and masters were presented by their parents at the cotillion. Overall, more than 400 students participate in MTRP/FEA clubs at JCPS middle and high schools. At the seventh annual Kentucky FEA Conference in November, club members won 15 awards in such events as Impromptu Speaking, Public Service Announcement, and Essay Writing. JCPS students and staff members received more than half of the first-, second-, and third-place awards presented at the conference. JCPS was recently recognized as the international model for the FEA programs and was featured in a recent Phi Delta Kappa publication.
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| Meet three MTRP/FEA members | ||
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| Ballard High senior Mariah Williams plans to attend U of L and pursue a career in elementary education. Mariah wants to teach biology. | Atherton High senior Benjamin Gies plans to attend Bellarmine University and major in secondary education. | Newburg Middle eighth grader JoyVante' Pettaway is considering pursuing a career in elementary or middle school counseling. |
Keeping kids safe: School holds tricky fire drill
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| Principal Cheryl Rigsby scans the front hallway while JCPS Safety Inspector Philip Williams, left, and Fern Creek Fire Marshal Joe Elstone watch the side hallways during the drill. |
The emergency signal blared at Fern Creek Elementary. Teachers immediately lined up students, grabbed a clipboard and an emergency bag, and led the students to the nearest exits. It was a typical start to a fire drill. You probably participated in many just like it when you were in school.
But more than a dozen Fern Creek teachers soon realized something was wrong. An exit near the front of the school was blocked, and hundreds of students had to be quickly rerouted.
This drill was part of a training exercise between Fern Creek Elementary, the Fern Creek Fire Department, and JCPS Safety and Environmental Services. The drill tested the abilities of staff members to react to a change of plans during an emergency. “I was hoping to see that they were able to adjust with the blocked exit,” says Fern Creek Elementary Principal Cheryl Rigsby.
Even with the obstacle and 13 rerouted classes, all 794 students and all staff members were out of the building in 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Held in November, it was the district’s first blocked-exit drill of the school year involving a fire department, firefighters, and three fire trucks. All schools are required to conduct two fire drills during the first month of the school year and one drill each month for the remainder. JCPS Safety and Environmental Services is now recommending that all schools include blocked-exit evacuations in their fire drill plan.
After the Fern Creek drill, Rigsby met with firefighters and school administrators to review the response. “It went extremely well,” says Philip Williams, safety inspector for Safety and Environmental Services. He also pointed out that JCPS schools benefit from having good relationships with local firefighters and emergency medical service providers.
Are you as smart as a JCPS high school junior?
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| William Schlageter |
The answers to the math questions in the last issue of Parent Connection are 1: D, 2: C, 3: B. To review the questions, click here. The first parent to send the correct answers for the last issue was William Schlageter, father of a student at Lowe Elementary. Other winners were Rick Saunders (Wilder Elementary and Crosby Middle), Maria Dawson (Fern Creek Traditional High), and Narasimhachar Rangaraju (duPont Manual High).
This month, Parent Connection offers a quiz with the type of social studies questions that eleventh graders will need to be able to answer on the Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT) in the spring. The first three parents who send the correct answers to the Parent Connection office via e-mail and the first three who send the correct answers via regular mail will receive a free JCPS T-shirt.
The e-mail address is thomas.pack@jefferson.kyschools.us. The regular mailing address is Thomas Pack, C. B. Young Jr. Service Center, Building 4, Communications and Publications North, 3001 Crittenden Drive, Louisville, KY 40209. You don’t need to write the questions or answers. Just send the question numbers and the letters for your answers. Or you may cut out this quiz and mail it. However you send your answers, please include the name of your child’s (or grandchild’s) school.
1. Until the latter half of the 20th century, the development of cities in the American Southwest was hindered mainly by the
A. sparse lumber resources.
B. cold climate.
C. harsh mountainous terrain.
D. lack of water.
2. In America during the Gilded Age, robber barons were people who mainly
A. seized the possessions of Civil War prisoners.
B. conducted brutal military campaigns across the country.
C. exploited natural resources of African colonies.
D. used aggressive business practices to dominate industries.
3. Which of these was a major social consequence of the Industrial Revolution in England?
A. an increase in support programs for young children working in factories.
B. the replacement of an absolute monarchy with a parliamentary system.
C. an increase in the number of people moving from rural areas to urban areas.
D. the replacement of government welfare programs by private programs.
Parenting question of the month: How do you teach your child healthy habits?
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The Child obesity is a growing health crisis. At least 15 percent of children in the United States are overweight now, and another 15 percent are at risk of becoming overweight.
How can parents teach their children healthy eating and exercise habits? Share your tips with other JCPS families by sending brief comments to thomas.pack@jefferson.kyschools.us.
Comments will be published on this Web site and, space permitting, in the next printed edition of Parent Connection.
Previous question: Read any good parenting books?
In the previous issue of Parent Connection, the Parenting Question of the Month asked for book recommendations for parents.
Michelle Winstead, mother of two students at Lowe Elementary, sent the following response: "I’m happy to have the opportunity to spread the word about the great book I’m in the process of reading. It’s called Raising Great Kids: A Comprehensive Guide to Parenting with Grace and Truth by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. This book helps with finding a balance between control and permissiveness. It addresses learning to provide both care and acceptance as well as firmness and discipline. Also, it gives guidance with developing six character traits (connectedness, responsibility, reality competence, morality, spiritual life). I feel like I’m gaining confidence for those parenting moments when I just don’t know what to do."
Orchestrapalooza:
Not your typical
school concert
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| “Swedish” conductor Sven Svendson (a.k.a. Eastern Orchestra director Brian Powell) leads the Ballard, Eastern, and Manual Orchestras during “The Best of ABBA.” |
The first half of Orchestra-palooza was the type of concert you expect from high school students who spend a lot of their time learning classical music. The Ballard High Chamber Orchestra performed Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Rhosymedre.” The Eastern High Orchestra performed Edvard Grieg’s “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen.”
The duPont Manual High Orchestra ended the first half with the Larghetto (slow tempo) movement from Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20. “We want to slow you down a little before the second half,” said Manual conductor Jason Seber, “because things are going to get crazy.”
The craziness began with all three orchestras joining to play the Indiana Jones theme as Indy (actually, it was University of Louisville [UofL] music professor Steve Rouse wearing a leather jacket and fedora) searched the auditorium for archeological treasure. During “The Adventures of Stringman,” a masked and caped crusader (actually Middletown Elementary student Matthew Rouse) waved a magic wand (a bow) to help musicians who were having trouble playing their instruments.
The second half of the concert also featured a “Best of ABBA” medley that was led by Swedish
conductor Sven Svendson (actually Eastern Orchestra director Brian Powell wearing a blonde wig). Manual Principal Larry Wooldridge sang the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” A rousing rendition of the Village People’s “YMCA” got the parents and grandparents in the audience moving. The concert concluded with a symphonic but still funky version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
Held at Ballard’s Sandy Allen Fine Arts Center, the second annual Orchestrapalooza helped students learn to play in a range of musical situations. “The kids had to get used to playing under different conductors, playing with guest musicians [including a drummer and keyboard player as well as the singer], and staying focused on the music even with the distraction of the actors in the auditorium,” says Ballard Orchestra director Eva Rouse.
Each orchestra worked on the music separately before one large group rehearsal on the day of the concert. “We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly it all came together, especially since we had only two hours to rehearse,” Rouse says.
“We definitely plan to have an Orchestrapalooza 3 next year,” Rouse adds. “At the end of the concert, we actually started talking about next year and wondered how we were going to top this year’s performance. I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
Top Teacher Tips: Your child doesn’t like math? Are you sure?
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“Avoid having a negative attitude towards math,” says Chris Lowber. “Even though parents may not have excelled at or enjoyed math when they were students, this doesn’t mean that their children will struggle with math or dislike it.”
Lowber previously taught at Goldsmith Elementary. Now he’s on the staff at Buechel Metropolitan High. He was selected last year to co-present a session with a University of Louisville Ph.D. candidate at the National Conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), which was held in Washington, D.C.
“Chris is a fantastic math teacher with a strong educational background,” says Buechel Principal Jackie Wisman. During the conference, Lowber shared “knowledge on how to raise the bar on students’ understanding of math,” she says.
To help your child understand math, Lowber says you can encourage him or her “to ask questions and to think about the ideas and connections being made. The hows and whys of math are just as important as the whats.” Here are some more of the teacher’s tips:
• Involve your child in your everyday experiences with math. At the supermarket, the bank, and the hardware store, parents use mathematical thinking without even realizing it. For example, when you estimate how much you can buy or how much you need, you use mental math to make a quick budget for materials or food.
• Play games with your child. For example, you could play UNO, war, or any other card game. You could play matching games to increase memory or strategy games to increase logical reasoning. Children love to play games, and logical/mathematical thinking is at the heart of most games.
• Count or organize objects wherever you go. Every time you ride in a car, ride on a bus, or go for a walk, there are plenty of signs (speed limit signs, general traffic signs) that give your child a chance to identify numbers. In addition, you can count almost anything, and you can play the “more than” or “less than” game (“Do you see more red cars or blue cars?” for example, or “Do you see more dogs or more cats?”).
• Visit math sites on the Web. Online resources that parents may want to use include the site produced by the NCTM (www.nctm.org) and Helping Children Learn Mathematics, a booklet you can read for free on the Web (www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10434).
• You also might want to read Overcoming Math Anxiety. This book by Sheila Tobias is available at public libraries, at bookstores, and at such online stores as Amazon.com.
Parent Connection eNews is a monthly electronic newsletter from Jefferson County Public Schools. The district's Communications Department never has enough space in the printed version of the parent newsletter to publish all the information it has on classroom innovations, unique programs, student achievements, and strategies that parents can use to help their children succeed in school. Parent Connection eNews will allow JCPS to communicate with parents more often, and it will allow the district to provide more timely information.
Parent Connection eNews is automatically sent to JCPS parents who have provided an e-mail address to their child's school and those who have entered their address via the See my student's profile link on the JCPS Parent Portal.
Others may sign up to receive the newsletter at the following URL: http://newsletters.school2parent.com/us/ky/jefferson/s2p
The home page for Parent Connection eNews is located at: http://newsletters.school2parent.com/nl/cms/ky/jefferson/s2p/jefferson
To access past issues, click here: http://newsletters.school2parent.com/nl/cms/ky/jefferson/s2p/jefferson?oldIssues=true
Direct comments about Parent Connection to the editor, Thomas Pack, at 485-6315 or e-mail him at thomas.pack@jefferson.kyschools.us
