A CLOSER LOOK ISSUE Nov 2014 - Indian Creek School District

Volume 19
Fall 2014
Issue 1
A Closer Look
Advisor - Michele Fabbro
“A CLOSER LOOK”
Written, produced, and distributed
by members of the ICMS Media Club.
Superintendent’s Message
It is hard to believe it, but the first quarter mark of the 2014-2015 school year has come to
pass. This also means that I have completed one-fourth of my first year as superintendent
of Indian Creek School District. In my estimation, it has been a great first quarter with
administrators, teachers and students working hard to improve academic outcomes.
I would like to give a brief report on our Ohio Improvement Process (OIP) district
improvement plan. The OIP is a continuous improvement process where a district
leadership team engages in a process of district and school improvement. The team studies
data to determine needs, develops a focused plan, then implements and monitors that plan.
In the following paragraphs, I would like to write about our plan and give information
about where we are in implementing these strategies to reach our goals.
The district leadership team wrote the following goals heading into the 2014-2015 school year:
1. By 2017 all students and student subgroups will meet Annual Measurable Objective
(AMO) targets OR close the gap by half each year in Reading and Math on state
assessments. (Due to the fact that assessments are changing in 2015, this goal will be
reassessed at the end of the year).
2. By 2017 the district will decrease the number of chronically absent students by 10% per
year.
(Continued on page 2)
Board of Education
Mr. Robert Smith......282-9814
President
Mr. Daniel Bove........275-4370
Dr. John Figel............535-0953
Mrs.Kim Mark..........283-2817
Dr. Ted Starkey.........264-1166
Central Office
Dr. T.C. Chappelear...264-3502
Superintendent
Mr. John Belt............264-2912
Asst. Superintendent
Mrs. Jamie Kovalski...266-2912
Special Programs
Cafeteria...................264-3277
Doug Gosney
Bus Garage...............264-2526
Brenda Staffilino
ICHS
Dan Hartman.........264-1163
Principal
ICMS
Dr. Holly Minch-Hick.. 282-0834
7/8 Principal
ICMS
Mrs. Toni Dondzila.......282-0834
5/6 Principal
Hills Elementary
Cecilia Fritz...............283-2479
Principal
Wintersville Elementary
Nicole McDonald......264-1691
Principal
District News
In addressing the achievement of goal number 1, the district leadership team developed the following strategies:
Our first strategy is to implement and monitor self-regulated writing strategies in all content areas. Writing
plays a critical role in the new testing, both the testing from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers (PARCC) and the Ohio Computer Based Assessments (OCBA). The district leadership
team felt (and research supported) that Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRDD) is an approach that
would help students to learn specific strategies for planning, drafting and revising text. Teachers are
currently working with students on these strategies and the first data collection concerning these will take
place at the November district leadership team meeting.
Our second strategy is to continue to transition to Ohio’s Learning Standards (Common Core Standards +
Ohio’s New Standards for Social Studies and Science) with a focus on increasing the level of cognitive
demand. Teachers have identified power standards in each content area. Power standards are those which are
most important for student success on assessments and most critical for the student to advance to the next
level of rigor in the content area. Teachers have also created assessment maps in all subject areas that
indicate when students are expected to master these power standards. Monitoring of this strategy is ongoing.
The third strategy for meeting targets for Annual Measurable Objectives is developing high quality common
assessments K12 in all core content areas. The results of these assessments will be analyzed and used to
make instructional decisions. This strategy is still in the planning stages as we work on deep implementation
of the other two strategies listed above. In the next Closer Look, I will write about our strategies to achieve
the second goal of reducing the number of chronically absent students.
John L. Belt, Assistant Superintendent - Indian Creek School District is happy to announce that we are part
of the Straight A Transportation Grant. This $1.76 million grant was made possible by Gov. Kasich and
allows us to form a consortium of 20 school districts. The purpose of this is to optimize transportation
efficiency throughout the consortium.
Phase 1 of the grant will roll out during mid-November to early December. It will see Zonar gps devices
placed in every bus. These will compile trip data, travel time, mileage, idle time, and fuel consumption to
help make our transportation fleet more efficient. Phase 2 will roll out after Christmas Break this year with
the goal of being fully operational by Aug. 2015. This phase will install Zonar Z Pass+ ridership devices
where each child will have their own bus pass. Parents who download a free app for their smart phones will
receive an automated text message when their child gets on the bus and another when their child gets off the
bus. This will allow parents to have real time knowledge of the child's whereabouts to help increase safety
for our riders. Members of the consortium will be able to share data with each other toward the ultimate
goal of creating a regional transportation hub to save money, increase efficiency, and increase safety for all.
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Hills Elementary
Hills Elementary students and staff recently came together to raise money for a good cause. The school
raised money to help a new organization, called Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment Society, to get up and
running. The group raised over $400 dollars to support fellow student, Olivia Ault (Olivia suffers from a
visual impairment that causes a miscommunication between what she sees and what her brain processes).
We raised the money through a lemonade stand and a benefit dance. The PCVI Society's goal is to promote
research in the field of CVI.
Also the 4th grade students were invited by the Wheeling Nailers to attend a Nailers game on Wednesday,
November 19th. The Nailer organization invited students from area schools to attend.
Hills would also like to thank the Mingo Fire Department for bringing the Smoke
House and fire trucks to school and teach our students about fire safety. Also our
wonderful Transportation department brought a few school buses to Hills to teach us
about safe bus evacuation. Thank You Mrs. Staffilino and her bus drivers.
Hundreds of people turned out for a Veterans Day celebration, but it was a special
moment for one particular soldier. Last year 3rd & 4th graders adopted
three servicemen through the Adopt-a-Soldier. One of those soldiers was
Staff Sargent Josh Kerr, a Mingo Jct. resident and former student at Hills.
Kerr has served our country for the past 17 years and has been deployed
three times.
One of the gifts students sent Josh was a small stuffed animal they named
Little Sgt. Kerr who kept the real Sargent company while he was in
Afghanistan. Kerr made a surprise visit to Hills school earlier this month
and returned again to participate in the annual Veterans Day ceremonies
where he joined dozens of other veterans for a time of music and speeches
that honored their efforts.
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Wintersville Elementary
United Way Events were held November 17th through November 25th.
Students donated $1 per day to participate by dressing as their heroes:
17th - Hats off to community heroes
18th - Super hero day
19th - Story Book hero
20th - .Help the fight against cancer
21st - Be your own hero or wear your Sadie Hawkins gear.
The Sadie Hawkins dance with DJ was held Friday night in the gym.
Admission included a Photo Booth. Food was available for an additional cost.
24th - School spirit-pay to play Teachers vs students during special
25th- - Movie Day Red carpet apparel! Students also sold suckers, cupcakes, chocolate dipped candy, and
additional items each day.
Our Penny Wars raised an amazing $2600.00 which will be divided between the Wayne Township Food
Pantry and the Wintersville Good Neighbors.
1st place-Mrs. Vitello's 1st grade with $11.80(the only class in the positive)
2nd place-Mrs. Looman with -$9.60
3rd place-Mrs. Lane -$14.17
What a wonderful job-thanks to our families for their generosity!!
Veterans Day Wintersville Elementary was honored to welcome our many Veterans.
We would like to thank you for sharing this special day with the students.
Everhart-Bove
Funeral Homes
Wayne L Everhart
Daniel B. Bove, Jr.
Three Locations
Wintersville
Richmond
Bergholz
(740) 264-5252 (740) 765-5252 (740)
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Steubenville
Valley
Warren
800.68.COLLEGE (800.682.6553)
Indian Creek Middle School
Community/Family Night was a huge success with students, families, and community
members visiting our school. The event coincided with the last regular season game for
the Girls Volleyball team. Admission was free and free refreshments were served. The
evening included a Chinese auction with prizes donated by staff, school clubs, and
friends of our school. Mrs. Judy’s art students also sponsored a wonderful art exhibit.
We are hoping to make this an annual event.
United Way The students and staff raised nearly two thousand dollars ($1,928.29) for the
United Way. Mrs. Bennett's homeroom won by a mere $3.48; Mrs. Scott came in second and was leading
until she was seriously sabotaged on Friday and Mrs. Graham came in third. The students also brought in
money for the trench game and event days (hat day, slipper day, etc). Mrs. Shepherd came in first, Mrs.
DiPietro second and Mrs. Rees third. Thanks to all the staff and students that participated. We had a fun
week.
On November 11th students honored local veterans many of whom are family members and friends. Media
Club members served as guides and introduced the veterans in each of the classrooms that they visited.
Veterans shared their stories and following classroom visits a reception was held in the school's cafeteria.
The reception began with Ally Tweedy performing the National Anthem. Each veteran then introduced
themselves and also named the branch and years that they served in the military. Students from Mrs.
Rossi's computer class presented powerpoint presentations honoring the veterans. Refreshments were
served and Mrs. Fabbro's media club members photographed and videoed the event. Thank you to all the
veterans who shared their time and stories with us and Thank You to all who served.
Our Junior National Honor Society
members held their annual
Thanksgiving can drive and collected
over 1,600 nonperishable items . They
assisted with Mingo Social Services
food distribution.
La La’s Diner
1409 Sinclair Avenue
Steubenville, OH 43952
Phone (740) 284-1980
Tuesday through Friday 7 - 7
Saturday & Sunday 8 - 2
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Indian Creek High School
The members of Indian Creek’s National Honor Society donated $250 worth of food for the upcoming
Thanksgiving holiday to the Tony Teramana Cancer Center Food Bank. The food bank supplies food to
cancer patients and their families who are in need of help for the upcoming holiday season. Students from
the National Honor Society at ICHS purchased goods such as: canned vegetables, noodles, stuffing, Jell-O,
and potatoes from Walmart. The distribution of the goods was Saturday, November 15th beginning at 8 a.m
at the First Westminster Church located on 4th Street in Steubenville. National Honor Society members will
were in attendance to distribute the goods to the patients and their families.
Students in home rooms created "code of ethics" for each classroom door. Students created them from
knowledge they gained during the ICHS anti-bullying program, Decisions. These codes are designed to
remind them each morning of their personal responsible in making health decisions.
ICHS
Band
playing
at
the
Steelers
game
Sunday, November 30th...Go Creek!
Mr. Moffat and the seniors of Indian Creek High
School were recently inducted into The Business
Professionals of America. Students were assigned
to different roles and some became officers.
Students have to complete a certain number of
requirements in order to be invited to the State
BPA Convention in Columbus in March. Placing at
state level gets you an invtiation to the national
convention in Anaheim, California in May of 2015.
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Nutrition, Inc.
Doug Gosney, Nutrition, Inc. provided turkey roasts for our guest chefs: Dan Hartman, Principal and
Georgia Pavlik, Assistant Principal, to carve for the students. This is a
great annual event that the students enjoy because they get to interact with
the principal and assistanct principal in an entirely new way. The turkey
roasts are an item we don’t serve every week so it is a change. The staff
provided a choice of mashed potatoes & gravy or stuffing, corn bread,
seasoned corn and fresh tossed salad. A big “Thanks” go to Mr. Hartman
and Georgia Pavlic for volunteering to participant in the event.
We have been busy from the beginning of the school. The staff was involved in various training sessions,
including a head cook’s training session held at Big Beaver High School in Pennsylvania. This was the
fifth year for the Nutrition training day. There was training for all the kitchen staff on the new breakfast
guidelines for this year, also. Nutrition catered several events, including the entire district staff for their
staff development day at the beginning of school. Nutrition, then served the varsity football team, coaches
and cheerleaders, Jr. High football teams and press box for the season.
Nutrition held Youth Advisory Council meetings at the elementary buildings this month. The meetings
include a representative from each grade. The discussions cover a variety of topics including any problems
or suggestions about the cafeteria food or service; menu items, their favorite or any new item they might
want; why certain foods are offered; what makes a heathy meal and any topic related to food, health and/or
exercise. Nutrition education sessions are held, along with other special events throughout the year.
TED G. STARKEY, D.D.S.
RYAN C. STARKEY, D.D.S.
520 Main Street
Wintersville, Ohio 43953
(740) 264-1913
Go Creek!
Wintersville Volunteer
Fire Deptartment
282 Luray Drive
Wintersville OH 43953
Jefferson Landmark
Fuel & Petroleum
Feed & Grain
Supplies
1525 State Hwy 152
Bloomingdale, OH 43910
(740) 944-1971
(888) 944-1971
Serving the Ohio Valley for more than 70 years!
Indian Creek Education Association
200 Park Drive
Wintersville Oh 43953
...teachers dedicated to providing a
learning environment where all students
are given the opportunity to reach their
highest potential.
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Dr. Jayapal Reddy
1 Ross Park Blvd Ste 105
Steubenville, OH 43952
Monday - Friday
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sat - Sun
Closed
Phone (740) 284-5583
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