Thursday, December 23, 2010
Happy Birthday Ralph Shepherd!
Ralph Shepherd, who never missed a meeting in his 20 years as a member of the New Richmond Board of Education, turned 80 Dec. 23. He was honored at Thursday's Liars Club meeting at New Richmond's McDonalds. Joining in honoring Mr. Shepherd (center) were State Sen. Tom Niehaus (left) and State Rep. Danny Bulp (right).
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Troubadours tour district with show
New Richmond High School's Troubadours made their 2010 Christmas Concert tour of disrict buildings on Wednesday.
Their stop at Monroe Elementary featured Monroe principal Mark Bailey and district elementary band director Jeff Folkens joined the Troubadours for the Hallelujah Chorus, playing piccolo trumpets.
Click on the picture below to watch the Troubadours' 2010 District Tour stop at Monroe Elementary.
Right click and choose Save Target As to download
Their stop at Monroe Elementary featured Monroe principal Mark Bailey and district elementary band director Jeff Folkens joined the Troubadours for the Hallelujah Chorus, playing piccolo trumpets.
Click on the picture below to watch the Troubadours' 2010 District Tour stop at Monroe Elementary.
Right click and choose Save Target As to download
Monday, December 20, 2010
Schools set record for food donations
Students at New Richmond schools and their families were in a giving mood this holiday season, donating a record 18,200 canned and non-perishable food items to the district’s annual food drive for the New Richmond Food Pantry.
“We helped 192 families Saturday, and could not have done it without NREVSD students and staff,” said Melinda Graser, president of the New Richmond Food Pantry. “More than 350 children are included in those 192 families.”
New Richmond High School led the way with a record 11,439 food items.
NRHS student council president Emily Smiddy (center right) and vice-president Myla Gordo (center left) are surrounded by volunteers from student council and Deron Shinkle's advanced drafting class who helped load the record 11,439 food items collected for the New Richmond Food Pantry.
“The high school student council would like to thank everyone for their donations to the food drive,” said NRHS student council adviser Jim Robinson. “In only 13 days, we collected 11,439 items including $1311.06 in monetary donations.”
Terri Flamm's physical education class set an all-time overall record for a class with 2896 items; John Callebs’ math class collected 2419, and the special education classes along with the office staff, graduation academy, teacher academy and library collected 2093 items. A combined effort by the classes of Sue Griffin and Jaime Kipfer collected 1895 items.
“We had a goal to top our previous record of 6975 and we easily topped that by over 4400,” said Robinson.
All New Richmond buildings reported donations of more than 1000 items with Locust Corner Elementary collecting 2479 items, Monroe Elementary 2194 items and New Richmond Elementary 1600.
More than 50 volunteers, including present and past students of the New Richmond High School and members of the New Richmond Liars Club, helped deliver, sort and box the food items which were distributed on Dec. 18 at the American Legion Hall in New Richmond.
“The volunteers filled 210 boxes and what we didn’t give out to the 192 families will go on our shelves for distribution for the rest of the month,” said Graser, who is the building secretary at New Richmond Middle School. “The schools probably contributed 95 percent of the items we will give out this year. A tremendous thank you to everyone.”
The New Richmond Food Pantry is in its 30th year. Other Pantry officers are Tom Marck, vice president, and Sonia Kroger, treasurer.
NRHS students (from left) John Channels, Dominic Steelman and Jacob Crooker take a break from loading the 11,349 food items onto a truck supplied by Duke Energy for transport to the New Richmond Food Pantry. (Photos by Jim Robinson)
“We helped 192 families Saturday, and could not have done it without NREVSD students and staff,” said Melinda Graser, president of the New Richmond Food Pantry. “More than 350 children are included in those 192 families.”
New Richmond High School led the way with a record 11,439 food items.
NRHS student council president Emily Smiddy (center right) and vice-president Myla Gordo (center left) are surrounded by volunteers from student council and Deron Shinkle's advanced drafting class who helped load the record 11,439 food items collected for the New Richmond Food Pantry.“The high school student council would like to thank everyone for their donations to the food drive,” said NRHS student council adviser Jim Robinson. “In only 13 days, we collected 11,439 items including $1311.06 in monetary donations.”
Terri Flamm's physical education class set an all-time overall record for a class with 2896 items; John Callebs’ math class collected 2419, and the special education classes along with the office staff, graduation academy, teacher academy and library collected 2093 items. A combined effort by the classes of Sue Griffin and Jaime Kipfer collected 1895 items.
“We had a goal to top our previous record of 6975 and we easily topped that by over 4400,” said Robinson.
All New Richmond buildings reported donations of more than 1000 items with Locust Corner Elementary collecting 2479 items, Monroe Elementary 2194 items and New Richmond Elementary 1600.
More than 50 volunteers, including present and past students of the New Richmond High School and members of the New Richmond Liars Club, helped deliver, sort and box the food items which were distributed on Dec. 18 at the American Legion Hall in New Richmond.
“The volunteers filled 210 boxes and what we didn’t give out to the 192 families will go on our shelves for distribution for the rest of the month,” said Graser, who is the building secretary at New Richmond Middle School. “The schools probably contributed 95 percent of the items we will give out this year. A tremendous thank you to everyone.”
The New Richmond Food Pantry is in its 30th year. Other Pantry officers are Tom Marck, vice president, and Sonia Kroger, treasurer.
NRHS students (from left) John Channels, Dominic Steelman and Jacob Crooker take a break from loading the 11,349 food items onto a truck supplied by Duke Energy for transport to the New Richmond Food Pantry. (Photos by Jim Robinson)
Thursday, December 16, 2010
School Board meeting rescheduled
Thursday's New Richmond Board of Education meeting scheduled to be held at Locust Corner Elementary has been cancelled and rescheduled for Dec. 23 at 5 p.m. at the Board office at the Market Street School.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
NRE exceeds food drive goal
Hans & Franz (AKA NRE principal Gary Combs and PE teacher John Bagley) returned to NRE's televisions for another appeal for food items for the school's 2010 Food Pantry drive, which has exceeded the school's goal of 1000 items.
New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird makes a guest appearance in this episode.
Click on the photo below to watch this week's televised appeal.
New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird makes a guest appearance in this episode.
Click on the photo below to watch this week's televised appeal.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
NREVSD featured in WKRC report
WKRC television's Rich Jaffe featured a report on the station's Dec. 9 newscast on the challenges New Richmond faces in replacing up to 1/3rd of its budget by 2016 when $8.1 million annual state utility de-regulation payments are scheduled to stop. Superntendent Adam Bird and New Richmond Elementary teachers Bridget Bell and David Smith are interviewed.
Click on the play button on the video screen below to watch the feature.
Click on the play button on the video screen below to watch the feature.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Board receives financial plan
New Richmond’s Board of Education has been presented with a plan to use attrition and ask district voters to approve a future capital improvement levy to offset the projected loss of $8.1 million the New Richmond Exempted Village Schools will experience after 2016 due to Ohio’s deregulation of electrical utilities.
The contingency plan, submitted by New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird at a combined school board work session and meeting of the district’s Financial Planning Committee Dec. 6, anticipates savings of $4.7 million per year by 2017 by not replacing 35 teachers and 14 support staff personnel expected to retire in the next five years.
Click here to read the plan
The plan received the endorsement of the financial planning committee, which includes Scott Henderson, Jeanie Williams and Joe Middeler from the New Richmond business community, and parents Laura Jones, Rich Grogan and Mark Miller. Bird and the committee were asked to come up with recommendations by the board’s January meeting.
When Ohio deregulated electrical utilities in 2001 and reduced their assessed value from 88 to 25 percent, the state began taxing utilities on a kilowatt per hour basis and agreed to share that revenue with affected school districts for 15 years in the form of deregulation payments.
“This plan was born out of necessity,” said Bird. “These changes are being considered because of our financial forecast.”
The plan is based on a district retirement survey made in September. Bird noted that there’s no guarantee there will be the number of retirements anticipated and for that reason he included a reduction in force (RIF) clause in each year of the 5-year plan.
“A reduction in force will be used if anticipated retirements do not occur,” said Bird.
The plan also calls for a change in school day starts in 2011-12 to make the transportation department more efficient, changing Locust Corner Elementary and Monroe Elementary into P-4 buildings and New Richmond Elementary into a grade 5-6 building in the 2014-15 school year and go to a three-tier busing system and discussing a permanent improvement levy with the community in the next five years.
“Attrition is the way to go,” noted board member Kevin Walriven, who pointed to reductions of $2,272,474 in operating expenses over the past 10 years with the reduction of 25 positions due to attrition. “When you RIF you don’t lose the experienced teacher, you lose a beginning teacher.”
Since 2001 New Richmond schools have reduced administrators from 16 to 12, classroom teachers from 179 to 163 and classroom support staff from 41 to 36.
If all the retirements materialize over the next five years, New Richmond will need to transfer teachers based on their certification to fill openings.
New Richmond also faces a possible additional loss of $1.4 million per year should Duke Energy prevail in its request to the state to have the value of its non-generating property (meters, poles, substations) lowered.
A 5 mil permanent improvement levy could be considered in the next five years and would generate $2.5 million annually to be used to maintain school facilities, purchase computers, buses and textbooks, and capital expenditures.
The changes in planned spending and increased revenue of $7.2 million over 5 years will come to within $2.3 million in managing the 2016 shortfall in revenue.
Bird said the second phase of the plan to address the remaining $2.3 shortfall will be addressed by examining every appropriation to make sure it is essential, continue to lobby legislators to replace deregulation payments with additional kilowatt tax revenue funding, and to closely monitor the State Foundation Program as it develops in the biennium budgeting process.
“There will be three Ohio biennium budgets, two presidential elections and another gubernatorial election before that decision is necessary,” said Bird.
Ohio’s biennial budget could become a problem long before 2016.
Ohio faces an $8 billion shortfall in its next biennium budget in June and governor-elect John Kasich has said the shortfall will be made by budget cuts. The cuts may mean a 10 to 20 percent cut in state aid to schools. New Richmond receives 15 percent of its current $26 million in revenue from the state, compared to 43 percent for Batavia, 57 percent for Goshen and 66 percent for Bethel.
“What was once an asset of having two power stations in the school district could become a liability to the community in 2017,” said Bird. “The assessed value of the generating plants inflates the total value of the school district upon which school foundation payments are based and the district receives less state aid.”
The contingency plan, submitted by New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird at a combined school board work session and meeting of the district’s Financial Planning Committee Dec. 6, anticipates savings of $4.7 million per year by 2017 by not replacing 35 teachers and 14 support staff personnel expected to retire in the next five years.
Click here to read the plan
The plan received the endorsement of the financial planning committee, which includes Scott Henderson, Jeanie Williams and Joe Middeler from the New Richmond business community, and parents Laura Jones, Rich Grogan and Mark Miller. Bird and the committee were asked to come up with recommendations by the board’s January meeting.
When Ohio deregulated electrical utilities in 2001 and reduced their assessed value from 88 to 25 percent, the state began taxing utilities on a kilowatt per hour basis and agreed to share that revenue with affected school districts for 15 years in the form of deregulation payments.
“This plan was born out of necessity,” said Bird. “These changes are being considered because of our financial forecast.”
The plan is based on a district retirement survey made in September. Bird noted that there’s no guarantee there will be the number of retirements anticipated and for that reason he included a reduction in force (RIF) clause in each year of the 5-year plan.
“A reduction in force will be used if anticipated retirements do not occur,” said Bird.
The plan also calls for a change in school day starts in 2011-12 to make the transportation department more efficient, changing Locust Corner Elementary and Monroe Elementary into P-4 buildings and New Richmond Elementary into a grade 5-6 building in the 2014-15 school year and go to a three-tier busing system and discussing a permanent improvement levy with the community in the next five years.
“Attrition is the way to go,” noted board member Kevin Walriven, who pointed to reductions of $2,272,474 in operating expenses over the past 10 years with the reduction of 25 positions due to attrition. “When you RIF you don’t lose the experienced teacher, you lose a beginning teacher.”
Since 2001 New Richmond schools have reduced administrators from 16 to 12, classroom teachers from 179 to 163 and classroom support staff from 41 to 36.
If all the retirements materialize over the next five years, New Richmond will need to transfer teachers based on their certification to fill openings.
New Richmond also faces a possible additional loss of $1.4 million per year should Duke Energy prevail in its request to the state to have the value of its non-generating property (meters, poles, substations) lowered.
A 5 mil permanent improvement levy could be considered in the next five years and would generate $2.5 million annually to be used to maintain school facilities, purchase computers, buses and textbooks, and capital expenditures.
The changes in planned spending and increased revenue of $7.2 million over 5 years will come to within $2.3 million in managing the 2016 shortfall in revenue.
Bird said the second phase of the plan to address the remaining $2.3 shortfall will be addressed by examining every appropriation to make sure it is essential, continue to lobby legislators to replace deregulation payments with additional kilowatt tax revenue funding, and to closely monitor the State Foundation Program as it develops in the biennium budgeting process.
“There will be three Ohio biennium budgets, two presidential elections and another gubernatorial election before that decision is necessary,” said Bird.
Ohio’s biennial budget could become a problem long before 2016.
Ohio faces an $8 billion shortfall in its next biennium budget in June and governor-elect John Kasich has said the shortfall will be made by budget cuts. The cuts may mean a 10 to 20 percent cut in state aid to schools. New Richmond receives 15 percent of its current $26 million in revenue from the state, compared to 43 percent for Batavia, 57 percent for Goshen and 66 percent for Bethel.
“What was once an asset of having two power stations in the school district could become a liability to the community in 2017,” said Bird. “The assessed value of the generating plants inflates the total value of the school district upon which school foundation payments are based and the district receives less state aid.”
Monday, December 6, 2010
Holiday food drive on at schools
New Richmond's schools are collected food items for donation to the village food pantry.
At New Richmond Elementary that means the return of Hans & Franz (AKA NRE principal Gary Combs and PE teacher John Bagley) who use a morning televised skit to encourage students to bring in food items.
Click on the photo below to watch this week's televised appeal.
At New Richmond Elementary that means the return of Hans & Franz (AKA NRE principal Gary Combs and PE teacher John Bagley) who use a morning televised skit to encourage students to bring in food items.
Click on the photo below to watch this week's televised appeal.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
NRHS work study students helping NRE
Students in New Richmond High School’s work study program are gaining valuable employment skills through a partnership between the high school and New Richmond Elementary School.
“I have a group of ten students who volunteer at NRE four times a week ,” explained Amy Carey, intervention specialist at New Richmond High School.
New Richmond High School work study student Thomas Stansbury (right) describes how the program is working with New Richmond Elementary School. He was aided in his presentation by NRE principal Gary Combs and NRE student Emily Carey, daughter of NHHS intervention specialist Amy Carey.
“The students work in the NRE library, volunteer in Rosemary Wiebell's kindergarten class and help on PTO projects.”
The project was featured at the November meeting of the New Richmond Board of Education, held at New Richmond Elementary.
“Because of Ms. Spinnati (NRHS principal Diana Spinnati) and Mr. Combs (NRE principal Gary Combs), my students have a wonderful opportunity to build employability skills,” said Mrs. Carey.
“The work study program provides the students with an opportunity to learn and gain a hands on approach to the education profession,” said Combs. “Our teachers at New Richmond Elementary extend a helping a hand to our high school students interesting in becoming educators.”
“I have a group of ten students who volunteer at NRE four times a week ,” explained Amy Carey, intervention specialist at New Richmond High School.
New Richmond High School work study student Thomas Stansbury (right) describes how the program is working with New Richmond Elementary School. He was aided in his presentation by NRE principal Gary Combs and NRE student Emily Carey, daughter of NHHS intervention specialist Amy Carey.“The students work in the NRE library, volunteer in Rosemary Wiebell's kindergarten class and help on PTO projects.”
The project was featured at the November meeting of the New Richmond Board of Education, held at New Richmond Elementary.
“Because of Ms. Spinnati (NRHS principal Diana Spinnati) and Mr. Combs (NRE principal Gary Combs), my students have a wonderful opportunity to build employability skills,” said Mrs. Carey.
“The work study program provides the students with an opportunity to learn and gain a hands on approach to the education profession,” said Combs. “Our teachers at New Richmond Elementary extend a helping a hand to our high school students interesting in becoming educators.”
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monroe students help Audubon Society
Adrian Hawk, art teacher at New Richmond’s Monroe Elementary School, encourages her young artists to use art to raise awareness to community, environmental and social issues.
That proved to be an easy task for Monroe’s 2nd and 3rd grade art classes after
studying the work of 11 year old artist Olivia Bouler, whose painting of birds raised $130,000 for the Audubon Society to help birds affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The 2nd and 3rd grade artists decided to hold a benefit of their own to help the birds,” explained Hawk (pictured with Jacob Kunz), who assigned her students to draw birds selected from hundreds of bird flash cards donated by a parent.
Monroe Elementary students (from left) Avery Skaggs, Rowan Stripplehoff, Dani Williams and Sydnie Heskamp show off their bird friendly hats they made for the school’s Birds of a Feather art show that benefitted the Audubon Society.
Their art work was featured in an art show that resulted in $115 in donations to the Audubon Society.
“Their drawings were so good, I was asked if they were traced,” said Hawk.
As good as the drawings were, the star of the Audubon benefit show was the bird friendly hats each student made.
“We read a book called ‘She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!’, which tells the story about the founders of the society who wanted to do something for the birds because back in the early 1900's thousands of birds were being killed and made into hats,” said Hawk.
“The 2nd and 3rd grade artists created their own "bird-friendly" hats by making feathers from hand painted paper they created (inspired by illustrator Eric Carle) and slogan signs with their own statement about speaking for the birds.”
The third grade students of Monroe Elementary teacher Cathy Singleton wear their bird friendly hats they made for the school’s Birds of a Feather art show that benefitted the Audubon Society.
The second grade students of Monroe Elementary teacher Staci Heiden wear their bird friendly hats they made for the school’s Birds of a Feather art show.
That proved to be an easy task for Monroe’s 2nd and 3rd grade art classes after
studying the work of 11 year old artist Olivia Bouler, whose painting of birds raised $130,000 for the Audubon Society to help birds affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The 2nd and 3rd grade artists decided to hold a benefit of their own to help the birds,” explained Hawk (pictured with Jacob Kunz), who assigned her students to draw birds selected from hundreds of bird flash cards donated by a parent.
Monroe Elementary students (from left) Avery Skaggs, Rowan Stripplehoff, Dani Williams and Sydnie Heskamp show off their bird friendly hats they made for the school’s Birds of a Feather art show that benefitted the Audubon Society.Their art work was featured in an art show that resulted in $115 in donations to the Audubon Society.
“Their drawings were so good, I was asked if they were traced,” said Hawk.
As good as the drawings were, the star of the Audubon benefit show was the bird friendly hats each student made.
“We read a book called ‘She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!’, which tells the story about the founders of the society who wanted to do something for the birds because back in the early 1900's thousands of birds were being killed and made into hats,” said Hawk.
“The 2nd and 3rd grade artists created their own "bird-friendly" hats by making feathers from hand painted paper they created (inspired by illustrator Eric Carle) and slogan signs with their own statement about speaking for the birds.”
The third grade students of Monroe Elementary teacher Cathy Singleton wear their bird friendly hats they made for the school’s Birds of a Feather art show that benefitted the Audubon Society.
The second grade students of Monroe Elementary teacher Staci Heiden wear their bird friendly hats they made for the school’s Birds of a Feather art show.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
NRHS presents Willy Wonka
The New Richmond High School music department will perform Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with performances at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19 and Saturday, Nov. 20. Admission is $5 for students and $7 for adults.
Grant Gilman plays Willy Wonka in the NRHS production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
The cast, under the direction of Mr. Douglas Heflin, includes Grant Gilman as Willy Wonka, Pavel Jump as Charlie, Kaleigh Autzen as the Candy Man, Newton McCollum as Mr. Bucket, Ashleigh Beard as Mrs. Bucket, Will Heflin as Grandpa Joe, Cheyenne Cochran as Grandma Josephine, Michael Steelman as Grandpa George, Anna Scott as Grandma Georgina, Kyle Helton as Augustus Gloop, Samantha Curless as Mrs. Gloop, Ben Green as Mike Teavee, Krista Loose as Ms. Teavee, Erica Jones as Veruca Salt, Luke Tons as Mr. Salt, Rachel Heflin as Violet Beauregarde, Kelly Wolf as Mrs. Beauregarde and Sammi Gregory as Phineous Trout.
Kaleigh Autzen, who plays the Candy Man, and Pavel Jump, who plays Charlies, rehearse their roles for this week's NRHS production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Also in the cast are Sarah Molitor, Lindsay Gundler, Skylar McDonald, Abby Jewell, Jessica Nazareth, Juliane Molitor, Courtney Roberts, Amber Hudson, Olivia Rohdes, Rachel Ploucha, Carmen Staten, Cierra Edwards, Nick Gilman,Craig Hoagland, Luke Gilday, Andrew Shepherd, Chris Sammons, Zachary Fields, Travis Pancake, Mariah Hoskins, Sarah Dennemann, Kayla Benjamin, Sydney Clancy, Chelsey Fawley, Paige Anderson, Monique Ostermann, Alex White, Morgan Olenick, Maddie Wallace, Rachael Trowbridge, Noah Clancy, Michael Huber and Sam Tremper.
Grant Gilman plays Willy Wonka in the NRHS production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.The cast, under the direction of Mr. Douglas Heflin, includes Grant Gilman as Willy Wonka, Pavel Jump as Charlie, Kaleigh Autzen as the Candy Man, Newton McCollum as Mr. Bucket, Ashleigh Beard as Mrs. Bucket, Will Heflin as Grandpa Joe, Cheyenne Cochran as Grandma Josephine, Michael Steelman as Grandpa George, Anna Scott as Grandma Georgina, Kyle Helton as Augustus Gloop, Samantha Curless as Mrs. Gloop, Ben Green as Mike Teavee, Krista Loose as Ms. Teavee, Erica Jones as Veruca Salt, Luke Tons as Mr. Salt, Rachel Heflin as Violet Beauregarde, Kelly Wolf as Mrs. Beauregarde and Sammi Gregory as Phineous Trout.
Kaleigh Autzen, who plays the Candy Man, and Pavel Jump, who plays Charlies, rehearse their roles for this week's NRHS production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.Also in the cast are Sarah Molitor, Lindsay Gundler, Skylar McDonald, Abby Jewell, Jessica Nazareth, Juliane Molitor, Courtney Roberts, Amber Hudson, Olivia Rohdes, Rachel Ploucha, Carmen Staten, Cierra Edwards, Nick Gilman,Craig Hoagland, Luke Gilday, Andrew Shepherd, Chris Sammons, Zachary Fields, Travis Pancake, Mariah Hoskins, Sarah Dennemann, Kayla Benjamin, Sydney Clancy, Chelsey Fawley, Paige Anderson, Monique Ostermann, Alex White, Morgan Olenick, Maddie Wallace, Rachael Trowbridge, Noah Clancy, Michael Huber and Sam Tremper.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Monroe 1st Quarter Awards
Monroe Elementary honored students for outstanding classroom work at its 1st Quarter Awards Breakfast Friday, Nov. 12.
Click on the images below to watch the Monroe Awards program.
Monroe 1st Quarter Awards
Click on the images below to watch the Monroe Awards program.
Monroe 1st Quarter Awards
Friday, November 12, 2010
NRMS announces honor rolls
New Richmond Middle School
8th Grade
2010 1st Quarter Honor Roll
MERIT HONORS
Katelyn Chumley , Audrey Feiler, Austin Fischer, Alexander Grooms, Jennifer Roberts, Eric Williams, Leah Wolfer.
HIGH HONORS
Rachel Benton , Austin Berger, Marie Bezold, Anthony Blome, Isiah Bostic, Micha Brumbaugh, Rachel Burdell, Miles Burnam, Kyle Campbell, Emily Carter, Jacob Craig, Kelsi Curry, Tyler Davis, Jazmine Dyer, Madeline Farmer, Emma Feld, Kayla Gardiner, Skylar Gould, Matthew Graham, Charles Grogan, Allison Harness, Kyle Heidlage, Dalton Henderson, Emily Hensley, Madison Holdsworth, Patrick Jones, Alexandra Jump, Sierra King, Cody Kirschner, Olivia Latham, McKenzie Lauver, Hannah Lewis, Madeline McDaniel, Maggie Mulloney, Griffin Mulvaney, Ella Neess, Katelynn Nichols , Kayla Nort, Taryn Rupp, Troy Saunders, Lindsay Slone, Hannah Slye, Charlie Spicker, Ashley Stephens, Karlyn Thul, Kyle Weeks, Daniel Wilson, Steven Wolf, Taylor Zimmer.
HONORS
Daman Abner Tyler Anderson, Wendy Appelmann, Andi Bateman, Tristin Baumann, John Buckingham, Mariah Corbin, Halee Curtis, Trapper Dabney, Lacie Decatur, Andrew Deitsch, Derek Gelter, Collette Gibbs, Kyle Gilday, Kelsey Hardin, Cody Helbling , Blake Kidd, Bryce Kroeger, Sadie LaRocque, Christina Lawrence, James Mahan, Christopher Mazzaro, Alexandra Meadors, Alexis Meder, Mande Myers, Karissa Neal, Brittney O'Brien, Annie Patrick, Patrick Richardson, Analiese Rohdes, Eric Scholz, Aaron Schweickart, Savannah Scott, Bryant Sharp, Joseph Singleton, James Snider, Carrie Stapleton, Rachel Taylor, Jordan Utter, Shyann Webb, Jared West, Mary Williams, Nicholas Wuest, Alexandra Zellner.
New Richmond Middle School
7th Grade
2010 1st Quarter Honor Roll
MERIT HONORS
Alicia Bailey, Evan Grippa, Timothy Hammer, Chase Heflin, Nicholas Laub, Harrison Light, Cydney Stiles, Kendal Warren.
HIGH HONORS
Rachael Autzen, Emily Belmont, Ethan Benjamin, Chad Brewer, Renee Carleton, Brianna Chapman, Hannah Clifton, Kendal Collier, Noah David, Kaitlyn Flake, Nicholas Flake, Ross Flenniken, Adrianna Flood, Hayley Hawkins, Jacob Hayden, Ariel Huber, Morgan Huddleston, Ariel Johnson, Dustin Kennedy, Nicholas Kirby, Brooklyn Klein, Jade Kunz, Allyson Lutz, Joseph Maxwell, Taylor McKinley, Kyli Meder, Kelsey Nichols, Erin O'Toole, Darik Page, Connor Pike, Amanda Redmon, Holly Reinert, Kiara Rivera, Malea Roberson, Eric Rolfes, Tyler Sammons, Corey Secen, Allison Shook, Stile Sweet, Magic Weir, Lindsey Williams, Michael Williamson.
HONORS
Cidney Adams, Dylan Allen, Joshua Bauscher, Miah Bayless, Lacey Bayless, Destiana Berling, Chelsey Bowling, Kerrigan Dyer, Shawn Elam, Kristin Evans, Tyler Gates, Blake Gibson, Casey Goodheart, Karl Greifenkamp, Zoe Hallahan, Maren Hance, Elise Holdsworth, Brandon Jackson, Carla Koch, Hannah Lake, Hunter Lansaw, Ella Lindsley, Taylor Litteral, Morgan Malicoat, Marshall Seyvon, Heaven McCoon, Melanie Nieman, Jesse Noble, Jonathan O'Dell, Kayla Olenick, Sydney Padgett, Tyler Payne, Robert Sarbell, Kirsten Savage, Michael Simpson, Hali Stamper, Thelma Sturgill, Jenna Swormstedt, Cole Thompson, Austin Torrens, Stacey Tucker, Brian Waddle, Taylor Waitman, Zachary Walton, Matthew Waters, Maisie Waters, Tyler Young.
8th Grade
2010 1st Quarter Honor Roll
MERIT HONORS
Katelyn Chumley , Audrey Feiler, Austin Fischer, Alexander Grooms, Jennifer Roberts, Eric Williams, Leah Wolfer.
HIGH HONORS
Rachel Benton , Austin Berger, Marie Bezold, Anthony Blome, Isiah Bostic, Micha Brumbaugh, Rachel Burdell, Miles Burnam, Kyle Campbell, Emily Carter, Jacob Craig, Kelsi Curry, Tyler Davis, Jazmine Dyer, Madeline Farmer, Emma Feld, Kayla Gardiner, Skylar Gould, Matthew Graham, Charles Grogan, Allison Harness, Kyle Heidlage, Dalton Henderson, Emily Hensley, Madison Holdsworth, Patrick Jones, Alexandra Jump, Sierra King, Cody Kirschner, Olivia Latham, McKenzie Lauver, Hannah Lewis, Madeline McDaniel, Maggie Mulloney, Griffin Mulvaney, Ella Neess, Katelynn Nichols , Kayla Nort, Taryn Rupp, Troy Saunders, Lindsay Slone, Hannah Slye, Charlie Spicker, Ashley Stephens, Karlyn Thul, Kyle Weeks, Daniel Wilson, Steven Wolf, Taylor Zimmer.
HONORS
Daman Abner Tyler Anderson, Wendy Appelmann, Andi Bateman, Tristin Baumann, John Buckingham, Mariah Corbin, Halee Curtis, Trapper Dabney, Lacie Decatur, Andrew Deitsch, Derek Gelter, Collette Gibbs, Kyle Gilday, Kelsey Hardin, Cody Helbling , Blake Kidd, Bryce Kroeger, Sadie LaRocque, Christina Lawrence, James Mahan, Christopher Mazzaro, Alexandra Meadors, Alexis Meder, Mande Myers, Karissa Neal, Brittney O'Brien, Annie Patrick, Patrick Richardson, Analiese Rohdes, Eric Scholz, Aaron Schweickart, Savannah Scott, Bryant Sharp, Joseph Singleton, James Snider, Carrie Stapleton, Rachel Taylor, Jordan Utter, Shyann Webb, Jared West, Mary Williams, Nicholas Wuest, Alexandra Zellner.
New Richmond Middle School
7th Grade
2010 1st Quarter Honor Roll
MERIT HONORS
Alicia Bailey, Evan Grippa, Timothy Hammer, Chase Heflin, Nicholas Laub, Harrison Light, Cydney Stiles, Kendal Warren.
HIGH HONORS
Rachael Autzen, Emily Belmont, Ethan Benjamin, Chad Brewer, Renee Carleton, Brianna Chapman, Hannah Clifton, Kendal Collier, Noah David, Kaitlyn Flake, Nicholas Flake, Ross Flenniken, Adrianna Flood, Hayley Hawkins, Jacob Hayden, Ariel Huber, Morgan Huddleston, Ariel Johnson, Dustin Kennedy, Nicholas Kirby, Brooklyn Klein, Jade Kunz, Allyson Lutz, Joseph Maxwell, Taylor McKinley, Kyli Meder, Kelsey Nichols, Erin O'Toole, Darik Page, Connor Pike, Amanda Redmon, Holly Reinert, Kiara Rivera, Malea Roberson, Eric Rolfes, Tyler Sammons, Corey Secen, Allison Shook, Stile Sweet, Magic Weir, Lindsey Williams, Michael Williamson.
HONORS
Cidney Adams, Dylan Allen, Joshua Bauscher, Miah Bayless, Lacey Bayless, Destiana Berling, Chelsey Bowling, Kerrigan Dyer, Shawn Elam, Kristin Evans, Tyler Gates, Blake Gibson, Casey Goodheart, Karl Greifenkamp, Zoe Hallahan, Maren Hance, Elise Holdsworth, Brandon Jackson, Carla Koch, Hannah Lake, Hunter Lansaw, Ella Lindsley, Taylor Litteral, Morgan Malicoat, Marshall Seyvon, Heaven McCoon, Melanie Nieman, Jesse Noble, Jonathan O'Dell, Kayla Olenick, Sydney Padgett, Tyler Payne, Robert Sarbell, Kirsten Savage, Michael Simpson, Hali Stamper, Thelma Sturgill, Jenna Swormstedt, Cole Thompson, Austin Torrens, Stacey Tucker, Brian Waddle, Taylor Waitman, Zachary Walton, Matthew Waters, Maisie Waters, Tyler Young.
Monroe announces honor rolls
1st Quarter
Fourth Grade Merit Honor Roll
Taylor Bayless, Holly Chandler, Seirra Deitsch, Cierra Fluhart, Hailey Jowers, Julie Harrison, Lindsey Hoffman, Matthew Laub, Carmen McDonald, Jordan McKinley, McKenzie Miller, Sierra Pelcha, Sawyer Scheu, Trista Smith,
Dillon Troxell.
Fourth Grade Honor Roll
Justin Barker, Brandon Benzing, Olivia Brashear, Mason Chapman, Sophia Deardorff, Matthew Elliott, Trent Felts, Olivia Frost, Gage Goodheart, Alex Heflin, Tyler Heskamp, Sebastian Larison, Jody Lytle, Melanie Matheney, Scott Mooney, Mary Moran, Hailey Penny, Casey Riffle, Zachary Shepherd, Ben Spires, Alyssa Stiles.
Fifth Grade Merit Honor Roll
Jacob Heskamp, Jazmyn Hinkston, Kiae Marshall.
Fifth Grade Honor Roll
Andrew Bach, Julien Battista, Elise Bezold, Josie Blome, Hallie Bolton , Nick Edmondson, Aaron Elllis, Matthew Franks, Matthew Hosler, Christopher Isaacs, Bryce Lavely, Shelby Miller, Michael Nichols, Haily Olson, Kara O’Toole, Trinitie Patterson, Kaleigh Pratt, Courtney Price, Rainey Strippelhoff, Nicholas Swisher, Evan Taylor.
Sixth Grade Merit Honor Roll
Brittany Bash, Jessica Bauscher, Josh Clancy, Katelyn Forsee, Caitlin Grooms, Kaylin Hoffman, Matthew Lake, Brooke Lanthorn, Teddy Mansfield, Rachael Riffle, Cortney Smith, Tabitha Stevens.
Sixth Grade Honor Roll
Summer Adams, Courtney Bash, Anna Bennett, Sam Blackburn, Jason Chapman, Kaylee Chapman, Sally Corbett, Philip Crowe, Shayna Curtis, Caleb Cyrus, Jacob Cyrus, Christian Faul, Amber Fischer, Sadie Fischesser, Bailey Haas, Lindsay Hayes, Travis Justice, McKayla Kirschner, Jacob Konerman, Zachary Neeley, Austin Niederhelman, Chase McDonald, Ashley Mikles, Noah Scheu, Daniel Stoy, Bradey Strunk, Jude Utsinger, Trace Walriven, Elisabeth Walters, Emily Weitzel, Emily Willhoff, Ashley Willis, Brandin Webb.
Fourth Grade Merit Honor Roll
Taylor Bayless, Holly Chandler, Seirra Deitsch, Cierra Fluhart, Hailey Jowers, Julie Harrison, Lindsey Hoffman, Matthew Laub, Carmen McDonald, Jordan McKinley, McKenzie Miller, Sierra Pelcha, Sawyer Scheu, Trista Smith,
Dillon Troxell.
Fourth Grade Honor Roll
Justin Barker, Brandon Benzing, Olivia Brashear, Mason Chapman, Sophia Deardorff, Matthew Elliott, Trent Felts, Olivia Frost, Gage Goodheart, Alex Heflin, Tyler Heskamp, Sebastian Larison, Jody Lytle, Melanie Matheney, Scott Mooney, Mary Moran, Hailey Penny, Casey Riffle, Zachary Shepherd, Ben Spires, Alyssa Stiles.
Fifth Grade Merit Honor Roll
Jacob Heskamp, Jazmyn Hinkston, Kiae Marshall.
Fifth Grade Honor Roll
Andrew Bach, Julien Battista, Elise Bezold, Josie Blome, Hallie Bolton , Nick Edmondson, Aaron Elllis, Matthew Franks, Matthew Hosler, Christopher Isaacs, Bryce Lavely, Shelby Miller, Michael Nichols, Haily Olson, Kara O’Toole, Trinitie Patterson, Kaleigh Pratt, Courtney Price, Rainey Strippelhoff, Nicholas Swisher, Evan Taylor.
Sixth Grade Merit Honor Roll
Brittany Bash, Jessica Bauscher, Josh Clancy, Katelyn Forsee, Caitlin Grooms, Kaylin Hoffman, Matthew Lake, Brooke Lanthorn, Teddy Mansfield, Rachael Riffle, Cortney Smith, Tabitha Stevens.
Sixth Grade Honor Roll
Summer Adams, Courtney Bash, Anna Bennett, Sam Blackburn, Jason Chapman, Kaylee Chapman, Sally Corbett, Philip Crowe, Shayna Curtis, Caleb Cyrus, Jacob Cyrus, Christian Faul, Amber Fischer, Sadie Fischesser, Bailey Haas, Lindsay Hayes, Travis Justice, McKayla Kirschner, Jacob Konerman, Zachary Neeley, Austin Niederhelman, Chase McDonald, Ashley Mikles, Noah Scheu, Daniel Stoy, Bradey Strunk, Jude Utsinger, Trace Walriven, Elisabeth Walters, Emily Weitzel, Emily Willhoff, Ashley Willis, Brandin Webb.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monroe Elementary honors veterans
Wednesday was Monroe Elementary's turn to host New Richmond area veterans for breakfast and patriotic programs.
Veterans were hosted by the Monroe Elementary Student Council (Adrian Hawk advisor) whose memebers greeted the veterans at the door and served them breakfast at their tables.
Monroe's veterans program included a reading of an American Legion speech about veterans by Monroe Elementary principal Mark Bailey; a musical program under the direction of Monroe music teacher Sally Lindsley; and a touching reading by Monroe teacher Barbara Holman of Gary Forsee's poem 'Purple Heart' to World War II veteran Joe Golfman, a three-time recipient of the Puble Heart medal.
Click on the images below to watch the individual programs.
Mark Bailey's speech
Monroe students perform for veterans
Barb Holman reads 'Purple Heart'
Veterans were hosted by the Monroe Elementary Student Council (Adrian Hawk advisor) whose memebers greeted the veterans at the door and served them breakfast at their tables.
Monroe's veterans program included a reading of an American Legion speech about veterans by Monroe Elementary principal Mark Bailey; a musical program under the direction of Monroe music teacher Sally Lindsley; and a touching reading by Monroe teacher Barbara Holman of Gary Forsee's poem 'Purple Heart' to World War II veteran Joe Golfman, a three-time recipient of the Puble Heart medal.
Click on the images below to watch the individual programs.
Mark Bailey's speech
Monroe students perform for veterans
Barb Holman reads 'Purple Heart'
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
LCE salute to veterans
Locust Corner Elementary held its annual veterans breakfast on Tuesday.
Click on the photo below to watch LCE's veterans program.
Click on the photo below to watch LCE's veterans program.
Monday, November 8, 2010
NRE's Salute to Veterans
New Richmond Elementary kicked off the New Richmond Exempted Village School District's salute to veterans with its Veterans Breakfast Monday. Locust Corner Elementary will host the veterans for breakfast on Tuesday and Monroe Elementary will host veterans on Wednesday.
New Richmond Elementary's program included a performance by a combined faculty-student choir.
Click on the photo below to watch the New Richmond Elementary's veterans program.
New Richmond Elementary's program included a performance by a combined faculty-student choir.
Click on the photo below to watch the New Richmond Elementary's veterans program.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
UC president visits NRHS
University of Cincinnati president picked New Richmond High School as one of six high schools in Ohio for a speaking tour to promote the Univesity of Cincinnati and the importance of higher education. He visited NRHS Oct. 28 along with Glen Este High School and UC's Clermont and UC East branches in Batavia.
Dr. Williams used his life experience as an example to New Richmond students as an example of the importance of pursuing higher education.
The author of three published books, he wrote his award-winning, "Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black."
As a result of his autobiography, he has been featured on a number of television programs including “Oprah,” “Dateline NBC with Tom Brokaw,” “Larry King Live,” ABC's “Nightline with Ted Koppel” and “Fresh Air with Terri Gross” of National Public Radio.
Click on the photo below to watch Dr. Williams' speech to New Richmond's junior and senior classes.
Dr. Williams is greeted at New Richmond High School Thursday, Oct. 28 by NRHS students (from left) Cody Piper, Nick Williams, Casey White and Kelsey Ober and NRHS principal Diane Spinnati.
Right click here and select Save Target As to download the video
Dr. Williams used his life experience as an example to New Richmond students as an example of the importance of pursuing higher education.
The author of three published books, he wrote his award-winning, "Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black."
As a result of his autobiography, he has been featured on a number of television programs including “Oprah,” “Dateline NBC with Tom Brokaw,” “Larry King Live,” ABC's “Nightline with Ted Koppel” and “Fresh Air with Terri Gross” of National Public Radio.
Click on the photo below to watch Dr. Williams' speech to New Richmond's junior and senior classes.
Dr. Williams is greeted at New Richmond High School Thursday, Oct. 28 by NRHS students (from left) Cody Piper, Nick Williams, Casey White and Kelsey Ober and NRHS principal Diane Spinnati.
Right click here and select Save Target As to download the video
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monroe repeats as Healthy School
Monroe principal Mark Bailey displays the Buckeye Best Healthy School Silver Award for 2010. He is pictured with Curtis Massey, the school's physical educaton teacher, and Bonnie Whittaker, the school's head cook.Monroe Elementary has been honored for the fourth year in a row as a Buckeye Best Healthy School.
Monroe received the Silver Award from the Ohio Department of Health's Healthy Ohio program for the 2009-2010 school year. The school also received the Silver award in 2009 after winning Bronze awards in 2008 and 2007.
The Buckeye Best Healthy Schools Awards recognize schools that demonstrate a commitment to the health and wellness of their students and staff through the establishment of programs and policies that foster such goals. These include improving nutrition, increasing physical activity and stopping or preventing the use of tobacco.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Watch the 2010 Homecoming Parade
The 2010 New Richmond High School Homecoming Parade filled Front Street from Main to the Bandstand.
Click on the photo below to watch the Homecoming Parade.
Right click here and select Save Target As to download the video
Click on the photo below to watch the Homecoming Parade.
Right click here and select Save Target As to download the video
Monroe's Creative Family Art Night
The theme of this year's Monroe Elementary Creative Family Art Night was "Practicing Peace with Art" and attracted more than 100 students and family members.
Creative stations at this year's show included Family Portraits of Peace, Feed the Birds, Monroe Mosaic and Pinwheels for Peace. Donations for this year's show went to the National Audubon Society to help with the clean-up of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Photos for the slideshow video provided by Monroe Visual Arts teacher Adrian Hawk.
Click here to download a copy of this slideshow.
Creative stations at this year's show included Family Portraits of Peace, Feed the Birds, Monroe Mosaic and Pinwheels for Peace. Donations for this year's show went to the National Audubon Society to help with the clean-up of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Photos for the slideshow video provided by Monroe Visual Arts teacher Adrian Hawk.
Click here to download a copy of this slideshow.
NR graduate honored at Arlington
Flags at New Richmond Exempted Village School District's five buildings flew at half mast Thursday, Oct. 7 in honor of Robert Gumbert, member of the New Richmond class of 1967 who was honored Thursday in a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Gumbert, then 22, was on patrol in Vietnam in June 1970 when a land mine exploded and killed Gumbert and several members of his patrol. Gumbert's body was never found, although pieces of his equipment were found. He was listed as missing in action until recently when his status was changed to killed in action qualifying him for a military funeral at Arlington.
Gumbert received full military honors at 9 a.m. Thursday, including the firing of three rifle volleys, the playing of taps and presentation of a flag to the next of kin.
Click here to read about Gumbert and today's Arlington ceremony.
Trevor Helton, 2009 New Richmond graduate, is stationed at Arlington National Cemetery as part of the U.S. Army's Old Guard and Honor Guard, and participates in military ceremonies at Arlington.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Cholkas honored by art association
New Richmond Elementary visual arts specialist Amy Cholkas named Outstanding Art Teacher for 2010 by the Southwest Ohio Art Education Association.Amy Cholkas’ first impulse was to decline the nomination when informed that she was nominated for he Southwest Ohio Art Association’s Outstanding Art Teacher awards for 2010.
As a regional director of the Association, Cholkas was used to honoring other people for the association’s prestigious award, and felt awkward when told that her time had come to be honored.
“I was honored, but I was very surprised because at the time of my nomination I was OAEA’s regional director and I thought maybe I should decline the nomination,” said Cholkas, who was selected from a group of over 230 art educators in Southwest Ohio.
The OAEA board emphatically responded, “No! No! No!”
Cholkas, who has been an art teacher at New Richmond Elementary for the past 11 years, reluctantly accepted the nomination was honored Tuesday, Oct. 5 at the Cincinnati Art Museum as one of two art teachers selected for the 2010 OAEA’s 2010 Outstanding Art Teacher awards. Also being honored at the OAEA’s awards ceremony Tuesday (Oct. 5) is Mariah Campbell Garretson, a visual arts specialist at Lockland.
Amy Cholkas is presented her Southwest Ohio Art Education Association award by Monroe visual art teacher Adrian Hawk, an OAEA regional director.Adrian Hawk, art teacher at New Richmond’s Monroe Elementary, was one of those saying, “No! No! No!” the loudest when Cholkas mentioned declining the nomination.
“Amy is so very deserving of this prestigious honor because of her dedication to her young artists and to art as a discipline,” said Hawk, who succeeded Cholkas as an OAEA’s regional director. “Amy is an outstanding planner and develops very beautiful lessons that engage her students. I am very proud to work with Amy here in New Richmond!”
New Richmond Elementary principal Gary Combs couldn’t agree more.
“Mrs. Cholkas is constantly working on ideas and strategies to incorporate art into the curriculum,” said Combs. “She is very committed to our students at New Richmond Elementary and we appreciate her dedication.”
This is the second year in a row that someone from New Richmond Schools has been honored by the OAEA. Last year, Locust Corner principal Julie Renner received the association’s Distinguished Educator for Art Education Award. That award goes to Thomas Bailey, principal at Three Rivers.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
NRE named School of Promise by state
New Richmond Elementary has been honored by the Ohio Department of Education as a School of Promise for the 2009-2010 school year based on the school’s results of this year’s Ohio School Report Card.
“In being named a School of Promise, your school is part of an elite group of 161schools recognized this year for high achievement in reading or mathematics for all groups of students, despite having 40 percent or more of your students coming from low-income backgrounds,” Deborah S. Delisle, Superintendent of Public Instruction for Ohio, said in a letter to New Richmond Elementary principal Gary Combs.
“I am very honored for our staff, students and parents to be recognized for becoming a School of Promise for the 2009-2010 school year,” said Combs. “It is through hard work, dedication and commitment to meeting the instructional needs of students we achieve this honor. NRE is a great place to be!”
“As a former district superintendent, principal and teacher, I recognize the many challenges associated when working with students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds,” Delisle said in her letter to Combs. “I thank you for your leadership and the commitment of your staff to help all students achieve at high levels. By supporting students and believing in them, you and your staff continue to demonstrate a truly collaborative spirit.”
New Richmond Elementary met all 9 of its state indicators, and, like the other four buildings in the district, received an Excellent rating on the Ohio Department of Education’s 2009-2010 Report Card. NRE was rated as an Effective school on the 2008-2009 state report card, just missing Excellent due to reading scores.
The school made dramatic improvement in its reading scores this time and showed improvement in six of those nine areas over the previous year while achieving the highest score in the district in 3rd grade reading with 91.2 percent of its third graders passing the state test. It’s third grade math score was 90.9.
“This is a tremendous achievement for NRE,” New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird said. “Student learning and growing should be what we are about and I am thankful for all the hard work that goes into our district's Excellent rating.”
“ I encourage each of you to be the leader in your classrooms, buildings, and busses and that you make decisions that help our district address state standards, help all students make adequate yearly progress, and results in at least a year's worth of growth for every student as determined by the value-added measure,” Bird said in an email to the New Richmond EVSD staff.
“In being named a School of Promise, your school is part of an elite group of 161schools recognized this year for high achievement in reading or mathematics for all groups of students, despite having 40 percent or more of your students coming from low-income backgrounds,” Deborah S. Delisle, Superintendent of Public Instruction for Ohio, said in a letter to New Richmond Elementary principal Gary Combs.
“I am very honored for our staff, students and parents to be recognized for becoming a School of Promise for the 2009-2010 school year,” said Combs. “It is through hard work, dedication and commitment to meeting the instructional needs of students we achieve this honor. NRE is a great place to be!”
“As a former district superintendent, principal and teacher, I recognize the many challenges associated when working with students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds,” Delisle said in her letter to Combs. “I thank you for your leadership and the commitment of your staff to help all students achieve at high levels. By supporting students and believing in them, you and your staff continue to demonstrate a truly collaborative spirit.”
New Richmond Elementary met all 9 of its state indicators, and, like the other four buildings in the district, received an Excellent rating on the Ohio Department of Education’s 2009-2010 Report Card. NRE was rated as an Effective school on the 2008-2009 state report card, just missing Excellent due to reading scores.
The school made dramatic improvement in its reading scores this time and showed improvement in six of those nine areas over the previous year while achieving the highest score in the district in 3rd grade reading with 91.2 percent of its third graders passing the state test. It’s third grade math score was 90.9.
“This is a tremendous achievement for NRE,” New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird said. “Student learning and growing should be what we are about and I am thankful for all the hard work that goes into our district's Excellent rating.”
“ I encourage each of you to be the leader in your classrooms, buildings, and busses and that you make decisions that help our district address state standards, help all students make adequate yearly progress, and results in at least a year's worth of growth for every student as determined by the value-added measure,” Bird said in an email to the New Richmond EVSD staff.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
NRE is a Buckeye Best Healthy School
New Richmond Elementary Principal Gary Combs (right), New Richmond food service director Brenda Young and NRE physical education teacher John Bagley show off the Buckeye Best Healthy School Award the school received for its promotion of nutrition, physical education and drug prevention.New Richmond Elementary has received the Silver Award from the Ohio Department of Health's Healthy Ohio program for the 2009-2010 school year.
The Buckeye Best Healthy Schools Awards recognize schools that demonstrate a commitment to the health and wellness of their students and staff through the establishment of programs and policies that foster such goals. These include improving nutrition, increasing physical activity and stopping or preventing the use of tobacco.
"It’s a combination of nutrition education, nutrition in our cafeteria along with our physical education program and our drug abuse education," said NRE principal Gary Combs. "Last year we achieved the Gold award, this year we got the Silver Award and our goal is to go back up to the Gold next year."
Monday, September 20, 2010
School finances take center stage
The Financial Planning Committee that is advising the Finance and Audit Committee of the New Richmond Board of Education will meet again at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14 at the Board office in the Market Street School.
The meeting is open to the public and public participation is encouraged.
New Richmond faces a certain loss of $8 million a year in revenue in 2016 due to utility deregulation and a possible additional loss of $1.4 million a year if Duke Energy wins its appeal on the amount of personal property taxes it pays. The $8 million deregulation payment represents 30% of the district’s revenue.
Board members David Painter and Fred Heflin make up the board’s Finance and Audit committee. Scott Henderson, Jeanie Williams and Joe Middeler from the New Richmond business community, and parents Laura Jones, Rich Grogan and Mark Miller make up the financial planning committee to advise New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird, who has been asked by the Board to prioritize steps the board can take to offset the loss of revenue.
Current district revenue is $26,955,806 including funds put in escrow in case Duke wins its personal property tax appeal. Current expenditures total $25,331,121.
Superintendent Bird presented a list of 20 possible cuts and five possible revenues options at the Sept. 23 meeting of the committee.
The list of options included:
1. Reduction in primary level teachers.
2. Reduction in secondary level teachers.
3. Reduction in art/music/PE/technology teachers.
4. Reduction in custodians.
5. Reduction in aides.
6. Reduction in bussing to state minimum.
7. Reduction in the number of athletic teams offered.
8. Reduction in staff salaries.
9. Pay freeze for all staff.
10. Provide additional retirement incentive.
11. Mandatory furlough for hourly staff.
12. Fluid elementary boundaries that allow for yearly change.
13. Reduction or cuts in field trips.
14. Reduction in the purchase of curricular material.
15. Close/sell Market Street Building.
16. Close/sell maintenance building on Front Street.
17. Close/sell New Richmond Middle School.
18. Eliminate optional pre-school.
19. Do not hire sub custodians.
20. Adjust start of school day to save transportation costs.
Options for future revenue included:
1. An income tax levy.
2. A property tax levy.
3. Move inside millage.
4. Pay to participate for athletics.
5. Building levy for new music wing.
“We have an opportunity to manage the situation, or the situation will manage us,” Painter told the meeting, which included concerned citizens, parents and a representative of New Richmond’s classified employees’ union. “We have to make up $8 million and we can’t make it up in cuts alone.”
Heflin referred to a recent study by the Ohio Department of Education that said New Richmond as overstaffed compared to state minimum requirements and sees it as a positive for the district.
“Yes we are overstaffed, but it’s because we have a lot of AP (Advanced Placement) courses at the high school and because we prefer not to have 24 or 25 students in a classroom,” said Heflin. “The community has to ask, ‘Do we want to go to the state minimum or do we want to pay to have better results.’”
Bird, who hopes to have a report ready for the Board to review by early next year, asked the Financial Planning Committee to look over the lists of possible cuts and revenues and begin prioritizing items on the list at the Oct. 14 meeting.
“There’s a reason people want to come to school here,” said Bird, who noted New Richmond will receive $750,000 this year from its 131 open enrollment students. “It’s because we have great schools, great facilities and great teachers.”
“Our committee needs to look at the list of potential cuts and see what we need to do six months from now, a year from now and two years from now and then we can reevaluate.”
Superintendent Adam Bird removes the largest piece of New Richmond's revenue pie showing how much the district will lose in 2016 when the state stops making its $8 million annual deregulation reimbursement payments.
The meeting is open to the public and public participation is encouraged.
New Richmond faces a certain loss of $8 million a year in revenue in 2016 due to utility deregulation and a possible additional loss of $1.4 million a year if Duke Energy wins its appeal on the amount of personal property taxes it pays. The $8 million deregulation payment represents 30% of the district’s revenue.Board members David Painter and Fred Heflin make up the board’s Finance and Audit committee. Scott Henderson, Jeanie Williams and Joe Middeler from the New Richmond business community, and parents Laura Jones, Rich Grogan and Mark Miller make up the financial planning committee to advise New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird, who has been asked by the Board to prioritize steps the board can take to offset the loss of revenue.
Current district revenue is $26,955,806 including funds put in escrow in case Duke wins its personal property tax appeal. Current expenditures total $25,331,121.
Superintendent Bird presented a list of 20 possible cuts and five possible revenues options at the Sept. 23 meeting of the committee.
The list of options included:
1. Reduction in primary level teachers.
2. Reduction in secondary level teachers.
3. Reduction in art/music/PE/technology teachers.
4. Reduction in custodians.
5. Reduction in aides.
6. Reduction in bussing to state minimum.
7. Reduction in the number of athletic teams offered.
8. Reduction in staff salaries.
9. Pay freeze for all staff.
10. Provide additional retirement incentive.
11. Mandatory furlough for hourly staff.
12. Fluid elementary boundaries that allow for yearly change.
13. Reduction or cuts in field trips.
14. Reduction in the purchase of curricular material.
15. Close/sell Market Street Building.
16. Close/sell maintenance building on Front Street.
17. Close/sell New Richmond Middle School.
18. Eliminate optional pre-school.
19. Do not hire sub custodians.
20. Adjust start of school day to save transportation costs.
Options for future revenue included:
1. An income tax levy.
2. A property tax levy.
3. Move inside millage.
4. Pay to participate for athletics.
5. Building levy for new music wing.
“We have an opportunity to manage the situation, or the situation will manage us,” Painter told the meeting, which included concerned citizens, parents and a representative of New Richmond’s classified employees’ union. “We have to make up $8 million and we can’t make it up in cuts alone.”
Heflin referred to a recent study by the Ohio Department of Education that said New Richmond as overstaffed compared to state minimum requirements and sees it as a positive for the district.
“Yes we are overstaffed, but it’s because we have a lot of AP (Advanced Placement) courses at the high school and because we prefer not to have 24 or 25 students in a classroom,” said Heflin. “The community has to ask, ‘Do we want to go to the state minimum or do we want to pay to have better results.’”
Bird, who hopes to have a report ready for the Board to review by early next year, asked the Financial Planning Committee to look over the lists of possible cuts and revenues and begin prioritizing items on the list at the Oct. 14 meeting.
“There’s a reason people want to come to school here,” said Bird, who noted New Richmond will receive $750,000 this year from its 131 open enrollment students. “It’s because we have great schools, great facilities and great teachers.”
“Our committee needs to look at the list of potential cuts and see what we need to do six months from now, a year from now and two years from now and then we can reevaluate.”
Superintendent Adam Bird removes the largest piece of New Richmond's revenue pie showing how much the district will lose in 2016 when the state stops making its $8 million annual deregulation reimbursement payments.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Adam Bird previews superintendent’s report
New Richmond superintendent of schools Adam Bird has outlined his superintendent’s report for the Sept. 16 meeting of the New Richmond Board of Education to be held at 7 p.m. at New Richmond High School.
His report will include a discussion of SHP Leading Design (architects of the high school renovation project), new fire lanes on the road between the high school and middle school and a preview of the School Board Finance committee and District Leadership Team meeting to be held at 8 a.m. Sept. 24 at the board office at the Market Street School.
“SHP will be leading the board on a tour of the remodeled high school at the start of the meeting and the public is welcome to join,” said Bird.
Bird encourages the public to attend the Sept. 24 meeting which will discuss school finances.
“The 24th is an open meeting and we encourage everyone to attend,” said Bird. “Among the items to be discussed will be our options to reduce expenditures and options for creating revenues.”
New Richmond faces a loss of $8 million a year beginning in 2016 when the state stops reimbursing local governments for tax revenues lost due to utility deregulation. The district currently spends $26 million per year.
His report will include a discussion of SHP Leading Design (architects of the high school renovation project), new fire lanes on the road between the high school and middle school and a preview of the School Board Finance committee and District Leadership Team meeting to be held at 8 a.m. Sept. 24 at the board office at the Market Street School.
“SHP will be leading the board on a tour of the remodeled high school at the start of the meeting and the public is welcome to join,” said Bird.
Bird encourages the public to attend the Sept. 24 meeting which will discuss school finances.
“The 24th is an open meeting and we encourage everyone to attend,” said Bird. “Among the items to be discussed will be our options to reduce expenditures and options for creating revenues.”
New Richmond faces a loss of $8 million a year beginning in 2016 when the state stops reimbursing local governments for tax revenues lost due to utility deregulation. The district currently spends $26 million per year.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
NRHS promoting safe teen driving
The New Richmond High School athletic department is teaming with American Family Insurance to promote safe driving by teenagers and can win $15,000 in a contest to see which high school can get the most pledges. New Richmond is currently in 4th place in its division.
You can help New Richmond win the $15,000 by going to www.teensafedriverpledge.com/ and filling out the pledge form. Anyone 14 or older (including students, parents, siblings, relatives and friends) can complete the Teen Safe Driver Pledge so please forward this information to your contacts and ask them to take the pledge for New Richmond High School.
You can help New Richmond win the $15,000 by going to www.teensafedriverpledge.com/ and filling out the pledge form. Anyone 14 or older (including students, parents, siblings, relatives and friends) can complete the Teen Safe Driver Pledge so please forward this information to your contacts and ask them to take the pledge for New Richmond High School.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
District honored by commissioners
New Richmond was one of eight Clermont County schools recognized at Wednesday's meeting of the Clermont County Commissioners for achieving Excellent ratings in the 2010 Ohio Department of Education report card on Ohio schools.
Click here to watch
Click here to watch
New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird (far right) is pictured with (from left) Bethel Tate Superintendent James Smith, Amy Wells (Bethel Tate), Goshen Superintendent Charlene Thomas, Sue Steele (Goshen), Clermont Northeastern Superintendent Neil Leist; (back row) Milford Superintendent Dr. Robert Farrell, West Clermont Superintendent Dr. Gary Brooks, Felicity Franklin Superintendent Glenn Moore, Commissioner Bob Proud, Todd Shinkle (Goshen), Commissioner Ed Humphrey and Batavia Superintendent Jill Grubb.
The recognition ceremony will be televised at 6 p.m. Friday and again at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturday on the Clermont County Government Channel (18) on Time Warner Cable.
"It was a great pleasure for me to represent NREVSD at the Clermont County Commissioner's Meeting yesterday," said New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird in a communication to the district's staff. "All of the schools in Clermont County with Excellent ratings or Excellent with Distinction ratings were recognized.
"Thanks for everyone's hard work and effort! We already knew that we have an Excellent school district but it is nice to have it recognized by the state of Ohio and by Clermont County."
New Richmond was rated Excellent in 2010 for a third straight year with all buildings meeting all state indicators. The disrict missed the highest Excellent with Distinction rating by .7 of a point.
"I trust that we are already hard at work this year covering the state standards in all subject areas," said Bird. "It is important for everyone to know how we can qualify for the "Distinction" rating this coming year. We have to meet all indicators (like we did this year) AND we have to have a Value-Added rating of 'Above'."
Value-Added is calculated from Reading and Math in grades 4-8, and students must EXCEED the "Expected Growth Standard" on these two tests.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Patriot Day program is Saturday
New Richmond High School's Troubadours and Band will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday at New Richmond's Patriot Day program at the village band stand. Bill Knepp, town crier for Clermont County and the Village of New Richmond, will be the Patriot Day speaker.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Adam Bird's State of District Report
New Richmond Superintend of Schools Adam Bird gives his 2010 State of The District Report.
Malea Roberson's rousing performance
New Richmond Middle School 7th grade student Malea Roberson delighted the district staff with this performance at Monday's New Richmond Schools Opening Convocation.
Click on the Play button to watch Malea's performance.
Click on the Play button to watch Malea's performance.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Excellent again in 2010
This is a a video of the 2010 Opening Convocation presentation by John Frye, Director of Pupil and Staff Services for New Richmond Schools, highlighting our third consecutive EXCELLENT rating in the Ohio Board of Education's school report card.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Smooth first day for rennovated NRHS
New Richmond High School principal Diane Spinnati had a reason to be walking the halls of her rennovated building other than it being the first day of the 2010-2011 school year with 180 freshman students trying to find their way to their classrooms.
"I don't have a desk," she explained. "My desk was damaged during the move out and the replacement hasn't arrived yet."
What Spinnati saw during her hallway strolls took away any anxiety she might have had over opening the school year with her staff having only 1 1/2 work days to get their rooms ready for the influx of 700 students on Wednesday.
"Our staff and students were just amazing," she said. "I was extremely pleased with the freshmen who did not get an orientation because of the construction. They didn't have any problems."
It was touch and go for some teachers to get their rooms ready by Wednesday morning, especially art teachers Amy Hauserman and Stacy Gibbons who had more material than most to put away.
Amy Hauserman works Tuesday afternoon to get her art room ready by 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Amy Hauserman's classroom on Wednesday.
"I don't have a desk," she explained. "My desk was damaged during the move out and the replacement hasn't arrived yet."
What Spinnati saw during her hallway strolls took away any anxiety she might have had over opening the school year with her staff having only 1 1/2 work days to get their rooms ready for the influx of 700 students on Wednesday.
"Our staff and students were just amazing," she said. "I was extremely pleased with the freshmen who did not get an orientation because of the construction. They didn't have any problems."
It was touch and go for some teachers to get their rooms ready by Wednesday morning, especially art teachers Amy Hauserman and Stacy Gibbons who had more material than most to put away.
New Richmond High School art teacher Stacy Gibbons reacts to the dozens of boxes of art supplies that had to be put away less than 18 hours before her students arrived for the first day of school.
This was the scene in Stacy Gibbons' art room on Wednesday.
Amy Hauserman works Tuesday afternoon to get her art room ready by 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Amy Hauserman's classroom on Wednesday.
Students greeted by new computer labs
New Richmond’s elementary and middle school students returning to school this week and were greeted with 450 new computers, 25-station computer labs and SuccessMaker software to help them with reading and math.
The computers and software were purchased as part of a $790,815.39 grant the district received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus). The grant also provided two new handicapped equipped school buses for the district fleet ($185,000) and an additional $313,153 for the Title 1 program designed for improving the academic achievement of disadvantaged students in the district.
Matt Pritchard (right), technology director for New Richmond Schools, goes over plans for the deployment of 445 new computers with John Frye, the district's Director of Public and Staff Services.
New Richmond spent $133,000 for 445 computers refurbished HP desktop dual-core Pentium 4 computers running Windows7. Each classroom at New Richmond’s three elementary schools and the middle school got three computers along with new 25-station computer labs.
“It’s been five years since we last upgraded computers at New Richmond,” noted Matt Pritchard, technology director for New Richmond schools. “The new computers they are replacing are slow, outdated Pentium 3 machines and will run Person SuccessMaker K to 8 intervention software in reading and math at all three elementary schools and middle school and at the high school special ed classrooms.”
John Frye, Director of Public and Staff Services for New Richmond Schools, wrote the federal grant application and said the addition of the new computers to run the Success Maker software will help improve student performance in reading and math in grades 3-8 and 10.
“The Pearson Success Maker program is not new to the New Richmond Schools,” said Frye. “The program was originally acquired by a teacher team at New Richmond Elementary through a grant several years ago and has been successful at NRE. With the Stimulus grant, we are able to replicate that successful program in all five buildings.”
Success Maker is an intervention program designed to provide individual intervention supports for students at their level in reading and math. All students K-8 and in high school special education classes will have access to the program.
“Student performance in reading and math in grades 3-8 and 10 are the measurement that determines a district’s progress toward adequate yearly progress goals established by the State of Ohio in response to the federal mandates in No Child Left Behind,” said Frye.
The computers and software were purchased as part of a $790,815.39 grant the district received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus). The grant also provided two new handicapped equipped school buses for the district fleet ($185,000) and an additional $313,153 for the Title 1 program designed for improving the academic achievement of disadvantaged students in the district.
Matt Pritchard (right), technology director for New Richmond Schools, goes over plans for the deployment of 445 new computers with John Frye, the district's Director of Public and Staff Services.New Richmond spent $133,000 for 445 computers refurbished HP desktop dual-core Pentium 4 computers running Windows7. Each classroom at New Richmond’s three elementary schools and the middle school got three computers along with new 25-station computer labs.
“It’s been five years since we last upgraded computers at New Richmond,” noted Matt Pritchard, technology director for New Richmond schools. “The new computers they are replacing are slow, outdated Pentium 3 machines and will run Person SuccessMaker K to 8 intervention software in reading and math at all three elementary schools and middle school and at the high school special ed classrooms.”
John Frye, Director of Public and Staff Services for New Richmond Schools, wrote the federal grant application and said the addition of the new computers to run the Success Maker software will help improve student performance in reading and math in grades 3-8 and 10.
“The Pearson Success Maker program is not new to the New Richmond Schools,” said Frye. “The program was originally acquired by a teacher team at New Richmond Elementary through a grant several years ago and has been successful at NRE. With the Stimulus grant, we are able to replicate that successful program in all five buildings.”
Success Maker is an intervention program designed to provide individual intervention supports for students at their level in reading and math. All students K-8 and in high school special education classes will have access to the program.
“Student performance in reading and math in grades 3-8 and 10 are the measurement that determines a district’s progress toward adequate yearly progress goals established by the State of Ohio in response to the federal mandates in No Child Left Behind,” said Frye.
Cheering the start of school
New Richmond High School's cheerleaders and pep band helped superintendent Adam Bird kick off the 2010-2011 school year at Monday's Opening Convocation program.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Retiring teachers recognized
at Opening Convocation
New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird recognized retiring teachers Carole Snider, Bonnie Faubion, Kim Fultz and Jan Gemma at Monday's Opening Convocation to kick off the 2010-11 school year.
Picture (from left) are Carole Snider, Bonnie Faubion, Kim Fultz and Jan Gemma.
Click on the play button below to watch the program.
Paul Bronhaver, pictured with superintendent Adam Bird, gave the Distinguished Alumni Speech at Monday's Opening Convocation. Bronhaver, who was a classmate of Superintendent Bird, was severely wounded while serving in Iraq in 2004.
NREVSD's got a spirited welcome back from the NRHS varsity cheerleaders and pep band.
Picture (from left) are Carole Snider, Bonnie Faubion, Kim Fultz and Jan Gemma.Click on the play button below to watch the program.
Paul Bronhaver, pictured with superintendent Adam Bird, gave the Distinguished Alumni Speech at Monday's Opening Convocation. Bronhaver, who was a classmate of Superintendent Bird, was severely wounded while serving in Iraq in 2004.
NREVSD's got a spirited welcome back from the NRHS varsity cheerleaders and pep band.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Adam Bird reports on retreat
New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird reports on the Aug. 13-14 School Board Retreat when board members, administrators and union leaders disucces challenges facing the New Richmond Exempted Village School District.
Click on the play button below to watch the report.
Click on the play button below to watch the report.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Introducing Court Lilly
Court Lilly brings eight years of experience as an assistant principal to his new job as principal at New Richmond Middle School in a career that has taken him from the inner city of Toledo to the cornfields of Highland County, Ohio.
Click on the play button below to meet the NRMS principal.
Click on the play button below to meet the NRMS principal.
Monday, August 16, 2010
High School renovation on schedule
Former New Richmond superintendent Tom Durbin, who is supervising the completion of the high school renovation until his official retirement Aug. 31, is confident the project will be completed in time for a smooth start of school on Aug. 25.
"Everything is looking great," said Durbin during his Monday inspection, who noted that furniture has been moved back into all but a couple rooms on the third floor and about half of the second floor rooms.
Workers finish installing cabinets in a second-floor art room Monday.
Cabinets for science and art rooms had been a concern since they were special orders, but they arrived last week and have been installed.
"The only major thing we're waiting on now are the new locksets for the doors," said Durbin. "The locksets are keyed at the factory for security reasons."
Jeff Platt, project superintendent for general contractor Kramer and Feldman, has scheduled the final electrical and plumbing inspections for Thursday, August 19.
"That gives us Friday to correct any problems," said Platt.
Classrooms on the third floor and half the rooms on the renovated second floor are ready for students who return Aug. 25.
High school secretaries Marsha Foresee (left) and Becky Lewis get an update on the status of the high school offices from construction supervisor Tom Durbin.
"Everything is looking great," said Durbin during his Monday inspection, who noted that furniture has been moved back into all but a couple rooms on the third floor and about half of the second floor rooms.
Workers finish installing cabinets in a second-floor art room Monday.Cabinets for science and art rooms had been a concern since they were special orders, but they arrived last week and have been installed.
"The only major thing we're waiting on now are the new locksets for the doors," said Durbin. "The locksets are keyed at the factory for security reasons."
Jeff Platt, project superintendent for general contractor Kramer and Feldman, has scheduled the final electrical and plumbing inspections for Thursday, August 19.
"That gives us Friday to correct any problems," said Platt.
Classrooms on the third floor and half the rooms on the renovated second floor are ready for students who return Aug. 25.
High school secretaries Marsha Foresee (left) and Becky Lewis get an update on the status of the high school offices from construction supervisor Tom Durbin.
Bus route schedules available online
New Richmond EVSD transportation director Wayne Pescott has posted district bus routes for the 2010-11 school year with estimated pickup and dropoff times for every road and street in the district at www.nrschools.org/transportation.htm.
Links to individual school routes are:
Locust Corner Elementary
Monroe Elementary
New Richmond Elementary
New Richmond High School and Middle School
"Bus information will be revised and updated after the second week of school to reflect actual pickup and dropoff times," said Prescott.
Links to individual school routes are:
Locust Corner Elementary
Monroe Elementary
New Richmond Elementary
New Richmond High School and Middle School
"Bus information will be revised and updated after the second week of school to reflect actual pickup and dropoff times," said Prescott.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
District overstaffed according to state
A staffing analysis performed by the Ohio Department of Education will be on the agenda Friday and Saturday when the New Richmond Exempted Village School Board, administrators and union presidents meet in a retreat at the Market Street School to develop a plan for the district.
Larry Grooms presents his staffing report at a special school board meeting.
According a report submitted to the school board Aug. 7 by Larry Grooms, a school finance coordinator with ODE’s Mason district office, New Richmond is overstaffed in most areas including classroom teachers.
“The staffing analysis by the State Board of Education validated what I think many of us believed, that compared to similar districts we are overstaffed in several areas,” said New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird. “It has significant meaning for our district when we have someone from the state Department of Education come in and tell us we have too many teachers.”
New Richmond employed 31.82 classroom teachers in excess of state minimum requirements during its 2010 fiscal year and 22.38 teachers above comparable districts at an estimated cost of $85,655 per teachers including benefits.
New Richmond employed 21.99 Educational Service Personnel (ESP) during FY2010 which in 11.94 positions above comparable districts. ESP personnel include counselors, music teachers, PE teachers, instructional aides, bus drives and custodians.
In addition to classroom personnel, the analysis found that New Richmond has 1.79 bookkeeping personnel per 1000 students, 1.10 bus drives per 1000 students and 3.63 custodians per 1000 students above comparable districts.
New Richmond, which faces a loss of $8 million a year after 2016 when the state stops reimbursing the district for money lost due to electrical utility deregulation, spends 77 percent of its $26 million annual budget on salaries and benefits.
“When we look at it in light of the fact that we know our revenue is going to be decreasing dramatically by almost a third of our budget, it has a huge impact on our school district,” said Bird. “I think our community and staff need to know that we can’t cut enough in order to balance our budget. The cutting of our expenses is going to have to be balanced by an increase in revenue.
“And our school board and our administrators are going to be meeting and looking closely at those issues.”
One area the ODE report found New Richmond wasn’t overstaffed was in administration. The district is down to 11 administrators, well under other Clermont County schools (16.3 average) and the state average (18.0) in the report.
The number of administrators dropped by one this week when Jay Blavatt, vice principal at the high school, resigned to take a job in Plant City, Florida.
“That position will not be replaced,” Bird said.
Regardless of cuts the district will be forced to make in the future, Bird said the district is committed to maintaining its high academic standard.
“We are an excellent school district and we believe we will be excellent with distinction this year, and we want to continue to be an excellent school district for our community,” said Bird.
“That’s always going to be our expectation and that expectation is not going to drop, but we are going to have to do it with less resources and at some point we are going to have to go to the good people of our community and ask for their help.”
Read the staffing report
Larry Grooms presents his staffing report at a special school board meeting.According a report submitted to the school board Aug. 7 by Larry Grooms, a school finance coordinator with ODE’s Mason district office, New Richmond is overstaffed in most areas including classroom teachers.
“The staffing analysis by the State Board of Education validated what I think many of us believed, that compared to similar districts we are overstaffed in several areas,” said New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird. “It has significant meaning for our district when we have someone from the state Department of Education come in and tell us we have too many teachers.”
New Richmond employed 31.82 classroom teachers in excess of state minimum requirements during its 2010 fiscal year and 22.38 teachers above comparable districts at an estimated cost of $85,655 per teachers including benefits.
New Richmond employed 21.99 Educational Service Personnel (ESP) during FY2010 which in 11.94 positions above comparable districts. ESP personnel include counselors, music teachers, PE teachers, instructional aides, bus drives and custodians.
In addition to classroom personnel, the analysis found that New Richmond has 1.79 bookkeeping personnel per 1000 students, 1.10 bus drives per 1000 students and 3.63 custodians per 1000 students above comparable districts.New Richmond, which faces a loss of $8 million a year after 2016 when the state stops reimbursing the district for money lost due to electrical utility deregulation, spends 77 percent of its $26 million annual budget on salaries and benefits.
“When we look at it in light of the fact that we know our revenue is going to be decreasing dramatically by almost a third of our budget, it has a huge impact on our school district,” said Bird. “I think our community and staff need to know that we can’t cut enough in order to balance our budget. The cutting of our expenses is going to have to be balanced by an increase in revenue.
“And our school board and our administrators are going to be meeting and looking closely at those issues.”
One area the ODE report found New Richmond wasn’t overstaffed was in administration. The district is down to 11 administrators, well under other Clermont County schools (16.3 average) and the state average (18.0) in the report.
The number of administrators dropped by one this week when Jay Blavatt, vice principal at the high school, resigned to take a job in Plant City, Florida.
“That position will not be replaced,” Bird said.
Regardless of cuts the district will be forced to make in the future, Bird said the district is committed to maintaining its high academic standard.
“We are an excellent school district and we believe we will be excellent with distinction this year, and we want to continue to be an excellent school district for our community,” said Bird.
“That’s always going to be our expectation and that expectation is not going to drop, but we are going to have to do it with less resources and at some point we are going to have to go to the good people of our community and ask for their help.”
Read the staffing report
Monday, August 2, 2010
Move back begins on 3rd floor
New Richmond High School's custodians began moving furniture back into third floor classrooms Monday, Aug. 2 while work crews continue to get the 2nd floor finished in time for the start of fall classes Aug. 25.
Only minor work remains before the third floor is complete, including re-installing door hardware and waxing and buffing the hallways.
High School custodian Doug Reese moves a table back into a third floor classroom.
Work on third floor classrooms is complete with rooms getting new floors, ceilings and lighting.
A drywall finishers puts the finish coat on the high school office on the second floor.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Adam Bird named new superintendent
Adam Bird was hired as superintendent of New Richmond Schools at Thursday night's board meeting to replace retiring superintendent Tom Durbin. Bird has spent the last 12 years as an administrator at New Richmond, the last 7 as principal at New Richmond Middle School.
Bird, a New Richmond graduate, talks about the challenges he faces in his new job in this video interview. Click on the play button to watch.
Bird, a New Richmond graduate, talks about the challenges he faces in his new job in this video interview. Click on the play button to watch.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Distinction rating possible for NREVSD
Retiring superintendent Tom Durbin discusses New Richmond's chances of being rated Excellent with Distinction when the Ohio Department of Education releases its final 2010 state report card.
Click on the Play button below to watch the video.
Click on the Play button below to watch the video.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
New Richmond's Road to Excellence
John Frye, New Richmond's Director of Student and Staff Services, breaks down the 2010 Ohio state report cards for the New Richmond Exempted Village School District.
Click on the play button below to watch the video.
Click on the play button below to watch the video.
Friday, July 23, 2010
High School renovation update
The New Richmond High School renovation project remains on schedule for an August 19 or earlier completion in time for the start of the 2010-2011 school year.
Retiring superintendent Tom Durbin inspects a third-floor classroom Thursday, July 22. The boxes contain ceiling tiles which should be installed by the end of this week following an electrical inspection.
"The asbestos people are finished and have moved out (July 22)and everything is on schedule," said retiring superintendent Tom Durbin, who is overseeing the completion of the project before his retirement Aug. 31. "The only concern we have is the new cabinets which were special ordered because of the space they must fit."
The second and third floors of the original high school building (built in 1965) are getting a complete facelift in this first phase of the $977,000 project. The bottom floor will be renovated during the summer break in 2011. The project includes the removal of all asbestos, new wiring, lighting, floors and ceilings.
An electrician does some last minute checks before the July 22 electrical inspection on the third floor. The new lighting system includes energy saving sensors which will automatically turn lights on when someone enters a classroom and turn lights off when everyone leaves the room.
Work on the third floor should be completed by the end of July.
"The painters are almost done on the third floor and they are ready to start re-hanging the refinished doors," said Durbin. "They will start installing the ceiling tiles after an electrical inspection (July 22) and then wax the new floors."
Workers from Central Insulation Systems completed asbestos removal from the high school and moved out July 22.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
