Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Talent Show to benefit NRHS band

The 2012 New Richmond High School Talent Show is Friday, March 16 at the high school auditorium with a daytime performance for students and a 7 p.m. night performance for the general public. Proceeds from the show will benefit the New Richmond High School band.

Tickets for the evening show will be available at the door on Friday, March 16 beginning at 6 p.m.

The Talent Show will feature several student bands, as well as vocalists and dancers along with a performance by the NRHS Drum Line. The evening show will include additional vocals and instrumentals featuring elementary students from Monroe and Locust Corner.

The New Richmond High School band, under the direction of Mr. Michael McKinley and John Wright, is expected to grow to around 100 students next school year from the current 80.

“New uniforms are desperately needed (and extremely expensive) and we would definitely benefit from some new instruments,” said event organizer Sue Griffin. “Many students district-wide are involved in the instrumental music program and it's great to see expanded interest, but that expanded interest brings some financial concerns that this benefit will hopefully alleviate a little bit.”

Monday, February 27, 2012

Driver Tim Hoess is retiring

New Richmond's Transportation Department honored retiring bus driver Tim Hoess with a luncheon Monday. Tim's last day of driving district children to their schools will be Feb. 29. He is pictured with NREVSD superintendent Adam Bird.

Friday, February 24, 2012

NRE artwork selected for state displays

Two New Richmond Elementary art students have had their artwork selected for display in Columbus during March.

First grade student Makaila Burnham will have her mixed media artwork displayed at the Youth Art Month Exhibit at the State Teacher's Retirement System Building in Columbus, March 1-March 31st.
Makaila Burnham's Mixed Media

Fifth grade student Everett Olenick's graphite pencil artwork was selected for the Young People's Art Exhibit at the Ohio Department of Education from February 27th- March 27th.
Everett Olenick's graphite pencil artwork

NRMS students impress Board members
with their Future Cities project

New Richmond Middle School’s Future Cities team didn’t get a chance to present their project to state judges but they got excellent reviews from the New Richmond Board of Education when they presented their concept of a city of the future at the board’s Feb. 21 meeting.

After weeks of design and construction, the NRMS students were prevented from participating in the final segment of the 2012 National Engineers Week Future City Competition in Columbus due to hazardous weather conditions.
New Richmond Middle School students (from left) Carter Light, Jesse Noble, Kendal Warren, Katie Schlaak, Kelsey Nichols, Tim Hammer and Erin O'toole and faculty advisor Pamela Hughes (back left) present their 2012 Future Cities project to the New Richmond Board of Education. Hazardous road conditions prevented the students from participating in the state Future Cities competition in Columbus.

“The fifth component was a 7-8 minute presentation in front of a panel of professional engineers and scientists followed by a 7-8 minute question and answer period,” explained faculty advisor Pamela Hughes. “The only icy day of the year so far this winter was the day of the competition which has strict requirements and deadlines.”

Future Cities is a competition for middle school students sponsored by National Engineers Week. The competition has five components: students had to research and write an essay about renewable energy resources, use Sim City software to design a virtual city, write a city narrative providing an overview of the city, construct a scale model of part of the city and make a 7-8 minute presentation in front of a panel of professional engineers and scientists followed by a 7-8 minute question and answer period.

"It's very obvious the amount of time, creativity, research, and thought that went into completing this very in depth project," said Board president Kevin Walriven. "It's this type of effort that proves to us all why we are an 'Excellent with Distinction' School District."

“The Board appreciates the students and their teacher and parents spending time to show and present the Future Cities presentation to the School Board,” said Board vice president David Hawkins. “It is always nice to see presentations from our students so the Board and the public can see some of their outstanding work.”

Mr. Tom Andrews, a former NRMS parent, was the engineer mentor for our team.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

2nd Annual LCE Soup-err Bowl

The Locust Corner Elementary had their 2nd Annual Soup-er Bowl during the week of the Super Bowl. Students were invited to bring in food donations to the New Richmond Food Pantry. Students were asked to place the items in the box of the team they wanted to win the Super Bowl.

On Wednesday we offered a little competition among the grade levels. The PreK-2nd grade students beat the 3-6 grade students in bringing in the most items in one day. On Thursday the students had to “pay” in a food item to be able to wear their favorite team jersey. On Friday the students had to “pay” again in a food item to wear a hat in school. All together the students collected 754 items to be donated to the New Richmond Food Pantry. The final score was Patriots 235 and Giants 519.

Thanks to the following Student Council members for all their hard work in advertising, boxing, and collecting items throughout the week: Cameron Frazier, Drew Tufarella, Jenna McDowell, Mandy Brewer, Kiana Chumley, Ukiah Kirschner, Cheyenne Young, Allie Bird, Joel Bird, Ellie Feld, Gabrielle Arvizu, Brooklyn Edgar, Leeta Gullett, and Grace Howe. A special thanks to Mr. Al Curlin for organizing our boxes for the Food Pantry.

Erin Parker
Third Grade Teacher
Locust Corner Elementary

Local 12's John Gumm visits NRE

WKRC Local 12 meteorologist John Gumm presented his weather program to the New Richmond Elementary 4th grade classes of Meredith Zimmerman, Karen Cahall and Pat Conrad.

He was assisted by students Leasia Mathis, Tye Couch, Brandon Cole, Lexi Strunk,
Shelly Kirtley, Randy Hammons, Lily Jones, Destiny Houser and Christine Smith.

Click on the photo below to watch a slideshow of the program.


Right click here and select Save Target As to download the video

Friday, February 17, 2012

Principal Spinnati attends Senior Night

New Richmond High School principal Diana Spinnati, who is on medical leave while she battles serious medical problems, gets a warm welcome from New Richmond's varsity cheerleaders Friday when she made an appearance at the Senior Night basketall game against Goshen. (Adam Bird photo)

Friday, February 10, 2012

NRMS science team finishes strong
against national competition

New Richmond Middle School’s Science Olympiad team finished 21st out of 42 schools in a national invitational tournament held at Wright State University in January.

“As Wright State will host the 2013 National Tournament, many top teams from around the country participated, making this one of the most competitive tournaments in the nation,” noted NRMS Science Olympiad advisor Josh Grischow.

7th graders Joey Hammil and Daniel Weiskittel relax after Geologic Mapping competition, not yet realizing they finished in 1st place

New Richmond competed in the 6th-9th grade division which was won by three-time defending Ohio and four-time defending national champion Solon Middle School with nine-time defending Georgia state champion J.C. Booth Middle School finishing second.

“I was extremely proud of our team,” said Grischow. “This was the first time we have entered an invitational tournament with most of our students being new to Science Olympiad.”

NRMS won awards in two scored events. Freshmen Marie Bezold and Jenny Roberts took 5th place in Microbe Mission and 8th graders Carter Light and Stile Sweet took 5th place in Keep the Heat.
Jade Kunz, Kaeley Fagan, Anna Heiden, Caitlyn Grooms, Teddy Mansfield, and Carter Light make their final preparations for Helicopter Egg Drop, presumably using their cell phones to calculate wind resistance.

The New Richmond team excelled in four trial events with Daniel Weiskittel and Joey Hammill taking 1st place in Geologic Mapping, Rachel Coons and Katie Schlaak finishing 3rd in 3rd place in Elastic Launch Gliders, Anna Heiden, Caitlyn Grooms, and Kaeley Fagan finishing 5th in Helicopter Egg Drop and Alex Gardner and Kaylin Hoffman taking 6th place in Neuroscience.

Other team members were freshmen Alex Grooms, Eric Williams, and Audrey Feiler, 8th graders Tim Hammer, Adrianna Flood, Evan Grippa, Cydney Stiles, Alicia Bailey, Joe Maxwell, Jade Kunz, and Lindsey Williams, and 7th graders Josh Clancy, Teddy Mansfield, and Luke Smiddy. Coaches were Tina Grippa, Pam Hughes, Doug Smiddy, and Grischow.

Science Olympiad teams are allowed to bring back five 9th graders from the previous year’s team.

“Our ten 8th graders and twelve 7th graders are new to this type of competition,” noted Grischow.

“Most of our students are heavily involved with other commitments including sports, performing arts, and other after-school activities, so to find time to practice for Science Olympiad, all while keeping up with schoolwork, has been a challenge to which our students have responded well.”

Next up for the NRMS team is the Ohio Regional Tournament in March.

“Our goal is to work hard and prepare well enough to qualify for the State Tournament for the second year in a row,” said Grischow.
Members of the New Richmond Middle School Science Olympiad team take a break from studying.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Meteorologist visits Locust Corner

On Monday, February 6, Local 12 Meteorologist John Gumm visited the Locust Corner fourth graders. As part of the Ohio Academic Content Standards for Science, fourth graders study weather in their unit on earth science.
John Gumm with 4th graders Courtney Cooper and Kayla Matlock

Mr. Gumm brought many interesting activities as a part of his presentation; such as rain clouds, cloud in a bottle, tornado in a bottle, how hail is formed, lightning and thunder, and the popular “hurricane” using a spray bottle and a leaf blower!
John Gumm with 4th graders Alexis Henderson, Morgan Scholz, and Jacob Duty during a "hurricane."

Mr. Gumm also explained that he became interested in weather and meteorology when he was in fourth grade. The students had a wonderful time participating in this presentation.
Local 12 meteorologist John Gumm with a cloud in a bottle.

Lori Richards
4th grade science teacher
Locust Corner Elementary