Band prepares for 2011 halftime show

New Richmond High School band director Michael McKinley (center) directs band members during this week's band camp.

The New Richmond High School Marching band is going through its equivalent of two-a-days this week with band camp at the stadium in preparation for the 2011 halftime show.

"We're doing a funk show this year," explained New Richmond band director Michael McKinley.

The show will include 'Tear The Roof Off' (Parliment), 'Birdland' (Weather Report), 'Sir Duke' (Stevie Wonder) and 'Pick Up The Pieces' (Average White Band).

"We've got 80 kids out this year and the show is well on its way after just two days of camp," said McKinley.

The band will perform a parents show at 5:00 p.m. on Friday at the stadium.
The 80-strong New Richmond High School marching band works on the 2011 halftime show under the direction of band director Michael McKinley.

Paving projects underway

Re-paving projects are underway at New Richmond Middle School and the high school tennis courts. Both projects are scheduled to be completed before the start of school on Aug. 18.

NR cheerleaders get top rating

(Front row from left): Rachel Benton, Katie Gelter, Kirstin Mattingly, Nicole Payton, Emilee Bateman, Mariah Corbin, Ally Meadors, Emma Feld (Back row from left) Jordan Berger, Amanda Nguyen, Jenny Roberts, Kelsi Curry, Jade Stamper, Paige Willhoff, Lexi Cook, Kelsey Kirschner, Alyssa Hallahan, Not pictured Nikki Dillow.

New Richmond High School’s cheerleaders came home with three blue superior ribbons and a superior team trophy from the Universal Cheerleaders Association camp at The Ohio State University July 18-21.

Senior Nicole Payton was named an UCA All-American and was invited to attend the UCA’s 2012 London Varsity Tour in London, England.
New Richmond senior Nicole Payton has been named an UCA All-American and invited to attend the UCA's 2012 London Varsity Tour in London, England.

The Lions cheerleaders are coached by Heidi Nieto and Abigail Mineer.

Team members are seniors Nicole Payton, Kirstin Mattingly, Emilee Bateman, Jordan Berger, and Nikki Dillow; junior Katie Gelter; sophomores Lexi Cook, Alyssa Hallahan, Amanda Nguyen, Kelsey Kirschner and Paige Willhoff; and freshmen Emma Feld, Mariah Corbin, Kelsi Curry, Ally Meadors, Jade Stamper, Rachel Benton and Jenny Roberts.

“The girls worked hard all week and are excited to perform new material during the 2011-2012 school year,” said Nieto.

Television reports on Beckjord closing

New Richmond Exempted Village School District chief financial officer Teresa Napier and other local government officials will meet Monday with Chief Clermont County Deputy Chuck Tilbury to determine the financial impact of Duke Energy's decision to close the Beckjord generating plant in New Richmond by 2015.

"It's going to be huge," Napier said Tuesday in interviews with WCPO television news reporter Tom McKee and WKRC television reporter Rich Jaffe. Their reports can be seen in the links below.

(It should be noted that the 500 district employees mentioned in the report include all subs and part-time workers).

WCPO report:



WKRC report:

Math teachers add new software

New Richmond High School and Middle School math teachers have completed two days of training in order to introduce the international math software program Geogegra to their classrooms this fall.

GeoGebra trainer Steve Phelps (standing) works with New Richmond math teachers (from front) Cara Corbin, Vickie Corpuz and Lisa Kellerman. John Frye, director of pupil and staff services for the NREVSD, observes.

GeoGebra comes from geometry and algebra and is an open source software for mathematics education in schools that joins dynamic geometry, algebra and calculus. The program has won several educational software awards in Europe.

“Our teachers will use it to demonstrate and teach higher level concepts and skills,” said John Frye, director of pupil and staff services for the New Richmond Exempted Village School District.

“The high school math department requested training in GeoGebra which will allow teachers and students to use interactive graphics, algebra and spreadsheet graphs to better understand mathematical concepts from elementary school to university level.”

Frye said the middle school teachers were invited as the higher level math courses are being introduced at those grade levels.

The program is used internationally and is available on the internet at http://www.geogebra.org and allows teachers and students to do constructions including points, vectors, segments, lines, and conic sections as well as functions, which can be altered dynamically by mouse afterwards.

On the road to Excellent again

The New Richmond Exempted Village School District is in line for an Excellent rating for the fourth consecutive year by the Ohio Department of Education according to preliminary results of testing for the 2010-11 school year.

“According to the superintendent’s report I received from the state, we scored higher than the state requirement in all testing areas and higher than our similar districts,” said New Richmond superintendent of schools Adam Bird. “And we have a district wide performance index of 101, the first time we’ve been over 100.”
Superintendent Adam Bird expects to hang a fourth Excellent banner on the wall of the Central Office when the final state school report card is released in August.

All five New Richmond schools – Locust Corner Elementary, Monroe Elementary, New Richmond Elementary, Middle School and High School – exceeded the state requirements in all testing areas to qualify for an Excellent rating.

School and district performance reports are issued annually by the Ohio Department of Education, detailing students’ performance on standardized statewide tests, rates of improvement on those tests, student attendance and graduation rates.

The only state performance measure not met by the district in the preliminary report was Adequate Yearly Progress in the area of special education math.

“I believe we have a chance for Excellent with Distinction,” said Bird. “We’re still waiting for the value-added results which will be released on Aug. 16.”

The value-added component of Ohio’s school report-card system measures growth or improvement to determine the "value" gained by a student during a time period. Districts meeting the value-added component are moved up one step in the state ratings.

The minimum requirement by the state is a passing rate of 75 percent in each testing area. New Richmond exceeded 90 percent in six of the 23 testing areas and was over 80 percent in all but one area – 10th grade math (78.6 percent).

“I am very pleased with the efforts of our students and staff,” said Bird,.“However, we are concerned with the 5 to 10 percent of our students not passing the state tests and we will be focusing more attention on those students.”

Band performs in 4th of July parade

The New Richmond High School band, under the director of Mr. Mike McKinley, continued its tradition of performing in the Village of New Richmond's 4th of July parade.

Click on the photo below to watch a slideshow video of the 2011 New Richmond 4th of July parade.


Right click and choose Save Target As to download

Monroe collects 409,000 pull tabs

Janice Fender's sixth grade students at Monroe Elementary School hold up jars containing more than 35,000 pull tabs they collected for the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

"Mrs. Fender's class collected the most and the whole school collected over 409,000 pop tabs this year, our most ever," said Monroe art teacher Adrian Hawk, who coordinated the collection. "We have donated over 800 pounds of pop tabs since 2008."

High School renovation on schedule

School board member Ben Bird, an engineer, goes over ways to re-route steam pipes in the hallway between the gym and cafeteria to accommodate new lighting fixtures with board member Fred Heflin (left) and superintendent Adam Bird.

The second-phase of the New Richmond High School renovation project is on schedule for completion in time for the start of the 2011-12 school year on Aug. 18.

Superintendent Adam Bird said an unexpected need to relocate steam pipes in the hallway between the gym and the cafeteria and the discovery of additional areas with asbestos will not hold the project up.

"Everything is on schedule and we are happy about that," Bird told board members at their June 30 meeting.

The first phase of the project, which includes asbestos removal and new floors, ceilings, wiring and lighting, was completed last summer on the second and third floors of the original high school building constructed in 1965.

This summer's second phase includes the lower floors, cafeteria and the former high school library, which is being turned into a vocal music room.

School board members (from left) David Painter, Ben Bird and Fred Heflin inspect the high school renovation project with superintendent Adam Bird prior to the June 30 board meeting.