Rock Hill School News For January 27, 2010

To raise money to support the International Red Cross Haitian Earthquake 2010 Relief Fund, India Hook Elementary will sponsor "Mateys for Haiti." To participate, students and staff will pay 50 cents (each time) to wear a crazy hat on Feb. 3, model crazy hair on Feb. 10, and wear wild socks on Feb. 17. The classroom that donates the most money "percentage-wise" will be awarded a special “pirate plaque” for their generosity.

India Hook is issuing a challenge to all schools to participate in a similar project to see which school has the most generous spirit!

The Choral Dept. at South Pointe High School has entered into a partnership with Soles4Souls™ Inc. through Feb. 15. The charity, which gives away a pair of shoes to someone in need every nine seconds, has attracted choral students to raise critical funds for Soles4Souls which will, in turn, contribute funds toward choral programs at South Pointe.

It’s the perfect harmony of community service and fundraising. The entire campaign will be for shoes for those affected in Haiti.” Students are now collecting monetary donations from family, friends, teachers and neighbors for the purchase of new Soles4Souls clogs or flip-flops. The shoes will be shipped directly to people in need.

To contribute, contact Beverly Laney at 980-2172. Donations can also be made
online at http://www.soles4soulsfundraising.org/south
pointe_choral.

Faye Myles, a kindergarten teacher at Finley Road Elementary School, has received a Target Field Trip Grant in the amount of $800. The grant, titled "Keeping it Real," will allow her students to meet and interact with "real" people on the job in several area businesses. Students will learn what each worker needs to do to obtain, perform, and keep their perspective job.

Our three high schools have joined together to put on a major AP Studio Art Show at the Center
for the Arts in downtown Rock Hill. The show, coordinated by Lorne Brandt (Rock Hill High School), Ashley Beard (South Pointe High School), and Kim Grant (Northwestern High School), is free and will be open to the public until Feb. 19.

The South Pointe After Prom Committee is sponsoring its second annual Boston Butt
Fundraiser to support a fun and safe environment for students to continue to party after the prom. Click here for more information

2010-11 Rock Hill School Calendar Now online

Click here to see a copy of the 2010-11 school calendar which was approved at Monday's January Business meeting.

Northwestern High School To Host Jazz Discovery Music Festival

The 2010 Northwestern High School Jazz Discovery Music Festival will be on Saturday, March 20th, on the campus of Northwestern High School.

The featured artist this year is Steve Smith’s Vital Legacy which features Steve Smith on drums, Andy Fusco on sax, Vinny Valentino on guitar, Barron Browne on bass and Mark Soskin on piano. The Winthrop University Jazz Ensemble, with guest soloists Will Campbell, Jim Ketch, Matt Olson, and Rick Simerly, will complete what is sure to be an unforgettable evening of jazz. The evening concert begins at 7:30 pm in the Northwestern High School Auditorium. In addition, the festival will also include performances by high school and middle school bands from Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina throughout the day as well as clinics and master classes with the festival clinicians and members of Vital Legacy at 3:15 p.m. The Northwestern High School Senior Jazz Ensemble will perform at 2:30 with special guest soloist Steve Smith. The high school performances and the master class are free and open to the public. For additional information please visit the festival web site at http:www.nhsjazz.com .

Rock Hill School News For January 23, 2010

Rock Hill Schools will soon enroll four, five, and six-year-olds for the 2010-11 school year. With the exception of our three schools of choice (The
Children's School, Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies, and Northside Elementary School of the Arts), which will register students between Feb. 1 and April 15, enrollment dates for all elementary schools (and the ATC for four-year-olds) will be Feb. 22-March 5.

Dawn Bradley, a second grade teacher at Independence Elementary School received grants of $800 from Target and $250 from Family Trust FCU.

Substitute William Robbins who has been chosen "Substitute of the Semester" by Kelly Services for the North and South Carolina region. Williams was chosen based on criteria such as number of days worked, flexibility, and teacher feedback.

Sunset Park Elementary's Mary O'Grady-Jones and Sally Shive received a science and math improvement grant from the Toshiba America Foundation.
School board chairman, Bob Norwood, will be among the community's celebrity waiters at a "Jazz Lunch" from noon until 4:00 on Sunday, Jan. 24, at McHale's restaurant on Main Street. Funds will go to help people in Haiti. The Red Cross will accept donations while jazz musicians volunteer their talent.

Northwestern High School student Katie Phillips, will participate as a first violin in the S.C. All-State Orchestra. Katie is the only strings student selected from our district.

High School Boys Soccer National Champs To Hold Clinic

Northwestern Boys Soccer

“Soccer Saturday”

Saturday Feb 13^th 2010

Northwestern Soccer Complex

Rock Hill, SC

Schedule:

10:00-12:00pm Youth Soccer Clinic and Youth Coaches Clinic: Conducted by players and coaches of Northwestern Boys Varsity Soccer team. Cost $25 per player

1:00-3:00pm (Boys) Northwestern Vs Wando Admission FREE

3:00-5:00pm (Girls) Northwestern Intrasquad Scrimmage Admission FREE

5:00-7:00pm Men’s Alumni Game Cost $10 per player

For Clinic Registration: contact Rose Baker rbaker@rock-hill.k12.sc.us

803-981-1989

For Alumni Game: contact Ozzie Ahl oahl@rock-hill.k12.sc.us

803-981-1239

Busy Meeting For Rock Hill School Board on Monday, January 25, 2010

The Rock Hill School Board has a full agenda for its meeting on Monday, January 25, 2010. The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM, one hour later than the regular meeting time. The agenda is as follows:

Meeting of the Board of Trustees

Monday, January 25, 2010

7:00 p.m. – District Office Board Room

A G E N D A

I. Call to Order

Approval of Agenda

(Under consent agenda, all action items will be voted on after one motion and second to approve them without discussion. If a board member wants any action item discussed or voted on separately, the board member, before the agenda is approved, must ask that the action item be moved to the discussion item section.)

II. Citizen Participation

III. Special Business

A. Recognition of Mildred Douglas, Ann Reid, and Walter Brown by SCSBA

B. Recognition of Rock Hill School Board

IV. Consent Action Agenda

A. Approval of Minutes

1. November 23, 2009 business meeting

2. December 14, 2009 work session

3. January 11, 2010 public forum/work session

B. Approval of Personnel Recommendations

C. Approval of Overnight Field Trip Request for ATC students

D. Approval of Distribution of Jim Vining’s Compensation as follows; Sunset Park; The Children's School at Sylvia Circle; The Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

E. County Tax Collection Proposal to reduce late penalty payements

V. Communications

VI. Report of the Superintendent

A. Announcements

B. 2008-2009 Annual Audit

C. “The #1 Question” Update

D. Future Standards

E. Cyber Standards

VII. Review of Two (2) Work Sessions

VIII. Action Agenda

A. Approval of Elementary Reassignment Plan (Mt. Holly, Belleview & Oakdale)

B. Approval of Sunset Park Name Change to "Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies"

C. Approval of Operations Contract. RFP states: It is the intent of Rock Hill Schools to obtain the services of a qualified person or firm to provide a comprehensive assessment of the District’s Operations Department to include the following areas to be evaluated:

• Personnel: Organization and staffing levels

Administration and management staff

Office support staff

Maintenance staff

Grounds staff

Custodial staff

• Procedures: Payroll and time reporting

Work order system authorization and control

Purchasing procedures

Budget procedures and cost controls

Preventive maintenance

Warehousing

Safety

Emergency Preparedness

• Fleet vehicles and equipment management
• Energy management and control
• Training and skill development programs
• Communications – internal and external

Awarded vendors will be required to have their final report in no later than March 1, 2010 so that information can be used in the budget process for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

Final selection of a consultant and contract award will require an appropriation of funds as no budget was established for 2009-2010 for this purpose.

D. Approval of 2010-2011 School Calendar

E. Approval of Policy DFAC – 2^nd Reading

F. Approval of SCSBA Travel Request (A. Reid)

IX. Other Business

X. Executive Session - None

XI. Adjourn

Rock Hill School District News For January 14, 2010

The Children's School at Sylvia Circle was named to the S. C. School Improvement Council's 2010 Honor Roll for its significant efforts to foster

civic engagement in public education. Eleven schools were selected to the Honor Roll state-wide, and five schools will be selected in February to advance to the Winners Level. The recipient of the 2010 Riley Award (named after former Gov. Richard Riley) will be announced on March 13. The Children's School is the only SIC Honor Roll School in York County.

Sullivan Middle School has been awarded an $800 Target Field Trip

Grant. The money will be used toward transportation costs for the school's "College Bound" road trip for eighth-graders to visit Winthrop, York Tech and USC-Lancaster.

Sunset Park Elementary School's Jodie Dennis, a fourth grade teacher, and Sally Shive, math coach, received a grant award of $800 from DHEC titled "Champions of the Environment." Sunset Park will use the money to increase student awareness of ways to conserve natural resources and teach

students how to save energy.

Sharon Gayton, a 1st/2nd multiage teacher at The Children School, has been awarded a 2010 Target Field Trip Grant for $800 to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia for her students.

Cindy Koon and the newspaper staff at South Pointe High School received two awards from the Scholastic Press Assn. in December. One award, which was

for Best Feature Story in the state, was on Spanish Teacher Laura Limerick.

"A Night at the Cotton Club" is a fundraiser that will benefit the Teen Health Center. Scheduled for Jan. 30 at the Cotton Factory downtown, the event will include lots of jazz and great food.

Tim Warner, an industrial technology teacher at Sullivan Middle School, is proud of Lauren Cholewinski, a former member of Coach Warner's track team.

Lauren recently became a member of the 2010 Olympic speed skating team!

Al Leonard, principal at South Pointe High School, and Senior Master Sergeant Clarence Woodham are proud to announce that two AFJROTC students—Rob Jolly and Ian Sanford—have received appointments to West Point and to the Air Force Academy respectively. This is the second consecutive year that two students at SPHS have received these prestigious appointments.

For a fun evening, attend the 4th Annual Miss Northwestern Pageant at 6:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 23, in the school auditorium. This year's theme is "Elvis with Girls! Girls! Girls!" Tamara Altman, theatre arts

teacher, is serving as coordinator.

Richmond Drive Elementary School student podcasts in national contest finals!

I wanted to share some exciting news I received this week and ask you to share it with anyone you know. I received notification this week from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) that both of the video podcasts that Richmond Drive Elementary 5 ^th grade students submitted to ACTFL’s annual Video Podcast Contest have been chosen as national finalists in the “Elementary” category! This competition is part of the “Discover Languages” campaign sponsored by ACTFL (www.discoverlangauges.org ), a campaign designed to raise awareness of the importance of learning other languages among the public at large.

We are very excited about this news at Richmond Drive and are looking forward to the next round of the competition which will take place January 15-31 . You may remember from last year that our students’ videos will now compete in a public vote, a la “American Idol” during which the public will have the opportunity to view all the finalist videos at the Web site http://www.actflvideocontest.org and vote for their favorite! Our videos are titled “Languages Really Are For Everyone” and “The Discover Languages Talk Show.”

I hope that you will take the time to log on to the site beginning tomorrow and vote for one of our videos. You will need to register an email address to vote – one vote per email address. Please share this information with anyone you know who could also support these students. They are so excited and have already begun spreading the news themselves to friends and family members!

Thank you, as always, for your support of students!

Lynn

Lynn Fulton-Archer

World Language Specialist
Rock Hill Schools / Richmond Drive Elementary

Public Hearing on Rock Hill School District Student Assignment Changes This Monday

The Rock Hill School Board will hold a public hearing on elementary student reassignment for Belleview, Mount Holly, and Oakdale schools on Monday, January 11, 2010, in the Oakdale Elementary School Cafeteria beginning at 6:00 PM.

Following the hearing, the board will have their January work session. Money discussions will be the major agenda for the meeting. You can get a printable agenda by clicking here.

SCHOOL BOARD WORK SESSION
Oakdale Elementary School
START: 5:30 p.m.
DATE: January 11, 2010
AGENDA TOPIC	DISCUSSION LEADER
Public Forum on Reassignment - Cafeteria@ 6:00 p.m.
Move to Media Center for Work Session
Presentation by Oakdale Elementary School	Neil McVann
Sunset Park Name Change	Tammy White
Contract for Consultant for Operations	Bill Mabry
County Tax Collection Proposal	Bill Mabry
Tax Reassessment	Bill Mabry
Revenue Cuts	Bill Mabry
Drop Out Report	Keith Wilks

Rock Hill School District Mentioned in Sumter Article

The Rock Hill School District gets mentioned several times in an article about Sumter's success with their IB program. Click here to read the write up in the Sumter Item.

Article published: Jan 2, 2010
Sumter High continues IB success

When it comes to the rigorous International Baccalaureate program, not many perform better than Sumter High School.

Sumter High is the only school in the tri-county region that participates in the IB Diploma Program. Because the International Baccalaureate Organization works closely with universities around the world to develop its curriculum, IB course credits and diplomas are accepted at many colleges and universities.

For the second straight year, 100 percent of Sumter High students who sought an IB diploma received one. That was 11 of 11, and last year, the school was six for six. Only one other South Carolina school, Rock Hill High, had a 100 percent IB diploma success rate in 2009. And no other school in the state matched Sumter High's 100 percent rates in both 2008 and 2009.

"We're extremely proud of the efforts of our IB graduates," Principal Rutledge Dingle said. "You can't get any better than 100 percent.'

Also for the second straight year, Sumter High students posted the second-highest rate, 91 percent, of scoring 4 or above on IB exams, which have a 7-point scale. In 2009, 37 Sumter High students took 140 IB subject tests, with 127 of those scoring 4 or higher, the standard for receiving college credit. Only Rock Hill High had a higher rate, 93 percent, with 101 students taking 215 IB tests and scoring 4 or higher on 199 of them. In 2008, Sumter High also had a 91 percent success rate on IB tests, which was tied for second in the state with Northwestern High in Rock Hill and behind only Socastee High School in Myrtle Beach.

"We have wonderful, knowledgeable teachers that work hard," said Marie Mulholland, Sumter High's IB and Advanced Placement coordinator. "We have students who are committed and have a strong work ethic. And we have an administration and district that are behind us 100 percent."

Stephanie Hickmon, now a freshman at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, graduated in June from Sumter High with an IB diploma. She said taking IB classes prepared her well for taking courses at Winthrop.

"It got us used to the schedules we have in college," said Hickmon, 19, a Sumter native. "We were learning to manage our time and that had a lot to do with IB. I feel like we were a lot more prepared when we started our college classes because basically we were taking college classes already in IB."

Mulholland said this year, 62 students are enrolled in IB classes — 22 seniors and 40 juniors — and six seniors are on track to receive IB diplomas.

A total of 16 instructors teach at least one IB course.

She said one of her goals is to increase the number of students participating in the program.

"There seems to be a strong desire among students to be a part of the the wonderful things in this program," she said.

Hickmon, who is majoring in dance education, acknowledged the Rock Hill schools' IB success. She volunteered in middle schools as part of the Boys and Girls Club during the recent fall semester at Winthrop.

"I see why they're kind of ahead of us," she said. "They start training their kids with IB in middle school. Maybe we need to start doing that."

Sumter School District 17 is doing just that. Bates Middle School now offers IB Middle Years Programme courses, which are geared for students in grades six through 10.

Mulholland has a word for her peers in York County.

"Watch out, Rock Hill," she said. "We'll be right there this year."



Contact Content Team Leader Jason Wermers at jwermers@theitem.com or (803) 774-1225.