Crothersville Resumes Classes

By Zach Spicer, The Tribune, Seymour, Ind.

Aug. 6–CROTHERSVILLE — Alex McFarland is ready for a challenge.

That’s exactly what the eighth-grader is going to get this year at Crothersville Junior-Senior High School.

“It’s going to be a new challenge with new teachers and new stuff to learn,” McFarland said as he sat with four other students in Chrystal Street’s afternoon eighth -grade writing class.

Crothersville Community Schools were the first in Jackson County to start the new school year as classes resumed Tuesday.

McFarland and classmate Kaileigh Isaacs said they liked seeing their friends again, while classmate Ean Lakins was already asking his teacher for a favor Tuesday.

“No homework,” he said, which prompted Street to say there was still time left in the class period to assign homework.

This year, Street took on an added responsibility as curriculum director. She will spend the first half of her day doing work with curriculum, and round out the day in the classroom.

“I look forward to the challenge of my new job and getting into data looking for ways we can improve what we’re doing so we can prepare the kids to be the best,” she said of the curriculum position.

Of the classroom, “I love being able to get back with these guys and work with them,” Street said.

It had been a couple of years since she had some of the students in class.

“It’s neat to go back and see how much they’ve grown and matured,” she said.

To get the kids acquainted, Street and her students did two activities, a scavenger hunt and a game of fact or fiction. In the scavenger hunt, they had to find certain things, such as a classmate who attended the county fair. With fact or fiction, the students had to write down three true things and one false thing about themselves, and their classmates had to guess which one was false.

“I like to plan activities for them,” Street said.

As long as she’s around students, Street said, she is in a good place.

“The best job in the world is working with kids.”

Junior-senior high school Principal David Schill said the first day of school was going well.

“We’ve had a good opening of school,” he said. “The staff is working together, the staff is out in the hallways helping with any problems and that’s really been an asset. The teachers seem to be very happy with classes and class sizes.”

Schill said several new students enrolled this year, and he estimated enrollment was nearly equal to last year, in the range of 340.

“We’ve got a good bunch of students,” he said. “I’m looking forward to a good year.”

Elevating ISTEP scores to get the school out of academic probation status is one of Schill’s goals. Besides normal curriculum, teachers are focusing on ISTEP by reviewing writing and mathematical skills. This year, students will take the exam in September and in the spring.

“They are not only teaching their content area, but they are throwing in a little ISTEP review at the end of class,” Schill said.

He said afternoon enrichment classes, like Street’s writing class, are helpful. Other areas, besides math and writing, are home economics, agriculture, art, health, reading or problem solving. The class is taken every day for nine weeks.

In the elementary, Principal Chris Marshall was adjusting well to his new position. He was recently named the new elementary principal after Claude Morgan’s retirement in May.

Like Schill, Marshall said his staff was working together to ensure first-day operations coasted along.

He spent the morning greeting parents and students. Then at 8:30 a.m., an elementary general assembly was held, giving Marshall time to introduce himself and new and returning staff to the students.

“We went over school procedures, planners and talked about the importance of keeping your work caught up every night,” he said.

His focus is also on ISTEP, and a camp will run Aug. 18 to Sept. 10 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday for students. It will be a time for remediation and preparation.

“Certified teachers will be teaching the camp, and it will be focusing on specific subskills students may need to sharpen their pencil up a little bit,” he said.

Parents will have an opportunity to meet with teachers Sept. 11 and 12 during conferences. Marshall said students will be dismissed at 12:30 p.m. on those days.

“I’m looking forward to 100 percent participation here in the building,” he said of the conferences.

On Tuesday, Marshall’s goal was to be around the students as much as possible.

“I’m staying very mobile,” he said. “Everybody seems to be on task. I’m very pleased with the effort I’ve seen in the elementary building today, very pleased.”

Looking ahead to the new school year, Marshall said, “We want to continue to improve ISTEP scores, see some improvement in student achievement and continue to increase teacher collaboration and leadership within the school. Those really go hand-in-hand. It’s just going to be the heart and soul of focused improvement this year, and that’s a lot of work in and of itself.”

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Tribune, Seymour, Ind.

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