Superintendent's Corner

Monday, May 14, 2012

Congratulations BHS Baseball Team

Congratulations to the Brantley School Baseball Team on a fantastic season. The team finished the season with a 29-10 record. Kudos to Coach Kilcrease and his staff on the winning season and more importantly for doing it in the right manner. Hats off to all!

Legislative Update

Education Budget (SB318 by Sen. Pittman)

On Thursday, the House sent the ETF Budget back to the Senate with its changes. The Senate non-concurred with those changes—primarily changes made in the Department of Postsecondary Education and the bill now goes to a conference committee. Each legislative version of the budget has produced better options for K-12 schools. The House version has set the divisors at .135 above the current year. That is better than the .4 increases that came with the Senate version of the bill or the .5 increases proposed by the Governor in his budget in February. We have received assurances from the budget chairs that they will make every effort in the conference committee to get the divisors to the current FY 12 level. The final day for this session has now changed to May 16 and that is the day that we will know the final details of the budget. Stay tuned.

Flexible School Calendar Act of 2012 (HB 360 by Rep. Davis)

On Thursday, the Senate took the same action as the House and successfully moved to override the Governor's Executive Amendment that would have allowed an opt-out provision for school systems. The bill is now law and will be forwarded to the Secretary of State's Office for final enactment.

Specifics about the bill...

Gives local boards of education flexibility by allowing them to use the equivalent of instructional hours (1080 hours) as an alternative calculation to meet the 180 full instructional day minimum

This bill mandates a start and end date

Provides that the first school day begin no earlier than the Monday two weeks before Labor Day and end no later than the Friday immediately before Memorial Day.
Mandates a start and end date for school year 2012 -2013 and a start date only for the 2013 -2014 school year…covering two summers, but not locking in an end date certain for the second school year.

States “No local board of education may reduce the amount in any cell of any employee salary schedule, or otherwise reduce the compensation of any employee, based upon this act or upon any future modification to its calendar or schedule pursuant to this act. Salary appropriations in all future Education Trust Fund budgets shall be based upon the number of contract days allocated by the Legislature, or the hourly equivalent. This language helps to ensure that employee salaries will not be adversely affected.

Crenshaw County Honor Students Recognized

The Luverne Kiwanis hosted a luncheon in honor of the Class of 2012 honor students this past Tuesday. Pastor Michael Prechet challenged the group to live to their potential and remember that some of biggest and best come from small communities, liken to the state's largest bass (16+ lbs.) that was caught in a small pond.

Kudos to our students, to whom much is given, much is expected.

Brantley School's Class of 2012 Honor Students

Highland Home School's Class of 2012 Honor Students

Luverne School's Class of 2012 Honor Students

LHS Students Discover Euler's Formula

Mrs. Starla Jones and Mrs. Tracy Baines’ Algebraic Connections collaborative class discovers polyhedron patterns. The students created hexahedrons, tetrahedrons, octahedrons, dodecahedrons and Icosahedrons. This hands-on project engaged the students in learning patterns associated with calculating the number of edges, vertices, and faces of each polyhedron. The students discovered several patterns and developed formulas to represent the patterns they discovered. The students also discovered if they count the number of faces, vertices, and edges of a polyhedron it can be placed in formula form. They found that the number of faces plus the number of vertices minus the number of edges equals 2. This F + V – E = 2 is known as the Polyhedral Formula or Euler’s Formula. They also were able to have fun with math!

Luverne Elementary Students Receive AR Awards

On May 10^th, students at Luverne Elementary were rewarded for their hard work throughout the year.

Mr. Steve Sanders, Vice President of First Citizens Bank, presented 3^rd graders with over $800 for reading this year as a part of the “Reading to Earn” program. Employees from First Citizens Bank and Probate Judge Jim Perdue read to 3^rd graders on Tuesday mornings as a part of this program.

Ms. Dot Youngblood recognized students on the “Tiger Life” elementary newspaper staff.

Ms. Traci Sanders recognized students earning Accelerated Reader Rewards. Goals are set at the beginning of the school year for students to earn goody bags, breakfast with the principals and a field trip. Around 100 goody bags were given out, 38 students will get to eat breakfast with the principals on May 14^th and 28 students will go on a field trip on May 23^rd. These students worked hard all year to reach their goals and they also maintained an 80 average on their AR tests. Teachers were also rewarded for encouraging students to read and take tests.

Top students on each grade level were: 2^nd grade-Aniyah McGhee-Burnett, 3^rd Grade-Westley Person, 4^th Grade-Sang Wook Roh, 5^th Grade-Jayden Carlos, 6^th Grade-Hyun Ryu. Top 3 students overall were 3^rd—Westley Person, 2^nd—Jayden Carlos, 1^st—Hyun Ryu. Top teachers on each grade level were 2^nd grade—Ms. Tiffany Worthington, 3^rd grade—Ms. Shelly Hughes, 4^th Grade—Ms. Dot Youngblood, 5^th Grade—Ms. Lynn Miller, & 6^th grade—Ms. Cathy Wilkes. Ms. Shelly Hughes won the “Overall Classroom Points” award.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Jacey Rayborn Crowned BHS Campus Beauty

On the Thursday prior to Spring Break, Miss Jacey Rayborn was crowned Brantley School Campus Beauty. She and several other lovely contestants, with the support of much talent and entertainment, adorned the crowd of several hundred. Kudos to the sponsors: Mrs. Brittany Walker, Ms. Linda Brook, Mrs. Amanda Stewart, and Mrs. Tammy Sims!

Chelsea Smith Miss Congeniality, Jacey Kelley 2^nd runner-up, Jacey Rayborn Miss BHS,

Charlie Ball 1^st runner -up

Clark Kilcrease and Jessie Davis singing Dancing Away with my Heart

Brantley’s Main Street Boys singing It’s Gonna Be Me: Clark Kilcrease, Reed Kilcrease,

Landon LaSalle, and Clint Kilcrease

Community Involvement Noted- Relay for Life

Many school personnel participated in this year's Crenshaw County Relay for Life. Most notable were the JAG students who sold and flew kites as a fund rasier and the Luverne School Team. At the end of the night, the Luverne School Team was declared Relay Champions with the help of Mr. George's ribs that took first place. Crenshaw County's Relay for Life raised over $52,000 this year.

All were surprised when former LHS student Lance Brooks made an unexpected appearance after undergoing surgery just that morning. Lance has been in the hospital for many days pending a bone marrow transplant on May 3. Lance's most recent Facebook post reads: "God has truly brought me a long way I have everything to be thankful for. My journey is not over yet. Transplant day is tomorrow." Thank you Lance for a little "perspective." Please keep Lance and his family in your prayers.