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October 14, 2022
Blue Valley’s Board of Education hosted its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday, October 10. Check out the photos below to see all the amazing staff members and students that were recognized. Also, stay up to date with highlights from the meeting in this month’s edition of Board Briefs.
- Tyler Kincaid, Blue Valley Southwest baseball coach, named a National coach of the year by The American Baseball Coaches Association and ATEC. Kincaid joins just 10 other coaches across the nation to earn this recognition.
- Emily Clausen, Blue Valley High, earned a perfect score of 5 on the AP US History exam. She is one of only nine students in the nation to earn a perfect score on the AP US History exam.
- Christopher Mann, custodian at Lakewood Middle School, with the Distinguished Service Award. The Board also honored Beth Pool, 5th grade teacher at Heartland Elementary, with the Excellence in Education Award. Pool has been with Blue Valley for 22 years.
Want to watch a replay of the full live streamed meeting? Visit Blue Valley’s Board of Education YouTube page for a full recording of the meeting. For more information, visit the Board of Education page on our district website.
October special recognitions
Blue Valley is a special place with extraordinary people. Every year, we like to celebrate the people of Blue Valley alongside national recognition dates. October brings several recognition weeks/months including: National High School Activities Month, National Bullying Prevention Month, National Principals Month and National School Lunch Week.
National School Lunch Week
The week of Oct. 10-14 is celebrated as National School Lunch week. Blue Valley wants to thank all of our amazing Blue Valley food service staff. They play a critical role in helping students succeed in & out of the classroom by keeping them fueled for the day. Help us in saying thank you, as they continue to make a positive impact on our students every day!
National Principals Month
October is recognized as National Principals Month, a time to celebrate their hard work and dedication. Blue Valley's principals in every school are simply amazing! Every single day they lead their school with passion, energy and care. Check out a glimpse into a "day in the life" of Blue River Elementary principal Debbie Kelly. Thank you principals for all you do!
National Bullying Prevention Month
October is recognized as National Bullying Prevention Month and is an important time to elevate the conversation about addressing and preventing bullying in schools. While this is a year-round focus, this month several schools hosted assemblies and more to bring this conversation to light.
Throughout the past several weeks, Sporting Kansas City players visited our schools for the Red Card anti-bullying campaign along with Children's Mercy. Former Blue Valley West alum Cam Duke even made an appearance at Leawood Middle.
Kansas City Chiefs mascot KC Wolf also made serval appearances throughout our elementary schools.
National High School Activities Month
October is celebrated as National High School Activities Month. Athletics and activities provide opportunities to nearly 75 percent of the entire student population in Blue Valley high schools and thousands of middle school students each year. Athletics and activities at the middle school and high school level are education-based and are extensions of the classroom. They give students opportunities to get involved with the school community in a unique way and help to build relationships with other students and coaches/sponsors that otherwise wouldn’t happen.
Activities and athletics are more than just clubs or games for the students involved. They provide students an extraordinary opportunity and are a significant part of our students’ development in their overall educational experience. Thank you to our coaches and sponsors for providing our students with extraordinary experiences.
"When you walk in to Leawood Elementary, you're going to see so many familiar faces because it's our parents who have stepped up and are in here helping us day after day." - Jenny Hayes, principal at Leawood Elementary
It's one thing to build a school building, but it's an entirely different task to build a school community and culture. In our first BV Unmuted podcast of the 2022-23 school year, Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan asks three of our rockstar principals - Leawood Elementary's Jenny Hayes, Oxford Middle's Courtney Domoney, and Blue Valley Southwest's Dr. Tyler Alexander - what they and their staff do to build a positive school culture and how parents and the community can help get involved.