ENSC Family Notes
February 10, 2014
Snow, Snow, and More Snow
As winter winds down and spring picks up, think about this..... when temperatures begin to rise and the cold snow is still on the ground, the result is....fog! Three hour delays may become a reality. Please remember, if we have a three hour delay, one hour of school is added to the end of the day.
How do we make up these days?
Last Friday, State Superintendent Ritz sent to superintendents the guidance on make-up days. We have the following options:
1. Add time to the end of the day. Every six hours equals a day. Beginning of the day AND the end of the day are options. As ENSC makes plans, we will keep in mind how early some of our students get on the bus in the morning. The time that is added must be added to the current normal scheduled. This means we cannot use our current minutes that exceed the minimum required hours.
2. Use eLearning days. These days would be online learning days and teachers have to show evidence of rigorous instruction as well as evidence of meeting standards for the assignments. That means the work can’t be busy work and just worksheets. With the information provided, these days need to be Monday - Friday. If another big storm were to arrive and we have advance notice, we "may" be able to have an eLearning day on that snow day. To make this happen, we must have plenty of notice so that we can get approval from the state before the day occurs.
East Noble School Corporation has now missed 13 days.
- Two of those have been waived leaving us with 11. (I have been told no other days will be waived and we are expected to make them up.)
- We have four snow days built in (Feb. 17, May 9, 16, 23) leaving us with seven to make up.
- We will use June 5 and 6 leaving us with five to make up….for now.
- If we add 30 minutes to the day from March 1 through the end of the year, that would equal 5.5 days giving us an extra ½ day. We could start February 17 and that would give us 7 days.
- If we add one hour to the day from February 24 until spring break, we can make up 3 days.
Other ideas to consider:
- Good Friday – use as a regular school day or an eLearning day?
- Friday before spring break – another eLearning day?
- Hold regular school days on Monday, June 10? June 11? June 12?
The ENSC administration will be meeting with the Discussions team after school Monday (Feb. 10) and then with administrators on Tuesday. The plan is to have a decision by mid week so that families can begin making plans.
School Messenger
ISTEP and IREAD
WATCH FOR ENSC MAIL TO ARRIVE IN THE NEXT WEEK
This Week's Super Hero is Joby Morr
Rome City Elementary School is proud to have Joby Morr as one of our Super Heroes. Joby is always willing to go the extra mile to help others out. When given a task he completes it quickly and takes pride in making sure Rome City is clean. Recently Joby finished repainting Rome City’s cafeteria and the gym. Both areas look wonderful and the environment feels clean.
During the school day the students at Rome City love Joby. Students always ask if they can help Joby with tasks throughout the building. Joby often sits down in the cafeteria with students during lunch and talks with them about things such as hunting, fishing, and sports. Students always have a story to tell Joby and he loves to be the one they want to share it with.
Joby also takes pride in catching fish all year long to have fish frys for East Noble staff. Joby catches fish and prepares the fish in appreciation to East Noble employees, such as bus drivers, maintenance staff, and Rome City staff. Joby truly places others before himself and his gratitude is appreciated.
Have a Great Week!
Enjoy your week and welcome back to school.
Ann
Curriculum and Building News
Curriculum Notes - Changes Due to Weather
As we continue to deal with additional snow storms and more days off, we are patiently shifting dates and time lines to accommodate Old Man Winter. Elementary and Middle School reports cards and progress report dates will be pushed back to allow teachers time to provide instruction during the 3rd quarter. The new dates are outlined below:
- Progress Reports will be generated February 25
- Third Quarter ends March 27
- Third Quarter report cards will go home April 9
These dates may be adjusted again, depending on the weather the next couple of weeks. But, for now, please mark your calendars with these updates.
In addition, there will be changes in testing dates for MClass, Acuity, ISTEP and IREAD3. These announcements were made by the Department of Education on Thursday and Friday. As a district, we will be constructing a new testing schedule early next week and will get information out to teachers and parents quickly. Below are the extensions of the mClass and Acuity windows.
· Acuity Predictive B ELA/Math is extended to Feb. 13.
· Acuity Predictive C ELA/Math, Acuity Predictive Science C, Acuity Predictive Social Studies C are extended until Feb 28.
· Acuity Predictive B Algebra I/English 10 are extended to Feb 21.
· mClass Reading 3D (DIBELS/TRC) is extended until Feb 21.
· mClass Math is extended until March 7.
East Noble Middle School
Academic Lab competitions continued, with 928 acuity lessons completed! Many students took the initiative to complete acuity lessons at home as well, and have been focusing on snow day work packets. They are as anxious to get back to a normal school routine as we are.
Seventh and 8th grade Language Arts classes are focusing on ISTEP prep in their daily bell-work. Students will also be focusing on studying the writing rubrics and grading their own writing prompts using ISTEP rubrics. They will use that information to guide editing and revisions. Finding the main ideas and supporting text details, along with strengthening note-taking, has been the focus for both grades novel studies.
Seventh Grade Social Studies has finished studying modern East Asia and are entering African geography before heading to study Egypt. Students have been chipping away at applied skills ISTEP practice as well. Keep working on those map reading skills!
IF you are looking for some excitement, head to ENMS on Wednesday, February 12. The 2nd annual “Give and Go” basketball game will be held, with proceeds going to fight the battle with breast cancer. In addition to raising funds for breast cancer, can goods are also being collected to help our local families. Admission is $5 or $3 with a can good donation. Dress in pink, and come watch our teams challenge one another for a great cause.
East Noble High School
East Noble Bands
The high school had a great showing at the ISSMA Solo and Ensemble competition last weekend. They took home a total of 16 gold, 15 silver, and 2 bronze awards. Ten entries qualified for the state competition.
East Noble Theatre places 2nd at State Theatre Competition
East Noble Theatre placed first at the Bethel Regional Thespian Competition on Saturday, Nov. 16 and qualified to perform at the state competition in January at the University of Indianapolis. The theatre performed at the State Thespian Festival on Friday evening, January 24 and placed 2nd in the state play competition. Mr. Munk’s theatre classes wrote and performed an original piece of work entitled Between the Bells. Showcasing an ensemble of 42, this collection of monologues and vignettes takes a look at the daily lives of high school students. The show also won Best Ensemble.
Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
Three of our art students have been announced as winners in the Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Program. Their work was chosen from over 3600 entries in the art program. Within the Art Program 294 Gold Keys, 146 Silver Keys, and 123 Honorable Mentions were awarded across all art categories. Gold Key, Silver Key, Honorable Mention winners will be individually honored on stage during the Regional Awards Ceremony at the Grand Wayne Center in Fort Wayne on Sunday, February 9. All of these pieces will be on exhibit at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art from Sunday, February 9 – April 6, 2014. Gold Key winners will then advance to the national competition. Claire Decamp was awarded a Gold Key for her drawing “You Say It’s My Place” and a second Gold Key for her drawing “The Drama of Self-Expression”
North Side Elementary
Students in grades 3-6 began Acuity testing this week as they looked forward to assessing their individual progress towards their goals in math, language arts, science and social studies. Our primary students, finished out mClass testing with their teachers in reading and math. As the weather rolled in mid-week our students academic setting changed from the walls at North Side to the home setting once again. Teachers had prepared their students and parents ahead of time with "Blizzard Bags", "Snow Packets" and "PAWS Calendars" that would keep the students engaged in academic standards as the students were snow bound on Wednesday through Friday. Teachers continued to keep in contact with their students throughout this time frame using Remind 101 as well as Twitter.
The PTO will meet this Tuesday to discuss the new date for the school carnival that was canceled Friday as a result of the weather. Please watch for upcoming news on this event.
Rome City Elementary
Rome City had four talented band members travel to Carroll High School for the annual ISSMA Solo and Ensemble contest on February 1st. All of them received gold medals for their outstanding performances. Congratulations to Carson Mapes, Taryn Fugate, Cierra Miller and Jazmin Slone!
Romans were able to take the ISTEP Readiness test this week. Students did a great job practicing what the ISTEP environment should look like and sound like. Teachers were surprised how smooth it went.
Rome City staff participated in the Junior Achievement Bowl a Thon Saturday. The staff raised money for Junior Achievement, while having a great time.
South Side Elementary
The South Side 4th graders recently spent time exploring a trunk of Miami Indian artifacts provided by the Fort Wayne History Center. The trunk included binders of research and newspaper clippings as well as hands-on replicas of tools used by local Indian tribes. The students created their own informational books based on the trunk contents and personal research. This engaging project has helped to create connections as we are reading the 4th grade novel The Sign of the Beaver.
Wayne Center Elementary
Kindergarten teachers Ms. Ihrie and Mrs. Kuehnert are launching a Game Club for students in kindergarten through second grade this coming week at Wayne Center. Through the Game Club, the teachers hope to help students build upon the Pillars of Character through playing games with peers and at the same time sharpen their thinking skills as they use strategies to play the games. The Game Club will meet once a week after school. A variety of games will be provided for the students to play, and it will be great fun for all!
The recent school cancellations have led to a number of activities being rescheduled one of which is the Noble County Spelling Bee. The spelling bee will now be held on Tuesday, February 11, at 6:30 p.m. in the Wayne Center gymnasium. All students, parents, and community members are welcome to attend!
Alternative Learning Center
Another slow news week at the ALC due to 3 weather related cancellations. We did have a few more credits earned at the start of the week and we welcomed another new high school student. We are happy to have him with us and look forward to seeing him start racking up the credits. Next week is a big week at the ALC with 3 new middle school students scheduled to join us. In addition to our new students, we will also be hosting the School Board Meeting on Wednesday night. You are welcome to join us, get a quick tour of the ALC and sit in on the Board Meeting. What could be more fun than that? We’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Avilla Elementary
Congratulations to the seven students that braved the weather last weekend to participate in the annual ISSMA solo contest! Avilla walked away with 4 gold and 3 silver medals! Those who participated were Courtney Lepper, Parker Higginbotham, Hannah Payne, Savana Brown, Allie Diehl, Abby Tjon and Audrey Metz. Thank you Mr. Smith for all your hard work with all of OUR students! We are very lucky to have you here at Avilla each and every day.
The weather has not been very cooperative for OUR students and staff as of late. We would like to let everyone know that Science Fair has been extended another week. OUR Science Fair will take place on Thursday, February 20, 2014. The Regional Science Fair will take place at Trine University on Saturday, March 15, 2014. “Pennies for Patients” will be extended another week also. We will collect spare change over the next two school weeks. We will also be scheduling some after school events to help raise donations for OUR cause. Thank you to everyone for being patient with us as we continue to tweak schedules to do what is best for all of OUR kids.
East Noble School Corporation
Email: alinson@eastnoble.net
Website: www.eastnoble.net
Location: 126 West Rush Street, Kendallville, IN, United States
Phone: 260-347-2502
Facebook: facebook.com/EastNoble
Twitter: @ENobleSchCorp