It is so great to be able to brag on the staff and students of Eastern Local. My only problem is that there are so many great things happening at Eastern I struggle to keep up with these newsletters. I will still try and continue to put them out, but not near as frequently. If you don't have the Eastern App please download it and keep up on all that is happening at Eastern. You can also check our website with the newsfeed and live feed to stay informed. Everything in these newsletters is found on the website as well. Also please follow us on social media. It has been a great year so far, and we are excited to see what else our amazing students can accomplish.

If you ever have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us.

Nick Dettwiller

Superintendent

Eastern Local School District

740-667-6079

ndettwiller@easternlocal.net

Stronger Together

The Eastern Local Alumni and Friends Endowment was created to support academic, cultural, and extracurricular student activity opportunities for Eastern Local School District's students, and all those who work with them - including, for example: Athletic teams, Music or Art programs, after school programing, or any other student activities.

A part of the Meigs County Foundation Family of Funds, the fund is a new way for alumni, friends, and supporters of academic excellence and student engagement in extracurricular activities to provide contributions outside traditional funding sources. The Fund helps to ensure permanent resources for programs and activities that enhance and enrich the educational experience of students and teachers.

Gifts to the Fund will help create new opportunities across the Eastern Local School District for students as well as support multiple current student activity organizations. As a result of a matching opportunity provided by the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio and Meigs County Foundation, all gifts to the fund will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $5,000 per donor while matching funds are available.

Give a gift today or call FAO at 740.753.1111 to learn how you can make a give securities (and avoid capital gains), leave a planned gift, or make a direct gift from your IRA to meet your requirement minimum distribution! There is a link to donate in the upper right hand corner on the school website or click on the following link. https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com...

THANK YOU for supporting the students and teachers of Eastern Local! If you are able to make a large donation please do so before matching funds run out, but we hope everyone will sign up for ongoing donations also and please spread the word. This is an amazing opportunity to help all our students and all of our different extracurricular activities for years to come.

It is free wherever you download your mobile apps. You can set it to get alerts, check menus and events coming up, get updates, and read up on all the great things happening at Eastern Local.

Advisor Mr. Thompson and the existing members of Eastern High School’s Chapter of National Honor Society inducted 10 new members during the 59th Annual NHS Induction Ceremony on Tuesday, October 18, 2022.

The 10 students inducted on were Rylee Barrett, Jace Bullington, Emma Edwards, Emmalyn Hayes, Mandalynn Johnson, Jensen Litchfield, Zachary Nelson, Hope Reed, Abby Smeeks, and Kylie Smith The new members joined Bella Mugrage, President; Juli Durst, Vice President; Ella Carleton, Secretary; Jacob Spencer, Treasurer; Sydney Reynolds, Historian; as well as the other members Savannah Barnes, Maylee Barringer, Erica Durst, Hayley Sanders, Koen Sellers, and Kyra Zuspan.

On Friday, October 14th, ELSD in partnership with Ohio Valley Bank honored Students of the Quarter. The honorees were Savannah Barnes, Juli Durst, and Kyra Zuspan. Once each quarter we honor three of our top senior students by inviting the students and their parents to a catered luncheon supplied by Chef Austin Cole. Representatives from OVB, Tony Staley & Jason Booher, spoke to the students and congratulated them for their accomplishments. Each student was given a gift bag and a certificate commemorating their achievement. Pictured are Tony Staley and Jason Booher from OVB as well as honorees Kyra Zuspan and Juli Durst. Savannah Barnes was unable to attend due to a prior commitment.

Ohio University Kids on Campus awarded two new grants totaling $1.7 million

Thanks to the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Center grants administered by the Ohio Department of Education, Kids on Campus will continue to offer its services to school districts in Southeast Ohio for the foreseeable future.

This federally funded grant program supports high-quality, out-of-school learning opportunities and related activities for students who attend eligible schools.

“We are very grateful to have worked with our local schools to write competitive grant applications for afterschool programming. We are very pleased to announce that this effort resulted in one new award and seven continuing awards from the Ohio Department of Education,” said Jo Ellen Sherow, program manager of Kids on Campus. “These grants will serve children in six local school districts (Alexander Local, Athens City, Belpre City, Eastern Local, Federal Hocking Local, and Southern Local Perry County) in the coming years. We are extremely excited about our new partnership with Eastern Local Schools in Meigs County. We will be able to offer our program to 7th through 12th grade students in this district over the next five years. This marks the first time in our 26 year history that Kids on Campus will operate in Meigs County.”

Kids on Campus is based in Ohio University’s College of Health Sciences and Professions and is a rural community-university partnership serving the underserved in Southeast Ohio including at-risk children. Programming for Kids on Campus is completely funded by donations and grants. Through the new and continuing 21st Century grants, Kids on Campus will receive $1.1 million this year alone.

Each 21st Century grant is worth $850,000 over a five-year period. The following programs benefit from the fund:

• Eastern High School (applied for in partnership with Eastern Local Schools) – Will serve approximately 70 students in grades 7 – 12 during afterschool and summer programs.

KoC will receive another $1.4 million in federal funds made available from the Coronavirus Aid Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, 2021, and from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Kids on Campus employs approximately 200 people each year from Ohio University and surrounding communities including high school and college students, teachers, bus drivers and community members while also partnering with more than 100 area agencies and university departments.

Mrs. Burrow and Mrs. Will along with Mrs. Marten (not shown) presented at the All-Ohio Counselors Conference in Columbus, Ohio. They spoke about our Student Assistance Program at Eastern Elementary and provided counselors from across the state implementation advice for starting a similar program in their school.

This program allows teacher and parents to refer a student to our local team for academic, behavior, or social emotional concerns. The team is comprised of Mrs. Burrow, Mrs. Will, Mrs. Marten, Mrs. Robert's (speech therapist), Ms. Huddleston (Hopewell liaison), Mrs. Layne (Hopewell SAP Coordinator) and Ashley Ditty (ESC Whole Child Specialist). The team explores the concern and makes recommendations for student support to the teachers/parents and connects families to community resources.

If you would like to know more about our local Student Assistance Program or refer a student for consideration, you can visit Mrs. Will’s counseling page on our website or contact her at the Elementary.

On November 2nd, Eastern Elementary students were honored at our monthly PRIDE assembly. Teachers nominate one student from each homeroom for showing integrity, citizenship, or demonstrating their Eagle PRIDE by being Prepared, Respectful, Involved, Dependable, and Encouraging.

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month! This year's focus for awareness is building a team to help manage the disease. We are showing our diabetes team spirit today at Eastern by wearing blue to honor Diabetes Awareness Month.

After a great season the 7th grade volleyball team came away as tournament champions.

Our 8th graders improved a ton this year and lost in their semifinal matchup.

Watch out for these girls in the future.

The Eastern Youth volleyball program put on a show, winning the 5th and 6th grade divisions and finishing 2nd in 4th grade. If these teams continue to put in the work along with the great seasons our 7th and 8th grade have had this year and how much they are improving I am excited for the future of Eastern Volleyball. Great work ladies! Keep working hard.

The Eastern Eagles football team claimed victory during the rivalry on the river game against the Southern Tornadoes 49-28. They also defeated their 1st round playoff opponent, Shadyside, coming away with a 34-6 victory. This is the first time a Meigs County school has achieved a home field playoff win. Congratulations to the coaches, players, and community on great a season!

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A full house enjoyed bingo, food, fellowship, and the book fair at our annual grandparents night hosted by the PTO. It was great seeing families together enjoying company and having fun at our school. If you are interested in helping out with PTO or any of our booster groups please get involved, they do such great work for our kids and our families.

One of the things I love most about our school district is our people. We have nurses and School Resource officers teaching life saving techniques to our students. We have teachers working all kinds of extracurricular activities and leading student clubs. We have amazing parents who head up multiple booster clubs for our kids and step up when asked. All of these people and more are what make our school a family.

Special thank you to Deputy Barnhart for helping to teach these important skills that could save a life some day.

The Eastern staff took some time to focus on health and wellness thanks to some community partners. Our friend's at Hopewell organized a wellness day including multiple health screenings and assessments from the Hopewell Clinic and our school nurse team, as well as classes on first aid. Our Hopewell Counselors provided stress reduction techniques and there was also diabetes education, mobility testing and advice with our friends at Uplift Fitness, financial advice from Bob Crum at Horace Man, and yoga from Courtney Roush. We are so appreciative of these strong community partnerships and how our community supports our teachers and the school.

The high school engineering class demonstrated their recent project, hydraulic robotic arms.

The teams had to design, build, and demonstrate a robotic arm capable of picking up a soda can, lifting it over an 8" high wall and setting it down in a determined location, all using hydraulics. The arm bases were clamped to the table so all movement had to be designed into the project.
All teams were successful in accomplishing the lift and movement, a few teams fell short of the destination.

Six of our high school sophomores attended The Ohio State University Student Leadership Research Collaborative at Columbus State Community College. They worked with Dr. Keith Bell and Harvey Alston to build a leadership community and learn about effective student leadership. Students collaborated with a diverse group of student-leaders from other Ohio high schools.

Dr. Adam Voight taught students about Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), and students worked as a group to brainstorm problems, symptoms, and root causes.

Over the course of this yearlong program, students will choose a problem, conduct action research, and promote positive change within their school and community while building their leadership skills.

We are SO proud of our Eagles for stepping outside of their comfort zone and working as a team to enact positive change for their peers, their teachers, their school, and their community.

These students are ready to work for something today that will make a difference for tomorrow.

Wanted to brag on the 10th grade classes. They took the dare lesson and ran with it. Not only being able to defend current solutions to combat the opioid epidemic, but also coming up with new and innovative ideas that I haven’t heard or thought of! This generation is going places!

--

Deputy Joe Barnhart

Resource / D.A.R.E Officer

District Safety Coordinator

Eastern Local Schools

740-416-6710

EASTERN SENIOR ELLA CARLETON EXPLORING THE MEDICAL FIELD

Nick Dettwiller

NOV 03, 2022

Big shout out to Senior Ella Carleton who interviewed for and was selected to serve in the Marietta Memorial Internship Experience for High School students. She is the first Eastern student selected to participate in this program, which allows high school students to shadow and work alongside various medical professionals at Marietta Memorial.

The Eastern student council did an excellent job hosting their first blood drive this year. Remember helping out by donating blood helps save lives and our students can earn scholarships for helping out with the blood drives.

NHS VOLUNTEERS AT THE BIG BEND FOOD PANTRY

Shawn Bush

NOV 16, 2022

National Honor Society recently volunteered at the Big Bend Food Pantry in Mason, WV helping prepare boxes for the November food distribution which included items for Thanksgiving.

A huge shoutout goes to these students who have giving hearts and working hands! It was so great to see kids motivated and proud to be a part of something bigger than themselves. These kids not only volunteered to help clean up our beautiful campus on one of our last warm days but were excited about doing their part. These are just a few of the amazing students we have at Eastern that make this school so great!

EASTERN HONORS VETERANS AT VETERANS DAY ASSEMBLY

Samantha Carroll

NOV 16, 2022

On November 10, 2022, Eastern High School honored Veterans from the community at their Veterans Day Assembly. A lot of local Veterans showed up for the event. During the Assembly, members of the Meigs County Armed Forces Banner Project honored Army Corporal William “Bub” Stivers, the oldest living World War II Veteran in the county with a blanket and other gifts.

The Meigs County Armed Forces Banner Project held an essay contest where students at Eastern were encouraged to submit an essay about why Veterans are important. The winners of the essay contest were: Danielle Epple, Sara Morris, Kayla Sellers, Mason Baker, with the first-place winner being Layna Barnhart. Layna read her winning essay during the assembly. Andrea Neutzling, Commander of TP VFW Post 9053 awarded the winner of the Patriot Pen Competition to Makenzie Robertson. The Meigs County Armed Forces Banner Project also held a poster contest honoring Veterans. Posters winners were chosen based on People’s Choice, Most Representative, and Most Creative. The winners for each category are listed below.

To round out the event, Steve Ohlinger spoke about his great uncle, James Wilmer White and the impact he left on his family and the community. We want to thank everyone who participated in the Veterans Day Assembly. Thank you to all of the Veterans for your service!

Poster Contest Winners

People's Choice1st place: Tyson Maxon
2nd place: Paige Blackwood, Sadi Haught, Elizabeth Putman, Isabella Wilcoxen
3rd place: Susan Buffington

Most Representative1st place: Haylen Knapp, Heaven Knapp
2nd place: Ashley Jeffers, Brailynn Lamb
3rd place: Zoey Cranston, Brooke Marcinko, Allison Putnam, Braelyn Simpson

Most Creative1st place: Zackery Hess
2nd place: Kathryn Ryan
3rd place: Susan Buffington

Army Corporal William "Bub" Stivers

1st Place Essay Contest Winner: Layna Barnhart reading her essay.

Meigs County Armed Forces Banner Project Essay Winners

Patriot Pen Competition Essay Winner: Makenzie Robertson

So far in the Vo-Ag classroom students have demonstrated skills in welding, woodworking and concrete. Students started off learning the basics of welding and then demonstrated their knowledge by creating a perfectly straight welded bead. Next we moved into concrete, where students worked together to create concrete pumpkin planters which they painted and added a mum. Some students have participated in the Kids on Campus program where they are refining their woodworking skills to create a hunting blind.

Big Eagles working with little Eagles! Big shout out to all our participants in the youth in leadership program, and director Carrie Cheek.

On November 10, 2022, Eastern Local honors Mrs. Katie Williams with the Extra Yard Teacher Award. The National Federation of High School Athletic Association allowed each school to participate in the Extra Yard for Teachers Initiative for High School Teachers. An Extra Yard Teacher can be defined as an educator dedicated to their students’ success beyond the classroom. This is a teacher who always goes out of their way to make a positive impact, including recognizing and celebrating big moments in students’ lives and student achievement, and always seeing the best in every student they serve each day. We are proud to have Mrs. Katie Williams on our teaching staff at Eastern High School and to honor her with this award. Congratulations Mrs. Katie Williams!

At Eastern Elementary our teachers and staff are AMAZING! In an effort to remind them how awesome they really are, we have created a way for them to recognize each other for various contributions they are making to our school community. Staff in the Elementary building can nominate a co-worker for STAR recognition. Those who are recognized are entered into a drawing for an Amazon gift card sponsored by our Ohio School Wellness Initiative (OSWI) staff wellness grant.

STAR stands for Supportive, Talented, Amazing, and Refreshing. Teachers are asked to nominate a fellow staff member if they went above and beyond to be SUPPORTIVE to another team member, student, or parent. Staff may have a special TALENT for doing something that makes Eastern Local the amazing place it is! Perhaps they have created something AMAZING for their classroom; an out of the box lesson, or thought of a creative and extraordinary way to engage students, families, or the community. Or maybe something they have done was REFRESHING and helped keep our Eagle family happy, healthy, and learning.

Recognized Staff for September: Debbie Barber, Christi Lisle, Ruthie Hopkins, Melissa Barker, Debbie Pratt. Recognized staff not pictured: Lesa Sidwell, Chris Wilson, Heather Wilcoxen, Mary Anne Moore, and Angi DeFreitas,

Recognized Staff for October: Larissa Carouthers, Cathy Elliott, Jeremy Hill, Debbie Barber, Angie Rigsby, and Bobbi Harbour (not pictured).

Now we would like to give you the opportunity to say thank you or recognize a staff member who you have noticed making a difference. If you would like to recognize one of our staff members, please use the google form below. Staff will be notified of what positive statement was said about them and you can choose if you want your name included or if you prefer for the note to be anonymous.

https://forms.gle/SVi8fRgbcXQMrhWD7

EASTERN HOSTS INTRODUCTION OF APPALACHIAN ACCELERATED HOUSE BILL 733

Nick Dettwiller

Nov. 9, 2022

On October 24th, Eastern Local hosted the introduction of bill 733 (the Appalachian accelerated bill). Representatives Jay Edwards and Shane Wilkin introduced the legislation that would create an Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) program for school districts in our region. This program will impact 38 schools across 18 Appalachian counties including Eastern to be set up to be taught in new or improved school buildings.

Representatives Edwards and Wilkin have proposed 600 million dollars be appropriated to begin the Appalachian Accelerated program. The program also includes a community levy incentive of a 20% reduction in local share for facilities levies passed on their first try. This legislation is similar to a program known as the Urban accelerated that passed in 2000 and has led to a huge discrepancy in spending on urban students compared to Appalachian students. For every dollar spent per student in Appalachian schools on facilities there were $10,000 spent per student in urban schools in Ohio on facilities. This bill will hopefully start to correct this injustice.

This legislation is something that a group of superintendents from the Coalition of Rural and Appalachian Schools Legislative Committee including myself have worked on for over a year. We are extremely excited to be a part of this introduction. There were superintendents, treasurers, board members, and community members in attendance to support the legislation.

I wanted to thank all the people who came and our National Honor Society students for helping with the event. We as a district tried not to make it a political event, but an advocacy event for our students and community and I think it went extremely well. As always the biggest compliments I got from other superintendents, media, and legislators was how great our kids were. They proved once again what great students we have.

We as a district have a lot to be proud of including our students, families, and communities. This bill introduction and advocacy is just a step in helping our students get more opportunities and reach their full potential.

If you have any questions about the legislation, what it means for us, or how you can help please reach out to me.

Nick Dettwiller

Superintendent
Eastern Local School District
740-667-6079
ndettwiller@easternlocal.net
Stronger Together

Appalachian Accelerated Bill 733 News Sources

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• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-4R_INfmyxOyG3-f96mbkaeCHfC_-XP6/view?usp=sharing

• The Vindicator - Warren, Ohio

  • Funding to Ohio’s rural schools is very good start https://www.vindy.com/opinion/2022/10/funding-to-ohios-rural-schools-is-very-good-start/

• Salem News

  • House representatives announce introduction of House Bill 733 https://www.salemnews.net/news/neighborhood-news/2022/10/house-representatives-announce-introduction-of-house-bill-733/

• Coshocton Beacon Today

  • Introduced bill offers possibly funding help for rural school districts https://www.coshoctonbeacontoday.com/introduced-bill-offers-possibly-funding-help-for-rural-school-districts/

• Scioto Valley Guardian

  • Accelerated Appalachian School Building Assistance Program introduced in the Ohio House https://sciotovalleyguardian.com/2022/10/20/accelerated-appalachian-school-building-assistance-program-introduced-in-the-ohio-house/

• The Columbus Dispatch

  • Equity on the horizon: Ohio legislators propose $600 million for Appalachian schools https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/education/2022/10/24/ohio-legislators-propose-600-million-for-appalachian-school-districts/69577893007/

On October 6th, members of the Appalachian Children's Coalition team including Eastern Staff attended Groundwork Ohio’s Vote 4 Kids event at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The event featured multiple speakers who vocalized the need for investment in childhood mental health. With remarks from Governor Mike DeWine and Mayor Nan Whaley, who both shared their ideas on how they would use the office of the Governor to reduce the number of adverse childhood experiences and amount of trauma experienced by Ohio kids. The ACC was proud to have staff at the event to connect with thought leaders and be informed about plans at the state level to address the mental health of Ohio kids and those in Appalachia.

The Eagles helped win the Battle of the Bridge at Riverside. The TVC beat the LKC. 2 Eastern players were top 10 medalist in the TVC: Kasey Savoy 7th and Wyatt McCune 10th.

They also competed at the TVC championships at Ravenswood with Wyatt McCune getting first team all conference and Jacob Spencer qualifying for second team.

The team also qualified for the Regional tournament with Casey Savoy earning match medalist at the district tournament.

Please Note: All HS games start at 6pm with JV unless otherwise noted due to no JV, freshman teams, or combined JH team opponents.

Eastern Eagles Archery had a wonderful shoot Saturday, Nov. 12th at Waynedale. I am so excided to say we had 8 awards come home with our Archers! Let's give a big congratulations to them all. You all did so well! This was the 1st shoot of the year. Keep it up Eagles Archery!

8 Archers place in Individual Results Top Archer

High School 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

Female- Emma Harper in 4th place shot a 271

Middle School 6th, 7th, 8th
Female- Allison Putnam 1st place shot a 274
Male-Emmett Jordan 2nd place shot a 275

Elementary 5th grade
Female-Braelynn Sims 1st place shot a 258
Emma Myers 2nd place shot a 249
Jaelynn Curtis 3rd place shot a 243
Male- Cyle Hulse 2nd place shot a 226
Hayden Hensley 5th place shot a 202