Grandview C-4 School Report Winter 2015-16

the

SCHOOL REPORT

WINTER 2015-16

GRANDVIEW C-4 SCHOOL DISTRICT

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GHS ALL-GIRLS ENGINEERING CLASS

"Educational Excellence, Unlimited Potential" Robotics Teams Head to Regionals, Page 7

PLUS Be a Leader, Be a Reader, Page 4

CONTENTS SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATH: HANDS ON LEARNING

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GHS INTRODUCES ALL-GIRLS ENGINEERING CLASS

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ROBOTICS TEAMS HEAD TO REGIONALS

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HOUR OF CODE

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

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BOE PRESIDENT'S NOTE

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CENTRAL OFFICE STAFF : LEADING BY READING

GC-4 SPOTLIGHT BELVIDERE ELEMENTARY GETS PERFECT APR...AGAIN, PAGE 03

GVFD LUNCH BUDDIES

YOUR MONEY AT WORK

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GRANDVIEW FIREFIGHTERS MENTOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS THROUGH BRIGHT FUTURES, PAGE 04

IMPROVING OUR SCHOOLS

the SCHOOL REPORT Magazine Published by GC-4 School District Public Relations Contact Info: Sheba Clarke GC-4 Public Relations Coordinator sheba.clarke@grandviewc4.net The School Report magazine is published two times a year. It is distributed to approximately 17, 348 households and businesses within the Grandview C-4 School District boundaries and displayed on the district’s website. It is the official communication tool for parents, students, staff and patrons of Grandview Schools. Any information, content and photos in this publication are property of the Grandview C-4 School District and are only to be used with permission of the GC-4 Public Relations Department.

Grandview C-4 Schools is an Equal Opportunity Employer and there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex, race, creed, national origin, age or disability. The school district is committed to providing appropriate educational services for children with disabilities in compliance with the Individuals of Disabilities Act. The district is in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

HONEYWELL IN THE CLASSROOM HONEYWELL ENGINEERS TEACH, PAGE 08

GC-4 PROFILE SNAPSHOT OF EACH SCHOOL AT GC-4, PAGE 10

SCHOOL REPORT | 02

Superintendent's Letter: t chool Distric S -4 C w ie v d Gran xperience

my only e rintendent, e p u S s a re outh about tenu gh it on 71 S Prior to my u ro th g n vi through it! ew was dri was driving I w o n with Grandvi k 't n id e to be ago - and I d on chose m ti ca twenty years u d E f o C-4). I o the Board ool District (G ch S -4 C w Ten years ag e vi rand feel more ent of the G n then and I o si ci Superintend e d t a re g ity. I am re I made a at commun re g a is know for su -4 C that G nts, but also ecade later aff, and pare st , ts strongly a d n e d u st hools, t only to our kids in our sc ve a h t o n referring no o who d ity members to commun the district. ntly support yet consiste this school t the end of a t n e d n te n eri but I am n out as sup my journey, n As I transitio o t x e n is certain of t sure what ething I am m so r, year, I'm no ve e w Ho from uncertainty. t will ascend e ic th tr g is n D yi -4 jo C n e rs the G erge as a next ten yea area and em o tr e m is that in the e th in er to just kept secret" g to be hard in o g being a "best 's It . n io ening ict in the reg gs are happ in th t a re leading distr g t g tha is edition of hout knowin hlighted in th ig h drive by wit s t' a h w is evident by here, which eport. the School R

GC-4 Board of Education Wayne Terpstra, President Leonard Green, Vice President Paul Alexander,Treasurer Cindy Bastian, Member Greg Griffie, Member Ron Haley, Member Barbara Polette, Member GC-4 Administration Ralph Teran Ed.D., Superintendent Ann Cook, Assistant Superintendent Operations and Finance

ran, Ed.D. Dr. Ralph Te ls ent of Schoo Superintend

www.grandviewc4.net

Lori DeAnda, Assistant Superintendent Human Resources Kenny Rodrequez, Assistant Superintendent Curriculum and Instruction

SCHOOL REPORT | 03

GC-4

2015-2016 BULLDOG PRIDE POINTS:

Spotlight

ALL SCHOOLS EARN ACCREDITED OR ACCREDITED WITH DISTINCTION STATUS

Belvidere Elementary Earns Perfect APR Test Scores...Again

The Grandview C-4 School District earned 82.9% on this year’s Annual Performance Report (APR).

2015 APR highlights include: • District science scores are the highest in four years.

• Students scoring proficient or advanced in English Language Arts increased by 10%.

• Belvidere Elementary scored 100% of the points possible for the second year in a row.

• Butcher-Greene Elementary achieved the largest APR increase in the district.

• The district earned 100% of possible points for graduation rate for the third straight year.

• All district schools scored within the ‘Accredited’ or ‘Accredited with Distinction’ range.

STEVE ROBERTSON: ATHLETIC DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR Athletic Director Steve Robertson has been named the Kansas City Interscholastic Administrators Association (KCIAA) "Athletic Director of the Year".

He will be honored at the Missouri Interscholastic Administrators Association (MIAA) conference banquet in April, where the Missouri Athletic Director of the Year will be announced.

MARCHING BAND FINISHES COMPETITIVE SEASON ON TOP The Blue & Gold Brigade finished their competitive season at the Missouri Day Festival in Trenton, placing first in Class 4A, for the 6th consecutive year.

The B&G Brigade were also awarded: Outstanding Music Outstanding Marching Outstanding General Effect Outstanding Drum Majors (Miranda Crosby, Jasmyn Tilford, and Libby Casey).

Out of 46 bands, they earned the High Total Score for the entire festival! The Color Guard finished 2nd overall.

Key to Success

By Liz Means Like all of our schools in Grandview, we emphasize high expectations in everything we do including academics. We partner with our parents and our Belvidere Caring Community partners (LINC and Belvidere Heights Baptist Church) to work together to support our Scholar Students, which is another component we implement, we address our children as Scholars. We believe in them so that they believe in themselves to do their best and accomplish success.

As a staff, we analyze data throughout the school year to determine what we are growing in and what we need to do better in. We focus on effective teaching in classrooms, monitoring the progress of our Scholar Students and making adjustments to our instruction, increasing the rigor of our instruction to challenge Scholar Students to think and perform deeper, and engage them in their learning.

Throughout our school, we focus on attendance and put in place incentives for individuals and classrooms to strive toward our lofty APR (Annual Performance Report) attendance goal of 96% every day so that we can accomplish it.

Everyone at Belvidere Elementary is very PROUD of the accomplishment of 100% on our APR!! We know it takes hard work and dedication to accomplish that goal.

But everyone in the school, Scholar Students, parents, and staff make a commitment to each other to continue that hard work and not give up - because we want to reach our goal and show our BOBCAT PRIDE. We STRIVE for #1!!

-Liz Means

Principal Liz Means discussing the school's APR at 'Back to School' night.

SCHOOL REPORT | 04

READER LEADERS

Central Office Staff: Leading by Reading

Dear Community: Get Involved Our Board of Education, through self­evaluation, recognized that we need to increase parent and community involvement in our district. Studies show when parents and community members are engaged in schools, students perform better, attendance increases and dropout rates are lower. At times we struggle with how to involve parents in the issues affecting public schools. So I would like to point out the great opportunities we have available for parents and community members interested in serving our schools. Through our Reader Leader program, you are invited into our classrooms to sit and read or be a reading listener to students in small groups. It’s an hour a month commitment. You can also volunteer with our district through Bright Futures and help serve students in need or be of assistance to teachers. There are plenty of other opportunities as well, but it starts with signing up and getting involved. Our district’s website, e­news, and social media are great ways you can get connected and know what's going on in our district. If you’re interested in learning more about volunteering, you may ask at your school’s front office or email volunteer@grandviewc4.net or call 816­316­5021.

Sincerely, Wayne Terpstra, BOE President

Working Together

BRIGHT FUTURES

district and community involvemnt

GV Firefighters Become Lunch Buds

Grandview firefighters are everyday heroes in the community they serve. In Grandview, not only do firefighters respond to the every day emergencies people face, they also respond to the call of community service. Once a month, they sit with a select group of students over chocolate milk and chicken nuggets acting as lunch buddies.

Students look to them as mentors, friends, a familiar face, or something to look forward to, during their school day.

"They truly are mentors to these young boys and girls. The smiles on the kids' faces say it all," said Ron Graham, Grandview Fire Chief.

The Firefighters Lunch Buddy program started a year ago at Conn West. After the first year, it expanded district wide through its connection with Grandview Bright Futures, the district's community

Kenny Rodrequez, Asst. Superintendent, Cirriculum and Instruction reading to Conn West 2nd graders as a volunteer Reader Leader

Literacy has been a continued focus for the Grandview C-4 School District's Kindergarten through 5th grade students. Approximately 40-percent of our students are on grade level in terms of reading by the end of third grade. Being proficient in reading during that time is a major indicator of high school success Grandview C-4 is working to improve that percentage in many ways. One is through a renewed focus on reading out loud and in individual student reading time. That's where Grandview Reader Leaders come in.

Reader Leaders connect, encourage and inspire. They are friends, mentors, and academic resources to K-5 students. Right now there are nearly 20 Reader Leaders in our district working their mission. All of them are Central Office employees.

“I love taking the opportunity to stop everything and read to the kids in Mrs. (Lyndi) Burns' room. It continues to remind me how vital literacy is to the future success of our students and is a continual reminder of why I got into education in the first place,” said Kenny Rodrequez, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction.

Another goal of the initiative is to get parents and community members involved. If you are interested in being a Reader Leader, you can sign up at any school’s front office or email volunteer@grandviewc4.net. It’s a minimum commitment of 30-minutes twice a month, on the day you prefer. We welcome the help of the community to join in and make a difference. partnership program. Firefighters now show up for lunch at every Grandview elementary school.

Program coordinator Stephanie Bradley says a goal of lunch buddies is to establish relationships. "Bringing the firefighters in as mentors was a step toward involving our community.

Students see the firefighters out in public and know they are people they can trust and go to for help," said Bradley.

The GVFD's partnership with Bright Futures is one example of the power of community involvement. To learn more about partnering with Bright Futures email: BrightFutures@grandviewc4.net.

SCHOOL REPORT | 05

SCIENCE ENGINEERING TECHNLOGY AND MATH Science ,Technology , Engineering , and Math ,

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GHS INTRODUCES ALL-GIRLS ENGINEERING CLASS

WRITTEN BY SHEBA CLARKE GC-4 PUBLIC RELATIONS COORDINATOR

This year we took some of these female students on a tour of the KCP&L Hawthorne plant. The next day these students met with KCP&L engineer Tiffany Wheeler (pictured above, speaking to the class) to talk about what they saw, and what it's like to be a female in school and the workplace," Clark Vance, GHS Engineering Instructor. "

It's not news that the field of engineering has been male

demonstrated by Honeywell engineers. During the activities

dominated, from the classrooms to the career, for

students are split up by gender. Students are also recruited

decades. Grandview High School is taking an original

to take the class during that event.

approach to change that.

“For the first time, we had enough female students interested in “The all-girls engineering class was created in response to

taking the freshman Introduction to Engineering Design class

the demand for females in the engineering field,” said Don

that we made an all-female section,” said Clark Vance, GHS

Wheeler, GHS Engineering Instructor.

Engineering Instructor.

This school year GHS rolled out its first all-girls Introduction

The class meets about four hours a week. The students are

to Engineering Design class. Wheeler teaches the class.

introduced to different aspects of engineering from

Currently 18 girls are enrolled and it’s one of his favorite

instrumentation, software, engineering notebooks specifications,

classes. He says the students work at a faster pace in

expectations, design process, math processes, construction and

comparison to his other classes and it has less distractions.

destruction simulations, and much more.

“Right now, we seek serious students that may have an

“Several ‘Project Lead the Way’ programs have experimented

interest in engineering,," said Wheeler. "We recommend

with all-female introductory classes and have had good

that students interested in pursuing a career in

outcomes,” said Vance.

engineering take the highest level math classes possible.”

Wheeler says about two-thirds of his female students plan to go The idea of the all-girls class came out of a partnership

into some form of engineering in their career path. He estimates

with Honeywell and Prep-KC through Grandview IGNITE.

the high school will offer at least two, maybe even three all-girls

IGNITE is held at both middle schools and introduces

engineering classes in the future if the response remains this

students to engineering through hands on experiments

positive.

www.grandviewc4.net

SCHOOL REPORT | 07

ROBOTICS TEAMS GO REGIONAL

Grandview schools have worked to build their robotics program since it first started in 2007. Today every school in our district has a robotics team thanks to Project Lead the Way. This school year, for the first time in district history, two teams are knocking down the doors of the FIRST Lego League’s Regional competition.

The competition brings robotics teams from across the state, with hopes of making it to nationals.

Grandview schools that qualified include the Grandview Middle School Techno Dogs and the Meadowmere Mechanical Maniacs.

“Congratulations to Grandview Middle School teacher Jason Reese and GMS First Lego League Robotics Team for advancing to the Championship at Union Station in January. This is the first time a Grandview school has qualified for the Kansas City regional competition in Lego League robotics,” said Jacqueline Spencer, GMS Principal.

The GMS Techno Dogs robotics team competed at a local qualifying tournament in December. During the competition the team presented a research project, completed a team building activity, and discussed the design of their robot and game strategy with judges.

The team’s high score was 261 points. It was good enough for 14th place. However, they were selected by the judges as having the most creative solution to the trash removal project they worked on.

This award, plus finishing in the top half of the robot game, qualified them for regionals.

NOMADIC

www.grandviewc4.net

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SCHOOL REPORT | 08

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, MATH (continued from page 7) They won’t be alone in that competition either; the Meadowmere Mechanical Maniacs are also headed to regionals.

“Our students worked very hard on their robot game, presentation, and their team work paid off. We are very excited to head to Union Station in January,” said Carrie McDonald, Meadowmere Maniacs Coach.

The Mechanical Maniacs won for Robot Performance in a qualifying competition at Bingham Middle School in Independence in December. The elementary school team’s high score was 502, which made them the first team in the region to get more than 500 points in competition.

The district's robotics program has had growing interest through the years.

The goal of the program is to get and keep students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math.

HONEYWELL ENGINEERS TEACH Grandview IGNITE takes learning about science, technology, engineering, and math out of the classroom and into students' hands.

IGNITE creates a partnership of more than a dozen Honeywell volunteers to our middle school students. They work together in the middle schools' gym in small groups doing hands-on demonstrations. The groups are divided by gender and rotated table to table partaking in a wide range of activities that explore civil, mechanical and computer science themed activities. Teachers and students say IGNITE is one of the best events they attend all school year.

Several districts, including Grandview, participated in an IGNITE event in November. Of the more than 480 students that took part, 230 expressed an interest in wanting to pursue an engineering pathway at their high school. Thanks to the success of the IGNITE , Grandview created an all-girls engineering class for the first time this year.

The event takes place annually and is sponsored by Prep KC.

HOUR OF CODE Elementary school students district wide joined millions of kids worldwide in one of the largest educational events in history: Hour of Code.

Coding is what makes it possible for us to create computer software, apps and websites by telling a computer what to do and how to do it.

The Hour of Code is organized by Code.org, and it aims to expand participation in computer science by making it available in more schools. It provides an introduction to computer science by giving students the opportunity to learn about the basics, nurture their problem-solving skills, logic and creativity.

In December, each Grandview elementary building hosted a two-hour event, starting with a 45-minute assembly with live demonstrations of how code works. It concluded with students working together in classrooms to write code to solve problems using various forms of computer technology.

More than 200 Grandview students wrote an estimated 120,000 lines of code throughout the event.

SCHOOL REPORT | 09

IMPROVING

OUR SCHOOLS New technology at 01 GMS, including 90 Ipads and 60 MacBooks

01 02

02

Project Lead the Way Launch, a new hands­on learning 5th grade Science Curriculum

03

GHS Track Resurfaced

04

New Marching Band Instruments

05

Windows Replaced at Butcher­Greene Elementary School

04 03

04

05

www.grandviewc4.net

SCHOOL REPORT | 10

Our Schools

GC-4

DISTRICT GUIDE Dr. Jennifer Price Principal

Johnny Dodge Principal

Rosey Brown Principal

Stephen Fielder Principal

Grandview High School Accredited with Distinction Student Population: 1,169

Grandview Middle School Accredited Student Population: 593

Building Info: 816­316­5800 2300 High Grove Road Grandview, MO. 64030

Building Info: 816­316­5600 12650 Manchester Avenue Grandview, MO. 64030

Martin City K­8 School Accredited Student Population: 747

Belvidere Elementary Accredited with Distinction Student Population: 358

Building Info: 816­316­5700 201 East 133rd Street Kansas City, MO. 64145

Building Info: 816­316­5300 15200 White Avenue Grandview, MO. 64030

Liz Means Principal

Butcher­Greene Elementary Accredited with Distinction Student Population: 423

Conn West Elementary Accredited Student Population: 433

Building Info: 816­316­5400 5302 E. 140th Street Grandview, MO. 64030

Building Info: 816­316­5225 1100 High Grove Road Grandview, MO. 64030

Marcy Simon Principal

Building Info: 816­316­5525 7010 E. 136th Street Grandview, MO. 64030

Building Info: 816­316­5150 816­316­5150 Grandview, MO. 64030

Building Info: 816­316­5500 2500 High Grove Road Grandview, MO. 64030

Accredited

Enrolled at: 4,264 students

Our Mission Grandview C-4 prepares all students to be college and career ready through high quality instruction and meaningful relationships.

Our Vision 06 C 4 develops Grandview highly 05 effective leaders and -

CAIR (Center for Alternative Instructional Resources) Student Population: 102

Derek Jordan Principal

We are:

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Meadowmere Elementary Accredited Student Population: 439

High Grove Early Childhood Student Population: 138

Kerri Collison Coordinator

Jacqueline Spencer Principal

lifelong learners by fostering and sustaining positive relationships through a culture of acceptance and respect, providing rigorous academic experiences and technology-rich opportunities to meet the challenges of society, today and in the future.

Central Office 13015 10th Street Grandview, MO 64030 Phone: 816.316.5000 Fax: 816.316.5050

STAY CONNECTED! www.grandviewc4.net

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SCHOOL REPORT | 11

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