CASA -- Court Appointed Special Advocates

I heard an interesting presentation the other week at a county-wide meeting of superintendents. The executive director of the organization CASA -- Court Appointed Special Advocates -- spoke about her program.

CASA provides volunteer advocates for the abused and neglected children of Gloucester County.

CASAs are trained volunteers, appointed by the court to investigate specific cases and report their findings and recommendations. CASA was only able to serve 97 children of the 900 children with cases of child abuse and neglect in 2008 due to a shortage of volunteers.

Volunteers complete thirty hours of initial training plus twelve hours of continuing education per year and are asked to give a minimum of ten hours per month for investigation, communication, and reporting. They are also asked to appear in court on the child's behalf and present their findings to the court.

There was a sense that this may be a wonderful volunteer effort for a retired teacher. Obviously, if anyone has the time and interest, they would welcome the contact.

• CASA serves Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties and can be found at www.cumberlandcasa.com.

• Deanna L. Davis, Executive Director, can be reached at 856-459-0061 or dldavis@cumberlandcasa.com.

Woodfest '09 this Friday

The first Woodfest '09 event a couple weeks ago was a success. Now, the second performance week of Woodfest is coming up this Friday evening.

There will be six musical acts this week, as well as kid's activities, poetry readings and an art display.

Things kick off with children's story time at Taste of Philly Pretzels at 6:30 with music and other activities beginning at 7:00.

Here is the full schedule of activities and locations:

FRIDAY, May 29

Music

1. Saints of Sedition-Hard rock band. This young but enthusiastic group of rockers returns after two Presbyterian Church performances last year. Check them out at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=178309817;

2. The Crates-Classic rock/indie band. For more information on The Crates go to www.myspace.com/thecratesband ; Kemble Methodist Church

3. Barry Dwier-blues guitar, vocals and harmonica; La Piazza di Scottos

4. The McGeehan's-Irish music; The Spot

5. Karaoke; White House Building

6. Mike Plunkett Classical guitar, Irish music and more; Woodbury Antique Center

In addition to the musical performances Woodfest '09 will offer the following additional activities:

Family Fun Activities

Come and enjoy these fun, FREE activities for families:

6:30-7:00-Story time with Mrs. J which will feature story time and a light craft at the Taste of Philly Pretzels.

7:10-7:30-Twist your Own Pretzels at Taste of Philly.

7:45 Chocolate-Making Tour at The Nut Shop.

8:15-8:45 Bead Crafts at Foxfire Accessories.

7:00-9:00 Sidewalk Chalk Art in front of The Antique Center or G.G. Green Building.

Plein Air Art Display

View a selection of works in front of the Woodbury Antique Center from the Greater Woodbury Arts Council's recent Plein Air event.

Poetry Series

On May 29 our Wordwise Poetry Series features a special presentation, Women's Voices, presenting the original works of several women poets followed by a poetry open mike at Taste of Philly Pretzels from 7:30-9:00.

(For more information and future performance schedules go to mainstreetwoodbury.org.)

Reminder: Thursday Night Pizza @ DiScotto's

Tomorrow night (Thursday, May 28th) is the 6th Grade Enrichment Pizza Night at Di Scotto’s Pizza.

Di Scotto Pizza has agreed to donate 15% of the profit from our supporters to our 6th Grade Enrichment cause.

Our students have decided they would like to donate the money to Mother/Child Residential Program located on Broad Street in Woodbury. The Mother/Child Residential Program provides emergency shelter and transitional housing for pregnant women and women with children as well as counseling services and educational support.

The 6th grade Enrichment class would like to invite you and your family to come out and support their endeavor to make a difference. Bring your family and friends to Di Scotto Pizza on Broad Street anytime after 4:00 p.m. and let them know that you are there to support the Woodbury Jr. High’s 6th Grade Enrichment class. Fifteen percent of your check will be donated.

We thank you in advance for your support and for helping to make a difference in the fight against poverty!

Summer Bookbag – Read 5 and Thrive!

Our Acadmic Coach for Literacy, Camille Introcaso, has posted an article for parents on the Curriculum Page of the district's website (www.woodburysch.com).

This follows the mathematics suggestions posted earlier. Each is a Part I piece -- a second article on each topic is still to follow.


Catching Up With Curriculum

Helpful suggestions from the Curriculum Office of Woodbury Public Schools

Parents: Partners in Writing - April 14, 2009

Summer Solving (part 1) By: Katherine Estep, Mathematics Coach K-5 - May 7, 2009

Summer Bookbag – Read 5 and Thrive!(part 1) By: Camille Introcaso,Literacy Coach, K-5 -May 21, 2009

Rowan Urban Teacher Academy

Rowan Urban Teachers Academy -- free to junior high school students -- has extended the deadline application to June 1st.

Rowan Urban Teacher Academy

August 3rd - 14th, 2009

The Rowan University Urban Teacher Academy is offered to high school juniors interested in becoming urban teachers and/or teachers in high shortage subject areas.This program is designed to attract students to the field of education through exposure to curriculum and practicum experiences that focus on teaching.

A national shortage of teachers is predicted over the next decade due to student enrollment increases, teacher retirements, turnover, and career changes. Studies suggest that two million teachers will be needed nationally over the next ten years, while traditional teacher preparation programs will have a million teachers in the pipeline. Teacher shortages will be particularly acute in urban schools and in subjects such as science, special education, world languages, bilingual, and early childhood. Rowan University’s Urban Teacher Academy aims to encourage today’s high school students to become tomorrow’s teachers as strategy toward resolving this shortfall.

Completed applications are due by June 1, 2009.

Download application

A Special Visit to our School

(This entry was submitted by Ms. Julie Capodanno, Woodbury's English as a Second Language teacher.)


Sergeant Ed Alicea from Glassboro visited Woodbury Junior - Senior High School on April 22 to share his life story including multiple moves from New York to Puerto Rico, attending twelve different schools before graduating, and being a former gang member.

Sergeant Alicea has served the Glassboro Police Department for over twenty years. During his tenure he has been a DARE officer for over twenty (20) years; a School Resource Officer, and an undercover narcotics officer. He is a certified instructor in several areas: Firearms, Honor Guard, Suicide Bomber Identification, Prevention, Terrorism, Cults, and the Occult, and Gangs. Sergeant Alicea currently teaches at Police Academies throughout the State of New Jersey.

In addition to his law enforcement career with the Glassboro Police, Sergeant Alicea served twelve years – traveling the world -- with the United States Marine Corps. His duties include Machine Gunner, Platoon Sergeant, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare Instructor, and Presidential Honor Guard for President Regan's visit to Glassboro in 1986. Sergeant Alicea holds a BA and is currently working on a Masters in Home Land Security.

Sergeant Alicea spent over an hour sharing his story with Ms. Capodanno’s ESL students and other students outside of the program; the message was simple: You can always turn your life around and be a positive influence for others.

Basketball @ Evergreen

(Blog entry submitted by: Mr. Soper, Evergreen Grade 3 Teacher)


Thursday April 30, 2009 marked the exciting conclusion of the first annual March Madness reading program at Evergreen Avenue School. Over sixty students rose to the challenge of reading for at least 400 minutes in the month of March. As a reward for their diligent reading efforts, over sixty students in third, fourth, and fifth grade took to the basketball court to challenge an all-star squad of teachers. It was an exciting event to cap an excellent reading effort by the participants and fun was clearly had by all!



The students, divided into 8 teams, put forth a formidable effort against their teachers. Over the course of the game there were several lead changes as the students were constantly in hot pursuit of the much taller and much more experienced teacher team. 4th Grade teacher Mrs. Costello led all scorers in the first half (however was notably absent from the defensive stat sheets). 5th Grade teacher Mr. Richardson’s jump-shot caught fire in the second half to help add a cushion to the teachers’ lead. Late in the game, the teachers appeared tired as they missed dozens of defensive rebounds. These slips in focus allowed the students to climb back to a deficit as small as two points before the teacher’s regained composure and were able to secure the 69-63 win.


There have already been murmurings of “rematch” heard in the Evergreen halls.

Board of Education Meeting -- Wednesday, May 20

The regular, monthly meeting of the Woodbury Board of Education will be held this Wednesday, May 20th, at 7:00 p.m. (Today!)

The board meetings are held in the Jr.-Sr. High School auditorium. Entrance to the building can be made through the lobby doors by the auditorium, across from the Cap Paine gymnasium.

The agenda for the board meeting is posted on the district website. (agenda)

At the May meeting, the West End Memorial School will present an overview of some activities that have been happening at the school during this 2008-09 school year.

Minority Task Force

Woodbury City Public Schools Minority Task Force meets tonight for its last meeting of the 2008-09 school year.

These are productive meetings that help advance the district for the good of all. You are welcome to attend, even if this would be the first meeting for you. All are welcome -- parents, students, teachers . . . anyone and everyone with an interest.

The meeting is scheduled for 6:00 p.m in the Jr.-Sr. High School Library. The exterior doors by the auditorium, across from the Cap Paine gymnasium, will be open.

6th Grade Enrichment Projects

(This update was provided by the 6th Grade Enrichment teachers, Ms. Emenecker and Ms. Cammarato.)

Some community members may have already heard about the dynamic efforts going on with our 6th Grade Enrichment. The class recently worked on a unit about poverty. As a way of wrapping up the unit our students broke out into four groups. Each group was to create and implement an activity to help people living in poverty.



The first group planned an activity where they made food for the homeless. This was made possible due to the incredible work of Bob and JoAnn Miller. The Miller family assists Diane Bradley with running a program called The Camden Lunch Mission out of the Central Baptist Church. Volunteers meet on Saturday mornings at the church and then proceed to Camden to hand out 100 lunches consisting of 2 sandwiches, cookies, a piece of fruit, and a bottle of water directly to homeless men and women. Many organizations that provide food Monday through Friday are closed on the weekends, which is what sparked the idea for this mission. Their "regulars" know they can rely on The Saturday Lunch Group for a meal every week. Mrs. Chandler's class, from our high school, with the help of Bob Miller, joins The Camden Lunch Mission on the 3rd Friday of each month. The students prepare food for the lunches that are packed on Saturday mornings. On Friday, April 17 the 6th grade Enrichment class joined Mrs. Chandler’s class in making 100 lunches which were refrigerated and given out in Camden on Saturday. Some of the comments the students made while reflecting on the experience were:
“I really liked making sandwiches because it was a team effort. I want to help more often.” “I learned that helping people makes me feel better about myself.” “I learned that helping other people is a good thing to do and fun and made me think of people differently.” “Because of this experience I learned about how just by giving food to people who need it can possibly change their lives.”



Our second group chose to plan a bake sale after school which was held on Wednesday, April 22nd. The students created signs promoting the bake sale and hung them throughout the building as well as distributed them to homeroom teachers. Each student from the Enrichment class along with some Jr. High teachers brought in baked goods that were individually packaged to be sold after school. There was a huge assortment of food which included chocolate dipped pretzels, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and slices of cake. We are thrilled to announce that this group raised $170 which was then donated to The South Jersey Food Bank.




The third group from the class decided that they wanted to get the entire Jr. High in on the action. They came up with the idea of having a coin drive which they titled “Pennies for Poverty.” In this activity J. High homerooms competed against each other to see who could have the most pennies in their jar by the end of the week. The catch was that money other than pennies would be subtracted from the homerooms total number of pennies. Therefore, throughout the day the homeroom teacher’s other classes would come through and throw silver coins in the jars to subtract from that homerooms total number of pennies. At the end of the week the winning homerooms were Mrs. Rogers, 6th grade, with 2,516 pennies, Mrs. Stanfill, 7th grade, with 2,864 pennies and Mr. Blumenthal, 8th grade, with 2,239 pennies. We are blown away to announce that this activity raised a total of $700 which they have chosen to donate to The Camden Lunch Mission. The 6th grade Enrichment class was inspired by their experience on April 17th with Bob and JoAnn Miller and Mrs. Chandler’s class and they wanted to continue to help support this program which relies solely on donations of food, money, and time. JoAnn Miller told the 6th grade Enrichment teachers that, “Bob and I work with the high school children because we believe it's important for children to feel a sense of community and involvement. Besides learning some important life skills, we hope the students will come to realize they have the ability to change the world through simple actions. Making soup and sandwiches for the less fortunate brings a tremendous amount of hope to everyone involved. It's not a solution to homelessness, but it's a compassionate response.”




Our fourth and final group has decided to have a restaurant night. Thanks to the support of Di Scotto Pizza on Broad Street will be holding their activity on Thursday, May 28th. Di Scotto Pizza has agreed to donate 15% of the profit from our supporters to our 6th Grade Enrichment cause. Our students have decided they would like to donate the money to Mother/Child Residential Program located on Broad Street in Woodbury. The Mother/Child Residential Program provides emergency shelter and transitional housing for pregnant women and women with children as well as counseling services and educational support. The 6th grade Enrichment class would like to invite you and your family to come out and support their endeavor to make a difference. Bring your family and friends to Di Scotto Pizza on Broad Street anytime after 4:00 p.m. and let them know that you are there to support the Woodbury Jr. High’s 6th Grade Enrichment class. Fifteen percent of your check will be donated. We thank you in advance for your support and for helping to make a difference in the fight against poverty!

A Sojourn to the Far East

Promenade is a wonderful way to be a part of this year's Woodbury Jr.-Sr. Prom! This is a fun event for the entire Woodbury school community. Everyone is invited.

Join us tonight to experience "An Evening in the Orient" in the high school auditorium from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Come see all of our students dressed to the nines as they grace our Asian-themed stage.

Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children (17 and under) and senior citizens. All proceeds will benefit the Junior Class of 2010 and help defray the cost of promenade.

We look forward to seeing you tonight!

Boys Tennis Team Wins

Congratulations to the Woodbury High School boys tennis team. The team defeated Schalick by a score of 3-2 in the first round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group I tournament yesterday. The teams' three points came from straight set victories by all three singles players: Christian Schoning, Nick Schoning, and Dave Carl.

Next up -- Today, May 13th -- the number one seeded Pitman team in the semi-final round (at Pitman).

Good luck!

Special Education Week in New Jersey

A special thanks to all who make a difference in the lives of our special needs students at Woodbury --

the teachers, aides, instructional assistants, secretaries, administrators, parents and consultants. We have many important individuals who positively impact our children on a daily basis. It is truly spectacular to see the opportunities afforded Woodbury students due to the unique training and cooperative spirit of all those involved.

Again -- thank you.

TRENTON, May 11, 2009 — Gov. Jon S. Corzine has proclaimed May 10-16 as Special Education Week in New Jersey.

Special Education Week recognizes the achievements of the state’s 244,000 students with special needs and the commitment of their parents and teachers. The New Jersey School Boards Association and ASAH, a non-profit organization representing private schools serving students with disabilities, have sponsored Special Education Week since 1985. This year’s theme is “Opening the Door to Success.”

“The public school districts and the private schools of New Jersey make a major contribution to the public welfare by preparing thousands of exceptional persons to participate as citizens of this state and as members of society,” states the governor’s proclamation.

“I call upon all citizens to recognize the achievements of New Jersey’s special education students and the outstanding contributions made by educators, school board members, schools and agencies for the handicapped and parents toward quality education for the exceptional citizens of our state,” the proclamation continues.

Summer Educational Ideas

Check out the "Curriculum" page on our website (under the District Information tab at the top of the home screen). There you will find some articles specifically for parents.

During May and June, the Curriculum Office will be posting a variety of articles to help infuse educational opportunities into the upcoming summer weeks. The most recent posting is one from our Elementary Academic Coach for Mathematics, Kathy Estep.

Below is what you will see on the curriculum page. You can get to the actual page directly by clicking here: Go To Curriculum Page

Catching Up With Curriculum

Helpful suggestions from the Curriculum Office of Woodbury Public Schools

Parents: Partners in Writing - April 14, 2009

Summer Solving (part 1) By: Katherine Estep, Mathematics Coach K-5 - May 7, 2009

Woodfest Returns -- Tonight

Hit the streets tonight for fun and music. Woodfest returns -- 7 p.m. through 9 p.m. with a special story time event held at 6:30 p.m.

Check out the article about the event that ran in a recent Gloucester County Times edition:

GCT article

The Main Street Woodbury website provides a schedule of activities:

Mainstreetwoodbury.org

Woodbury Public Library Program Tonight

Woodbury Public Library cordially invites you to a free program Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 7:00PM.

Tea: Steeped in Tradition

Local tea historian Linda Boyd and local tea company Greenwich Teaburners will talk tea. From English tradition and etiquette to tea types, styles and preparation techniques, our experts will make sure we know it all. Refreshments will be provided. Free and open to the public.

Please feel free to give a call to sign up at 856-845-2611 or e-mail at woodpublib@gmail.com.

My guess is that you can simply stop by if your evening allows! Enjoy.

Fifth Graders “Go Green”

This entry was provided by our elementary enrichment teacher, Mrs. Stephanie Foran.

You have probably heard by now that CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) light bulbs are better for the environment than incandescent light bulbs, but --

• Did you know that one CFL light bulb uses 75% less energy, lasts up to 10 times longer, and can save 500 pounds of coal from being burned?
• Did you know that the United States alone goes through 2.5 million water bottles per hour and that 77% of these bottles end up in landfills?
• Did you know that Nike has a program that reuses old sneakers and converts them into new sports surfaces (running tracks, basketball and tennis courts, playground surfaces, etc.)?

These are some of the amazing facts that district-wide fifth grade students learned from a program called “Kids Going Green,” coordinated by Mrs. Stephanie Foran, Enrichment Teacher. The students attended the assembly last Wednesday.

“Kids Going Green” was 100% funded by the City of Woodbury through the Clean Communities Grant. Presented with expert knowledge and impressive energy by Michele Van Allen, of Jack Branagan’s Earth Matters, this program focused on educating students on concepts like fossil fuels and greenhouse gases while offering practical ways to reduce our carbon footprint and work towards creating a better environment.

We were fortunate to have some city officials present with us in the audience, including Mr. Thomas Dukelow, Clean Communities Co-Coordinator and Director of Parks & Recreation, Councilwoman Gwendolyn Brown, and Councilman Harry Trout.

Although Mr. Robert Law, Woodbury’s Chief Financial Officer/Deputy Administrator and Co-Chair of the Clean Communities Program, could not be present, he has been instrumental in serving as an extremely gracious and helpful point of contact over the past two years. We are very grateful to the City of Woodbury for their generosity and support, and we will keep the message of the program with us as we all work together to help save the earth.

Top 5 Academic All-Stars

Congratulations to the Woodbury High School top five academic scholars. Each was invited to be the guest of the various Gloucester County educational associations as students across the county were celebrated at an “Academic All-Star” banquet held last evening at Auletto’s Catering.

The Woodbury students honored included:

• Scott Bassler: Engineering (Stockton College)
• Stefana Burlacu: Business Administration/Finance (Temple University)
• Megan Kier: Liberal Arts/Mathematics (University of Vermont)
• Oluwatofunmi Oni: Biology/Pre-med (Rutgers University)
• Christian Schoning: International Relations (American University)

H1N1 Flu Information

The "swine flu" (now being referred to as the H1N1) has received so much attention, there is not much more information that we can provide as a school to help educate parents/children. Nevertheless, the school nurses are a good resource if any of you do have specific questions -- do not hesitate to contact any of our four nurses.

Though there now have been a couple of confirmed cases in New Jersey (none in Gloucester County), the reports over the weekend indicate that there is a chance that the strain of flu may be more mild than originally feared. That would obviously be a good thing.

The New Jersey Commissioner of Education, Lucille Davy, did have a conference call for all school superintendent's last Thursday afternoon. During the call, she reviewed information that was provided to schools earlier in the week. We had that information posted on our website, but during the recent upgrade of the site, the posting was "lost."

Therefore, I am printing the NJ Department of Education information below. As you will see, the information here continues to stress good, common-sense hygiene.

NJDOE INFORMATION:

Guidance for School and Childcare Settings
At this time, New Jersey recommends that schools and childcare settings increase education on respiratory hygiene and monitor attendees for acute febrile respiratory illness.

Staff and children (as developmentally appropriate) should all be taught and asked to follow these steps that prevent the transmission of infections such as influenza:

§ Cover your coughs and sneezes.

§ Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

§ Wash hands frequently, especially after coughing or sneezing.

§ Stay home if you’re sick, especially with a fever.

School or childcare participants with acute febrile respiratory illness, regardless of travel history, should be sent home according to facilities-established procedures with instructions to stay at home until 24-48 hours after their symptoms resolve. Instructions should be given to seek medical care with worsening of symptoms. At this time, exclusion is not recommended for school or childcare participants who have recently traveled to an affected area and who do not have symptoms.

Disease Reporting and Consultation

To report suspected cases of swine influenza or outbreaks of influenza like illness, please contact the local health department in the jurisdiction in which the school is located.

We are interested in testing individuals presenting with influenza-like illness (fever, cough, sore throat), mild respiratory illness (nasal congestion, rhinorrhea) with or without fever, vomiting, diarrhea, myalgia, headache, chills, fatigue, dyspnea and conjunctivitis.

Has had at least one potential exposure within 10 days of symptom onset as listed below:

A.) History of travel to an area where swine influenza H1N1 documented in animals and/or humans (see http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/investigation.htm ); OR

B.) Close contact (within 6 feet) to an ill patient who was confirmed or suspected to have swine influenza; OR

C.) Close contact (within 6 feet) to an ill patient who has traveled to one of the areas above; OR

D.) Recent exposure to pigs; OR

E.) Works with live influenza virus in a laboratory.

For More Information :

U.S. CDC Swine Influenza Website:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/

Infection control and treatment guidance: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/recommendations.htmhttp://www.maine.gov/dhhs/boh/swine-flu-2009.shtml

New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services

http://www.state.nj.us/health

School and/or Day Care Specific Resources

All you have to do is wash your hands Podcast: This Podcast teaches children how and when to wash their hands properly.

http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/player.asp?f=11072

Downloadable Flu Prevention Materials for Schools/Day Cares:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/

Preventing the Spread of Influenza (the Flu) in Child Care Settings: Guidance for Administrators, Care Providers, and Other Staff: Flu recommendations for schools and child care providers http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/infectioncontrol/childcaresettings.htm

Protecting Against the Flu: Advice for Caregivers of Children Less Than 6 Months Old: Research has shown that children less than 5 years of age are at high risk of serious flu-related complications. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/infantcare.htm

Stopping Germs at Home, Work and School: Fact Sheet http://www.cdc.gov/germstopper/home_work_school.htm

Ounce of Prevention: Tips and streaming video for parents and children about the steps and benefits of effective hand washing http://www.cdc.gov/ounceofprevention/

Clean Hands Saves Lives: Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. http://www.cdc.gov/cleanhands/

Hand washing to reduce Disease: Recommendations to Reduce Disease Transmission from Animals in Public Settings http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5605a4.htm

BAM! Body and Mind. Teacher's Corner: In this activity, students will conduct an experiment on washing their hands. They will learn that "clean" hands may not be so clean after all and the critical importance of washing their hands as a way to prevent the spread of disease. http://www.bam.gov/teachers/epidemiology_hand_wash.html

CDC TV - Put Your Hands Together: (Video) Scientists estimate that people are not washing their hands often or well enough and may transmit up to 80% of all infections by their hands. http://www.cdc.gov/CDCTV/HandsTogether/

Cover your Cough Posters: Stop the Spread of Germs that Make You and Others Sick! Printable formats of "Cover Your Cough". Posters only available as PDF files. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/covercough.htm

CDC - Be a Germ Stopper: Posters and Materials: For Community and Public Settings Like Schools and Child Care Facilities). Cover Your Cough also available for health care settings. http://www.cdc.gov/germstopper/materials.htm

"It's a SNAP" Toolkit Program materials to help prevent school absenteeism activities for school administrators, teachers, students and others can do to help stop the spread of germs in schools.
See the hand cleaning section of the "It's a SNAP" site at www.itsasnap.org/snap/about.asp.

Scrub Club http://www.scrubclub.org/Kids can learn about health and hygiene and become members of the Scrub Club(tm) at www.scrubclub.org. The site features a fun and educational animated Webisode with seven "soaper-heros" who battle nasty villains who represent germs and bacteria. Kids learn the six key steps to proper hand-washing through a webisode, hand-washing song, interactive games, and activities for kids, and educational materials for teachers are also available to download.

Check It Out -- A New Look

Some of you get to this blog through the district's main website. For you, this information will not be new. You will have already noticed that our website has undergone some significant changes.

You may recall that our webmaster, Jim Krauss, was soliciting ideas for change a while back. These suggestions, along with some ideas that were generated internally, have resulted in the reworking of our site.

There is a brief introduction to the new look on the front page. The most significant, obvious change is the new calendar feature that has a color coded process for identifying specific school events -- WE blue, EV green, WA maroon, and the JR-SR HS gold. If you click on the day of the week on the calendar, you will get a single day view. You can also get a whole-month's perspective by clicking on the name of the month. Each school building's administrator now has easy access to the calendar system to provide ready updates to this information.

I hope that the other changes make sense to you. Obviously, we will continue to monitor suggestions and look to always provide the most user-friendly format.

Enjoy!

There is a link to the site off to the right-hand side of this page.