February 2016 newsletter
Renwick USD 267 Newsletter February 2016 In this issue: Letter from the Superintendent
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Horizon Award Winner
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KS Legislator Contacts
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Strategic Plan
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AHS 8th Grade Open House
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AHS Driver’s Education
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Mr. O’HairCoaching Award
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GPE Academic Day
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SMS 5th Grade Band
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Announcements
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From the Desk of Mr. Bourne Superintendent of Schools I hope you had an opportunity to attend parent /teacher conferences at your student’s school. I am always amazed at the outstanding things students and teachers are doing on a daily basis. Although there are a lot of challenges in education right now, I am very excited about the direction of our district. Our current Strategic Plan is set to expire at the end of the school year, and we have accomplished the majority of the goals identified. I have included an updated copy of the current Strategic Plan’s accomplishments in this newsletter. We are in the process of developing a new Strategic Plan, and got great feedback from a committee of community and staff members. We will use the feedback to help the BOE and administrative team to develop a Strategic Plan that will guide us through the 2018-2019 school year. One of the emphases of the new Kansas Commissioner of Education, and the Kansas State School Board, is to have our students become more college and career ready. The Renwick School District has been moving in this direction for several years. We have purchased and are implementing a new digital curriculum that supports the Kansas College Career Readiness Standards. We are expanding our partnerships with post-secondary education centers. Our students will be able to take advantage of a program from the state that pays the tuition for highly needed certifications. We are partnering with Wichita Area Technical School, which will allow our students to take courses at their facility while in high school. In essence our students will begin to learn skills, in areas that they are interested in as a career, while still in high school. Finally, we are expanding our ability to help students investigate and experience career planning while at Renwick. We will have K-8 counselors who will help middle school students’ work on career exploration. Every student will have an individual plan of study as a freshman in high school, and we are adding career classes that culminate with internship opportunities in their field of interest as seniors. I am sure everyone is aware of what is going on in our state legislature. I hear concerns from many of our patrons about the state budget and the potential impacts on school districts. There have been a lot of educational bills that have been discussed, and many of them would be counter-productive to our goals at Renwick. It is vitally important that if you have concerns regarding any legislation that you reach out to your legislative representatives. I communicate Con nued on Page 2
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with them regularly, and often hear responses indicating that they don’t hear similar concerns from their constituents. This newsletter has a page that lists our representatives, and their contact information for those who wish to get more actively involved. One extremely important development is the recent Kansas Supreme Court Decision regarding the equitable funding of schools. The “Gannon” case decision was released about a week ago and found the new block grant formula unconstitutional on how it equitably distributes funding. This means that they found wealth disparities between districts actually grew under the new funding mechanism. The court was careful not to tell the legislature exactly what to do, or how much money they needed to resolve the funding disparity. They did however give the legislature a deadline of resolving it by June 30th, 2016. If it isn’t resolved by June 30th they will order the closing of the schools. This would have devastating effects on our students, staff, and communities. I am hopeful that common sense and clear heads will prevail and the legislature will comply with the order. Some would call this a constitutional showdown, and unfortunately the stakes are extremely high. Again, I would encourage you to contact your legislators to share your thoughts on this issue as well. I am very proud to be able to serve the Renwick School District as your superintendent. I am fortunate to have great people to work with, and to work for one of the most passionate group of parents and communities I have ever seen. I look forward to all of the great things our students, staff, and schools will accomplish during the remainder of the year. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns at the Renwick District Office.
Horizon Award Winner Molly Kretzer, Spanish teacher at Andale and Garden Plain high schools, has been awarded the KSDE Horizon Award. This award is given to outstanding new teachers who have taught one year and are currently in their second year of teaching. Ms. Kretzer will officially be presented with the award at a luncheon in Topeka. State Commissioner of Education Randy Watson notified Ms. Kretzer on January 5 . He will also be presenting her with the award at the February luncheon. Ms. Kretzer was nominated by her administration, fellow teachers and students.
Congratulations to Ms. Kretzer for receiving this prestigious award!
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Renwick USD 267 Kansas Legislators Kansas Senate District 26 Representative Dan Kerschen Capitol Office, Room 225-E 785-296-7353 [email protected]
645 S. 263rd St. West Garden Plain, KS 67050 316-535-2310 [email protected]
District 27 Les Donovan Room: 123-E Phone: 785-296-7385 Email: [email protected]
314 North Rainbow Lake Wichita, KS 67235 Phone: 316-722-2923 Email: [email protected]
Kansas House District 90 Representative Steve Huebert Capitol Office, Room 149-S 785-296-1754 [email protected]
619 N. Birch Valley Cneter, KS 67147 316-755-1943 [email protected]
District 93 John Whitmer [email protected]
P.O. Box 2862 Wichita, KS 67201 Phone: 316-260-8162 [email protected]
District 94 Representative Mario Goico Capitol Office, Room 276-W 785-296-7663 [email protected]
1254 N. Pine Grove Ct. Wichita, KS 67212 316-721-3682 [email protected]
District 101 Representative Joe Seiwert Capitol Office, Room 481-W 785-296-7647 [email protected]
1111 E. Boundary Rd. Pretty Prairie, KS 67050 620-459-6927 [email protected]
Kansas State Capitol, 300 SW 10th St., Topeka, KS 66612 To see information about the legislators for your area, go to www.kslegislature.org
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Andale High School Driver’s Education Information
Congratulations to Coach Gary O'Hair. Coach O'Hair was voted Kansas Football Coach of the Year earlier and just recently Andale High School has been notified that he also received the NFCA Section 5 Coach of the year. This area includes Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Coach O'Hair's name is now on the list for National Coach of the Year.
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Garden Plain Elementary On Tuesday, February 17th, Garden Plain Middle School students traveled to Chaparral High School to participate in the Central Plains Middle School League Academic Day. Students competed in Math Relay competitions, Science Scholar's Bowl and Science Olympiad. The Science Olympiad consists of different problems that students solved in groups of 2. Some of the problems to be solved were Duck Tape boats, Towers of Straws, Marshmallow Catapults.
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St. Mark’s School Members of the St Marks 5th grade band were recently introduced to a Japanese stringed instrument, the koto. They have been performing a Japanese cherry blossom song, SAKURA, in their band method book.
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Announcements... The Kansas Department of Educa on invites you to a end a free “Count Your Kid In” screening. The purpose of the screening is to assess children, age birth through five, in the areas of walking, talking, seeing, hearing, and learning. Call today and schedule a free appointment. The staff will assist you in the iden fica on of any needs your child may have, and in loca ng services to For children ages 0‐5 that reside in the following districts: Maize, Burrton, Sedgwick, Renwick, Cheney, Conway Springs, Clearwater, Goddard, Valley Center. This is not a “Kindergarten screening”
Sponsored by: Sedgwick County Area Educa onal Services
To schedule a free appointment, call 794‐8641 (Monday‐Friday 7:30 am‐4:30 pm)
Inter‐local Coopera ve. 620 Industrial Road, Box 760 Goddard, KS 67052
Contact Lisa Morch with ques ons @ 794‐8641
Vendor Bid Requests
Renwick Weather Hotline Dial 866‐3000 Then wait for the prompt and dial 8099
Any items, other than technology, that are for sale through the district can be purchased by contac ng the District Office at 444‐2165.
If you are interested in getting on the Renwick School District vendor list, please go to www.usd267.com and click on Vendor Registration. Choose Maintenance or Technology depending on the services you offer. Fill out the form and click Submit.
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