T he importance of attendance. We receive a grade on the report card in many areas but

many people don’t realize that attendance can effect each grade. If we fall below 94% it

can lower our grade in a number of subgroups as well as our overall grade. See page 3 for

some attendance facts and interesting information from last year.

O ur third graders will be taking the Ohio Reading Achievement Test Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Students have up to 2 1/2 hours to take this test. It is very important that they have a

good nights sleep and a good breakfast before the test.

P arents you will continue to hear about the 3rd Grade Guarantee from the Ohio Depar tment of Education.

The law states if a student is struggling in Reading they will be placed on a RIMP plan, Please read page 5 for

more information.

S tevenson uses student data and differentiates to meet each child's need. Teachers do this in their own class-

room, during intervention and during flexible Reading and Math groups. The term flexible groups might be

new for some parents but it is a model that has been used successfully for years in education. If you have

questions about flexible grouping or want more information please ask your child's teacher.

Cory Miller, Principal Phone

Darlene Miller, Secretary 937-259-6630

October 1, 2014

Virginia Stevenson

Elementary

Mad River

Local Schools

A Title I School

Special points of

interest:

District Events pg. 2

Calendar pg 3

Community Update pg 2

School News pg 4

Counselors Corner pg 4

3rd Grade Guarantee 5

Important Dates:

A Note from the Principal….

Fall Weather Again!

Again a reminder about the cool weather. Please make sure your child is wearing or

bringing a jacket to school. If it gets warm, they can always put it in their book bag.

Thursday, October 16th

1:10 Early Dismissal

Friday October 17th

No School

Stevenson Math Committee is

hosting a “Lego Math Night”

on Thursday, October 23rd

Learn About the District’s Schools & Programs

WHAT: A unique oppor tunity for parents and members of the Riverside Community to come

and learn more about the district’s schools and programs

Over thirty booths and stations, which will allow parents to experience the everyday

education their children receive. Some of these booths include:

● Career Technology ● Athletics

● Military Family Information ● Food Services

● Special Education Resources ● Community Resources

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The event is free and open to the public. Food and refreshments

will be served. For additional information, call 937-259-6609.

LOCATION: Stebbins High School – Hall of Fame/Auditorium

WHEN: Tuesday, October 21st—5:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m.

Drop Off &Pick-Up Procedures Due to an increase of drop offs and pick-ups, it is important to remember the following proce-

dures in order for our students to safely enter and leave the building:

No student shall be dropped off prior to 7:45 am

Please pull up to the curb and let your child/children out of the car on the curb side when

dropping them off.

If you need to come into the building with your child/children, pull into a parking space so

you do not cause a backup of traffic flow.

When picking up your child:

It is important we are patient and join the line of cars who are waiting for their child

Please do not pull in a parking spot and wait for your child, this creates a back up as well as

multiple safety concerns (only use the parking spots if you are entering office)

If your child is a walker please wait on the steps near the board office. Students will be es-

corted across the parking lot

October

3 PBS reward Day (kickball)

7 3rd Grade OAA

9 Gr 2 Music Performance at 6:30 pm

16 Early Release at 1:10 pm (end of 1st qtr)

17 No School

21 Mad River Showcase (Stebbins)

23 Family Math Night at 6 pm

24 35 Ticket Club

31– 11/8 Book Fair

November

31 PBS reward Day

6 Parent/Teacher Conferences 5-9 pm

7 NO SCHOOL for Students—Parent/Teacher

Conferences

11 NO SCHOOL for Students—Prof. Dev.

13 Parent/Teacher Conferences 5-8:30 pm

19 Fall picture re-take day

24 Children's Theatre Assembly

26-28 NO SCHOOL—Thanksgiving

Morning-Peyton Owens, Heylee Leach, Dominic Hall-Jones

Afternoon-Christian Spencer, Jonathan Brown, Dailyn Diaz

Calendar of Events

Page 3 Stevenson Status

Stevenson held fourth graders audition for 12 spots to become the new voice of Stevenson El-ementary. The top twelve candidates for the new voice of Stevenson were selected Friday, September 19th. The staff at Stevenson would like to thank the candidates who chose to partici-pate.

Congratulations Morning Announcers

Piper Cullom, Aaron Cupp, Jonathon Brown,

Brooklyn Adcox, Marissa Shoop, Myles Ander-

son, Neveah McDonald, Ciara Shawhan, Brean-

na Fleming, Isaiah Hall, Christian Spencer, and

Clyde Mason.:

Community Update:

The Community United Methodist Church at 339 Meyer Ave. wants to help families in need. The Methodist Church has a free store on the 2nd Saturday of each month from 9 am to 12 noon. The Life Enrichment Center at 425 North Findlay Street also has programs to help. If you could use their services please contact them.

Interesting attendance facts from last year:

Students who missed fewer than 2 days in Sep-tember typically had good attendance rates for the entire year.

Half the students who missed 2-4 days in Sep-tember went on to miss a month or more of school, which is known as chronic absence.

Nearly 9 out of 10 students who missed more than 4 days in September were chronically ab-sent that year.

SCHOOL BUSINESS— What’s Been Happening?

Stevenson 4th grade

Fourth Grade went on a field trip to Sunwatch Indian Village. The students are learning about Ohio's early people and we got to see first hand how they might have lived. We were able to walk through what their homes would have been like, play musical instruments that were made out of gourds and learn dance steps. We enjoyed our visit and it has made our learning of their way of life more understanda-ble.

Page 4 Stevenson Status

Students of the Month:

Students are displayed in the main hall (see below)

August students were:

Colton Thorp, Hisain Eltaeb, Ryan Bennett, Lukas McCoy, Thomas Nguyen, Lena Ho, Jordan Wright, Reagen Gregor, Breanna Fleming, Gabe Howard, Luke Smith,Brandon Reaver, Emily Cupp, Austin Hopper, Scarlet Clinger, Icess Spiker, Mat-thew Turner, Mila Lopez, Tristan Mcdonald

September students were:

Donna Boswell, McKenna Bentrup, Madalyn Smith, Lien Brush, Lawrence Asher, Adam Reaver, Alianna Davis, Jasmine Sam-udio, Kaylee Bennett, Alana Crawford, Carter Thorp, Nathan Thrash, Hanna Justice, Athena Comer, Allie Phillips, Heylee Leach, Ryan McNabb, Hoang Le, and Carl Farley.

Counseling Corner (Mr. Ward)

Playing… and Learning! Weaving lessons into everyday life, especially fun activities like a game that your child chose to play with you, is a very effective means of education. Here are some ideas to turn an ordinary game into a springboard to impart timeless values for your chil-dren. Remember that often actions speak louder than words.

Integrity: The urge to win a game can become so powerful that we are moved to cheating. You can discuss the benefits of honesty and the detriments of cheating, while playing a board game with your kids.

Here are some winning points:

Winning: It is human nature to feel good when you win, but how did you make your opponent feel? Did you gloat in arrogance or handle the winning with modesty?

Taking advantage of the weak: While playing a game with your child, there are abundant opportunities to take advantage of other players who are younger, less experienced, or not as attentive to the rules. This is a good time to talk about fairness versus aggres-sion.

Be happy with what you have: There is a fine line between striv-ing to become better and being content with who you are and what you have now. Share insights with your children that often-times when looking back the bad things were blessings in dis-guise.

The glass is half full: Whether you won or lost, you as the parent can use the game as an opportunity to complement your child on a smart move, or getting along with another player amicably. No matter how well or poorly the game was played; you can always find a way to praise an aspect of how your child played.

Here’s to your success!

Mark.ward@madriverschools.org

The students in Mrs. turners classroom had some fun sharing their thoughts on what Mr. Miller does all day after reading the book titled "The principal's new clothes". They also drew pictures of him in his new clothes. This display can be found in the K-2 Hallway.

Beginning last year, any child that scores in the low Basic range (below a 394) on the 3rd Grade Ohio Achievement Assessment (OAA) will not move on to 4th grade. To help us pre-pare for this and intervene earlier, the State has said that every child in grades K-3 must take a reading assessment by September 30, 2014, to determine if they are “on track” to be read-ing at a proficient level by the end of the third grade.

Having students participate in multiple assessments is not something new to students at-tending Mad River Local Schools. Teachers use this data to provide more tailored instruc-tion to your child. All students within Mad River Local Schools participate in some level of academic intervention throughout the year. This could be a small group, a large group, or even a specific goal within the classroom. Mad River has taken pride in its student achieve-ment growth throughout the past decade.

What is new is the level of accountability this law brings. Regardless of what growth a stu-dent has made, they will be retained in the 3rd grade if they don’t meet the minimum cut score (394).

The law requires us to communicate to parents when a child is “not on track.” The district will be doing this in the next few weeks. Further, if your child is “not on track” your child’s teacher will review a Reading Instruction & Monitoring Plan (RIMP) during conferences or before.

As a parent, this means you should continue to do what teachers have long advocated for:

1. Be involved with your child’s school.

2. Ensure you know if your child is performing on grade level or not.

3. Continue to read, practice math facts, and provide an environment for homework at home.

Please, ask your child’s teacher if you have questions about his/her progress.

The current 3rd graders will have 3 chances to reach the cut score of 394 on the OAA (Fall/Spring/

Summer). The district has also added an alternate assessment that will give your child 3 more chanc-

es to pass utilizing the State approved alternative assessment (MAP).

Taking Care of Freddy the Freeloader

Prevention and early detection are the best ways to deal with lice. Unfortunately, no one can know when or where a child will be exposed to these pesky critters; and your child’s school can’t know every child who’s had lice. As parents, you can play a key role in preventing the spread of head lice. We recommend that parents check their child’s head once a week.

Friday is a great day to check your child’s head…

Before she goes to a friend’s house to spend the night

Before he visits Grandma for dinner

Before you and your child snuggle up to watch a movie

Before school starts Monday morning

Before Freddy the Freeloader has the chance to invite his whole family

So make Every Friday

Finding Freddy the Freeloader Day!