Rashkis has had field days for nine years since the school opened.  They are days Rashkis students and staff look forward to arriving. 

Michelle Wood, PE teacher, organizes the races and events and then parent volunteers run them once the day begins.  Each student leaves his or her field day with multiple ribbons to celebrate success and fun.

View pictures from the Recognition Reception on flickr:

View photos from the Equity Breakfast on flickr:

Sarah's work, entitled "Diversity is Best," was honored in the intermediate division of the photography category.

She will receive a cash award, a silver-plated Reflections medal and a certificate and letter signed by the National PTA President.

Less than 20 percent of the submissions received for this anthology are actually published.  The poem is about the colors of her world and is reproduced below:

The world as I see it is green,

The color of leaves,

The color of spring,

The world is green.

The world as I see it is yellow,

The color of sunshine,

The color of summer,

The world is yellow.

The world as I see it is orange,

The color of pumpkins,

The color of fall,

The world is orange.

The world as I see it is white,

The color of snow,

The color of winter,

The world is white.

The world as I see it is blue,

The color of oceans and sky;

It is black,

The color of night and darkness

The world as I see it is colorful,

The color of four seasons,

The color of pictures and dreams,

The color of everything.

The world is colorful.

The ceremony will be held at 5 pm on May 18 on the campus of NC Central University.

CHCCS graduates include:  Jada Colbert, Candace Dargan, Austin Esry, Brittany Frizzelle, Samantha Green, Geneiya Hodge, Dara Johnson, Meredith Kramer, Grant McChesney, Kaitlyn McEntyre, Edin Ordonez, America Stewart-Taylor, Nathanael Taylor and Juliann Willis.

The blog entry focuses on the importance of student input in determining effective instructional practices.

Read Bunner's blog entry at:

http://schoolimprovementnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/05/best-practices-ask-customers.html

It was a ordinary day in the school district. The teachers were working with their classes, the principals were trying to catch up on their reports, a few classes were enjoying recess on the playground.  All seemed quiet until...

A first grader on the playground got stung by a bee.  Luckily both his teacher and the classroom assistant knew what to do.  They had been instructed by their school nurse and knew that this first grader had severe allergic reactions to beestings.  They took the student immediately to the nurse, who gave him benedryl. After careful observation the child continued his day with no further problems.

Meanwhile, across town, in a middle school, a team of teachers and support staff, including the school nurse, was meeting to determine a plan of action for a student who had serious behavior problems, though no one was sure of the cause.

And at one of the high schools a school nurse worked patiently with a sophomore who had severe diabetes.  The nurse and the student worked out a plan where the student could manage her diabetes successfully, feel confident, participate in her daily activities knowing that there was a caring, competent professional she could turn to when necessary.

Everyone knows that school nurses can administer first aid and deal with health crises, but how many of us in the community stop to appreciate what a school nurse really does?Our school nurses are critical in helping students and their families develop and implement often complicated health plans so that they can be successful in school-even with a serious health problem.  They make sure that there are staff in each school who know how to be safe and effective first responders (trained in first aid), they make sure staff are comfortable with their students-even those with health problems like diabetes, asthma and seizure disorders. They serve as on-site epidemiologists and protect the health of all students by managing and containing communicable disease outbreaks.

We all benefit when all students can learn, when health problems don't interfere with the success of students.  May 9 is National School Nurses Day-let us salute the school nurses in our district.  Thanks to the commitment of the Orange County Commissioners, each of our schools has a full-time nurse.  We should all be proud to be part of a community which values education and understands that it takes more than good classroom teachers to educate all children.

Students from all NC high schools were invited to submit entries.  The pieces selected for the exhibit are quite impressive and will be on display at the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove.

Starting with an Opening Reception on Friday, May 11, 2012, from 5:30-7:30 pm, the exhibition will run from May 11-July 28, 2012.   More than 130 spectacular and imaginative pieces from whimsical to functional will be on display, showcasing the talents of NC high school students. 

Local students who will have pieces in the exhibit are Shane Jones and Corey Risinger of East Chapel Hill High School. 

Other participating high schools include: Carolina Friends School, Durham; Forsyth Country Day, Lewisville; Freedom, Morganton; Green Hope, Cary; Greensboro Day School, Greensboro; Greensboro Middle College, Greensboro; Lee County, Sanford; Middle Creek, Apex; Military & Global Leadership Academy, Charlotte; Mitchell, Bakersville; Pamlico County, Bayboro; Robert L. Patton, Morganton; Smoky Mountain, Sylva; Stone Circle Academy, Greenville; The Oakwood School, Greenville; Union Pines, Cameron; Watauga, Boone; West Johnston, Benson; and William A. Hough, Cornelius.

On the first Friday in May for the past 26 years FPG students have been dancing.  All students K-4 dance as a grade level and 5th graders perform social dance by individual classrooms. 

The physical education department collaborates with the music teacher Brenda Doyle so that 5th graders can perform the MAYPOLE dance.  FPG technology specialist Hal Sandick works closely with the teachers to provide a sound system and music he places on an IPAD.

The students will host a table on Friday night at the service learning showcase at the International Civil Rights Museum. 

On Satuday, CHCCS students will join students from Guilford and Lincoln Counties in a panel discussion at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Chapel Hill High Senior Christopher Watkins will serve on a panel about project-based learning and service learning in a K-12 environment.  Carrboro High School senior Vanessa Amaoko will serve on a panel about maximizing service learning's impact on the community in a K-12 environment.  Amaoko also will introduce Saturday's keynote speaker, Steve Culbertson of Youth Service America.

The Blue Ribbon Youth Leadership Institute Coordinator is Lorie Clark.

Learn more about the conference at:  http://www.cvent.com/events/nc-service-learning-summit/event-summary-9bcb719768744bd5a30ef7857ff7c217.aspx

Home Project will debut with a free, open to the public reception and art exhibit at the Street Scene Teen Center (179 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill). Supported by the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission and the Town of Chapel Hill's Public and Cultural Arts Office, Painted Voices' Home Project is the culmination of a 10-week long residency at CHHS led by local artist-professor Pierce Freelon and poet Will McInerney.

Process
Working as a team of devoted artistic youth, high school teachers, Artists in Residence, community members and partnering organizations, Painted Voices has developed a multi/mixed-media exploration of intergenerational oral history. Students captured the stories of local residents, re-imagined them and will make them available to the community through Home Project. Throughout the process, youth have played a vital role in the creative storytelling of underrepresented populations within the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, breaking the barrier of judgment that is pervasive between segregated groups.  Students have used various forms of art to retell the stories of their interview groups, and are proud to share those stories on June 1.

Painted Voices' Artist Statement
"After countless hours of creative workshops to prepare ourselves for real life interactions, we ventured into various communities in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro-area with little expectations - exchanging dialogue and creating bonds and relationships. We absorbed the history and lifestyles of the people in our community and fused their knowledge with our own, broadening our lenses. These experiences inspired us to re-invent the teen center using various mediums such as poetry, performance, painting and photography. Our goal is to create a microcosm of Chapel Hill, share the stories of its residents and to represent various interpretations of home. On June 1 we welcome you to take a walk through our journey, inspired by the unique stories of local residents."

  

All students in the school participated in dance or musical performances. The fifth graders also presented their musical adaptation of the Korean folk tale, Hungbo, Nolbu and the Magic Gourds. 

The effort was led by music teacher Sheila Fleming and PE teachers Sue DeWalt Brown and Jared Drexler.

Elementary winners included:  Kaytie Siegling of Estes Hills and Thomas Hanks of Frank Porter Graham.  Their teachers are Gina Pace and Ellen Manning.

Middle School winners included:  Catherine Cho and Bryna Loranger, both of Smith Middle.  Their teacher is Bobbi Mimmack.

High School winners included:  Li Zhang of East Chapel Hill High and Julia Banks of Carrboro High.  Their teachers are Evon Barnes and Stephanie Lyon.  Ms. Lyon also read some of her writing at the event as well.

View pictures of the event at:  http://carrboro.com/carrboroday/carrday2012-3.html

The students are:  Brooklyn Fogerson (5th Grade, Glenwood Elementary School), first place; Neelan Mahadevan (6th Grade, McDougle Middle School), second place; and Benton Copeland (4th Grade, Glenwood Elementary School), third place.

Both Glenwood Elementary and McDougle Middle School have been awarded "Excellent Organization for NC Chinese Speech and Writing Contests" with gift Chinese books worth of RMB10,000, or $1,585.36.

View a photo of the winners online at:

http://oia.ncsu.edu/system/files/attachments/china-programs/Winners%20List.pdf

Judy Ouyang is the teacher at Glenwood Elementary.  Wen-Ching Liu is the teacher at McDougle Middle.

Darius will visit Phillips Middle School auditorium on Monday, May 14, from to speak to 7th grade students in Jillian Grimm and Robert Bedell's classes as the culmination of their genetics unit.  Students have conducted a penny drive to raise $500 to present to the Muscular Dystrophy Association after viewing the documentary, "Darius Goes West:  The Roll of Life."  The appearance is part of a month long tour of schools across the eastern United States.

Darius is expected to conduct a Q & A on the film and perform a short concert of inspirational rap music he has been producing.

Darius Weems has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the number one genetic killer of children in the world. He lost his beloved older brother, Mario, to this disease 12 years ago at age 19. Before he died, Mario asked his friend, Logan Smalley, to "look after Darius when I'm gone." Four years later, Logan and Darius were watching "Pimp My Ride" and came up with the idea to travel from
Athens, GA, to Los Angeles, CA, and convince MTV to customize Darius' wheelchair so they could draw attention to DMD and bring awareness to a younger generation. The trip was filmed and turned into a documentary, "Darius Goes West: The Roll of His Life," with all proceeds going to DMD research. While research is burgeoning, Darius knows a cure won't be found in time to save his life. But by using his film to help save the next generation with DMD, Darius has found a way to look out for his "little brothers."

Students from Chapel Hill High include:  Nikita Ermoshkine, Chris Chiesa, Manoj Paladugu, Caleb Roenigk and Kanishka Weerakkody, first place in Animatronics; and Kanishka Weerakkody, first place in Computer-Adied Design (CAD) 3D Engineering.

Students from McDougle Middle School include:  Derek Goss, first place in Career Prep; Taylor Castevens, Derek Goss and AJ Headen, second place in Leadership Strategies; and Kris Chellani, Taylor Castevens and Erika Shelton, second place in Website Design.

Amelia Allore of Chapel Hill High finished second in the Level I contest.

Mackenzie Anderson of Carrboro High finished second in the Level II contest.

Nell Ovitt of Chapel Hill High finished first in the Level III contest.

Hanna Davison of Chapel Hill High finished first in the Level IV contest.

Their teacher is Yoshimi Yamagata Aoyagi.

Sean Kang finished 11th in Algebra I.

In Geometry, Eric Lee finished 6th, Joshua Zhou finished 10th and Jenny Liu finished 12th.

The Phillips math teams are coordinated by Angela Short.

The CHS jazz ensemble, under the direction of Frank Jones, included Justin Morrell, Jack Intintolo, Jacob Leblanc, Khalid Williams, Ray Damron, Ben Darrow, Josh Rubenstein and Michael Cato.

The CHHS combo, called "ComBojangles," is under the direction of Dr. John Carmichael.  Its members include:  Sam Moffet, Jim Lantay, Mike Carney, Mark Morton, Jay Htut, Grant Cabel and William Knapp.

The combos were judged by three music professors and directors from Jazz Studies Departments of local universities.

The first recipient was Vanessa Amoako of Carrboro High.  She plans to study international journalism at either Meredith College or Ashegi University in Ghana.

The second recipient was Leah Anderson of Chapel Hill High.  She plans to study biomedical engineering at NC State.

Jessica Barfield was the third recipient.  She plans to study medicine at Dartmouth.

Samantha Salazar was the fourth recipient.  She plans to study pediatric medicine at UNC Charlotte, UNC Wilmington or UNC Greensboro.

Chris Watkins was the final recipient.  He plans to study engineering technology at NC A&T.

All proceeds from the breakfast go into a fund that supports programs for teachers and staff. Squid's, part of the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group, donates ALL of the food for the breakfast and the labor, supplemented with foundation board members.

The fund supports professional development including the SmartBoard initiative, classroom grants, materials for Educator Extra Credit, the teacher store and teacher awards

East Chapel Hill High placed fourth out of 43 schools.  Coach Judy Jones was named the recipient of the first Outstanding Coach Award. ECHHS winners included:  Herman Bhupal and Forrest Li, ninth in Anatomy and Physiology; Forrest Li and Sung-Hoon Kim, fourth in Astronomy; Kevin Tie and David McDonogh, third in Chemistry Lab; Edgar Ferrer-Lorenzo and Kevin Tie, third in Designer Genes; Margaret Tian, Sheila Deng and Sung-Hoon Kim, second in Experimental Design; Roman Lin and Will Holub-Moorman, first in Fermi Questions; Herman Bhupal and Grant Holub-Moorman, second in Food Science; Kevin Tie and David McDonogh, tenth in Forensics; Cissy Yu and Kelly Jiang, fourth in Forestry; Tyler Tran and Rebecca Halter, sixth in Helicopters; Shreya Das and Edgar Ferrer-Lorenzo, eighth in Microbe Mission; Herman Bhupal and Zach Ao, seventh in Remote Sensing; Vishwas Rao and Roman Lin, fifth in Rocks and Minerals; Forrest Li and Will Holub-Moorman, second in Shock Value; Kelly Jiang and Vishwas Rao, second in Sounds of Music; and Rebecca Halter and Kelly Jiang, third in Storm the Castle. 

Smith Middle School placed fifth out of 45 teams and brought 13 medals in 23 events.  Smith's winners included:  Emily Chang, second in Food Science and third in Heredity; Sydney Chen, second Experimental Design and eighth in Mission Possible; Liam Hopfensperger, ninth in Anatomy; Amal Iyengar, second in Microbe Mission, fifth in Disease Detective and seventh in Shock Value; Veronica Kim second in Write it Do it; Kunal Lodaya, fifth in Disease Detective and seventh in Shock Value; Tejal Patwardhan, second in Experimental Design, second in Food Science and eighth in Mission Possible; Varun Prasad, ninth in Anatomy; Vibha Puri, second in Experimental Design and ninth in Rocks and Minerals; Neyha Shankar, ninth in Crime Busters; Jessica Skela, second in Experimental Design and ninth in Rocks and Minerals; Sanjana Vasudevan, fourth in Helicopter and eighth in Road Scholar; Nathan Wang, fourth in Helicopter; Sarah Wu, second in Write it Do it; Ashley Yang, eighth in Road Scholar and ninth in Crime Busters; Katherine Yang, second in Microbe Mission and third in Heredity; and Kelly Zhang, eighth in Mission Possible.  Their coach is Regina Baratta.

Chapel Hill High finished tenth out of 43 teams and earned medals in eight events.  CHHS winners included:  Christina Annas, sixth in Disease Detectives; Nicole Chang, sixth in Disease Detectives; Willa Chen, second in Write it Do it; Arun Ganes, tenth in Astronomy; Hastings Greer, eighth in Bottle Rockets and second in Storm the Castle; Wesley Guo, tenth in Astronomy; Michael Huang, sixth in Designer Genes; Galen Kirkpatrick, eighth in Bottle Rockets and second in Storm the Castle; Shiyi Li, second in Write it Do it; Abby Muller, seventh in Sound of Music; Melody Song, sixth in Gravity Vehicle; Adam Wang, seventh in Sound of Music; Jean Ye, sixth in Designer Genes; and Raymond Zhang, sixth in Gravity Vehicle.  Their coach is Rob Greenberg.