0513 Take Note

Winning the green ribbon
Three more Kentucky public schools have been added to the roster of Kentucky Green Ribbon Schools. The 2013 honorees were recognized on Earth Day, April 22, at the Capitol Education Center. They are:
•  Locust Trace AgriScience Farm, Fayette County
•  Cane Run Elementary, Jefferson County
•  Northern Elementary, Scott County

The Green Ribbon School Award recognizes exemplary achievement in environmental impact, health and education. It recognizes schools where staff, students, officials and communities have worked together to produce energy-efficient, sustainable and healthy school environments and to ensure the environmental literacy of graduates. Applicants for this year’s awards were evaluated by a team representing  Kentucky agencies and programs dedicated to greener schools.

This is the second year the state education department has named Green Ribbon Schools. The state winners advance as the state’s nominees in the national Green Ribbon Schools competition.

Danville Independent spotlighted
PBS’ Newshour ran a piece in its April 3 newscast focusing on project-based learning at Danville Independent Schools. Reporter John Merrow interviewed students, teachers, parents and Superintendent Carmen Coleman for the report, titled, Where Hands-On Projects Trump Standardized Testing.

Only 1 percent of schools in the nation have adopted this approach, the report noted. The piece showed Danville students working on projects ranging from learning geometry by mapping out a city to building a rocket. The report emphasized that it was the district’s choice to implement project-based learning and not a dictate from the state. And it contrasted the tension between the breadth of standardized testing and the depth of project-based learning.

Math and reading scores have gone up “substantially” with the system of teaching and learning, the report noted.

 

New on board
An Elliott County school board member will represent the Eastern Kentucky North region on the KSBA Board of Directors. KSBA President Durward Narramore appointed Brenda Sheets to a vacancy on the board. She will serve the remainder of the term of Phyllis Lawson of Menifee County, who was not re-elected to her school board seat. Sheets has been a member of the Elliott County board since 2009. Prior to her retirement, she worked as an investigator for the Kentucky Labor Cabinet. She had also been a field representative for the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet.

Sheets graduated from Sandy Hook High School and attended Morehead State University. She is a past president of the Elliott County Junior Women’s Club.

Bass retiring
The person responsible for the growth and development of KSBA’s Policy and Procedure Service since 1995 will be retiring at the end of this calendar year. Dara Bass was a policy consultant for 11 years before moving up to head the service. She spent a decade in the classroom before joining KSBA.

Bass is a former president of the American Association of State Policy Services and a regular presenter on policy-related issues at training events for KSBA and other organizations. Under her leadership, the department created an electronic meeting service for boards, as well as several types of handbooks. She oversees all policy-related services, including administrative procedures, online manuals, employee handbooks, and the KSBA eMeeting Service.

“I hope in some small way I have made a positive difference in public education of Kentucky public school students,” Bass said.