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A newsletter from Nelson County School
Superintendent Anthony Orr

—Photo by Amber Houck
NCHS senior Bradley Piles stands with several of the cattle he and his family own.

21st Century Entrepreneurs

I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect when I accepted the invitation to join Amber Houck, John Hammond and Mike Glass, our Nelson County High School agriculture teachers, on Supervised Agricultural Experience visits earlier this month. I did know I would get to see special projects that certain upperclassmen have been working on for an extended period of time, but I did not know the specifics. I also knew I would see poultry, pork and cattle in a variety of contexts, given that one visit would be at a local Chinese restaurant. That was about all I knew to expect.

What I saw blew me away.

We started at the home of Holli Yates, a senior raising a variety of poultry, among other animals. Holli’s enthusiasm for her agriculture and FFA work became apparent as she told me about all the energy and time she invests in raising her stock before taking them to market to sell on the weekends.

From Holli’s home, we traveled to Larry and Anita Schenck’s farm in Boston, where Melissa and Bryan work side-by-side with their father and uncle Gene raising pigs and farming corn and soybeans. I don’t know when I’ve seen two teenagers more proud of the work of their own hands.

By the time we arrived at Hunan Restaurant to view Ying Chan’s project in food service, I was more than ready to enjoy a sweet-and-sour chicken dish prepared there by her family. The visit left no question in my mind that Ying clearly understands the value of hard work. She spoke of the long days she invests contributing to the restaurant’s – and her family’s – success, along with the value of “learning by doing.”

Our final visit was with Bradley Piles, the young man you see in the picture above with just a few head of the 63 cattle he helps raise on the family farm in the Botland area. Bradley, who owns 15 of the cattle himself, discussed the business aspects of marketing certain cattle breeds, the contract work he plans to cultivate in prepping cattle for showing, and the 20-hour school/work days he regularly invests in building a future in agriculture.

Although each visit was unique and interesting in its own right, I could see a common thread that ran throughout, and this information helped underline for me the value of the FFA and agriculture experiences to our students and community. These students are getting the ultimate hands-on education in entrepreneurship and business leadership. These young men and women are learning to raise, prepare and provide the food energy that the rest of us will depend on for our own sustenance. They are learning by doing.

My seven-year old son came along with us on the visits. I don’t think he knew what to expect from the day any more than I did, but he too came away with a new perspective about farming. We spent a good portion of the rest of our evening talking about what kind of farmer he would be when he grew up. He wasn’t the only one who was inspired by these hardworking, outstanding students.

Schools leap forward — The release in late September of Kentucky Core Content Test results and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) progress report revealed that two of our schools were standout academic performers last year. Cox’s Creek Elementary School (CCE) again achieved the “magic 100” and Old Kentucky Home Middle School (OKH) sprinted forward the fastest toward that goal with double-digit gains in reading (22%) and math (17%) on the way toward reaching all 13 of its NCLB target goals. Under the NCLB act, all public schools are working toward achieving 100 percent proficiency in all target areas by 2014. CCE has twice earned the distinction as the only public school in Nelson County to have already achieved that benchmark. OKH also boosted the list of schools making “AYP” from four to five in our school district. “AYP,” or Adequate Yearly Progress, is the measure used by the federal NCLB Act to determine whether a school or district is performing up to par on an annual basis. Bloomfield Elementary School, Boston School (middle and elementary), Cox’s Creek and Foster Heights Elementary Schools and OKH all met their 2010 objectives. Results like this point the way forward for this school district as we work to increase academic rigor — and positive results — at all grade levels. For additional information about this topic, please go here.

Partnership nets success — The positive results possible through teamwork and a good partnership are on display this month with the announcement of a $51,000 Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Secure Our Schools grant award to enhance school safety in Nelson County. The grant was written in partnership between the Nelson County Sheriff’s Department and Nelson County School District. Three schools — New Haven, Boston and Bloomfield Middle — will receive 16-camera video surveillance systems through this grant, which will also provide new video surveillance systems for a number of our school buses. These systems have already proven their worth at Nelson County High School, Old Kentucky Home Middle School and Horizons Academy. The grant application stressed the difficulties of policing the large geographic area covered by the sheriff’s department and the widely dispersed, rural nature of the schools targeted in the grant application. The video systems will help us prevent undesirable behavior and make it easier to work even more closely with the sheriff’s department to keep our schools safe. This is good news for us, and good news for Nelson. For recent news and additional information about this topic, please go here.

The Nelson County Board of Education regularly takes note of the many recent accomplishments of our staff and students. Here are just a few of the highlights heard during the September board meeting.

A winning combination — The great relationship we have with Nelson County 4-H and the local UK Extension Office were much on display during the county fair this summer. Our schools had numerous winners in many categories. These include the following:

• 4-H COUNTRY HAM — (Each member cured a ham and wrote a speech for judging.  This is a statewide contest involving approximately 550 students.) Bloomfield Middle School: Adam Collins, Blue Ribbon. Nelson County High School: David Collins and Chandler Young, Blue Ribbons; Melissa Schenck, Red Ribbon. New Haven School: Shannah Borders, Austin Bowman and Jacob Hutchins, Blue Ribbons. Old Kentucky Home Middle School: Rachel Young, Red Ribbon and Third in Speech. Note: NC board member Adam Wheatley, was a sponsor for the College Scholarship Ham Auction at the Nelson County Fair which raised $4,620 to be awarded to the 18 members who completed the project.
• 4-H ELECTRIC — Nelson County High School: Chandler Young, Blue Ribbon, Class Champion (DC Motor). Old Kentucky Home Middle School: Rachel Young, Blue Ribbon, Class Champion (Extension Cord).
• 4-H FOODS —  (NCHS Graduates) Ashlan Clark, Blue Ribbon (Brownies); Susan Livers, Blue Ribbon, Class Champion (Apple Cake). Old Kentucky Home Middle School: Taylor Gagne, White Ribbon (Biscuits); Rachel Young, Blue Ribbon (Banana Bread).
• 4-H PHOTOGRAPHY — Bloomfield Middle School: Brandon Darby, two Red Ribbons; Jennifer Jackey, Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon.  (NCHS Grad) Ashley Hettinger, White Ribbon and three Blue Ribbons. Old Kentucky Home Middle School: Baylee Cissell, Red Ribbon and Stacey Sweeney, Red Ribbon.
• 4-H CONSUMER & FINANCIAL EDUCATION — Nelson County High School: Chandler Young, Blue Ribbon, Class Champion, Reserve Grand Champion. (NCHS Grad) Susan Livers, Blue Ribbon. Old Kentucky Home Middle School: Rachel Young, Red Ribbon.
• 4-H NEEDLEWORK — (NCHS Grad) Susan Livers, Blue Ribbon, Class Champion, Reserve Grand Champion.
• 4-H ENTOMOLOGY — Cox’s Creek Elementary School: Bryce Reiter, Blue Ribbon.
• 4-H HORTICULTURE — Bloomfield Middle School:  Will Hahn (Garden Display) Red Ribbon and (Largest Tomato) Blue Ribbon.
• 4-H WOOD SCIENCE — Old Kentucky Home Middle School:  Zachery Neal (Park Bench) Blue Ribbon.
• 4-H ARTS — Foster Heights Elementary: Paula Marie Gagne (Ceramics) White Ribbon; Erin Neal (Watercolor Painting) Red Ribbon. (NCHS Grad) Susan Livers (Scrapbooking) Blue Ribbon.
• 4-H HOME ENVIRONMENT — (NCHS Grad) Ashley Hettinger (Pillow) Blue Ribbon.
• 4-H COMMUNICATIONS — Bloomfield Middle School: Bailey Bertrand, Blue Ribbon.

Singing along — Four Bloomfield Elementary School students have qualified for the All-State Chorus. They are Lauren Bowman, Madeline Burns, Kaylee Morris and Bryan Pelham. This is quite an accomplishment for these singers. This year, auditions and school participation were up by almost a third. All-State Chorus takes place Nov. 5 and 6 in Lexington.

Setting an example — Radcliff Elementary School sent a team of teachers to Bloomfield Elementary School, Sept. 20, to learn about how the school managed to significantly raise math scores and more than double the number of students who achieved a Distinguished score on state tests during the last three years.

Displaying their smarts — Twelve Bloomfield Middle School students qualified for the Duke University Talent Identification Program, based on their scores from the IOWA Test of Basic Skills. To be eligible students had to score at or above the 95th percentile in math, science, reading, verbal, language arts or social studies in the seventh grade.

Army honors — Sammy Humes, a senior in the Air Force Junior ROTC (AFJROTC) program at Nelson County High School, was an honor graduate from Army Basic Training Aug. 27, which also earned him a promotion. He is the NCHS AFJROTC Deputy Group Commander this year.

Learning their notes — Beginning band students at Old Kentucky Home Middle School (OKHMS) are getting private instruction after school for free thanks to a grant from the Nelson County Education Endowment Fund. This has been one of the best starts to school ever for the sixth-grade band at OKHMS, according to band director David Coffing.

Math study — Nell Bickett, a resource teacher at Old Kentucky Home Middle School, has started a math study with the University of Kentucky in collaboration with Dr. Brian Bottge and Linda Gassaway, project manager, College of Education, Department of Special Education. Dr. Bottge is the William T. Bryan Endowed Chair in Special Education at UK. The study is being funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Sciences.  The group will be evaluating the effectiveness of “enhanced anchored instruction for middle school students with learning disabilities in math.”

Grandparents help celebrate literacy — Boston School celebrated Grandparents Day in September with a “come and eat with your grandchild” day and then with a literacy event that evening. Quite a few adults came to eat lunch at Boston School and 33 adults and 31 students attended the literacy night.

No novices — Boston School’s fourth-graders were able to maintain their record of “no novices” in reading and math on the first Discovery Education (ThinkLink) test for this school year.  Third- and eighth-graders were also able to achieve “No Novices” in mathematics on this test.

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