By Gary Huffenberger - ghuffenberger@wnewsj.com
Supt. Matt Baker talks about the prospect of a Falcon Training Center.
School Board President Jeremy Lamb speaks about the #1 Clinton-Massie Falcons football team.
Elementary School Assistant Principal Shelley Bailey, right foreground, gives an administrative report.
A bird’s-eye view of a campus master plan for Clinton-Massie outdoor facilities.
At the start of the board meeting, a moment of silence was held for 5th-grade teacher Alison Staten. A statement also was posted on the school’s Facebook page. “It is with a very heavy heart that I send out this message to our community. After battling with the strength of a champion, Ali Staten passed away this afternoon due to complications caused by her fight against Ewing Sarcoma. Ali will always be remembered as a smiling face and tender-hearted member of the 5th-grade team. She has forever touched the lives of students and staff. Go rest high on that mountain Ali, your work here is done. … Please send prayers up for her family as they mourn this young life lost. Please also remember the friends she leaves behind here as we try to support each other through this tragedy.”
ADAMS TOWNSHIP — A campus master plan for Clinton-Massie outdoor facilities basically recreates the space to better serve the school and community, said district leaders.
The comprehensive campus plan, which would be carried out in three phases, is extremely costly, said Supt. Matt Baker. But there is no intent to ask taxpayers for a bond issue.
Instead, businesses and individuals will be asked to make donations toward the vision, which Baker described as very exciting and with lots of things to talk about.
On display Monday night at the school board meeting was a 3-D version of the plans, provided by VSWC Architects with offices in Mason who led the design and survey work.
The plans include something the school grounds don’t currently have — a Falcon Training Center that could also serve as a fieldhouse for the community.
As envisioned, it would be a combination of locker rooms, concessions, restrooms, and inside a turf field for practice especially during bad weather, and a basketball court.
In the plans, the football field moves from its orientation of east-west to north-south, with all new facilities including new grandstands on both sides.
Seating capacity on the home side would go from the current 1,250 to 2,200. The stands would also be handicap-accessible and more senior citizen friendly.
The existing football turf field would be kept, and could be utilized for lacrosse games, and practice for soccer, football and marching band, said Baker.
Over 300 parking spaces would be added to the Lebanon Road grounds.
The varsity baseball field would be moved (and would gain restrooms), and the softball field relocated adjacent to it.
One of the key starting points to the whole campus project were safety concerns related to the existing bus garage. The new one would be placed to change that, as well as make it possible to fit an 84-passenger bus into a stall.
The campus plan also proposes new tennis courts and an eight-lane track.
In addition to school sports, the school district would offer to the community the resources for things like youth softball and baseball, and pee wee soccer, said the superintendent.
Next steps include seeing what it would cost to finance the first phase, and then asking businesses for support, which could take the form of naming rights of various installations.
Elementary School Assistant Principal Shelley Bailey gave an administrative report to the board of education, focusing on PBIS — Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.
PBIS aims to maximize the use of evidence-based prevention and intervention practices, and thus contribute to positive school climates.
Bailey said with PBIS, there is a distinction between a documentation report and an office referral. If a student is being disruptive for the first time, that does not result in an office referral, but it is something to document.
But if it continues three, four, five times and teachers see a pattern, then it does become an office referral.
When a student has three office referrals or six documented reports in six weeks, then he or she becomes a part of a Tier 2 system, said Bailey. That’s when a PBIS team gets involved. The team is comprised of the social worker, the counselor, Bailey, the classroom teacher and the parents.
They look at what’s going on with the student, and ask themselves what does the student need in order to make them successful and be able to learn in the classroom.
There are about 850 students in the elementary building, and currently seven are on Tier 2, and six students have bumped up to Tier 3.
The assistant principal feels like the PBIS system is working very well to have a total of 13 students on both Tiers 2 and 3.
With the system, educators are also able to run reports, and categorize by student, gender, grade level, even time of day when the behavior issue occurs. That information can help to pinpoint a possible solution.
Things weren’t going very well earlier in the school year during lunchtime after students finished eating, said Middle School Dean of Students Cindy Running. She and Middle School Principal Lorinda Ottaway both have physical education backgrounds and so they went back to what they know: the research about how exercise activities enhance learning and states of mind.
With parents’ donations and funds from the board, they acquired equipment and materials and introduced fun activities. Those include a portable Bluetooth speaker, an oversized checkerboard, Perpetual Rock-Paper-Scissors, a cornhole set, spike ball, a large jenga set, Nine Square in the Air, and a gaga pit.
Write-ups during lunch time, which had spiked after a back-to-school honeymoon period, have dropped in number, she reported.
Board President Jeremy Lamb spoke about the Falcon football team winning the Ohio Division IV championship.
“The fact that we were able to come back I think showed a lot of grit and determination by the kids. Again, that doesn’t just come by itself. That’s a combination of the staff here, the administration, the community as well. I thought they represented us well,” said Lamb.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
At the start of the board meeting, a moment of silence was held for 5th-grade teacher Alison Staten. A statement also was posted on the school’s Facebook page. “It is with a very heavy heart that I send out this message to our community. After battling with the strength of a champion, Ali Staten passed away this afternoon due to complications caused by her fight against Ewing Sarcoma. Ali will always be remembered as a smiling face and tender-hearted member of the 5th-grade team. She has forever touched the lives of students and staff. Go rest high on that mountain Ali, your work here is done. … Please send prayers up for her family as they mourn this young life lost. Please also remember the friends she leaves behind here as we try to support each other through this tragedy.”
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