Stories, and a new blog

Hi! It’s been awhile since I updated my writing blog! I’ve started a new blog to chronicle my attempts at sewing, cooking and creating. It’s been a fun place to display pictures and stories from a whirlwind summer.

Check it out at frimframspot.blogspot.com

I’m still enjoying writing about education, and occasionally politics. Here are links to a few recent stories:

Project SEARCH focuses on careers

Deputy challenges incumbent for St. Charles County sheriff’s seat

Here’s a link to a slideshow I put together with the help of photographer Roy Sykes earlier this year. The story was about a group of professional musicians who came to work with middle school students at an area high school. It was fun to do:  Lessons in rock

St. Charles School Board Considers $2 million in cuts

By Kalen Ponche

Next school year, high school students will pay more for parking permits, middle school students won’t have access to activity buses and all students will likely walk farther to their bus stop under a series of proposed cuts to the St. Charles School District’s budget.

St. Charles School Board met Monday to discuss budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year. The $2 million in  proposed reductions include:

- Cuts to transportation= $411,000 reduction. The district has already cut four high school buses this year and plans to cut ten more between the middle and elementary schools next year. With more children on each bus, the trips will be more cost-effective, but it may mean children have to walk to the end of their subdivision to get picked up so the bus can get to school on time, said District Superintendent Randy Charles.

Education roundup

*** Change isn’t easy. Parents, teachers and community members will get their first chance tonight to hear St. Charles School District’s plans to cope with an expected increase in the number of students who are enrolled. The district rescheduled the meetings that were canceled due to snow. The five meetings now are set for 6:30 p.m. on the following dates: February 17 – Coverdell Elementary, February 18 – Monroe Elementary, February 24 – Lincoln Elementary, February 23 – Null Elementary, February 25 – Harris Elementary

*** National Future Farmers of America week starts next Monday and the students at Warrenton High School are preparing for a week of fun. Check out the student’s essays on why they enjoy FFA and a feature on sophomore Lorna Dreyer, who started a jewelry business for her FFA project.

*** Teachers will tell you, one rowdy student in a class can disrupt the entire learning process. Many school districts across Missouri have adopted a system for teaching and correcting behavior that strives to teach students the rules then reward them with positive feedback. In their third year using the program, Warren County elementary schools say it’s worked for them. Read more in our story in today’s paper.

*** The Wright City School District is looking for public feedback on a series of proposed budget cuts. The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 23. Read more here.

*** Also, our classroom notes section of this blog has been updated, as it is every Wednesday. Check it out. If you know of great things happening in your local schools, give us a call at (636) 946-6111 ext. 240, or send an e-mail to kponche@yourjournal.com

School Board Candidates

Tuesday was the deadline for school board candidates to file to run for office in the April 6 election. Here are the candidates from several area school districts. When we hear back from the Francis Howell, Fort Zumwalt and Warren County school district’s we’ll post their candidate information too.

Orchard Farm School District (two seats)

- Jane (Henning) Baum

- Donald Joe Bushdieker

- Carrie (Mitchell) Doza

St. Charles School District (two seats)

- Donna Towers

- Mike Thorne

Wentzville School District (two seats)

- Patricia Hacker

- Joe McDonald

- Paul Werner

- Peg Scholl

- Dale Schaper

- Michelle Caracci

Wright City (two seats)

- Austin Jones

- Mary Groeper

Restaurant on a Riverboat to dock in St. Charles

St. Charles City Council Tuesday unanimously approved a lease agreement with the owner of the Lt. Robert E. Lee, a riverboat that will operate as a floating restaurant in downtown St. Charles.
The four story boat will moor at the city-owned docks just south of Frontier Park.

Adoption Day

bringing home kitty

 

Chris and I decided to adopt a kitten.

We had hoped to get an abandoned kitty my uncle Gary found near his house, but sadly, the little white and orange furball died before we could get him.

We went looking on Saturday to see what kitties needed a home. The St. Charles Animal Shelter had a whole room full of cats- tiny new ones and older grumpy ones. My sister Shannon took a liking to a black, calm cat named Jim, but Chris and I decided to keep looking.

We went to the St. Charles Humane Society in St. Charles. I did a story in the journal earlier this year about how the Humane Society is running out of funds at a time when people are surrendering their pets more often.

They don’t have a lot of space for new kittens but we found a little 3 month old named Nova. She came over and sat on my lap.

I went to pick her up Tuesday night. She mewed the whole way home, but seemed to like the space in the guest bedroom (I guess I’ll have to call it the kitty’s room now).

This morning, however, I had red eyes and a sniffly nose. Let’s hope it’s not allergies, but I suspect it will be. What to do?

But more importantly, what to name kitty?

Her stats:

Born on April 1, 2009. Long haired. At the moment, sneezy because she has a cold. Enjoys looking out the window. I suspect she will be a big fan of the Harry Potter movies.

Suggestions welcome.

St. Charles School District offers pre-K readiness classes

Program designed to teach children foundational skills

BBC’s 100 books

I have loved to read books since I was pretty little. And when I was old enough to start making lists, I have loved to do that too. So here’s a combination of both of my favorites: A list of 100 books compiled by the BBC. My friend Mallary Tenore had it on her blog along with a check mark next to all of the books that she’s read.

I decided to pilfer it and repost it on my blog below: I’ve read those with an X next to them. (46 total)

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen X
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien X
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte X
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling X
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee X
6. The Bible (Parts, but not the whole thing.)
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell X
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens X
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott X
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier X
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien X
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger X
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger X (wonderful book, an beautiful love story)
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (Started it, couldn’t get through it)
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame x
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy X
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens x
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis X
34. Emma – Jane Austen x
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen x
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis X
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden X
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne X
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell X
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown x
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving X (another great one)
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery X
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood X
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding X
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel X
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen x
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens X
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon x
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck X
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold X
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas x
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding x
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville X
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens X
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker X
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett X (One of my favorite books!)
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens X
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White X
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Alborn x
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare X
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl X
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo X

Orchard Farm School District celebrates 50 years

On Feb. 14, 1959, fifteen school districts from around the Orchard Farm area voted to combine and form the Reorganized School District of St. Charles County.  Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of Orchard Farm School District and they have scheduled several events to celebrate during the upcoming year. 

The events scheduled include: a community anniversary festival for patrons from 1 to 100 featuring games, rides, a tractor show and a car show on September 18-19, 2009; an employee reunion variety show and dinner on November 21, 2009; a Board recognition program for all current and former Board members on February 19, 2010; and an alumni reunion basketball tournament and dance in March of 2010.

Crafters interested in participating in the community anniversary festival please contact Stephanie Knobbe at stephaniestephk@sol.com and/or 636-899-1249 or Mary Johnsen at mrjohnsen@sbcglobal.net and/or 314-566-1275. Patrons who have memorabilia that could be displayed as a part of the celebrations should contact the district offices at 636-250-5000. For more information about the 50^th anniversary celebrations please visit the district webpage at www.ofsd.k12.mo.us.

If you or someone you know remembers the school district’s reorganization please call me- I’d like to talk to you.

Kalen Ponche – schools reporter (636) 946-6111 ext 240

an apple a day

The St. Charles County Journals are starting a new column called “An Apple a Day” which will run on page A3 every other Wednesday. The first one is about the Foundation Grants that were awarded to 10 teachers or pairs of teachers Thursday Jan. 15.

An Apple A Day will feature stories about interesting things going on in the classroom. Have a suggestion? Let me know!