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

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.

The district would also end the practice of clustering all of the students who are learning English at one school, which would cut transportation costs. Activity buses, which take children home who stay after school for tutoring or clubs, would also be eliminated from the middle schools starting next year. 

- Staff cuts: $1,165,000 reduction. Thirteen and a half teaching positions, two A+ coordinator positions, two teacher leader positions would be eliminated through attrition. In addition, the district would eliminate three library aides, two part time lunch room/playground aides, one psych examiner and five certified positions.

- Cut summer school: $237,000 reduction.

-  Miscellaneous cuts: $308,766 reduction. No tuition reimbursement for teachers,  reduce supply budgets by 5 percent, increase high school parking permits from $20 to $50, smaller salary increase for some administrator positions.  

With cuts planned for the middle school activity buses, Charles also proposed cutting reimbursements by 1/3 for teachers and staff that stay after school to run activities like sports or tutoring.

Board president Linda Schultz pointed out that once funding is gone for teacher reimbursements, it can be difficult to bring back.

“A lot of the kids have no place to go,” she said. ‘We keep them busy. I hate to see us cut it.”

Charles said without the activity buses it’s likely fewer children will stay after school Board member Dale Hallemeier suggested taking the money that remains after the cuts and dividing it among the schools on a per-pupil basis.

The board also discussed cutting the district’s funding for the Parents As Teachers program entirely. PAT offers free education to parents about their children’s development from birth to age 5 and screens children for developmental delays. Early screening often gets children into the appropriate services quicker, said Charles.  For now, the district’s $100,000 contribution to the program remains in the budget for next year.

For more information on the district’s long-term financial outlook, check out my story in Sunday’s Suburban Journal.

*** 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.

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

 Before the restaurant can open, owner Steve Petroff, of Collinsville, Ill., will have to pay a structural engineer to assess the safety of the docks and ramps. Repairs and upgrades to the city-owned dock, estimated to cost between $100,000 and $250,000 will also have to be completed. Councilman Dave Beckering said he was initially concerned about the city getting stuck with the cost of removing the boat should the business fail. As part of the lease agreement, Petroff will have to provide the city with either $50,000 cash instrument or line of credit that would cover such a situation. Photo Galleries | Prep Sports Photos “I think it’s a great opportunity,” Beckering said. “Whether he’ll be successful or not will depend on whether he provides a good product.” The boat had operated as a restaurant on the St. Louis riverfront from 1970 until the flood of 1993. It underwent $2 million in renovations in 2002 and was moved to Kimmswick. In December 2008, Petroff purchased the boat at an auction for $200,000. In a proposal submitted by Petroff to the city in April, the plans for the boat included four restaurants, a nightclub/dinner theater, a cigar and wine bar and banquet room with seating for 120. The restaurants were to vary in size and food offered – ranging from a pasta bar to an upscale French restaurant. The proposal also said they would employ between 80 and 100 employees and be open seven days a week throughout the year, except during winter when they might close on Mondays. Petroff did not return phone calls with requests about when the boat would open. w well I can link all of my social networking sites.

I’m working getting it all linked in

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.

By Kalen Ponche

Children ages 4 and 5 who will start kindergarten this fall will have a chance this summer to practice scissor skills, standing in line and listening to a story. That extra practice could be what some need to be on par with their peers when they start school, said kindergarten teacher Becky Holtgrieve.

“I’ve taught many, many years and kindergarten seems to me to be more like first grade in terms of what we’re doing with them in reading,” she said.

The St. Charles School District is offering two pre-kindergarten readiness programs this summer. Each session will run from 9-11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Cheryl Graber, director of the Adult and Community Education Program, said she saw a need for this type of program.

“I heard there’s a lack of preparedness on the part of our students coming in because they were not able to go to a preschool program,” Graber said.

District staff members have spent the past year investigating the logistics of starting a district-run preschool. Some school board members wanted to see a preschool started during the 2009-10 school year, but in March supported Superintendent Randy Charles’ recommendation to wait a year to secure funding for the project.

Graber collaborated with kindergarten teachers and early childhood educators to develop a pre-kindergarten program in which students could learn foundational skills like holding a pencil and recognizing their name. Holtgrieve, who has been teaching for 26 years, said she often can tell which students have attended preschool and which haven’t.

 ”Usually, the ones who have come from preschool will, a lot of times, know their letters and some, if not all, of their sounds,” she said. “You’ll get some that are already reading. Sometimes with social behaviors they are able to cooperate a little better because they’ve had to do it.”

Holtgrieve said the pre-kindergarten class might help ease the anxiety some kids feel when first separated from their parents. All children, not just those who will attend kindergarten in the St. Charles School District, are invited to enroll in the pre-K class, Graber said.

 In addition to the class, parents will learn tips for things they can do at home to help their kids, Graber said. Teachers also will conduct early kindergarten screenings before and after the class. Tuition for the program is $75 for each three-week session. Scholarships and reduced tuition are available for people based on their income. Graber said about 15 students are signed up for one session and 10 for the other.

“Parents seem to be saying yes, this is a great idea,” she said.

Pre-K School Readiness Program

Open to: students who will start kindergarten in the fall of 2009

 Time: 9 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday-Thursday

Dates: Session 1, June 16-July 2; Session 2, July 14-30

Cost: $75 per session; call about financial aid

Where: Harris Elementary School

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

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