RUSSIA — It is hard to believe that the first semester is already over.
“This 2017-18 school year is off to a great start and we are on track for an even more successful second semester,” said Superintendent Steve Rose. “One minor change you will see in the second semester is the piloting of a thirty minute intervention time every Tuesday and Wednesday every other week for students in grades 7-12. This intervention time is designed give teachers an opportunity to offer individual assistance and allow student organizations such as student council to meet with their advisers.”
His report continues:
This fall the State of Ohio released the 2016-17 district report card which ranks the performance of each school district in the State of Ohio. Russia was one of 20 schools that received all A’s and B’s on the State Report Card, and had the seventh highest GPA in the state of Ohio out of the 608 public schools. This is an absolutely amazing accomplishment for our students and staff! We felt that it was important to celebrate our successes and not take it for granted. To honor this achievement we had a “Celebration of Success” in which we started the celebration by having a school wide picture for all students and staff on the hill in the park. Then the students enjoyed numerous Field Day Activities followed by a school-wide ice cream social. It was amazing that our students devoured 24 gallons of ice cream in less than 45 minutes. It was a small reward for all the student’s hard work and I think all of the students and staff had a great time!
I am excited to share that Russia Local School was awarded a grant through the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce on behalf of Marcus Petitjean. This grant will purchase the supplies needed for him to implement a variety of STEM activities within every grade of the elementary school. These activities include: the kindergarten class doing a unit on transportation, and building their own lego car, first-grade creating a mag-level vehicle, second-grade will construct a model roller coaster, third-grade will construct hot air balloons, fourth-grade will learn about the Wright Brothers and construct model gliders, fifth-grade will study energy and motion and construct mini soap box cars, and the sixth-grade will study space and construct estes rockets. The culminating activity will include a family STEM night in which the students will have a chance to show their families and other community members what they have learned and accomplished.
In other news, the district has made some significant upgrades to the facility with the district installing new windows on the south end of the building to replace the outdated windows that were inefficient and also had moisture issues. These new windows not only improved the efficiency of the building but also increased the natural light in the classrooms and made a substantial improvement the overall appearance of the building. The district also replaced the roof over the CCN Gymnasium to address some minor leaks and substantial condensation issues that gave the district problems throughout the winter months. When the new roof was put on, we also added two layers of insulation to ensure that the condensation issue would be resolved, and to this date we have not had any issues with condensation.
In closing I want to thank the Russia Community for your ongoing support of Russia Local School. It is your constant support that makes Russia School what it is today and it is very much appreciated!
