Monticello Live

The All-School Reunion is Saturday, May 5, 2012. Nominations are currently being sought for 2012 inductees into the Drew Central Hall of Fame and recipients of the school’s Distinguished Service Award.

The Hall of Fame was established in 2003 to recognize and honor former graduates of Drew Central High School.

The Distinguished Service Award, also established in 2003, is presented annually to non-Drew Central graduates who have performed a valuable service to the school in some fashion.

The criteria for nomination and selection to the Hall of Fame are as follows:
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6 senior high students from DC are eligible for All State! This is a huge accomplishment, and a great improvement compared to last year’s results (only 3 were eligible for tryouts). The 6 students are:
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Many concerned 5th grade parents attended this month’s Drew Central School Board meeting to ask the Board to keep on the fourth teacher that had recently been added to the faculty. In response to the parents and the public, Superintendent Wayne Fawcett gave MLive this statement:

“I have decided to leave in place, for the remainder of the second semester, a fourth certified position in the 5th grade. At this juncture I do not feel that it would be fair to the students to disrupt their schedule.” (more…)

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Once a month payroll is the norm for most school districts in Arkansas, including Drew Central, and the Board is considering changing this system.

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Silvino Tinajero (6th grade), Scott Porter (8th grade), Loida Garcia ( 7th grade), and Rowyn Fradsham (5th grade) were the top Accelerated Reader Point winners for the 2nd nine weeks at Drew Central Middle School. The middle schools students read books and take Accelerated Reading test for points. This program helps students improve their comprehension and encourages them to read for pleasure. Each student was given a medal The middle school librarian sponsors several contest during the year to promote reading. The students are working toward the goal of being the top reader for the year.

Drew Central High School Principal Steve Noble was arrested at his home on December 8, 2011. Charges were filed after detectives from Phoenix, Arizona Police Department posed as a 14 year old girl in a chat room and Noble allegedly asked the “girl” if she wanted to “watch him.” The same chat room had led the detectives to identify other sexual predators previously.

Search warrants of Noble’s home and office were executed where items listed to cease were computers, hard drives, jump drives, digital cameras, camcorders, cds and dvds. A warrant also allowed his iPhone to be taken and searched.

Noble is currently out on bond and faces possible extradition to Phoenix.

This was the 2nd leading pageview story in 2011.

Click here for the article from May.

Former principal and superintendent Leeman Ngar was honored posthumously, at the 2011 Drew Central All School Reunion, with the Drew Central High School being named in his honor.

An angry Drew Central parent who didn’t like being blocked in by a line of school buses, decided to move the bus herself.

She then crashed the school bus into another bus, and a teacher’s parked car.

Christiana White was given probation later in the year.

Commercial Bank recently brought Santa to visit with the Drew Central Kindergarten students. Then the students went caroling around the Town Square.

Shown here are Patience Berry, Aya Barrett, Easton Byrd, and Gail Coleman.

Eva Arrington, Drew Central fourth grade teacher, was selected to be a member of the Arkansas Department of Education Leadership Team and to serve on the board for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

The framework for K-12 Science Education was developed by the National Academy of Sciences. It was a critical first step because it was grounded in the most current research on science and science learning and identifies the science all K-12 students should know. Arkansas was selected to be one of six lead states to review draft versions of the standards and provide feedback to the NGSS writing committee.

The standards are being developed to keep the US competitive in science and engineering by providing a more coherent vision for science education. The standards will be built on the notion of learning as a developmental progression based on cognitive research. Also, the standards will be focused on a limited number of core ideas in science and engineering both within and across the disciplines. In addition, integrating science knowledge with science practices, The vision for science education will apply crosscutting concepts (connecting all sciences together) to deepen students understanding of the core ideas. A public draft will be available for review in the Spring 2012. The Next Generation Science Standards will be released for adoption Fall 2012.

The Drew Central School Board met in its regular monthly meeting on December 15, 2011 at the School’s Board Room.

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Drew Central Public Schools received notification from the Arkansas Department of Education on December 14, 2011 that Drew Central High School is no longer considered a State Directed School but Restructuring according to the state Adequate Yearly Performance Report .

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Thursday November 17th, 2011 was The Great American Smoke-Out Day, and the students of the Drew Central S.O.D.A. Club (Students Opposed to Drugs and Alcohol) held a ceremony where Mayor Allen Maxwell signed a proclamation for the day.
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2 classes were the winners of the Box Top contest at Drew Central.

Mrs. Meeks’ third grade class, and Mrs. Adcock’s 6th grade class are shown here.

Drew Central’s Kindergarten classes dressed up as Indians and Pilgrims to celebrate a Thanksgiving Feast.

This was a conclusion to their unit of study on the first Thanksgiving.

Pictured left to right: Braxton Shelton, Alivia Pharr, Kyla Smith, and Tyrone Franklin.

Dr. Max Terrell, professor in the School of Education at UAM, spoke to the fourth grade students at Drew Central Elementary recently about the Civil War. Pictured are Dr. Terrell and Intern, Sara Watson modeling a “Great Coat,” which was part of Civil War attire that he presented.

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All region jr and sr high are:
Front: Caiya Robinson, Alex Moffitt, LaJada Coakley, Bianca Rochelle, Bryson Frasure, Brittany Bawsom.
Back: Jessica Wishard, Lindee Eubanks, Coleman Herman, Caleb Eubanks, Katie Taylor, Michael Carpenter, Charley Bodiford, Aaron Jones.
Not pictured: Cody Williams and Lesly Jean-Francios

The choirs are under the direction of Mrs. Leslyn Jacks.

Individual honors awareded are:

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Paxton Miller as hosting a pageant at Drew Central auditorium, January 14th 2012, for Drew Central students.

The divisions are divided by grade levels from kindergarten to 12th grade. The last day to register is December 5th.

To get an entry form or for questions, call 224-6780

Last week was National Teen Driver Safety Week. Every 12 minutes someone is killed in a car crash. Drew Central held a demonstration where a student was given a sign to wear that stated that the student had been killed in a car crash while either texting, driving while intoxicated, not wearing a seat belt, etc. This adds up to 117 fatal crashes every day.

A student dressed as the Grim Reaper to enter a classroom, pick a student who would then wear the sign. Safety facts were announced throughout the day.

Teens in Southeast Arkansas die from car crashes at a rate nearly three times that of other teens in the United States. While some crashes cannot be avoided and are not survivable, teens can do two things to greatly reduce their risk of serious injury or death in a car crash—wear a seat belt and avoid using a cell phone for talking or texting while driving. For more information you can go to Injury Prevention Center website at http://www.archildrens.org/injuryprevention /default.asp

Recently during Fire Prevention week, Firemen Michael Barnett and Bobby Sawyer visited the Drew Central 4th graders at the elementary school.

The Firemen spoke with the children about ways to prevent fires, and then the students were allowed to explore the fire and rescue trucks.

Coleman Herman, Hannah Haskew, and Kara Gober

First-place winner, for the second year in a row, for DCHS Homecoming 2011 parade float is FBLA. Studetns could only use small wagons or shopping carts to decorate for the parade. Candy was thrown to the students from the district. The FBLA members that worked on the float are Francisco Dukes, Kara Gober, Hannah Haskew, Coleman Herman, and DeZaraye Simpson.

“I’m so proud of my students for their work on the shopping cart float. We had less than 24 hours to come up with a theme and put it together” said Newlyn Birch, FBLA sponsor.

The Southeast Arkansas Junior All Region auditions were recently held at Monticello High School and the following students were selected to be a part of the 2011 Junior All Region Choir Clinic on November 19th:

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Mary Hobbs reading the online book to her 4th grade class

Drew Central 4th grade students participated in Read a book. Give a book. On October 6th, students went online to read Llama, Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney as part of a challenge to set a world record for Jumpstarts Read for the Record Campaign. The fourth grade teachers had heard about the challenge while attending SEARK Reading Council’s meeting.

The teachers brought the idea back to the students to see if the students wanted to participate as part of their community service. For each book read online during October, one book will be donated to preschool classrooms across America. To date 465,178 books have been read online worldwide.

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Drew Central Kindergarten celebrated “Applebration” as they ended their apple unit. The children sang apple songs and played apple games such as apple in the spoon, apple in the knee, and bouncy apple. There was apple tasting to discover which apple was their favorite.

The highlight of the celebration was when Johnny Appleseed, from Union Bank, came for a visit. The Star Student’s from each classroom got to take their picture with Johnny. Left to right Rodney Daniels from Mrs. Oldner’s class, Dakota Stults from Ms. Cossey’s class, Kierstyn Camden from Mrs. Tadel’s class, and Paige King from Mrs. Caldwell’s class.

Drew Central is proud to announce the 2011 Homecoming Royalty.

From the left, Maid Misshally Simpson, Honor Maid Kristina Stewart, Maid Adruna Simpson, Queen Jerica Binns, Maid Iesha Smith, Honor Maid Morgan Densmore and Maid Danielle Miles. Drew Central will host Homecoming on October 14.

Teens found scouring their closets for clothing made in America to be anything but a simple challenge as a class discussions about education in America compared to China led to conversations about how the U.S. companies use workers in foreign countries to make U.S. products.

After the students viewed the recent dorm room décor dilemma at Southern Methodist University in Texas aired on the ABC News Made in America series, the students began to wonder why companies send their work to other countries when there are so many unemployed in America. (more…)

Sarah Pennington and grandmother Barbara Dyson

Drew Central Elementary fourth grade students invited grandparents to be guest speakers and dine with them in the cafeteria.

This was in honor of Grandparents’ Day on September 11th.

Drew Central’s fourth grade remembered the events of September 11th this past Friday with a flag ceremony around the school’s flagpole. They viewed several videos on History.com to understand the magnitude of this day in American history.

After their discussion, each student challenged themselves with an “I will…” service to their school and community and wrote it on a note card that was then attached to a bulletin board with the Twin Towers drawn on it. Some of the students dedicated themselves to be better citizens by helping others, cleaning up the school playground, and one day serving their country in the armed forces.