Yesterday I spoke twice with Dr. Hank Bounds, Mississippi’s Superintendent of Education, about the state’s test standards. The Board of Education is meeting today and tomorrow and will wrap up their 2-day meeting with a news conference to announce how Mississippi students compare academically with students across the nation. We’ll have a mini-editorial board meeting with Dr. Bounds later this afternoon for a story in tomorrow’s DJ. I’d better get back to writing that, but wanted to let you know that even though it looks like Mississippi students didn’t do so well, the positive news is that we now have a curriculum in place that has a level of expectation the same as every other state in the nation.

Wow! I can’t believe what a fantastic opportunity children in Tupelo will have this fall. You know the popular children’s books “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” and “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”? Well, the author is coming here in September!

Susan Hankins, a first-grade teacher at Thomas Street Elementary School, applied for a grant through the Association for Excellence in Education to bring Laura Numeroff here. The grant is for a little more than $8,800, and the project is aptly named “If You Give a Child an Author.”

Hankins’ goal is the show children the pleasures of reading, as well as to build their writing skills. While Numeroff is here Sept. 15-16, she’ll talk to Thomas Street students about the writing process. She’ll also speak at a community event on Sept. 15 that all Tupelo families are invited to!

I’ll have the full story in an upcoming edition of the DJ, which I hope also will include comments from Numeroff herself!

Hey, all you school fans! It’s that time of year again! I can’t believe the summer has gone by so quickly! The DJ is working on its annual Back to School section and I’ve been gathering school calendars to be included. It looks like most schools will begin sometime between Monday, Aug. 4 and Friday, Aug. 8. Are you as excited as I am about the new school year?

A dynamic organization is back in Tupelo this summer doing some fantastic work - fixing up houses and winning souls for Christ! World Changers, an initiative of the North American Mission Board, partners Christian youths with cities and churches to rehabilitate houses for people who can’t physically or financially do the work themselves. This program has been around since 1990, and I first encountered them about four years ago when I lived in Vicksburg. These mission-minded youths have visited Tupelo a number of times. The city helps them find houses to work on, the Tupelo Public School Disrict provides office and sleeping space and some meals at Tupelo Middle School, and local churches provide work crews with lunches each day. I’m going with a photographer to one of their 30 work sites tomorrow. Watch for my story in Thursday’s DJ.

I covered tonight’s Lee County School Board meeting and came back with two news briefs and a really good story idea. The latter will have to wait – I’ve got to get more info and schedule a photo – but here are the news briefs for tomorrow’s DJ:

School District honored
for reading improvement
TUPELO – The Lee County School District was recognized last week for its use of an intervention program that has improved student achievement at Plantersville Middle School.
District representatives were given a plaque by the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents at the MASS/Alliance Summer Convention in Biloxi, Lee County School Board President Sherry Mask said on Tuesday.
Last August, the district spent more than $200,000 on the program, which offers students highly individualized instruction. Read 180 was so successful at Plantersville that its use has been expanded to include the districts other middle schools in Guntown and Mooreville, as well Shannon Elementary and Shannon High schools.
At Tuesday’s meeting, School Board members voted to buy the next level of Read 180 for Plantersville as well as to purchase a non-intervention program called Rewards Reading.
Board members also watched a video about Read 180 that was included in a presentation at the MASS convention by district employees Becky Hendrix, Kathy Mask and Plantersville Assistant Principal Shelly Brooks.

Bids received for addition
at Mooreville Elementary
TUPELO – Lee County School Board members accepted bids Tuesday for a six-classroom addition at Mooreville Elementary. The low bidder among the 10 bids received was Burton Builders of Belmont.
“We’ve done business with this company before,” district business manager Randy Thweatt said. “They built the Plantersville cafeteria and the Saltillo High School field house.”

Boy I can’t wait to write this story! In the meantime, here are some of McDowell’s highlights to go along with the great photos she provided:

“Honeywell sponsors the program at Space Camp for a little under 300 teachers. There were 1,500 applicants. 45 states and 15 countries were represented, and I believe I was the only teacher from Mississippi. I spent 12 hours a day for 5 days taking workshops to learn activities to implement in my classroom, participating in astronaut simulations including 2 space shuttle missions in which I conducted a spacewalk and was in mission control, 1/6 gravity chair to simulate walking on the moon, the multi axis trainer, and listening to and meeting such speakers as Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys (which was the basis for the movie ‘October Sky’); Ed Buckbee, public relations for NASA; Kimberly Rogers, engineer helping to develop the Ares 1 rocket; and Bob Springer, astronaut on Space Shuttle missions STS-29 and STS-38.”

There’s more great info from her e-mail, but you’ll have to wait to read more about McDowell’s space odyssey in the July 21 DJ.

I have a friend whose son has autism. I still don’t know much about it but I am learning. I’m also planning to work with a couple of other DJ writers for a series of stories about this neurological disorder, which seems to be everywhere these days.

I thought you’d also like to know about a new autism support group that’s forming. The first meeting will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 17 at Cafe 212, 212 W. Main St., in downtown Tupelo. The guest speaker will be Ann Brasher, vice president of the National Autism Association.

For details, call Melissa Caldwell at (662) 832-2039 or Cheryl Bailey at (662) 315-3388. Autism information is available at www.nationalautismassociation.org and www.generationrescue.com.

LOCAL PRINCIPAL ATTENDS PRINCIPALS’ SUMMER INSTITUTE AT MILLSAPS COLLEGE

JACKSON, Miss.– More than 80 elementary, middle school and high school principals and administrators from across the state participated in the Principals’ Summer Institute at Millsaps College from June 8-13.
Shelly Brooks, assistant principal at Plantersville Middle School participated in the program.

The institute, which began in 1993, is the vision of a group of Mississippi principals who attended the Harvard Principals’ Summer Institute. The institute is committed to the personal and professional growth of principals as educational leaders in order to improve the quality of education.

- 30 -

Millsaps College, founded in 1890, is an independent, national liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Consistently ranked in the top tier of national liberal arts colleges, Millsaps is located in Jackson, Miss., a metropolitan capital city of 425,000. Millsaps College is also the only Mississippi institution featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges, and is cited as one of Loren Pope’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives.

Got this from Shey Edwards of the Lee County Schools this morning:

Registration for kindergarten and for new students at Mooreville Elementary will be July 8 and July 25 from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Requirements for registration:
• The child must be 5 years old on or before September 1st of the year he/she enters kindergarten
• Certified copy of their birth certificate
• An immunization compliance form (form 121 from the Health Department)
• Social Security Card

• Two proofs of residency with your 911 mailing address (Examples: apartment or Home Lease, Utility Bill, Automobile Registration)

• In the case of separated or divorced parents, a copy of the court order establishing custody
• If both parents are on active Military duty we will need legal guardianship information
• Students entering grades 1-5 must bring proof of grade placement(report card)

To download the registration forms, go to the Mooreville Elementary website at
www.leecountyschools.us/009. Click under MES school picture for 2 registration forms.
Parents, the documents may be filled out the day of registration or you may print them, fill them out, and bring them the day of registration (this will make the process quicker for you). Please fill out each form as thoroughly as possible.

Call 844-7105 for more information.