Evet Topp new TPSD career center director

Here’s something else that came out of Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting:

TUPELO – On Tuesday, the Tupelo Public School District Board of Trustees voted to hire Evet Topp, an assistant principal at Tupelo High School, as director of the district’s career and technical center. Topp replaces M.D. Cameron, who is moving to Laurel.
From 10 applicants, three were interviewed, Superintendent Randy McCoy told trustees on Tuesday. “Ms. Topp was the best fit,” McCoy said.
A Tupelo native, Topp is a 1988 THS graduate. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mississippi State University and a specialist’s degree from the University of Mississippi. Topp has taught business and vocational education in Barton, Ark., and at THS, where she served a year-long administrative internship before a three-year stint as assistant principal.
Of her new role, “I’ve got all the confidence in the world she’ll do a good job,” THS Principal Mac Curlee said.

Congratulations to Lawndale’s Dr. Terry Harbin!

Here’s what I’ll be writing about for tomorrow’s DJ:

Named in March as the Tupelo Public School District’s Administrator of the Year, Dr. Terry Harbin now will represent the 1st Congressional District for the same honor at the state level. Harbin has been principal of Lawndale Elementary School since July 2006. He will compete against three principals from the state’s other congressional districts for the state award, to be named in July by the Mississippi Department of Education.

CREATE awards $110,000 in Marchbanks grants

This morning DJ photog Deste Lee and I went to a news conference at CREATE. The charitable foundation was giving out two grants from the John and Frances Marchbanks Endowment Fund totaling $110,000. The Lee County Schools got the lion’s share - $70,000 to expand and renovate career centers at Mooreville and Shannon high schools. The remaining $40,000 was awarded to the Lee-Itawamba Library System and will be used to purchase computers and Early Learning Stations. Mr. Marchbanks, BTW, grew up in Shannon and was a self-educated entrepreneur in construction and engineering. He and his wife left their estates of $8.7 million to the CREATE Foundation as a permanent fund to assist people who need a helping hand.

ENRICH program enhances classroom skills

For Wednesday’s DJ I’m writing about ENRICH, a summer program run by Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi. ENRICH operates sites in Tupelo, Vardaman and Pontotoc. I’ll post pics soon from the Tupelo and Vardaman sites, and here’s some info that didn’t make it into the story.

From Barbara Marsh: “I forgot to mention that the Cooperative Extension office in Tupelo and the Homemakers Council in Pontotoc folded and put together the reading books for ENRICH this year. It was a HUGE help to have volunteers put together a few hundred books! Mr. Jim Blue coordinated with the Methodist Church and the Baptist Church in Vardaman to have ENRICH there. Also … bundles of newspapers are delivered to each site on Monday morning through the Newspapers In Education program. … ENRICH teachers are thrilled to be able to use this material during the summer program.”

Thomas St. Elementary wins $7,000 Lowe’s grant

I received this news release today from a Thomas Street mom:

THOMAS STREET ELEMENTARY RECEIVES LOWE’S GRANT FOR PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT
$7,000 will provide funding for new playground equipment

TUPELO – Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation has awarded a $7,000 Toolbox for Education grant to Thomas Street Elementary in Tupelo for new playground equipment. Thomas Street Elementary is one of 1,000 schools or parent organizations to be awarded a Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant for parent-initiated school improvement projects benefiting public education K-12 across the U.S. during the 2007-2008 school year.

The grant funding will be used to install three free standing equipment pieces to a new playground. One of the two current playgrounds was removed due to the construction of new classrooms to be used in the 2009-2010 school year. The project is scheduled to be completed in the early fall.

“Through our Toolbox for Education grant program, Lowe’s recognizes parent-initiated efforts to enrich the lives of children in our communities,” said Larry D. Stone, chairman of Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation. “By supporting schools like Thomas Street Elementary, we believe we are contributing to a cause that’s important to our customers and employees and helping build a stronger foundation for the children who will be tomorrow’s employees, homeowners and community leaders.”

Launched in partnership with PTO Today, a leading organization serving parent-teacher groups, the Toolbox for Education program is providing more than 1,000 grants totaling $6.5 million during the 2007-2008 school year. Grants of up to $5,000 are available to public schools in the U.S. and Canada for a wide range of improvement projects and urban schools or school districts may be eligible to receive Toolbox grants up to $500,000 for school improvement initiatives. All K-12 public schools in the United States are eligible. Parent groups may apply by visiting www.toolboxforeducation.com.

S. Pontotoc school, teacher win national honors

Second-grade teacher Jeanette Simmons is on her way to Washington, D.C., this weekend. On Monday, she’ll officially be honored by the National Energy Education Development Project as 2008’s Teacher of the Year. The award is for Simmons’ work promoting environmental awareness and energy education at South Pontotoc Elementary School, which also is being recognized as the NEED National Primary School of the Year.

NEED is an energy education project that teaches children about nonrenewable and renewable energy sources and their conservation. Simmons’ students learned about the sun, electricity and fossil fuels. They visited a coal mine and raised their own silkworms and butterflies.

Be sure to read all about it on the Education page in Monday’s Daily Journal. In the meantime, enjoy these photos Simmons provided.

3Qs with the Commish

On Tuesday, the state College Board approved the 10th tuition increase since 1997 at Mississippi’s eight public universities. This morning I spoke with Dr. Tom Meredith, Commissioner of Higher Education for the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning. It’s for a Sunday Journal Page 1 feature we call 3Qs. The gist of our conversation is that the board was reluctant to raise tuition, but the institutions are facing the same problems as everyone else these days. Plus there’s the matter of declining state funding…

Here’s a list of the increases:

• Alcorn State University: $175 (4 percent) rise to $4,498 annually

• Delta State University: $201 (4.7 percent) rise to $4,449 annually

• Jackson State University: $157 (3.5 percent) rise to $4,634 annually

• Mississippi State University: $172 (3.5 percent) rise to $5,150 annually

• Mississippi University for Women: $214 (5.1 percent) rise to $4,423 annually

• Mississippi Valley State University: $158 (3.6 percent) rise to $4,575 annually

• University of Mississippi: $173 (3.5 percent) rise to $5,107 annually

• University of Southern Mississippi: $181 (3.7 percent) rise to $5,096 annually

TPSD announces back-to-school lineup

I’ll have this news brief in Sunday’s DJ:

Before students in city schools return to the classroom Aug. 8, the Tupelo Public School District will hold back-to-school nights at its elementary and middle schools.
On Monday, Aug. 4 from 4-6 p.m., students in grades 4-6 and their parents are invited to back-to-school programs at Carver, Lawndale and Milam elementaries.
On Tuesday, Aug. 5 from 4-6 p.m., back-to-school events will be held for pre-kindergarten students at the Early Childhood Education Center and for K-3 students at Church Street, Joyner, Lawhon, Parkway, Pierce Street, Rankin and Thomas Street schools.
There will be two events at Tupelo Middle School. Seventh-graders and their parents are invited to the school from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 6. Back-to-school activities for eighth-graders and their parents will be from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7.
For more information, call 841-8850 or go to www.tupeloschools.com.

Miss. loses public education champion

From Nancy Loome, executive director of The Parents’ Campaign:

Dear Ginny,

Mississippi lost a great advocate of public education with the death of former State Senator and Senate Education Chairman Grey Ferris, who died at his home in Vicksburg on Friday. Grey’s contributions to our state’s education system were many and varied, but his crowning achievement was as a lead author of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), the education funding legislation intended to ensure every Mississippi child an adequate education.

Grey was passionate about providing all children a path to a bright future. When The Parents’ Campaign was established to push for full funding of the MAEP and improved public education, he was an enthusiastic supporter. He provided me invaluable insight into the details of the MAEP and invested his own time to help us build our network. You can read more about this remarkable man at http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2008/06/15/news/news02.txt.

If you would like to express to Grey’s family your gratitude for his years of work to improve education in Mississippi, you may email those remarks to nloome@msparentscampaign.org. We will pass them along to his family.

It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to Grey Ferris, a great statesman and a champion of public education. Mississippi is a better place because of his service.

Blessings,

Nancy

Nancy Loome
Executive Director
The Parents’ Campaign
800 N. President Street, Suite B
Jackson, Mississippi 39202-2560
601.961.4551 office
601.672.0953 mobile
601.961.4552 fax
http://www.msparentscampaign.org/

ExPECT corporate campaign tops $10,000 goal

In today’s DJ I have a story about ExPECT, the private group that funds teacher grants in the Lee County Schools. ExPECT co-president Lynn Keith told me the current board set a $10,000 goal for its first corporate campaign, and they were very excited to raise $11,625! Since 1989, ExPECT has awarded more than $250,000 to teachers for things like books, calculators, maps, even a piano. The corporate donors are named in an ad, also in today’s paper. Thanks for giving!