Plantersville’s Brooks attends Principals’ Institute

From a Millsaps College news release that I’ll mention on next Monday’s Education page:

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.

Registration dates for Mooreville Elementary

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.

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 http://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.