(Posted Feb. 15, 2017)
By Sandi Latimer, Staff Writer
Jonathan Alder High School made the 7th Annual Advanced Placement (AP) District Honor Roll as determined by the College Board.
This is the first year that Jonathan Alder has made this prestigious list where only 433 districts nationwide share in the distinction.
“We are proud of our students and teachers for their hard work and willingness to engage in the rigorous expectations of the Advanced Placement program,” Principal Mike Aurin stated in a news release distributed at the Feb. 13 Jonathan Alder school board meeting.
To be considered for the honor, a high school has to expand its AP courses while maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on a scale of 1 to 5.
The College Board added Jonathan Alder to the Honor Roll after looking at the district’s AP exam scores from 2014 to 2016.
Jonathan Alder offers seven AP courses. The most recent to be added is a government course.
Community Survey
Typically, the school district surveys residents every three years for their thoughts on school operations and suggestions for improvements. The district is running a year behind on its survey cycle.
Superintendent Gary Chapman said the next survey should be out this spring. The last one was administered in 2013.
“We’re going to look at the questions from the last survey,” Chapman said, to see if the questions from four years are still applicable for this year.
Community Support Coalition
Shawn Heimlich, director of student services, gave an overview of the work facing the district’s Community Support Coalition.
One area the group is looking at is meeting students’ basic needs for food and housing.
“We’re looking at meals over breaks, especially in the summer,” Heimlich said, One possibility is the creation of a summer lunch program.
The coalition also is seeking businesses with large trucks that could help to deliver food and clothing to areas of high need.
Heimlich said he will be participating in and presenting at a “Life Sports” program at Ohio State University on March 7.
“We want to know how to begin a sports-based youth development program,” Heim-lich said. “We want to build a program to develop our youth, as well as how to build on social programs.”
Junior high expectations
Junior High Principal Chris Hays reviewed improvements in the works at this building.
“I want to be the best junior high in the state,” he said.
Among innovations he talked about were:
- Teachers have time to talk with each other about what is or is not working and what is or is not working for the children;
- extended time for math by doubling the time allowed for teaching this course;
- time for intervention that is a mix of intervention and tutoring; and
- the partnership with Tolles Career and Technical Center for information technology, engineering and Spanish.
Hays said next year’s plans call for integrating technology for real world situations and redesigning the library to make it an instructional resource center.
“We have a goal to be a Top Ten School in Ohio,” he said.
The school board’s next meeting is at 6:30 p.m. March 13 at Monroe Elementary.
