We hope everyone had a wonderful summer break. Our administration and staff are eager to begin another year with students, parents, grandparents, and community members. We hope to work with everyone to make this another great school year.
With the beginning of the 2024-2025 year, we are happy to be continuing in-person instruction. The high school building Virtual Academy lab is the only building available for online instructional sessions in our high school building only. Some of this can be coordinated after school between 3:00-5:00 p.m. also in our building.
The district will continue to order appropriate cleaning supplies and material to maintain a clean learning environment in both our buildings and on buses. We do ask parents and students to continue to monitor student COVID-19 like symptoms and monitor their child’s temperature in the morning before coming to school. Students should not come to school if they are sick with COVID-19 symptoms or have a temperature of over 100.0°.
Our school system, for the fifth year, will continue to utilize our districtwide Learning Management System (LMS). The teaching staff and students continue to both have experience using the Canvas Learning Management System. The Canvas LMS can be used for students who are absent from school to monitor their assignments. The Canvas LMS could also be used if we ever have calamity days beyond the five allowable days.
This year our district will participate in two Waiver Days on October 21, 2024, and January 27, 2025. Both days will be non-instructional days for students and allow for staff professional development. Students will also be off the day after the first semester on January 21, 2025, for a teacher workday.
Our elementary (grades K-4), ninth, and tenth grades will continue to participate in Measurement of Academic Progress (MAP) testing to continue throughout the year to keep a close measure on their alignment to end of year required state assessments. This year, fifth through eighth grades will use Exact Path progress testing as their alignment to state assessments. We continue for the tenth year with the College Credit Plus program with the majority of our students attending Edison State, Sinclair, and Wright State. We also look forward to continuing with our Career Tech programming at the high school which is consistently well received by our students. Many of these programs continue to be involved in national competition and become award winners. Last summer our Careers with Children program, under the direction of instructor Amy Schoen had seven award winners in the FCCLA competition. The award winners were:
Nutrition and Wellness: Josie Madden and Jaydn Norris – Gold Medal
Digital Stories for Change: Emily Gibson, Shelby Gillespie, Callee Moore, and Isabelle Sommer – Silver Medal
Teach or Train: Zoey Burns – Silver Medal
Congratulations to all seven students for their national competition awards in FCCLA!
This year Junior Class students will again have the opportunity to take the ACT test in the spring of this school year. This continues to be a test for eleventh graders who opt in to take the test later in the spring.
Our district continues to be on a rotational basis to purchase textbooks and supplemental materials beyond the required College Credit Plus textbook purchases. This year, our district purchased many new social studies textbooks and materials for grades second to eighth, all now using Gallopade curriculum, and also new sociology material at the high school. Next year we will be purchasing new science text and supplemental materials.
This fall we will continue to contract with the City of Greenville to provide us with three school resource officers, as available, with always having two on hand. One will continue to be housed at the high school while the other two will be at the K-8 facility with one floating to the high school during lunch as needed and available. These SROs will assist us with safety and security, but also provide educational programming. They have done an outstanding job for the district, and it is our pleasure to work with the city to staff these positions. We are appreciative to continue to have the SROs covering all student school hours. We are also continuing to implement our Threat Assessment Teams at the high school and middle school for the third year with appropriate team member training.
As we begin a new year, remember to travel slowly on Ohio and Main Street and observe the speed limit when students are present and particularly during drop off and dismissal times at the K-8 complex, as well as the high school. Always slow down in the parking lots and follow marked traffic flow to keep everyone safe. At the K-8 complex, in front of the building, the first row of parking spaces on both sides will be reserved for visitors. Staff members assigned to these buildings will not park in these areas. All visitors must continue to enter Memorial Hall by the side door, next to the parking lot, and be buzzed in for security purposes. You will also notice the K-8 parking lot and walking trails that have been freshly resealed, crack filled, and restriped.
Please join me in welcoming the new employees to the Greenville School District. We look forward to working with each of them in our educational delivery and are glad they have joined the Greenville School District team. The following is the list of new employees:
High School & Career Tech: Taylor Cavender (Language Arts); Korey Garland (Ag Science Teacher); Samantha Lee (Assistant Principal); Kimberlee Leis (Part-time Science Teacher); (Ali Karani (Spanish Teacher); Mackenzie Swank (Language Arts Teacher); Corey Zickefoose (Physical Education & Health Teacher); and Brian Merrill (Paraprofessional)
Middle School: Michelle Kennedy (Custodian); Crystal Niekamp (Guidance Counselor); Renee Sager (6th Grade Language Arts Teacher); Jaden Stine (5th/6th Gr. Art Teacher); and Destiney Vance (5th Grade Teacher)
Elementary School: Amber Acevedo (Assistant Principal); Linda Ahrens (3rd Grade Teacher); Sydney Crews (Art Teacher); Ashley Ferguson (ED Intervention Specialist); Allyson Harmon (Intervention Specialist); Julie Matthews (3rd Grade Teacher); and Katharine Sarver (Kindergarten Teacher)
Transportation Dept.: Christopher Carlisle (Transportation Supervisor); Robert Riegle (Bus Driver); and Michael Vrazalich (Bus Driver)
Food Service Dept.: Stephanie Adelsperger (Food Service Manager); Carol Brewer (Food Service Employee); and Ashton Lehman (Food Service Employee)
This summer the district educated 127 students in Summer School with no charge for instruction. 31 of these students were at the K-8 facility in early August. 96 students were at the high school in June and early July. This is an ongoing effort to continue to work with the state initiative of academic recovery for students. Free transportation and lunches were also available to any Summer School student who elected the service.
This year the Greenville Board of Education and district will continue to improve and provide more mental health services and support. The district will continue four contracts with Recovery and Wellness to provide mental health services. One contract is mental health counseling available for all needed students with parental permission after a screening if necessary. One day a week coordinated at the high school and the other day at the K-8 complex. A third day a week throughout the K-12 grade levels as needed. This is a completely free program, with parent permission, during the school day. Another contract is for the student support groups for two hours a week. Also, free during the school day with parents’ permission. The district will continue to employ a close to full-time social worker for the ninth year as well from Council on Rural Services. This service is also free of charge during the school day with parent permission. Likewise, the district has a contract for a free coaching mentor for selected students at the high school with parental permission.
One major change at the K-8 building this year is that we will have one principal and two assistant principals at both the K-4 elementary school and 5-8 middle school. The principal at Greenville Elementary School (grades K-4) will be Susan Dankworth and the two assistant principals are Amber Acevedo and Jessica Gorman. At Greenville Middle School (grades 5-8) Chris Mortensen will be the principal, and the two assistant principals will be Georgia Lange and Clayton Westerbeck. Kitty Davis has taken a school psychologist administrative position and Rhonda Schaar has taken over as the Director of Special Services for the district (also an administrative position).
Finally, it is also noteworthy to know that the district has adopted a statewide model policy of keeping all student cell phones in their lockers during academic school day hours.
Remember, the entire Greenville School faculty and staff is here to assist you – our students, parents and community. If we can be of assistance, please feel free to contact our principals or myself. I can be reached by phone at 937-548-3185, or by email at dfries@gcswave.com. Let’s all work together again to make 2024-2025 an outstanding school year. As always, our district will continue to focus on being kind, providing hope, and helping our students achieve and overcome obstacles.
Reminder, the Open House is scheduled for Thursday, August 22, 2024. The schedule is as follows:
Greenville High School: 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Greenville Elementary School: 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Greenville Middle School: 5:00-6:30 p.m.
We look forward to seeing you all this fall. Go Wave as always!