D ear Ceramics,

The first half of the school year and the holiday season have con-cluded and the winter sports seasons are well underway. Even though the holiday break was extended due to several calamity days, I know that the students, staff, and I are happy to be back to our normal school rou-tines. Speaking of calamity days, I wanted to remind you of the plan that is in place to make up excessive calamity days. The first five calami-ty days are excused by the state. Days six, seven, and eight are to be made up by Blizzard Bags. February 16 will be a designated make-up day if nine (9) days have been missed prior to February 16. If needed, ex-tra make-up days are scheduled for April 6, May 21, May 26, May 27, and May 28. Please keep these dates in mind as you begin planning your summer vacations. Obviously, I hope that we do not need to use as many calamity days as we did last year. However, I do take student safety very seriously and will close school if it is unsafe for our students. I apologize for the many early morn-ing or late evening calls you may receive from me regarding calamity days, but I feel it is my responsibility to let you know as soon as I make a decision to delay or close school due to the weather. I would like to inform you that our high school was recently award-ed a federal grant that we will be able to use to purchase a salad bar. This should help expand the many options our students have to eat a healthy lunch at the high school. Also, we recently enrolled in Ohio’s Safer Schools Tip Line. This

4065 School Drive, Crooksville, OH 43731 * 740-982-7040

www.crooksville.k12.oh.us Issue 2, February 2015

C r o o k s v i l l e E x e m p t e d V i l l a g e S c h o o l D i s t r i c t

A Note from the Superintendent Curriculum Update Director of Curriculum, Alea Barker

Crooksville Exempted Vil-lage Schools, along with three other districts in Ohio have been named as partners in the Ohio’s GEAR UP Grant. The grant is funded by the U. S. Department of Education and is designed to help low-income and first genera-tion college students prepare for college and receive the support necessary to achieve success in post-secondary education. We are looking forward to the many opportunities this grant will cre-ate for our students.

will allow students, staff, and com-munity members to anonymously report anything that is suspicious or endangering to our students or school. We will be putting up posters in the schools, sending information home with students, and posting infor-mation about this tip line to our website in the coming weeks. The first half of the year was a very successful one here at Crooks-ville Schools. This newsletter will highlight many of the exciting activ-ities that took place during the sec-ond nine weeks of the school year. This includes updates from each building, sports updates, and high-lights of many student and class-room accomplishments. I invite you to attend one of our many upcoming sporting or academ-ic events that take place within our schools. If I have not had the chance to meet you yet, please feel free to introduce yourself to me as we meet at one of these activities. I truly appreciate all of the support our community shows for our students. I am a firm believer that it takes stu-dents, staff, support staff, adminis-trators, parents and community members all working together to provide the best possible education for students. Your partner in education,

Matt Sheridan

Look for the

Ohio’s Safer

Schools Tip

Line on our

school website

in the next

coming weeks

W e invite you to visit the school

website and Facebook page for addition-

al information such as; school calendars,

athletic schedules, staff directory, cafete-

ria menus, building telephone numbers,

current activities and news.

www.crooksville.k12.oh.us

Facebook page @ Crooksville EV

Schools! * Applications for Open

Enrollment are being accepted until

August 1.

Kindergarten Registration

Pick up registration packet at the

district office beginning March 2.

Bring your child with packet and

all required documents to register

on April 16-Hours: 9 am-12 pm,

1 pm-4 pm, 5 pm-7 pm; or April

17 Hours: 9 am-12 pm, 1 pm-3

pm at the K-7 School. A child is

eligible for kindergarten if he/she

attains the age of five (5) years old

on or before August 1 of the year

entering school.

Page 2

Principal, Kevin Smith

The quiz team won two matches this year and lost one in “sudden death.” Tyler Ansel was second in the league in total points with over 600. The MVL tourna-ment is in March and the members have been using IPads to practice answering and quizzing each other in preparation for the tournament.

Quiz Team—Kitana Vanoy, Amy Williams, Ethan

Wintgens, Tyler Ansel—Captain, and Jalyn Bolyard

In American Literature, the seniors

and juniors have finished their research

papers and are currently studying the Ro-

mantic Movement with a focus on the

gothic tales of Hawthorne, Poe, Irving and

Oates.

British Literature classes are div-

ing head first into Shakespeare's play

Hamlet. They are utilizing the IPads to

read the play online from the Folger

Shakespeare Library, as well as modifying

their work with note taking and graphic

organizers. Crooksville High School was selected as Ohio’s College and Career Transition Award recipient. We were recognized on January 27 in front of 400 education and workforce professionals from across the state in Columbus. The ceremony was hosted by a representative of the Ohio state government and Scott Frein, Assistant Vice President of Policy, Advocacy, and Government Relations for ACT. All seniors should have already or-dered their caps and gowns for graduation, if they have not done so, than last minute orders may be placed at Jostens.com as soon as possible.

High School HappeningsHigh School HappeningsHigh School Happenings

We received a cer-tificate through the American College Ap-plication Campaign for our participation in hon-oring our school’s com-mitment in helping Ohio’s seniors take the first step in actualizing their dreams of attending college. We had representatives from Musk-ingum University, OUZ, Zane State, and Hocking College here to dis-

cuss application proce-dures, requirements, opportunities and an-swer any questions. Along with the colleg-es, Ohio Means Jobs, Job Corps, IForce and branches of the military attended to provide alternatives for those

wishing for something different. Linda Knicely, from Battelle for Kids and two members from the Muskingum County Com-munity Foundation/Scholarship Central volun-teered their time. Scholar-ships were completed and letters of recommendation and essays were written as well. All of our seniors par-ticipated in the event which included free lunch donated by BW3’s.

CHS STUDENTS OF THE MONTH November Alana Williams-Grade 8 Katelyn Hopper-Grade 9 Blake Hopper-Grade 10 Faith Stickdorn-Grade 11 Abby Conaway-Grade 12 December Abby Penrod-grade 8 Abbigail Hampton-Grade 9 Tanner Watson-Grade 10 McKenzie Roop-Grade 11 Marissa Lama-Grade 12 January Arden Gillette-Grade 8 Joseph Swingle-Grade 9 Keela Ratliff-Grade 10 Hunter Hayes-Grade 11 Cheyenne Howell-Grade 12

K-7 Asst. Principal, John Gardner Intermediate students have been working hard on a variety of differ-ent activities. They have made much progress during the first half of the year and with hard work those achievements will continue. On December 18, fourth grad-ers were greeted with a highly en-gaging scientific activity! Mystery Festival is a made-up crime scenario that invites students to analyze de-tails of a story, use hands on investi-gations, and analyze multiple pieces of evidence. The picture below shows the fourth graders investigat-ing the crime scene.

Fifth grade students participat-ed in Scholastic’s Pajama Program and were able to collect 88 pairs of pajamas for needy kids. Scholastic matched these PJ donations with the same number of books. The inter-mediate school helped establish Iliff Church as a donation site, so all the donations were distributed locally. On January 16, The Wilds on Adventure and some of their exotic animals visited fifth graders. This engaging activity gave students the opportunity to learn about different non-native animals and their habi-tats. Reading has been a huge part of the sixth grade’s instruction this year. During the first half of the year sixth graders have already read over 14 novels. On January 13, motivational speaker, Ron Derry spoke with sev-enth graders about how to deal with adversity and the importance of nev-er giving up. Seventh graders have also had many project based activities this

Intermediate

School News

Primary School Update

Page 3

Issue 2, February 2015

year that included: creating a trip to Egypt, designing marshmallow launchers, and reenacting important events of the Revolutionary War.

Crooksville Schools is so proud of fourth grade student, Kena Hunter. Each year Kena does a toy drive for needy students in her school as part of her birthday! This year she helped over 65 students and their families by collecting over 400 toys. Kena, “thank you” for reminding all of us what Christmas is really about!!! Our seventh and eighth grade basketball teams, cheerleaders, and wrestling team continue to improve throughout the season. We wish the teams well for their upcoming MVL tournaments.

K-7 Principal—John Toeller

Half of the school year has come and gone and cold weather is upon us. Bus stops can become danger-ous with below freezing temperatures for children that are not dressed ap-propriately. Be sure to send your children to school with coats, hats and gloves on frigid mornings. Kindergarten students have been using their imaginations and artistic abilities to create a winter wonderland.

Students throughout the prima-ry school have been receiving indi-vidualized instruction to meet their individual needs. The determina-tion of students and staff has creat-ed a successful first semester and with the same effort we are expect-ing a great second half to the school year. Mrs. Rupe and Mrs. Ander-son’s second grade classes re-ceived a thank you letter along with pic-tures from the Crooks-ville Amer-ican Le-gion. The classes wrote thank you letters and made wreaths on Veterans’ Day. These items were passed out to local vet-erans and the extras were mailed to the Chillicothe Veterans Hospital. Twenty primary students “Stepped Up to Blue” during Octo-ber and were recognized at a cere-mony in front of their parents and peers on Friday, November 14. Students stepped up to BLUE by going above and beyond what’s expected of them in the areas of character, helping others, acts of kindness, and leadership. Those stepping up to BLUE were: Daniel Chapman, Ella Rixie, Kessa McClelland, Alexia Van Meter, Haley Barker, Xander Goldsmith, Angelina Wood, Ethan Miller, Ryleigh Crooks, Alexis Saffell, Ja-cob Hammer, Chloe Kennedy, Na-than Dyer, Amory Brown, Brynn Lundell, Rylee Chamberlin, Audri-onna Moorehead, Blake Hiles, Colt Hines, and Bo White.

To BLUE”

“Step Up

Audrey Thomas, a jun-ior at CHS performed during the All American half-time show of The Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl Game between Minnesota and Mis-souri on the first of January. Congratulations to Audrey for making us Ceramic proud!

Crooksville Athletics

Winter Sports By Greg Williams, AD

Register for Preschool

Preschool packets for the next 2015-2016 school year

available March 2 at the district office. No official reg-

istration day will be held. Pick up your packet, com-

plete and return to the district office. Children must be

three (3) years old or four (4) years old on or before Au-

gust 1 to enter preschool. Current three year old pre-

school students must get a new packet to enroll in the

four year old preschool classes.

Preschool News The preschool autism unit—Leaps & Bounds at the K-

7 made Christmas cookies and ornaments before break

and delivered them to the office, kitchen and custodial

staff in the K-7 building. These activities focus on fine

motor skills, direction following, science, math, and

social skills.

Boys Basketball

The boys’ basketball team is expe-

riencing a rough season. The young

and relatively inexperienced Ceramics

are 1 – 14 but are playing better. The

loss of the two year starter Tanner

German before the season started did-

n’t help the Ceramics. They did get

their first win recently against Philo in

overtime and have improved each

game. The only other player returning

with varsity experience on the team is

junior, Daulton Finck and he is enjoy-

ing a good season. Senior, Devon

Hiles is leading this young group to

some success while playing some con-

sistent basketball and junior, Bruce

Thompson is coming along to help

give some much needed scoring and

rebounding. Sophomores—Dustin

O’Neal and Chayse Smith, and fresh-

man— Landon Hinkle have been the

other main players on the floor. A

handful of other sophomores and

freshmen have been seeing some time

to give them some experience for the

future.

Varsity Cheerleaders

Front Row: Jaylynn Skeenes, Lindsay Baugh-

man, Audrey Thomas

Middle Row: Kaylene Cochran, Camara

Locke, Sophia Morolt

Back Row: Samara Dunn, Jaivin Kennedy

Girls Basketball

The Lady Ceramics are enjoying

some success this season currently at

7 – 11. They are relatively young,

starting the only two seniors on the

team, Jordan Smith and Kirsten Fus-

ner, along with two sophomores,

Lacie Ebert and Lauren Rambo, and

freshman, Carson Miller. The rest of

the team is composed of junior, Josie

Channel and freshman, McKenzie

LeRoy. The team is led in scoring,

assists, and steals by Jordan Smith

and Carson Miller, rebounding by

Carson Miller, Lacie Ebert, and

Kirsten Fusner. All of the Lady Ce-

ramics have had big games and they

play as a balanced team, which is a

key to their success.

Wrestling

Although the team isn’t a

full team, only having 10 of 14

weight classes at most, they have

still been able to place in several

tournaments. Their success includes

taking third at Trimble and Amanda

meets with the following placers:

106 lb. Matt Kuhn-10th grade: 3rd

Amanda

126 lb. Nate Bateson-10th grade: 1st

Trimble, 1st Amanda

132/138 lb. Colten Mettler-9th grade:

3rd Trimble, 7th Amanda

152 lb. Chaz Love-10th grade: 1st

Amanda

160 lb. Kullen McClelland-12th grade:

3rd Trimble, 2nd Amanda

170 lb. Jeffrey Patrick-12th grade: 1st Trimble, 2nd Amanda

182 lb. Taylor Lyons-10th grade:

2nd Trimble, 5th Amanda

195 lb. Hunter Foster-10th grade:

2nd Trimble, 5th Amanda

220 lb. Brett Scott– 10th grade: 7th

Amanda