The Adair County R-II School year will begin for the teachers on Monday, August 23, 1999 with an inservice beginning at 9:00 a.m. in Unionville.

School will begin for students on Tuesday, August 24, 1999 at 8:45 a.m. and will be dismissed at 3:15 p.m. Breakfast and lunch will be served on the first day as on all other school days. Breakfast prices remain at $.65 for students and $1.00 for adults. Lunch prices remain at $1.25 for students and $1.75 for adults. Free and reduced price meals will be offered upon submission of a qualifying application for those meals. Applications will be sent home on the first day of school. Please complete them as soon as possible if you think your family may qualify for the program. Please keep in mind that you may complete an application at any time during the school year or submit a change if your financial situation changes.

Kindergarten snacks and milk remain at $.20 a day. This cost is not covered by the free and reduced meal application.

Parents please expect packets of forms to be sent home with your students the first day. You will be receiving free/reduced meal applications, emergency cards, insurance applications and other important forms. Go through them the first evening and complete all those that need to be returned to the school.

The annual school district bulletins were mailed to all district patrons and the patrons of neighboring districts on August 9. If you have not received one, please call or stop by the office. They contain valuable information such as schedules, fees, policies and staff listings for our district.

State law requires all students to have proper and up-to-date immunizations to be allowed to attend school. Notices were sent to district students who needed immunizations over the summer to remain current. If you received such a letter and have not had the required immunization(s), you must do so before August 24 or you will not be allowed to attend school.

Lori Ladwig has been employed to teach second grade. Lori was a student teacher for Lisa Kinsel last year. She resides in Edina with her husband, Lejon, and daughter, Emily.

Todd McClaskey has been employed to teach science in grades 7-12. Todd comes to us from the Atlanta C-3 School District. He resides with his family in LaPlata.

Mike Hines has been employed as a part-time evening custodian. Mike resides outside of Brashear with his wife, Tina, and daughter, Cierra.

Dawn Mills has been employed as a part-time server for the kitchen. Dawn resides outside of Brashear with her husband, Tim, and daughters, Shelby and Ashlee.

Darlene Withrow has been employed as a cook. She resides in Brashear with her husband, Ruben.

The district is still in need of a full-time bus driver for the 1999-2000 school year. If you are interested, please call 323-5272 to request an application.

In order to align the social studies curriculum with the MAP test, the sequence of classes for grades 8-9-10 will change. The class changes will be phased in over the next three years, beginning with the school year 1999-2000. The accompanying chart reflects the sequence changes.

2001-2002

Connie Lewis

The elementary building has enrolled in the General Mills Box Tops for Education Program. Please check you cereal boxes, General Mills Snacks, and Yoplait items for qualifying Box Tops and send them to school with your child(ren). Our goal is to earn money to purchase equipment and supplies for our school. We appreciate your help.

May 18, 1999 a group of us got together to explore the ways parents, schools, and communities could work together to help children learn to get along without violence. We want to do a better job of teaching and modeling important characteristics such as respect. Children who respect people, property and themselves make decisions that improve everyone’s lives, including their own. Out of this meeting grew the start of our Character Education Program.

We will be meeting again at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 2, in the high school library. Everyone is invited to this meeting. We welcome your ideas.

Dr. Montgomery

Bus routes will run approximately the same as in previous years. If you have questions about your route or are new to the district, please call John Baker, Transportation Director at 323-5272. If you have questions about your pick-up time, please call your driver: Jeff Osborn (Bus #33) 323-5242; Lajeana Coin (Bus #35) 323-5343; John Shahan (Bus #36) 323-5391; Teri Crandall (Bus #37) 323-5269 and for Bus #34 please call the school.

Bus count days for the 1999-00 school year will be on the second Wednesday of the month for the months of October and February. Please be sure to have your student ride the bus on that day. Student absences cost the school since their attendance is the basis of determining the amount of money the district receives from the state.

It is always exciting to welcome a new school year. Eager children are reaching for their school supplies. It is a time to challenge our thinking. How can our community provide our children with the best education possible? If there is to be improvement, people must do the things necessary for improvement. The most potent power that people have today is idea power – innovation. Where America leads today, it leads because of innovation. Innovation refers to the process of bringing any new, problem solving idea into existence. Ideas for relationship development, reorganizing, cutting costs, improving communication, cutting budgets are all innovations.

Innovations should not be accepted just to improve effectiveness, because there are many examples of efficiency being other than effective. It is easy to confuse efficiency for effectiveness. As Peter Drucker said, "Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. And doing the wrong things less expensively is not much help."

The elementary staff spent two days this summer writing a comprehensive school improvement plan. The mission of the Adair County R-II Elementary School Community is to provide a nurturing environment in which all children can flourish and grow, and enhance their self-work, to provide for academic excellence in a stimulating school environment, and to value close ties among children, staff, parents, and the community.

Sharing our personal and professional goals helps us clarify our thinking. Sharing also adds a degree of motivation because others know what you are striving for. Not only do we have added incentive to reach the goal and gain the feeling of accomplishment, but everyone with whom you shared is part of the support system that want to help you achieve. We appreciate the dedication of our staff for taking the time to set goals.

This year Character Education will be implemented. During the month of September we will be focusing on Attentiveness. Attentiveness is showing the worth of a person, object, or idea by giving your undivided concentration.

Overwhelming evidence shows that when parent involvement is high in children’s education, students and schools perform better and fewer discipline problems are evident. Also, when the community is involved in their schools, the schools have more support and are rated higher. Family and community involvement is very important for better education. We need you on our team. Together Everyone Achieves More. If you have an idea or an innovation, please share it with us. We want our school to be the best possible.

If "knowledge is power," we must remember that knowledge is gained by attentiveness. We will be focusing on the character "attentiveness" during the month of September.

Attentiveness describes the concentration we apply to each of the five senses, thus controlling all information input. Attentiveness also relates to the quality of thought with which we contemplate the information received through these senses.

Listening to a customer’s request, hearing directions from an authority, reading manuals, observing the operation of equipment and responding to its signals – nearly every activity of work and life involve attentiveness.

A person with undeveloped attentiveness will "skim" obvious facts from a conversation without realizing that he or she is missing important details.

An attentive person listens with a goal to "picture" in the mind identically what the communicator is thinking. Thus, s/he not only picks up important details, but notices holes in the information s/he is receiving and asks appropriate questions to complete his or her understanding.

Breakfast each day includes cereal, milk, juice or fruit. New regulations mandate the main entree for the day must be placed on each tray (designated by * in daily menu).

Tuesday: Pancake/Juicy burger*, peas, cantaloupe, cookie