Sturgis running back Jacob Thompson scored six touchdowns to lead Sturgis to a 56-0 win over visiting Kelloggsville Friday.
Thompson had 11 carries for 317 yards, a 29-yard average per carry, and also returned the opening kickoff 77 yards for the first score of the game.
“He carried us the whole way,” said Sturgis Coach Chance Stewart, whose team improved to 4-2 overall. “We only threw the ball six times.
“The guys did a great job; our offensive line paved the way for us. And a big credit to our defense.”
Kelloggsville Coach Brandon Branch said Thompson is “just that good.”
“He had a night,” said Branch, whose Rockets fell to 1-5 overall. “We had a lot of missed tackles because he was just that tough to tackle; he was very elusive.
“We knew what we were getting into.”
Sophomore Brock Fergison led Sturgis with 10 tackles.
Brendon Tuinstra led Kelloggsville with 105 yards on 13 carries.
“Brendon had a good night,” Branch said.
WKTV Game of the Week
Our Game of the Week airs every Friday night on WKTV Comcast Channel 25 & AT&T U-Verse Channel 99 at 11 p.m. with a rebroadcast on Saturday at 11 a.m. If you don’t have cable, visit our website at WKTV.org to watch the livestream. Watch at home on your Smart TV in brilliant HD.
Voters in the Kelloggsville Public Schools district will be asked to approve an $11.3 million bond proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot which will allow the district to build a S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) building at the high school as well as other building projects.
Kelloggsville students would gain technology space and equipment. (Supplied)
“Our goal is to give our students an exceptional facility that will provide opportunities for S.T.E.M., robotics, and business classes,” according to a statement on the district website. The additions “would expand opportunities for our students to explore technology through an updated media center, S.T.E.M. building, and (to) participate in our robotics program.”
The last day to register to vote by mail for the November ballot is Oct. 18. See here for a map of the school district, which has voters in both Kentwood and Wyoming.
Passage of the bond measure would not increase residential take above the current tax rate, also according to district supplied material, “it would simply continue with the existing debt levy.”
The funds from the bond measure will allow for the construction and addition of a S.T.E.M. building at the high school complex, a new media center at Southeast elementary, continue efforts to “provide and update safe and secure entrances” throughout the district, and well as technology upgrades to “enhance instruction.”
In addition to Kelloggsville High School, the district includes Kelloggsville Middle School, Southeast Kelloggsville Elementary, Central Kelloggsville Elementary, West Kelloggsville Elementary, Kelloggsville Virtual School and the Kelloggsville Early Childhood Learning Center.
With few items on Kent County’s May 4 ballot, and the corresponding low voter turnout, local voters backed property tax funded financial requests from both Kentwood Public Schools and Kelloggsville Public Schools.
With unofficial final results from the Kent County Elections office, Kentwood district voters approved a bond measure, by a margin of 3,739 to 1,776, the will allow the Kentwood school district to be able to borrow up to about $192 million and issue general obligation tax bonds to repay it.
The turnout was about 11 percent of the almost 50,000 registered voters in the district, according to the county elections office.
Superintendent Michael Zoerhoff, Kentwood Public schools. (Supplied/KPS)
“The outcome of this election demonstrates the strong partnership between the Kentwood community and Kentwood Public Schools,” Kentwood Public Schools Superintendent Michael Zoerhoff said to WKTV. “Together with our staff, parents, partners and volunteers, we remain committed to providing an education of equity and excellence to every student in a Kentwood school.”
In addition, “we are pleased that our facilities are utilized by all ages within our community. From the pools to the tracks, from seniors to toddlers, Kentwood Public Schools is a resource for the entire community. This vote demonstrates that our community recognizes the district as a center point of engagement for all ages and backgrounds.”
In the Kelloggsville school district, with unofficial final results from the Kent County Elections office, voters approved an extension of an existing non-residential, non ”homestead”, property millage, as well as an additional temporary 2-year 0.5 mill increase, by a margin of 486-240.
The turnout was about 8 percent of the about 9,200 registered voters in the district, according to the county elections office.
“Thank you (to the voters) for your continued support of Kelloggsville Public Schools,” Eric Alcorn, Kelloggsville Public Schools director of human resources, said to WKTV. “We are grateful for the trust you have in us to make sound educational decisions for the district and our students.”
Kentwood bond measure details
Nearly every building in the Kentwood Public Schools system will see improvements paid for by the bond proposal — yet the proposal will lower the net millage from the prior year of a school system already the lowest in Kent County, according to district information.
Kentwood Public Schools serves about 9,000 students. (Supplied/KPS)
Overall, the bond proposal would fund 10-plus years of improvements to district infrastructure and educational technology, that “would provide programs, technology, and facilities for current and future needs,” according to a district statement prior to the vote.
Kentwood Public Schools serves more than 9,000 students, includes about 1,200 staff, and is responsible for 22 buildings, including 17 schools, totaling over one million square feet of structures on over 450 acres of sites.
“This bond referendum will allow us to enhance health and safety features within our facilities,” Superintendent Zoerhoff said. “For instance, our child nutrition food service teams are excited about having full service kitchens in each of our schools. The fresh food that will be provided for our students, in every building, will empower them to learn and succeed.
“In addition, while we cannot predict the next pandemic or problem that our society will face, we can predict that technology will continue to play a critical role in the lives of our students.”
Kelloggsville millage extension details
The Kelloggsville Public Schools district received voter support of a millage two years ago, and the current and approved extension would allow that millage to “be renewed by 18.0181 mills ($18.0181 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) for a period of 2 years, 2022 and 2023, and also be increased by 0.5 mill ($0.50 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) for a period of 2 years, 2022 and 2023,” according to the official Kent County elections ballot proposal information.
According to information supplied by the district, the proposal “is a renewal to be levied against non-homestead property. Resident properties are exempt from being taxed by this proposal (no cost to the homeowner). This is a renewal on business properties and not homes. The renewal will notcost the homeowner any additional taxes.”
With a recent history of voter support for local school millage funding, the Kelloggsville Public Schools district will be seeking an extension of its existing non-residential (non-homestead) property millage and well as an additional temporary 2-year 0.5 mill increase on the May 4 ballot.
The district received voter support on the millage two years ago, and the current and the proposed extension would allow that millage to “be renewed by 18.0181 mills ($18.0181 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) for a period of 2 years, 2022 and 2023, and also be increased by 0.5 mill ($0.50 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation) for a period of 2 years, 2022 and 2023,” according to the official Kent County elections ballot proposal information.
According to information supplied by the district, the proposal “is a renewal to be levied against non-homestead property. Resident properties are exempt from being taxed by this proposal (no cost to the homeowner). This is a renewal on business properties and not homes. The renewal will notcost the homeowner any additional taxes.”
“This millage is all student programming and activities. Many of the programs and activities we currently have in place are tied to it,” Eric Alcorn, Director of Human Resources for Kelloggsville Public Schools, said to WKTV. “Again this is a renewal of a millage that we approved two years ago. The support that we receive from our community is and has been tremendous. The continued support would be greatly appreciated.”
If approved, the 0.5 mill increase will also be for a period of 2 years, 2022 and 2023, and will “provide funds for operating purposes,” according to the official ballot statement, “the estimate of the revenue the school district will collect if the millage is approved and 18 mills are levied in 2022 is approximately $3,463,580 (this is a renewal of millage that will expire with the 2021 levy and the addition of millage which will be levied only to the extent necessary to restore millage lost as a result of the reduction required by the ‘Headlee’ amendment to the Michigan Constitution of 1963.”
For more information about Kelloggsville Public Schools millage extension proposal contact the administration office at 616-538-7460.
How and when to vote
The Michigan Secretary of State recommends that to register to vote by mail for the May 4 ballot voters should do so as soon as possible. Individuals may also register to vote online at Michigan.gov/vote, or in-person at the City of Kentwood and City of Wyoming city clerk’s office through May 4, with the required documentation.
According to state supplied material, due to COVID-19, the Secretary of State will continue mailing absentee voter ballot applications to all registered voters. Registered voters must complete and submit the application to receive their absentee voter ballot. To vote by mail, fill out the application and sign it, and then mail or email it to the city clerk. (When filling out the application, if you check the box to be added to the permanent absentee voter list, you will get an application mailed to you before every election.)
If you registered to vote after absentee voter ballot applications were mailed, applications may be obtained online at Michigan.gov/vote. Absentee voter ballots are available by through May 4, 2021.
This week WKTV Sports will record two featured games, a girls basketball game at Kelloggsville High School and a hockey match from Kentwood’s Ice Arena.
Starting off, Sparta will visit Kelloggsville for an OK Conference Silver girls basketball contest on Tuesday, March 9. The Spartans enter the game with a 6-3 overall record (4-2 in conference) and coming off a home win against Godwin Heights. The Rockets enter at 3-6 (3-5 in conference) but coming off a tight, 27-26, loss to conference leader and undefeated Comstock Park (8-0, 5-0).
WKTV will cover high school hockey this week. (WKTV)
Later in the week, on Friday, March 12, the WKTV crew will be at the hockey game between Kenowa Hills and East Kentwood. The Falcons enter the week with a 1-10 overall record (0-6 in OK Red), but coming off their first win of the season, at home (8-5, over Northview) followed by a tough, 3-2, loss to Jenison on the road. Kenowa Hills is 8-2, and 1-0 in a 3-team OK Conference Gold.
The Tuesday contest will tip off at 6 p.m., and WKTV will record the game and replay it later Tuesday night, at 11 p.m.; then Wednesday, March 10, at 11 a.m., with more replays to be scheduled, and it will available on-demand later. (See details at bottom of story.)
The Thursday hockey match will have the puck drop at 4:40 p.m., and WKTV will record the game and replay it later Friday night, at 11 p.m., then Saturday, March 13, at 11 a.m., with more replays to be scheduled, and it will available on-demand later.
To see both featured games on WKTV on-demand visit WKTVlive.com.
Additionally, the remainder of the WKTV featured game tentative schedule has the WKTV truck and team covering the Tuesday, March 16, girls and boys basketball games when Zion Christian visits Grand River Preparatory (at 5:30 and 7 p.m.), and then the Thursday, March 18, girls basketball game when Zeeland East visits Wyoming high (at 7 p.m.).
We are also tentatively scheduled to cover the girls district Division 2 tournament at Godwin Heights, with Godwin Heights, Kelloggsville and Lee all set to participate.
WKTV featured games will be on cable television in Wyoming and Kentwood on Comcast Channel 25 and AT&T Channel 99 Community Channel, on various days and times the week after. See the programming schedule at wktv.org. For more information on WKTV coverage of winter high school sports, follow us at wktvjournal.org/sports.
Note: some of these stories took place before the governor’s official closing of schools with education moving online. These are just some of the unique and interesting ways are teachers are working to bring creative ways to the classroom. For more stories on local schools, visit the School News Network website, schoolnewsnetwork.org.
Dawt Khun focuses on letters (School News Network)
Kentwood: Fancy F’s and elegant L’s
Some have put cursive writing in the category of lost arts. Not true at Kentwood’s Crestwood Middle School, where language arts teacher Anne Brown is keeping the the flow of writing alive. For more, click here.
Dominic Russell and Quaa Doxie work together on their wheel
Kelloggsville: Working from concrete to abstract in Algebra 2
Kelloggsville High School Rick Jackson puts a new spin on trigonometry by having his students get hands on in the construction of a popsicle Ferris wheel. To learn more, click here.
Maggie Santos and Elijah Brown embellish the busts they’ve made. (School News Network)
Godwin Heights: A look in the mirror cures self-expression
Before the mandated school closure, the classroom was in the middle of a 10-week artist residency offered by Artists Creating Together (ACT). Each week Annalise Hammerlund, the artist-in-residence who worked with Lisa Kotarski’s Godwin Heights class, visited the classroom to lead students in an art lesson that challenged them to learn a bit more about themselves and to express themselves through art. To learn more about this program, click here.
From left, Craig Thompson, from the city of Grand Rapids, and Aleka C. Thrash, owner of Naturally ACT, talk to students during Student StartUp Day. (School News Network)
All District: Getting down to business
In the first-ever Student StartUp Day, which took place the week before the school shutdown, area students got a lesson in what it takes to start your own business and a chance to pitch ideas to area business leaders. To learn more, click here.
A sign at the City of Wyoming City Hall informs people intending to drop off absentee ballots for the May 5 local school district funding votes. (WKTV)
Michigan’s, and so both Wyoming’s and Kentwood’s, voting process for the upcoming May 5 local school funding proposals may — or may not — be foreshadowing how the hugely important 2020 election cycle will play out in August if not also in November.
But one thing for sure, the Kent County voting process, put in place in the aftermath of current COVID-19 restrictions and Michigan Secretary of State directives, will be unlike any the cities of Wyoming and Kentwood city clerk’s offices have ever seen.
The bottom line, according to the Kent County Elections Office, is that registered voters within the precinct boundaries of two local school districts with funding measure requests — Kelloggsville Public Schools and Godwin Heights Public Schools — should have automatically received absentee ballot applications.
While applying for absentee ballots, and using them, is the “preferred” voting means May 5, “each jurisdiction is required to have one polling place open where individuals can vote in-person,” Robert J. Macomber, Kent County Chief Deputy County Clerk, said to WKTV. “It won’t be a typical polling place as it would operate on election day normally.
“Anyone who walk-in on election day will be given a ballot and an envelope to put it in and it will be grouped in for counting with those that voted absentee prior to election day. It’s essentially in-person absentee voting.”
And it is up to local clerks, such as the city clerks of Wyoming and Kentwood, to receive and county the absentee ballots on election day — including the ones dropped off at or walked into the clerk’s on that day.
A voting day unlike any other
This voting process “is certainly different, because all ballots will be processed as an absentee ballot,” Kentwood City Clerk Dan Kasunic said to WKTV, whose office has posted specific May 5 voting process information on the city’s website.
And while both Wyoming City Clerk Kelli A. VandenBerg and Kasunic will be busy on that day counting ballots, VandenBerg also hopes to have few people actually needing to walk in to register and/or vote.
“We have seen a steady stream of ballot requests and a return of voted ballots,” VandenBerg said to WKTV. “While ‘day of’ voting is an option, we are strongly encouraging voters use the absentee process as much as possible.
And extension of the existing City of Wyoming drop off (and usually drive-up) city business customer convenience, the city clerk will now collect absentee ballots via a drop box. (WKTV)
“We have received guidance from the (state) Bureau of Elections and we continue to working closely with both county and city staff to ensure we have a safe election for voters and workers. … Anyone entering a public building will need to have a mask, so we will be prepared to address that. One feature we look forward to is a new drop box that will allow voters to drop off ballots without having to leave their vehicle.”
VandenBerg also pointed out that “While some voters have experience with absentee voting, this concept is new to many others. I often hear concerns from voters about whether absentee ballots are counted. And absentee ballots are absolutely counted. They are not held in case there is a tie, they are counted each and every time.
For Spanish language voters, a sign at the City of Wyoming City Hall. (WKTV)
“Also, I would ask that voters have patience if they do need to visit city hall on election day. My staff and I want to help any and all voters who wish to vote, but we also want to do so while maintaining safety for everyone.”
She also urged voters to check their registration status at mi.gov/vote, where they can verify registration, view a sample ballot and check the status of their absentee request.
Highlights of Kentwood’s voting process includes confirming that “All registered voters in Precincts 1-4-5 (Kelloggsville Schools) have been mailed an application for an absentee ballot,” according to the city website page.
Also, the registration process, if absentee ballot requests were not received, include the person wishing to register prior to the May 5 election day should make an appointment at the city clerk’s office and provide proof of residency.
In person voting — dropping off absentee ballots — and voter registration on May 5 will be at Kentwood City Hall, 4900 Breton Ave SE, with the office open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. After registration, voters will be given absentee ballots to fill out and hand back — but “in person interaction will be conducted in adherence to social distancing and health safety measures,” according to the city website page.
The playground at Kelloggsville’s Southeast Elementary is a mismatch of different equipment: silver monkey bars that look like they are from the 1970s mixed in with what seems like newer bright blue swings, a slider, and balance equipment.
It is easy to tell that the equipment has been used — a lot. The bright blue paint on the slider has been chipped away to reveal the metal. The slides with scratches are now a faded pink and the monkey bars have a slight bent in them.
Southeast Elementary and the district’s West Elementary are two of Kelloggsville’s oldest buildings. Admitting he is not certain of their age, Eric Alcorn, Kelloggsville’s auxiliary services director, said he estimates Southeast Elementary to have been built in the 1950s or early 1960s.
Playground upgrades at the two elementary buildings are on a long list of proposed projects that will be funded if Kelloggsville voters approve a May 5 proposed 1.0 mill sinking fund request.
West Elementary would be the first school to receive new lockers, carpet, playground upgrades and parking lot repaving. (WKTV)
“With our newest elementary building, we want to make sure that all the buildings are up-to-date and that all our students are benefiting from the rewards by being able to grow both physically and mentally,” Alcorn said.
As district officials proposed a 2018 bond request for a new elementary building (which was approved by voters), they made it clear that the new building was part of a long-term plan to update and modernize the district’s elementary schools. The sinking fund request is the next step in that plan with Superintendent Samuel Wright stating on the district’s website that “A plan has been made to identify items that are necessary to keep our buildings in excellent shape and aren’t exactly recognizable. Items such as parking lot paving, HVAC, roofs, and energy conserving projects are expensive and additional funds are needed to complete these projects.”
In Michigan, a sinking fund is a millage levied to support school safety improvements, technology improvements, and the repair and construction of school buildings. It is a “pay as you go” system that does not require borrowing money or paying interest. A sinking fund milage is calculated using the taxable value of a home, which is usually about half of the assessed value. For example, Kelloggsville Public Schools is asking for 1.0 mill. On a house valued at $100,000, the taxable value is $50,000. The annual cost to a Kelloggsville taxpayer would be $50, which is about 96 cents a week.
A sinking fund is for up to 10 years. Kelloggsville’s sinking fund request would run from 2020 – 2029. It is estimated that within the first year, 2020, the district would receive about $371,073.
An important aspect to a sinking fund, which Alcorn pointed out, is that money from that fund can not be used for things like regular maintenance, purchasing teaching supplies or textbooks, or paying teacher and administrator salaries. In fact, the law requires districts with sinking funds to keep these funds separate from the district accounts and a district also must have s separate auditor each year of the funds to ensure they are being spent appropriately.
“The fund will help us pay for long term projects that in the end will help us not have to pull from the general funds to help pay for it,” Alcorn said, adding by creating a fund that allows for the district to handle building and safety concerns, the district is able to maintain school services without concerns of having to use money for an emergency.
“We are not in a situation where an emergency needs to be addressed,” Alcorn said. “However, we do not want to have to make a decision that would move money away from student services because of a need.”
School officials have made a wish list over the 10-year life of the sinking fund of items they would address in the district’s facilities. Year one would focus on West Elementary receiving new carpet, lockers, playground upgrades, and the parking lot would be repaved. The second and third year would focus on Southeast Elementary, which would receive playground upgrades, repaved parking lot that would include a bus loop, and classroom remodels. In fact, over the 10 years, every building in the district, which also includes the Early Childhood Learning Center, the middle school, high school and the alternative high school, 54th Street Academy, would benefit from the fund by receiving roof replacements, classroom updates and parking lot repaving.
If the sinking fund is approve, in year 9 the 54th Street Academy would receive a roof replacement and in year 10, its parking lot would be repaved. (WKTV)
Voting by Absentee
Kelloggsville Public Schools has about 2,400 students enrolled for the 2019-2020 school year, with Alcorn noting the district continues to grow. While most Kent County school districts are pretty much contained to one area, Kelloggsville Public Schools has about half its students in the City of Wyoming and the other half are from the City of Kentwood.
Alcorn said the district was just gearing up to inform voters about the sinking fund request when the Stay Home, Stay Safe order took effect on March 24. In April, the governor issued an executive order that the May 5 elections would be done “to the greatest extent possible” by absentee voter ballots.
Residents who have not received a notice for an absentee ballot may request one from their local clerks office. The Kelloggsville Public Schools’ website also has information on how to obtain an absentee ballot. The ballot must be mailed and received by 5 p.m. May 1 or you may bring the ballot to your city’s clerk’s office on the day of the election, May 5, by 8 p.m.
Also according to the May 5 elections order, the clerk’s office in both cities will be open for people to request, fill out and return an absentee ballot. Voters may also register and vote that day as well. According to the Kelloggsville website, you may request ballot up until 4 p.m. on May 5 and you have until 8 p.m. to return an absentee ballot.
Mary Campbell was getting her Kelloggsville High School class settled in. It was 9 o’clock on a Monday morning, and her students were a little restless, still getting back into school mode after a weekend away.
She looked around the room. “Are we good?” she asked, eyebrows slightly raised, the question not really a question.
“Five more minutes?” answered Campbell with a smile. “Definitely not.”
It was time to teach, and Campbell was eager to get going.
The class was Newcomers English and for the next hour, Campbell and 22 English Learner students from Vietnam, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Rwanda and the Congo would be working on a series of basic language skills.
First there was a little exercise in which Campbell had the students call out the answers to questions about the day of the week, the weather and the temperature outside. Then there was some capitalization practice, and finally it was time for a student highlight: “Mingle Monday.”
In Mingle Monday, students move around and sit with different classmates, and Campbell takes them through a series of questions, walking around the room all the while. After she introduces each question, the students record the answer of the student sitting across from them in their notebooks.
“Using complete sentences,” noted Campbell. They interact with a different student for each question as the inner circle moves one spot over while the outer circle stays in place.
Teacher Mary Campbell enjoys watching her students practicing Star Trek’s Live Long and Prosper. (School News Network)
Practicing Multiple Skills, Having Fun
Campbell is an Aquinas College graduate and received her endorsement in ESL K-12 (at Kelloggsville the preferred term is EL, not ESL because, teachers say, most of their students are not learning a second language when they learn English but are often learning a third or fourth).
The main purpose of something like Mingle Monday, Campbell said, is for the students to be able to practice multiple skills at once – reading, writing, listening and speaking – and have some fun while doing so.
“It really is a fun activity that gets students engaged,” she said. “They’re interacting with their peers but most importantly, practicing their English.
“One of the benefits that has surprised me the most is how much Mingle Monday has improved the relationships between students in the classroom. Students who would normally never interact with one another are fist bumping, congratulating and celebrating one another on their journey to mastering the English language.”
Many of the questions are fun and intended to both provoke a smile from students, and to get them thinking about their answers. During a recent Mingle Monday, Campbell showed the class a slide with a picture of “Star Trek” character Spock, and her question, to which the students needed to provide a written response, was “Can you make the Spock sign?”
Of course, to answer the question, the room quickly became abuzz with students trying to make the strange sign, rapidly talking in their native languages of Spanish, Swahili, Vietnamese and Kinyarwanda and laughing at their success or futility and that of their classmates.
As she pointed with her right hand at Spock on the slide, Campbell made the sign with her left and said: “In the movie – it’s called “Star Trek” – this man does this and says, ‘Live long and prosper.’ And for some reason I can only do the sign with my left hand.”
Elizabel Rosso Garcia (left) writes a response while Domingo Martin Mendoza ponders. (School News Network)
Short Stories and Gilligan’s Island
A few doors down from Campbell’s class, fellow EL teacher Susan Faulk was working with 26 students from such countries as Honduras, Gambia, Togo, Burundi, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Myanmar, Cuba and Vietnam.
The project this day was an essay comparing the 1924 short story “The Most Dangerous Game” (about a big-game hunter who becomes the hunted on what he thinks is a deserted island) to a 1967 episode of the TV show “Gilligan’s Island” called “The Hunter” (in which a big-game hunter comes to the island, finds no game to hunt and decides to pursue Gilligan instead).
“It’s a classic short story,” Faulk said, “a great story to use to teach literary elements like suspense, foreshadowing, simile, metaphor and personification.”
Faulk, who grew up watching “Gilligan’s Island” reruns, said it’s a surreal experience for her students, who hail from so many countries outside the U.S., to watch an iconic piece of American television from more than 50 years ago. But she said the juxtaposition of the short story with a 30-minute TV show works well for what she’s trying to get the students to accomplish since she uses a reader’s theatre version of the story and also excerpts from the original story.
After reading the play and excerpts, Faulk works with her students on short story analysis. They then watch the episode, and discuss how the story and the TV show are similar and how they are different.
All of that then leads to a five-paragraph essay about which is the more effective story.
Felianny Rosso Garcia is all smiles. (School News Network)
Big Changes in Recent Decades
For Faulk, thinking about new ways to give students tried-and-true skills comes with the territory.
She’s in her 14th year at Kelloggsville and has seen big changes during that time. When she began, the school served a small number of EL students, maybe 15 or so each year, she said, and she was a little more than half-time with EL students. Now she’s full-time EL and has two colleagues in Campbell and Shannon Dahlquist, who are a little over half-time and almost full-time EL, respectively.
Together the trio teaches or co-teaches 12 sections of EL classes or classes that have EL support for 75-80 EL students, some 10 percent or more of the student body. Those students are at various levels of English understanding and proficiency. Some know almost no English. Others, Faulk said, know conversational English but need a lot of work with reading and writing. And some know conversational English, but are still developing their academic English.
At Kelloggsville, even the advanced students read at an elementary school level since, Faulk said, studies show it takes an average of two years for a person to learn conversational English if they are immersed in the language, and four to seven years for academic language to develop if they are immersed in academic language.
Elizabel Rosso Garcia works on a Mingle Monday response. (School News Network)
It Takes a Village
In the co-teaching model, Faulk, Campbell and Dahlquist all teach some classes that are just for EL students. Each also co-teaches classes in non-English subject areas that are still completely comprised of EL students.
So, after her English Language Arts for ELs class, Faulk goes to a civics class that she co-teaches. In that class, she can help adapt assignments, assist the civics teacher with the EL students (all of whom Faulk knows well) and generally be a bridge between the students and the subject matter. Campbell and Dahlquist do the same in other subject areas, including world history, earth science, chemistry and algebra.
“Our co-teaching model is one of the best things we do for ELs,” said Faulk. “Through this model, students receive academic content in core subjects in a way that is accessible for them. The content area teacher teaches the content. The EL teacher comes alongside the content area teacher to use strategies and scaffolding to make the content understandable for ELs.”
Kelloggsville also provides a Parent English Program on Monday nights, and offers the Home/Heritage Language Assessment so that immigrant and refugee students can earn two world language credits by demonstrating proficiency in their own language. Faulk noted that the district also works with a variety of area refugee agencies, pastors and more to make sure it is doing all it can to serve its growing population.
The influx of students from other countries has also provided opportunities for other Kelloggsville employees, according to Faulk. Last year the high school had two young men come through schools of choice. They had already attended two different high schools and were classified as juniors. Counselor Bethany Hardy asked them for their transcripts from Africa because they weren’t accounted for in their records, and when they brought in those transcripts, it turned out they could actually be seniors and had enough credits to enter the Kelloggsville school-to-work program, administered by John Linker.
In January 2019, they were able to start working for Lacks Enterprises and earning money for their families, and at the end of the school year, Lacks signed them on full time at a special signing ceremony Kelloggsville hosted.
Such moments are highlights for Faulk, Dahlquist and Campbell, who all say they are grateful for the chance to work with EL students.
“EL students are eager to learn, masters of change, and teach me more about perspective than any other population of students I have ever worked with,” said Campbell. “Though working with EL students requires a specific brand of patience, it is an incredibly humbling and rewarding experience.”
For more stories on area schools, visit the School News Network website, schoolnewsnetwork.org.
Glen Finkel smiled as he stood in front of 75 superintendents, business managers, and technology directors and system administrators.
“One of the reasons we picked October 31st for this event,” the Kent ISD Director of Information Technology said, “is this is kind of scary.”
Those in attendance – primarily from Kent ISD plus a few from Ionia, Montcalm and Muskegon counties – chuckled appreciatively, if not a little nervously.
They’d just heard from presenters at Kent ISD on the ways school districts are vulnerable to cyber attacks, including ransomware.
Scary, indeed.
But, said Finkel, one of the purposes of the workshop was to make things a little less frightening for district leaders, including IT professionals.
“Due to the dramatic increase of ransomware attacks on schools across the state, we wanted to give our school districts an opportunity to hear from industry experts on how to prepare for and respond to this type of cyber attack,” he noted.
“Since effective cybersecurity involves many departments within an organization, we set up this learning opportunity to cover the many perspectives and diverse backgrounds of our audience,” Finkel explained.
Russell Hoorn II, director of technology for Kelloggsville Public Schools, and Terri Ricketson, director of business services, participated in the workshop
‘Why Would Anyone Want to Attack a School’
For Russell Hoorn II, director of technology for Kelloggsville Public Schools, the event provided some good reminders on how life has changed for schools in the two decades he’s worked in K-12 at his alma mater, Kenowa Hills, and the last 15 at Kelloggsville.
“The focus (of cybersecurity) used to be making sure students couldn’t change their grades,” Hoorn said during a break between sessions. He said the workshop underscored how important it is to be vigilant going forward.
“I used to think ‘why would anyone want to attack a school?’ That’s not the case anymore.”
Session speakers made it clear “just why.” Alex Brown with Plante Moran gave the day’s opening talk and his message to attendees was plain.
“What you guys hold,” he said, “is the ‘creme de la creme,’ which is records.”
Brown said that on the dark web – what he referred to as “the Walmart of bad things” – a fully loaded record can be purchased for around $3. Schools, he noted, have lots of fully loaded records, typically where name, address and social security number are all together.
In addition, he said, child records are a prime target for hackers because they are a blank slate – without a lot of history attached to them compared to a data record for an adult.
“That blank slate,” he said, “is a great resource for a lot of bad things.”
In fact, in a 2017 story by DataBreaches.net on children’s records being hacked from pediatricians, it was estimated that the fully loaded patient records of 500,000 children are available on the dark web. DataBreaches estimated another 200,000 records were stolen from elementary schools.
I haven’t had specific training like this,” Hoorn said, “so this is great. “I am interested in the security of our school district. I think we do a pretty good job, but I want to make sure we are following best practices. We don’t want to be a school district in the news because we had to recover something we should have been protecting.”
For more stories on local schools, visit the School News Network website, schoolnewsnetwork.org.
Bilal Muhammad is the new supervisor of 54th Street Academy, the district’s alternative high school. The role is similar to a principal.
Other positions you have held in education:
Student services coordinator at Kelloggsville Middle School
Middle School athletic director at Grand Rapids Public Schools
How about jobs outside education? I worked in customer service for JC Penney Catalog for seven years.
Bilal Muhammad and wife Stacy; daughter Illiana, 14; and son Amir, 8. (School News Network)
Education/degrees: Bachelor of social science and master of education from Ashford University
Spouse/children: wife, Stacy; son, Amir, 8; and daughter Illiana, 14
Hobbies and Interests: I like sports. I coach basketball and I still play basketball. I like to travel.
What kind of kid were you at the age of students at this new school? I was big into athletics. I played basketball and I ran track. Academically, I was stellar, I got the work done.
The biggest lesson you have learned from students is… I feel students want to know you have their best interests at heart. They won’t really learn from you if you don’t build that positive relationship with them.
Finish this sentence: If I could go back to school I would go to grade ? because…I kind of feel like everything happens for a reason so I wouldn’t change anything I went through, because I learn from my experiences. I wouldn’t go back to a grade, because everything I’ve been through made me who I am.
For more stories on local schools, visit the School News Network website, schoolnewsnetwork.org.
School may be in session but for Denise Kooiker, aka School Supply Santa, collecting school supplies does not stop just because the bell has rung.
“Once school starts, people can bring supplies right to Byron Ministries for the following year,” Kooiker said. “Our main part we tried to do before school starts, but we receive items throughout the year.”
School Supply Santa’s main push for collections takes place in July and August when donation boxes are put out at many area business. Staff from 36 area schools are invited to an event in August where they can pick out items for students in their school.
Almost 1,100 backpacks were handed out along with about 46,000 school supplies at the 2019 event. Schools serviced by the program include Byron Center, Godwin Heights, Godfrey-Lee, Kelloggsville, Kentwood and Wyoming.
It was 12 years ago when Kooiker, a hair stylist, had a client tell her about the needs for her students.
“I was naive,” Kooiker said. “What do you mean kids don’t have school supplies?”
She started School Supply Santa by filling her car and now has a storage facility along with the space at Byron Ministries for donations.
So as area residents hit the stores for sales throughout the year, keep in mind of the needs of area students, Kooiker said. Items most needed are dry erase markers as many schools do not use chalkboards but dry erase boards.
“Backpacks are always a big thing,” Kooiker said. “It is such a confidence booster. It is hard to come to school without one or one that is old and frayed.”
For a complete list of school supplies, visit the School Supply Santa website, schoolsupplysanta.com
A school ad shows a student larger than life because of all the new school supplies and clothes she got. But for some local residents, just purchasing the basic school supplies can be a momental task.
“In one of the places I recently volunteered, I talked to families who stated ‘My next paycheck would have to go toward school supplies,’” said WKTV Journal host Donna Kidner Smith.
It is the reason that Denise Kooiker created the School Supply Santa more than 10 yeas ago.
“I am hairdresser and I was at work one day and one of my clients was telling me about the need for school supplies and how much teachers spend on their classrooms and to help their students,” Kooiker said. “I was totally unaware of the need for school supplies.”
Kooiker discovered that more than 94 percent of teachers spend an average of $500 of their money on classroom supplies, she said. She created School Supply Santa to help teachers help those students who need it, Kooiker said.
Through Aug. 7, various locations throughout the Wyoming, Kentwood, Byron Center ,and Grand Rapids area are serving as collection sites. Some of the Wyoming locations are Amethyst Beauty Bar, Beltline Bar, Edward Jones, For the Kids Gymnastics, Maple Hill Golf, Peach Wave, Shape Your Life, and the YMCA – Spartan on Gezon Avenue. In Kentwood, some of the drop off sites are Breton Garden Family Dentistry, DJ’s Landscape Management, Grand Coney Diner, Fast Signs, and the Omelette Shop. For a complete list of locations, visit schoolsupplysanta.com.
Area residents are encouraged to bring donations to those locations. Items needed are backpacks, crayons, colored pencils, dry erase expo markers, ear buds, erasers, solid color folders, glue sticks, Post-it notes, Kleenex, pencils, markers notebooks, three-ring binders, composition notebooks, and headphones.
Kooiker said some of the school supplies, such as backpacks, do take a beating over the course or a year, so buying the cheapest item is not always the best option.
“Some of the less quality backpacks will rip fairly quickly,” Kooiker said.
Staff and teachers from Kentwood Public Schools, Wyoming Public Schools, Godwin Heights Public Schools, Godfrey-Lee Pubic Schools, Kelloggsville Public Schools, and Byron Center Public Schools will attend a special event in August to pick up the school supplies. The staff from the schools then distribute it to students who have a need, Kooiker said.
Last year, School Supply Santa collected 1,219 backpacks, more than 38,000 school supplies, which supported 34 local schools, grades K-12, and more than 2,500 students.
And while the 2019 season for collections is coming to a close, the School Supply Santa does collect year around, Kooiker said. If you are interested in donating or volunteering for School Supply Santa, visit schoolsupplysanta.com or the Facebook page, School Supply Santa.
Some of the volunteers for the School Supply Santa. (Supplied)
Two years of work and a National Professional Development grant helped Andrea Donovan complete an English as a Second Language endorsement at no cost. (School News Network)
Step into Andrea Donovan’s freshman English classroom at Lee High School for a minute, and listen. You’re going to hear a lot of Spanish. This is not surprising in a district where roughly half of all students are English-language learners.
“I receive all the newcomers when they come into the high school — they all take English 9, regardless of their grade or where they finished in their home country,” said Donovan.
She has a new set of skills to serve those students, thanks to a National Professional Development grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Donovan is part of a 15-teacher cohort that completed English Language Certification in May through the grant, administered by Aquinas College’s School of Education. The grant covered tuition for eight courses required for a K-12 English as a Second Language endorsement onto an already existing teaching certificate.
Andrea Donovan, an English teacher at Lee High School, leads her students, many of whom are English-language learners. (School News Network)
“It’s one of the best things I’ve done educationally and professionally,” said Donovan. “There is such a need in our district.”
Her cohort included four other teachers from Godfrey-Lee, as well as teachers from neighboring districts who have been meeting regularly since fall of 2017 to take classes toward certification. Donovan said that in her experience and from what she’s heard from others in her cohort, the work is paying off.
“Teachers now feel more comfortable working with English-language learners,” she said. “At the end of the day, these are really good strategies.”
Strategies that help students like Vidaura Pavlo.
Vidaura came to the district two years ago from Guatemala by way of California. She took a break from Donovan’s class, where she was studying “Romeo and Juliet,” to share that it wasn’t uncommon when she first arrived in America to have people get impatient with her due to her difficulty understanding English.
But her English has improved greatly in the last few years, due in large part to the help of Donovan and her teaching partner, Brenda Caballero.
Vidaura Pavlo, originally from Guatemala, said she enjoys being able to translate for her family as her English improves. (School News Network)
“When I’m with my parents, at the store or when we’re traveling, I translate for them,” said Vidaura, who is quickly gaining confidence with her English.
Donovan said a huge strength of the certification program is that it helps teachers see English-language learners as an asset, not a burden.
“They’re walking the path to bilingualism, and it will make them more successful,” said Donovan. “I think oftentimes maybe in populations where they don’t have a lot of experience working with ELLs, they do view that as a deficit because they might struggle in their second language, which is English. However, we have to realize that they’re bringing so many skills from their culture and of course their native language to the classroom.
The program has also equipped Donovan with a model known as Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol or SIOP — a way to make material more understandable to ELL students. Donovan has been following the model for her lesson plans.
“My intention is not to water down the lessons, but to make them more comprehensible,” said Donovan, who has already seen improvements in grades when comparing unit assessments from this year to last.
Rodolfo Castillo, who came to Lee High School from Mexico last fall, hopes his bilingualism will help him succeed. (School News Network)
Successful Students, Community Assets
Briana Asmus is an associate professor of education and ESL/Bilingual program director at Aquinas College’s School of Education. Asmus said every local school district has been affected, although to varying degrees, by an influx of immigrants and migrants to the area. In Kentwood, she said, 87 languages are spoken in the district.
“Teachers aren’t necessarily equipped with the skills to help those students. That’s why this work is so important,” said Asmus.
Aquinas has partnered with Godfrey-Lee, Godwin Heights, Kelloggsville, Kentwood, Grand Rapids, and Wyoming schools as well as with the Diocese of Grand Rapids to train in-service and pre-service teachers through the five-year grant, awarded in 2015. When all is said and done, about 140 teachers will have completed the program.
Without the training, Asmus said, “We run the risk of teachers seeing the students as a burden. They actually have incredible assets, and if teachers know how to utilize them, they can benefit their district in a lot of ways. But if they don’t, (students) are going to fall behind, and struggle to catch up and unfortunately, in some circumstances, drop out. That works its way out in to the community as well.”
Asmus said that, as part of the grant, she is collecting data to better understand the impact of teachers who have the endorsement on students.
“What we’re hoping to see is that the students will be achieving higher and better under the direction of a teacher who has ESL certification,” said Asmus.
For more stories on area schools, visit the School News Network’s website, schoolnewsnetwork.org.
Ninth-grader Rodolfo Castillo, who came to Lee High School from Mexico with no English last August, said he has felt supported by Donovan in his path to bilingualism since arriving at Lee.
“Maybe as an adult I can find work easier than if I didn’t have two languages,” he said.
Recently, students and teachers gathered in the Kelloggsville High School auditorium for a time-honored tradition: signing day. The tables on the stage had logoed caps and contracts just waiting for signatures from high school seniors, ready to commit to a team for the coming year.
But these teams don’t require spring training, hitting the weight room or anything athletic or collegiate, for that matter. These teams are businesses that have hosted students as part of a budding school-to-work program and the contracts offered full-time employment.
John Linker welcomes the crowd to his school-to-work program’s first annual signing day. (School News Network)
“College isn’t always the route to go in terms of making money and being successful. The workforce provides a variety of jobs for you in case you don’t want to go to college,” said senior Ericberto Padilla, who signed a full-time employment contract to work in the rubber shop at Wyoming-based Mark-Maker Co. Inc. “If I decide not to go to college, this job gives me an opportunity to maybe go up in the ranks and make more money without having to go to college.”
Ericberto is one of 28 students — 24 seniors and four juniors — who participated in Kelloggsville’s school-to-work program, which partnered with nine companies that place students in paid positions for part of the school day. Of the seniors,10 signed full-time employment contracts, four are going into the military, and a handful are going to work part-time and go to school part-time. A few more are waiting to hear from the companies about offers.
“Not everybody is going to go sign that letter of intent in athletics, but this is something that they can be proud of,” said John Linker, work experience coordinator for Kelloggsville. “For the longest time, we pushed ‘four-year college degree, four-year college degree’ and for some kids, yeah — that’s the way to go. But for others, it may not be.”
Leonel Leon finishes signing his contract for full-time employment at Mark-Maker. (School News Network)
Students are Valued Employees
Lumberman’s, a wholesale building materials distributor, signed three of the six Kelloggsville students it took on this year in the school-to-work program. Laura Longstreet, human resource generalist at Lumbermen’s, told the crowd assembled for signing day about the hard work and dedication of the students and praised them for their hard work, professionalism, and punctuality. Other companies in attendance included Lack’s Enterprises, Inc. and Advanced Interiors.
“The goal has always been, at the end of the year, to at least have an offer of a full-time position, whether they accept it or not,” said Linker, who planned the “first annual” signing day. “So far, for year one, it went very well. The biggest thing I hear from kids, parents, businesses is just the immense value of getting exposure to work.”
Leonel Leon, who also accepted a full-time job offer from Mark-Maker, said the experience has been eye-opening and rewarding.
“I’ve learned that a lot of people at my job depend on me to be there,” said Leonel.
For more stories on local schools, visit the School News Network website.
Ericberto Padilla and Leonel Leon sign contract with Mark-Maker. (School News Network)
Voters for both Kentwood Public Schools and Kelloggsville Public Schools passed millage renewal requests for their respected districts at yesterday’s election.
Kentwood Public Schools was seeking a renewal of its current 10-year operating millage, an assessment of 18 mills on non-homestead properties. The millage would be renewed through 2029. Voters approved the renewal 3198 to 786.
The millage provides approximately 16.9 percent, or more than $18.2 million, of the school district’s annual operating budget.
Kelloggsville voters were asked to renew the district’s operating millage, an assessment of 17 mills on non-homestead properties, and to increase that millage by .5 or 50 cents per $1,000 taxable valuation. The proposal passed 301 to 154.
The increase, according to the ballot language, is to help restore millage lost as a result of the reduction required by the “Headlee” amendment to the Michigan Constitution of 1963. The additional millage would raise about $2.6 million for the district in 2020. The Kelloggsville millage proposal is for two years.
It’s the first weekend in May which means the 6th annual Metro Cruise Dust-Off is finally here! The annual start to the summer car shows, the event takes place Saturday, May 4, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Moose Lodge, 2630 Burlingame Ave. SW. Contestants for the annual Miss Metro Cruise will be on hand as well. Those interested in participating in Miss Metro Cruise have until noon Saturday, May 4. For more information on the Dust-Off or the Miss Metro Cruise contest, visit 28thstreetmetrocruise.com.
City of Kentwood will have its Community Clean-Up Saturday, May 4. (WKTV)
Kentwood’s Time to Purge
Kentwood residents wanting to “spring clean” their homes and yards may bring general debris, gently used items for donation, household hazardous materials and electronic devices to the Kentwood Recycling Center, located at 5068 Breton Ave. SE. The hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Salvation Army will be on hand to accept gently used items for donations and the Kent County Department of Public Works will accept household hazardous waste items. Comprenew will also be present to recycle electronic waste, such as mobile telephones, computers and fax machines. For more information, visit kentwood.us.
Kentwood and Kelloggsville voters head to the polls on Tuesday.
Your Vote Counts
On Tuesday, May 7, both the Kentwood Public Schools and the Kelloggsville Public Schools will be seeking renewals for operating millages. Kentwood Public School voters are being asked to renew the current 10-year operating millage, an assessment of 18 mills on non-homestead properties. The millage would be renewed through 2029. Kelloggsville voters are being asked to renew its current operating millage, an assessment of 17 mills on non-homestead properties and to increase that millage by .5 or 50 cents per $1,000 taxable valuation. The millage proposal is for two years. With the change in election laws, residents can not request an absentee ballot with no reason. See you local clerk’s office for more information.
Fun fact:
83,700,000 cubic feet
That is how much snow on average that the Gerald R. Ford International Airport removes during the winter. That is enough to fill 20,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools! The Ford Airport was recently recognized for outstanding efforts in battling the elements by the International Aviation Snow Symposium. (Source.)
Front row, scholarship recipients (from the left) : Astrid Melissa Lopez Oroxom from Kelloggsvile High School; Luz Parada-Martinez from Godwin Heights High School; Kathryn Abbott from East Kentwood High School; and Crystal Gonzalez-Pineda from Lee High School. Back row, from left: Chamber Education Committee Chair Kathey Batey; Chamber CEO and President Bob O’Callaghan, and Chamber Foundation Director Danna Mathiesen. (WKTV)
Two plan to study medicine. One hopes to be a high school teacher and another plans to go into business.
These are the goals of the four students who received scholarships from the Wyoming Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce during a special luncheon on Wednesday, April 24, at Brann’s Steakhouse and Grill.
Funded by the Mercantile Bank of Michigan, the Greater Wyoming Community Resource Alliance, and the Wyoming Chamber of Commerce, the scholarship recognized students from schools in the Wyoming and Kentwood communities. This year, four students were selected representing East Kentwood High School, Godwin High School, Lee High School, and Kelloggsville High School.
Community members, school officials, friends and family members attended the luncheon that recognized the students.
“As I look around this room and see these students, I would say we are in pretty good shape (for the future),” said Godwin Heights Superintendent William Fetterhoff, who attended the event with several school officials that included Kentwood Superintendent Michael Zoerhoff.
We were able to talk to each of the scholarship recipients about their plans for the future and what words of wisdom they would offer to next year’s seniors.
Scholarship recipient Kathryn Abbott (center) with Mercantile Bank CEO Bob Kaminski and Mercantile Bank Vice President and Chamber Foundation Director Danna Mathiesen. (WKTV)
Kathryn Abbott East Kentwood High School College: Ferris State University Major: Nursing, looking at becoming a nurse practitioner
“I have always found it interesting,” Abbott said of her career choice. “I have watched a lot of medical shows and just felt like I would really like it.”
Advice for next year’s seniors: “Don’t procrastinate on those applications and the FSDA (Financial Student Development Authority). We discovered that a lot of the seniors in my class had not even done FSDA yet. Oh, and apply for all the scholarships you can.”
Scholarship recepient Luz Parada-Martinez with Mercantile Bank Vice President and Chamber Foundation Director Danna Mathiesen. (WKTV)
Luz Parada-Martinez Godwin Heights High School College: Davenport University Major: Business
“I just feel that through business you are able to connect with your community and the people and through that I will be able to make a contribution back to the community,” Parada said.
Advice for next year’s seniors: “Do not procrastinate and work hard. Get scholarships and good grades because it will be all worth it in the end when you graduate.”
Scholarships recipient Astrid Melissa Lopez Oroxom (center) with Mercantile Bank Vice President and Chamber Foundation Director Danna Mathiesen (left) and Greater Wyoming Community Resource Alliance Jenn Franson (right). (WKTV)
Astrid Melissa Lopez Oroxom Kelloggsville High School College: Grand Rapids Community College Major: Medicine
“I want to help people,” Lopez said.
Advice for next year’s seniors: “Study hard so you can achieve whatever you want.”
Scholarships recipient Crystal Gonzalez-Pineda (center) with Mercantile Bank Vice President and Chamber Foundation Director Danna Mathiesen (left) and Greater Wyoming Community Resource Alliance Jenn Franson (right). (WKTV)
Crystal Gonzalez-Pineda Lee High School College: Michigan State University Major: Education and Arts and Humanity
“I wanted to give back to my community and one way I could is with education,” Gonzalez said. “The teachers gave so much to me that I wanted to do the same thing.”
Advice for next year’s seniors: “Apply for scholarships early because college is a lot more expensive then you thought.”
Second-graders in Cindy Prentler’s class at East Kelloggsville Elementary settled on the floor last week to hear their teacher read out loud from the “book-a-day” selection. But before she began, they were on their feet again.
“It’s a new book! Do you want to come up and smell it?” asked Prentler. “You should always smell a new book.”
Prentler’s classroom is a wonderland of books. While the pristinely-organized space has some posters and artwork, much of its colorful decor comes from the jackets of the picture books displayed throughout the room.
Students enjoy the daily read, ‘When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree,’ which teaches about manners, making the best of a situation, nature, community and putting down electronic devices. (School News Network)
A Book for Every Occasion
One thing to know about Mrs. Prentler: whatever sparks a child’s interest, whatever issue — big or small — that child is facing, she’s got a book for that.
Each day, Prentler reads a book out loud to her class. She photographs the books and hangs each photo in one of 180 rectangular spaces blocked out on the classroom wall, making a stunning collage and reminding students of every book they’ve read together.
On the first day of school, she read “All Are Welcome” by Alexandra Penfold, which shows families of different sizes and colors and made in all different ways.
“I try really hard to pick books that show lots of different cultures,” said Prentler, adding that her two daughters, a high school senior and a college sophomore, were adopted from China. She wants children to understand that families are made in different ways.
Cindy Prentler keeps a wall collage of the books that she reads to students each day. (School News Network)
Earlier this month, Prentler and her students faced one of the most difficult things a classroom can face, when a girl in her class died in an automobile accident. To work through the grief, Prentler reached out to Heise for recommendations – ‘What’s the best book for that?’ An overnight shipment of “The Rabbit Listened” by Cori Doerrfeld and “Ida, Always” by Caron Levis were some of the books that helped Prentler and her students talk about their grief.
While her classroom has shelves of traditional leveled readers, it’s her picture book collection that really gets Prentler and her students excited about reading.
“I’m finding I have a love for picture books, because the messages are so big. And they’ve been great for teaching reading because if they are read right, kids love them and then they want to be able to read them too, and they want to imitate those voices,” she said.
The books are both challenging and captivating.
“The language in this kind of book is much higher,” she said, than in a leveled reader.
One piece in her collection that requires a strong delivery is “The Book With No Pictures”, by B.J. Novak. Josh Tindall, a student in Prentler’s class, says that book is his favorite. And as teachers go, Mrs. Prentler is a favorite, too.
“She is a nice teacher and she loves me,” said Josh.
Cindy Prentler helps Auron Konecny decide when to use an apostrophe. (School News Network)
Veteran Teacher, Second-grade Newbie
To look at the room and the volume of books, you might think Prentler has been in the space for a long time.
“This is my first year with second grade. In a few more years I’ll have a really good collection,” she said.
A teacher since 1982, and a proud Spartan who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Michigan State University, Prentler came to Kelloggsville in the late 1980s. She spent one year teaching second grade before heading to the middle school, where she spent the next three decades. Incidentally, her current classroom is the same room she taught in her first year. Just last year, she heard about an opening and took the opportunity to head back to second grade.
“It was so spur of the moment,” she said. “I don’t know why I did it. It’s been a big challenge and it’s been good for me.”
Karen Rawdon, a language arts teacher at Kelloggsville Middle School, worked closely with Prentler for almost 30 years. The two would often open up their adjoining wall to co-teach, so she saw firsthand the impact Prentler made on students throughout the years.
“Cindy had a great rapport with middle school kids. She has a great sense of humor that middle school kids appreciated,” said Rawdon. “Cindy always pushed kids to do their best work and held them accountable for their behavior as well. Students could see that she cared and wanted the best for them.”
While she loved teaching at the middle school, she appreciates the opportunity elementary education affords her to have the same group of students all day. She spends a lot of time getting to know her students and their families.
“I think the most important thing, before you start teaching a whole lot, is you have to have some relationships with the kids, because they’ll learn more,” she said. “If they know you care about their learning and you have those strong relationships, they’ll do better. If they don’t think you care, I don’t think they’re going to work very hard.”
Like her classmate Josh, second-grader Kayla Ensing, has picked up on Prentler’s love for her students and for books, describing her teacher as “loving.”
“I like everything she reads us,” said Kayla. “She’s very nice.”
Prentler has always been an avid reader, but there’s one book that impacted her childhood most: “Anne of Green Gables.”
“It’s really the only book I remember from my childhood,” she said, referencing the main character’s tendency to refer to her best friend as a “kindred spirit.”
East Kelloggsville Elementary Principal Beth Travis said Prentler has been a wonderful addition to the building this year.
“Cindy’s classroom is well-organized, rich in literature, and she has a strong connection with her students,” she said.
Rawdon echoed those sentiments: “She has a passion for reading and did an awesome job with getting the right book into the right kid’s hands,” said Rawdon, adding that middle school students who had her as a teacher describe her as “funny” and “kind.”
While Prentler loves books and has a particular fondness for teaching reading and math, she said she has yet to find a subject that she doesn’t enjoy teaching.
“It was the right job for me. Always has been. Even in the tougher years — and there were tough years — it was still the right job.”
For more stories on local schools, visit the School News Network website.
Susan Berce counted down as a group of 38 eager third-graders at East Kelloggsville Elementary scrambled to pitch their trash after lunch. While other students were heading to recess, this group stayed put and returned to their seats in this music room, where they eat lunch every Tuesday as members of the school’s newly formed choir.
Kimberly Mercado-Rodriguez, front, and Madison Kowtko raise their voices
They got into the rhythm with a little body percussion: Boom snap clap, ba-boom snap clap. Boom snap clap…Then they pulled out their sheet music and Berce accompanied and directed them through “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“These kids can sing and they love to sing,” said Berce, who teaches kindergarten through third grade music at East and West Kelloggsville elementary schools. She recently began extracurricular choirs at both schools. Participation is voluntary, and choir members need parental permission to join. Each student signed a contract commiting to sing during one lunch and one recess every week.
Jonathan Jimenez sings his heart as choirmates Lyla Salgado and Han Pham concentrate on their parts
A Little Time, a Big Vision
Elementary school choir has long been a vision for Berce, who has spent her career in Kelloggsville. In the six years she has taught music, Berce hasn’t had time in her schedule to direct a choir until this year, when burgeoning enrollment allowed the district to add more staff. When asked what she might do with the little extra time in her day, she said she did not hesitate: she wanted to start a choir. Students didn’t hesitate, either: more than half of the roughly 70 third-graders at East Kelloggsville joined.
So why do it at lunch? Many districts with thriving choirs meet after school, but that wasn’t realistic for Berce if she wanted participants.
“(Parents) work hard, they have jobs that they have to be at — we don’t have that flexibility to keep kids after school,” said Berce. “Lunch seemed the obvious choice.
If the excitement on their faces and the passion in their voices are any indication, that choice is working out well.
“I prefer to sing than go outside and play,” said Kiana Chenh, who says she has been singing since she was 4. While she’s a little shy about solos, she has found her niche in choir: “I like to sing in a big group.”
Last week, Kelloggsville students got quite the thrill when teachers from the district came to their homes bearing gift bags.
Nayeliz Sierra, a fourth-grader at Kelloggsville Southeast Elementary, lives at the first stop on the route west of Division Avenue. She bounded out of the front door and into the arms of several teachers, one right after the other, before receiving her bag. Her ear-to-ear smile never faded.
Fourth-grader Nayeliz Sierra beams after receiving her goodie bag
“I think it’s important to make these connections with the families, coming to them instead of them always coming to us,” said Amy Stratton, a third grade teacher at West Kelloggsville Elementary.
Paula Dykstra, community coordinator for Kelloggsville Public Schools, couldn’t agree more. She organized the holiday home visits.
“One reason I really wanted to do this was for our staff to see where and how our students live,” said Dykstra, adding that students throughout the district have a wide range of living circumstances, from a single mother of five living in a two double-bed hotel room to students who live in large homes. “I also did this so the students can see the staff from their schools outside the walls of school. Any way we can include our families is important to Kelloggsville.”
A student, excited to see visitors from his school
By the numbers
Dykstra got the home visit idea from the Kent School Services Network coordinator at Godwin Heights Public Schools, who organized something similar with high school students last year. Dykstra tweaked the idea for Kelloggsville. She said she was blown away by the number of families that wanted to participate in this, its inaugural year.
The staff visited 183 homes, giving bags to 390 students in grades kindergarten through 12. Each bag contained a notebook, Kelloggsville pencil and window cling, a glue stick, crayons or colored pencils, scissors, hot chocolate, mini marshmallows, a candy cane, fruit snacks, and a book. Many items were donated by community partners including Meijer, Target, Owen-Ames-Kimball, ABDick, Culver’s and Flooring America.
Nayeliz Sierra hugs one of her teachers
Home visitors included a school board member, six administrators, 23 school staff, Dykstra’s husband and two bus drivers. Two buses visited homes in the district and three vans ventured farther afield to Schools of Choice students’ homes, going as far north as Plainfield Avenue.
Smiles all around
“Several families wanted staff to come inside and visit, but we were on such a time crunch. We would like to change that for next year,” said Dykstra.
One student told her teacher that her family cleaned the entire house in anticipation of the visit.
Each bag contained a variety of items
“When we pulled up on the bus, little faces would be peering out the front window, waiting for us,” she said.
“After seeing the excited, smiling faces on the children last night, we will most definitely be doing this next year. Even the older high school students were happy to see us.”
Dykstra rode on the bus that visited homes on the east side of Division Avenue.
“When we finished, everyone clapped and said they had a wonderful time.”
All five public school districts in the Wyoming and Kentwood areas have school board elections on Nov. 6. Of those districts, only two have contested races, Godwin Heights and Wyoming. School board elections will be towards the end of the ballot.
Godfrey-Lee Public Schools
There are two candidates seeking six-year terms, which are incumbents Eric Mockerman and Jacklyn Hernandez. Josephine Coleman was appointed by the board in May to fill a seat vacated by Rebecca Kibbe until the election. Coleman is seeking to fill the remainder of that seat’s term, which ends in 2022. All of these candidates are running unopposed.
Godwin Heights Public Schools
There are four candidates seeking to fill three seats on the Godwin Heights Public Schools Board of Education. These seats are all six-year terms. Two of the candidates are incumbents, David Drake, who was elected in 2013, and Richard Hamilton, Jr., who was elected in 2017. There are two challengers, Joseph Januska and David Rodriguez. All candidates were contacted and invited to participate in sharing their message to the voters.
https://youtu.be/WanUWhge64c
Joseph Januszka – Candidate
Occupation: Retired
Why did you decide to seek election to the Godwin Heights Public Schools Board of Education?
My interest in the schools and what I have been seeing has been growing the past 11 years. I owned and ran a small business which I believe gave me great insight into financial aspects of doing this. I believe this strong financial background will help me analyze and make decisions on the budgeting and spending that the school board oversees in the district.
If elected, what issues do you want to focus on and why?
I am a father and grandfather to five beautiful grandchildren. The youth of today is the future of our country. Education can not be wasted. Students today – leaders tomorrow. Our children need to learn the true history of our country, both the good and the bad, while also learning to respect it as well as everyone they encounter throughout their lives. They need to learn to live by rules and laws everyone of us are required to. I believe all this will help our students to learn and live side by side with their peers.
Kelloggsville Public Schools
For Kelloggsville Public Schools, incumbents Jane Ward and Donald Scott are seeking re-election to the board. The two spots each are for six-years. The candidates are running unopposed.
The district is also seeking a $19.2 million bond issue. The bond would be a continuation of the current bond. The current millage rate is 7.32. The issue will appear at the bottom of the ballot and is part of a long-term plan to update and modernize the district’s elementary schools, according to school officials. The bond cannot exceed 30 years.
Kentwood Public Schools
There are three seats, all four-year terms, up for the Kentwood Public Schools Board of Education. Three incumbents, all running unopposed, are seeking re-election to those seats: Pete Battey, Sylvia A. James, and James Lewis Jr.
Wyoming Public Schools
For the Wyoming Public Schools, there are two six-year board seats with three candidates running, non of whom are incumbents. The candidates are Adriana Almanza, Brian D. Jirous, and Jennifer Lewis. All candidates were contacted and invited to participate in sharing their message to the voters.
https://youtu.be/K-IyscCHQSE
Brian Jirous – Candidate
Occupation: AT&T Mobility Technician
Why did you decide to seek election to the Wyoming Public Schools Board of Education?
I decided to run for the school board to be able to help involve the community as a whole. I would like to be a voice for the community on the school board by bringing their issues to the board so they can be addressed. I would like to see more people attend the school board meetings and I think by having an open line of communication we can involve more people.
If elected, what issues do you want to focus on and why?
The main issue I will focus on is community involvement. I believe community involvement is the one thing that can help this district grow to be even better then it is now. The more people we can communicate with whether it is simply answering questions timely or getting them volunteer opportunities to connect with other families it will build a stronger district. I have started working on thie already by developing the Wyoming Public Schools Community facebook page but I would also like to set up round table discussions to help resolve other issues that may come up as well.
https://youtu.be/yt8PtTMVXJo
Jennifer Lewis – Candidate
Occupation: AT&T Mobility Technician
Why did you decide to seek election to the Wyoming Public Schools Board of Education?
I’ve wanted to run for many years. The timing is just right. I have the time to focus on our Wyoming kids.
If elected, what issues do you want to focus on and why?
Many residents may remember me from when I was campaigning for the dedicated millage for our schools. The community invested in our schools and children by passing that millage. That dedicated millage plan is a good plan and I want to make sure that the plan is well executed. I also want our kids to be successful and I want to be a part of helping them to achieve that.
A new third-through-fifth-grade elementary building is on the horizon for Kelloggsville students if voters approve a $19.2 million bond request this fall.
The best news? “It would not increase the taxes of any of our community members,” said Jeff Owen, director of education supports for the district. “It would simply be a continuation of an existing levy, so no new taxes and we’d get a brand new building for our students.” The current millage rate is 7.32.
The issue will appear at the bottom of the ballot on Tuesday, Nov. 6, and is part of a long-term plan to update and modernize the district’s elementary schools, Owen said. The bond cannot exceed 30 years.
Taxpayers approved a 2015 bond that allowed for major renovations at the high school. The middle school is 20 years old, and the three elementary schools are about 60 years old, said Owen. East and West elementaries house students in kindergarten to third grade, and Southeast Elementary is home to the district’s fourth- and fifth-graders.
District enrollment is at an all-time high, said Owen, with around 2400 students in its schools.
The Specifics
Here is a look at what residents can expect to see if voters approve the bond request, authorized by the school board in June:
Spring 2020: Construction would begin on the new third, fourth and fifth grade building. Building highlights include two stories, a wing for each grade, a stand-alone cafeteria, separate art and music rooms, and a new playground and soccer field. The proposed location is 4650 S. Division SE, between East Elementary and the middle school.
Spring 2021: East Elementary would be demolished and replaced with expanded parking and athletic practice fields.
Fall 2021: The new building would open and Southeast Kelloggsville Elementary would reopen as a K-2 building, absorbing students from the former East Elementary. West Elementary would also be a K-2 school.
Other highlights of the proposal include new playgrounds at Southeast and West elementaries and safety and security upgrades.
One facet that played into the new grade configuration under the proposal is the new third grade reading law.
“We have K-3 buildings. Well, if we’re at a 3-4-5 building, if a student is not reading at grade level, they can still move on to fourth grade but still receive instruction at a third-grade reading level,” Owen said.
The district is conducting an informational campaign to let the community know what’s included in the proposal. So far, information has been shared at community events, via a print brochure, and the district’s website and on its Facebook page.
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
Architectural rendering of the first floor of a proposed new elementary building for Kelloggsville schools
Years ago, while teaching automotive service at Kent Transition Center, Mark Larson helped one of his students find employment, and the student loved that job, he recalled.
About a year after he graduated, he visited Larson and told him he lost the job. “They said I missed too much work.”
But it wasn’t that much, the student insisted: “Just like in school: every other Friday.”
It’s that sort of chronic absenteeism, defined as 10 percent of missed school time or 18 missed days per year, that Larson, now Kent ISD’s truancy and attendance coordinator, hopes to target with the recently launched “Strive for Less than 5” campaign.
All Kent ISD school districts have come on board with the campaign which, as the name implies, encourages students not to miss any more than four days of school per year. It was adapted from successful work already done by Grand Rapids Public Schools in conjunction with Attendance Works and the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation.
GRPS and the foundation shared its materials with Larson and Kent ISD colleagues, who then created the ISD-wide campaign. The foundation also contributed funds toward the materials.
Students who helped make the Strive video strike the “less than 5” pose
Absence Makes the… Grades Founder
Larson said “Somewhere along the line, the perception of school attendance changed from one of primacy — you attend school unless there’s a reason not to — to one of ‘Well, it really doesn’t matter if you miss school, as long as it’s for a good reason.’
“And that’s not true. What we’re learning is any absenteeism, for any reason, is harmful to the learning process.”
Last year, 12.1 percent of students in Kent ISD schools were chronically absent, down from 13.9 percent the previous year. Statewide, 15.6 percent of students in public school districts were chronically absent last year.
The harm from school absences is measurable, said Larson, whose work has become increasingly data-driven. Every 10 days of absence, he said, equates to a drop in one full letter grade. In as little as five absences, Larson said, there can be a drop in standardized test scores. Declines in grades and graduation rates are evident at 10 percent.
“ANY TIME THERE’S CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM FROM SCHOOL, IT’S TYPICALLY A SYMPTOM OF SOMETHING ELSE. OUR APPROACH IS, ‘HOW CAN WE HELP?’”— KEVIN POLSTON, SUPERINTENDENT OF GODFREY-LEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Kevin Polston, superintendent of Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, said that a few missed school days here and there may not seem like a big deal to a family, but it can quickly put a student on track for truancy.
Bill Fetterhoff, superintendent of Godwin Heights Public Schools, stressed the need for what he called “bell-to-bell teaching.” It goes beyond absences, he said: “To start late or leave early can be devastating to learning.”
Godfrey-Lee Public Schools Superintendent Kevin Polston says that absences can be indicative of a variety of challenges that students and families face
A Symptom of Something Else
“It’s not new information that kids need to go to school,” Polston said. “Our parents say the same thing.”
But, he said, issues such a transportation and physical and mental health can be barriers to attendance. Whatever the problem is, Polston said, chances are he’s heard it before. That’s why districts are connected with wraparound services such as mental health services or bus passes — whatever meets the need.
“Any time there’s chronic absenteeism from school, it’s typically a symptom of something else. Our approach is, ‘how can we help?’”
Polston said that with a few exceptions, unless a student has a sustained fever of more than 100 degrees or is vomiting, they need to be in school
A “Strive for Less Than 5” message hangs at the entrance of Kelloggsville Middle School
Spreading the word
Getting the word out about Strive looks different, depending on the district. Kent ISD created communication plans and materials — stickers, videos, posters, and billboards, for example — to help schools spread the message.
At Godwin Heights, Fetterhoff said, some schools are using those materials and others are using novel tactics to increase attendance. North Godwin Elementary, for example, is targeting families with a history of absenteeism with a rewards program that awards gift cards for attendance. Polston said teachers throughout Godfrey-Lee have offered incentive and recognition programs to students for attendance.
While the coordinated public information campaign is new, absenteeism has long been a focus for the region’s superintendents, Fetterhoff said.
Beth Travis is the new principal at East Kelloggsville Elementary School. SNN gets to know her in this edition of Meet Your Principal.
Other positions you have held in education: I am starting my 20th year at Kelloggsville Public Schools. I have been a math, reading and language arts teacher for grades 6, 7 and 8. As an administrator, I’ve held the positions of dean of students and assistant principal at Kelloggsville Middle School.
How about jobs outside education? In college I was a sign-language interpreter, a nanny and a waitress.
Family: I have two sons. Jacob is in ninth-grade at East Kentwood High school, and Michael is in seventh-grade at Pinewood Middle School.
Hobbies/Interests/Little-known talent: I enjoy boating, reading, learning different languages, volunteering, traveling, being outdoors and watching my boys play sports.
What kind of kid were you in elementary school? I went to a Catholic school in Europe for my elementary years. I always received high marks on my reports cards and I was quite talkative and very social. We enjoyed traveling and spending time learning as much European culture and history as possible.
The biggest lesson you have learned from students is… Everyday is a new day. It always amazes me how resilient and loving our students are. Each day they enter the playground before school with a smile, and are determined to do their very best!
If I could go back to school I would … go back to ninth grade because of all of the opportunities that high school provides and the promise of a positive future!
If you walked into your new school building to theme music every day, what would the song be? This is an easy question, as our school secretary plays it for me a few times a week: “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake.
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
Editor’s Note: This is only the comments from students in the Wyoming and Kentwood area. For the complete story, click here.
It’s become an annual ritual. Each fall the state releases results of the M-STEP, the state-required standardized test taken by Michigan students to gauge their proficiency in reading, math, social studies and science. And each fall educators, parents and pundits wring their hands over why students aren’t doing better.
Rather than go back to the same hand-wringing sources, we decided to ask the people most directly affected by these tests: the students who take them. How do they feel about these tests, and how could the tests be improved?
Adults, listen up: Maybe they can teach you something.
Kelloggsville Middle School
Gianna Turnbull
Gianna Turnbull, sixth-grader
Gianna dreams of being a baker someday. She recalls taking the M-STEP last year.
“I was anxious,” she said. “Some of the questions on the math test were confusing. I felt like I was gonna fail.”
Gianna said she took the M-STEP “very seriously. I sat at a desk where nobody could distract me.”
She wasn’t sure how the test will help students, but suspects it could help predict what kinds of things they could do in the future. Despite not enjoying the experience, Gianna said, “I think students should take the test so the state knows what the school’s teaching you.”
Jonathan Mubake
Jonathan Mubake, sixth-grader
When he sat for the M-STEP, “I was messed up!” Jonathan said. “My brain was somewhere else. …. It was like two computers (were) connected to me! I was trying to read (the page) as fast as I can, but it’s 10 paragraphs long!”
He said social studies was the hardest topic for him.
“I was exhausted, my head hurt, and my feet were wobbly,” he said, from his foot shaking out of nervousness. “I was ready to eat my food and go outside and go play. I was just ready for that, until I had to go back into the room and do the whole thing over again.
Jonathan would like five weeks’ notice to prepare for future standardized tests.
“I would prepare mentally. I would eat a perfect breakfast in the morning, get ready for school, make sure I had the right clothing on — not uncomfortable — so it’s not too tight for me to do my thing. I would go to sleep at … I would say 8, so I get enough rest.”
Crestwood Middle School, Kentwood
Kamau Brame
Kamau Brame, seventh-grader
Kamau said M-STEP tests give students an idea of how they are doing in different subjects, but sometimes the process gets a bit complicated.
“I don’t particularly look forward to them, but I don’t mind doing them. They aren’t too tedious. The teachers know what you already know and what you need to go over more.”
Math is hardest for him. “I find some questions super-easy and some I have no idea what to start with. … Once you get a few questions right you start getting really hard ones, and you kind of stress out because you know you’re not getting those right.”
He sees testing as helpful for later grades, with the “big-test SAT and ACT and all that. It gets you used to having to prep for tests and taking them under pressure.” But he’d like to spend less time on setup. “I would change all the stuff you have to do before each test. … It’s like a long process signing in and all that.”
The atmosphere at school can be a bit tense during testing, he said. “Last year some other grades told us how bad it was. … The anticipation is the worst.”
Erna Kljaic-Dugalic
Erna Kljaic-Dugalic, seventh-grader
Erna said she mostly takes the testing in stride.
“I don’t mind the M-STEP, but I don’t get stressed out about it. I usually finish early because I don’t second-guess myself.”
But math can be a bit hard on her nerves, because it “starts easy and then gets harder and harder. It doesn’t really stress me out, but it makes me feel like I’m set up for failure. I also get really tired from looking at the screen.”
She looks at test results as a way to think about what kind of job she’d be good at. “I do think it does help with your career because it shows your strengths.”
That said, she would definitely change the length.
“I understand that it’s long for a reason, but I would like it if it was a little bit shorter, maybe like two days, because sometimes it can take up a week for some kids to finish it. I’d like it to be shorter so we have more time for other things at school.”
Alana Biley
Alana Biley, sixth-grader
Overall, M-STEP isn’t too bad, Alana says.
“I don’t mind it because it helps you to know what level you’re on and you won’t be on things that are too easy or too hard.”
However, it does make her nervous. “I’m just like, ‘Oh gosh!’ I get butterflies in my stomach like a week before.”
She’d feel better with more preparation.
“I would probably want a pre-test to get you ready for it.”
Kelloggsville Public Schools woke up to good news this morning as voters approved a $19.2 million millage request that will construct a new third-, fourth-, fifth-grade building in the district.
The millage was approved with 2,318 yes votes to 1,535 no votes. The millage is actually a continuation of an existing millage. The school’s current millage rate is 7.32.
Kent County also received good news as its proposal, Ready by 5, passed with 142,875 yes votes to 109,513 no votes. The proposal is a 0.25 mill property tax levy that would provide an estimated $5.7 million a year to agencies and programs that support early childhood development programs.
For other city, county, and state election results, click here.
As for board of education elections, there were only two districts that had contested races: Godwin Heights Public Schools and Wyoming Public Schools.
In Godwin Heights, the top three vote getters will join the board. Newcomer David Rodriguez was the top vote getter with 1,847 followed by incumbents David Drake (1,564 votes) and Richard Hamilton Jr. (1,493 votes). Joseph Januska received 1,158 votes.
Wyoming’s Board of Education had one candidate and two write-in candidates running for two six-year term positions. Candidate Brian D. Jirous had 9,255 votes. The two write-in candidates are Adriana Almanza and Jennifer Lewis. Write-ins have to be counted by hand. School officials said they are waiting for the county to count the ballots and should know the results within two weeks.
School Board elections that were unopposed were:
Godfrey Lee Public Schools Board of Education (2 Seats)
Kacklyn Hernandez 1,144
Eric Mockerman 857
Godfrey Lee Public Schools Board of Education partial term ending in 2022 (1 Seat)
He’s “Mr. Rocket,” as dubbed by Superintendent Sam Wright, but he’s otherwise known as Bruce Foster, and he’s launched students toward great things over the past 40 years.
Foster, a lifelong Kelloggsville Rocket, has helped shape students’ lives through a combination of sports and academics, with skills learned on the field or court complementing those instilled in the classroom: teamwork, hard work and dedication.
“Those are building blocks to whatever career and avenue they go from here,” said Foster, who has worked in the district for for decades including 25 years as athletic director. He is retiring as the school year ends, though he plans to continue to be a presence at athletic events. As he steps down, he leaves a legacy of impacting lives through sports and doing what he can to provide an excellent program for student athletes.
He also leaves a gleaming new athletic complex within the newly renovated high school, including a new gymnasium with a second-story walking track, weight room and mat room. Foster played a large role in designing the facility, which was part of the $33.9 million bond issue, passed in 2015, for which $27 million went toward high-school improvements.
“That was one of my goals, to get the bond passed and give this community a great facility for future use,” he said.
Wright is thankful for that. “We are so proud of that facility,” he said. “It wouldn’t have happened if Bruce hadn’t been there every day, making sure things were done the way we wanted them to be done.”
Wright has known Foster for 25 years. “Bruce has done an excellent job in maintaining standards and developing high standards for student athletes, the coaching staff and the community. He has been consistently, year after year, enforcing those standards and we are very proud of our athletics program and our academic program.”
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His Place in the World
Foster attended Kelloggsville schools from kindergarten through high school, a three-sport athlete who graduated in 1974. He attended Grand Rapids Community College and Aquinas College before teaching business classes, heading in-school suspensions and coaching football, wrestling and track at Kelloggsville High School prior to becoming athletic director. His wife, Cindy, also graduated from Kelloggsville, in 1976. They have three children: Nick, Eric and Anna, and four grandchildren.
Bruce Foster adjusts track meet signage
“It’s a great community,” Foster said. “It’s a small-school atmosphere with large school programming. We have outstanding staff and administration, who are easy and great to work with on a daily basis.”
As athletic director, Foster has organized 18 varsity sports, adding soccer, bowling and competitive cheer during his tenure. Between 50 and 55 percent of middle- and high -schoolers participate in athletics. He’s been at the helm of district athletics for five state championships and one runner-up, plus numerous district and regional and conference championships.
He also has been instrumental in running the district’s intramural program, for which fourth- and fifth-graders play flag football, volleyball, coed soccer, wrestling, and boys’ and girls’ basketball over three seasons each school year, with between 50 and 80 students participating each season.
“The program is developed to give those students after-school physical activity, and so they can learn skills as they go through the (school system) to continue to play one or more sports,” Foster said.
Bruce Foster adjusts hurdles
‘A Walking, Talking Example’
Foster has stood out as a leader in the district, said head football coach Don Galster, who has worked with him for 29 years. “I’ve had a number of college coaches compare our facilities to their facilities when they’ve visited. Kelloggsville’s athletic programs and facilities have become what they are through the leadership of Bruce.
“He is a walking, talking example of Rocket pride.”
Foster sets high expectations for not only himself, but also for all the coaches on staff, Galster said. “As a coach, you always knew that Bruce had your back. His attention to detail is what sets him apart from other athletic directors.
“When you come to an athletic event at Kelloggsville you will notice that everything is first class; the fans, players, coaches and officials are well taken care of. He’s very proud to be a Kelloggsville Rocket, and that pride permeates throughout the coaching staff and our student athletes.”
Middle school Principal Jim Alston said it’s hard to imagine the district without Foster.
Bruce Foster stands in the new gymnasium he helped design
“Kelloggsville would not be what it is now if it wasn’t for Bruce Foster,” Alston said. “His influence in this community goes well beyond the wonderful, updated high school and gymnasium. Yes, he was instrumental in the building and the design of them both, but you can also see his influence in how our athletes prepare, perform, look, behave and win. Mr. Foster has his thumbprint on all of those things. Without him directing our coaches — including myself — we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
The relationships built and lives impacted are what have mattered to Foster, who said he loves to catch up with former student athletes and learn of the great things they’ve done in their lives with careers, families and in the community, long after their final game, match or race as a Kelloggsville Rocket.
“Everyone here has played a little part of making (those successes) materialize for them, and that’s always a good thing,” he said. “It’s like seeing a finished product.”
While Foster’s finished products may include a treasured new athletics facility, a time-honored program and a nurturing atmosphere, his legacy will continue to shine, like the contrail of a rocket still lighting up the the sky.
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
When seventh-graders Malia Fields and Emily Monterrosas arrive at the East Kelloggsville Elementary School playground, there are instant hugs as first-graders Jayla Robertson and De’asia Church fling themselves into the older girls’ arms.
There’s just something cool about having middle-schoolers make the short trek from the adjacent schoolyard to lead recess games and serve as positive role models for kindergarten through third-grade students. Moments after the students, who are enrolled in Teen Leadership classes, arrive, games like “Duck, Duck, Goose,” “Spider in the Web” and “Red Light, Green Light” are on full display; pick-up basketball and soccer games begin, and the swings are in, well, full swing.
This school year, the sixth-through-eighth graders are using the skills they learn in the semester-long leadership class and paying them forward helping out at the elementary school twice weekly to reinforce good behavior.
Seventh-grader De’nairo Paul leads elementary students to the fun
“We noticed on the playground we had an increase in some negative and mean behavior, and so what we wanted to do was have some older students come over and promote positive play,” said interim East Kelloggsville Principal Beth Travis, explaining that the leadership students seemed like the perfect fit. “It gives a chance for Teen Leadership kids to help other students problem-solve and be mentors.”
Malia said it’s been fun getting to know the elementary students. “I like being here with them because they are so energetic and fun to be around. They look up to us.”
For Emily, it’s been a two-way lesson in learning from peers of a different age. “These kids teach me that there’s more than just school or work in life. We can all have fun, make friends and be nice to each other.”
Third-grader Carissa Hulbert said the older students are helpful and teach good behavior. “When someone falls, they pick them back up,” she said. And if someone misbehaves? “They say, ‘no, we don’t do that.’”
Serving as Leaders in the Community, Right Next Door
Seventh-grader Makylah Powers gives kindergartner Eva Cavasos, her sister, a big hug
Teachers Kelly Hammontree and Keith Caterino teach Teen Leadership, which uses a curriculum developed by Flippen Group, creator of Capturing Kids’ Hearts.
Focuses for sixth- and seventh-graders are developing lifelong skills such as shaking hands, making eye contact, public speaking and being aware of body language. Eighth-graders concentrate on choices and reacting in uncomfortable situations concerning drugs and alcohol and relationships. Discussion centers on how choices, both positive and negative, impact one’s entire life, Caterino said.
Both classes also have a service-learning component, running the school’s recycling program.
Hammontree and Caterino see their students’ leadership skills come to life on the playground, where teaching positive play has given teens a sense of the power of mentorship.
“The elementary kids look up to them and get so excited to see them,” Hammontree said.
While learning about leadership, they are serving as leaders and hopefully inspiring younger peers to become them too.
“Ultimately, the goal is to pass it on,” Caterino said.
Seventh-grader De’nairo Paul gives directions for “Duck, Duck, Goose”
Learning to read words in English is one thing. Understanding phrases like “a friendly sort of darkness” or “amazing photographic memory” is quite another for English-language learners.
But once students begin to comprehend the meaning behind metaphors, poetic phrases or, as freshman Carlos Borregos recently called “bad jokes,” they start to learn the nuances of the language, and in Carlos’ case, have a few chuckles.
He read dialogue in a children’s joke book:
“I can jump higher than a house,” said one character.
“A house can’t jump,” came the punchline.
Carlos stopped to absorb the knee-slapper with an amused Wayne Ondersma, his volunteer tutor. “These are really bad jokes,” Ondersma said.
Kelloggsville teacher Susan Faulk’s high-school English Language Arts for ELL students are benefiting from one-on-one time with tutors who listen to them read books, or from online reading programs. Many have been in the U.S. for from less than a year to up to a few years. Native languages include Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Swahili, among others. Their English abilities are developing.
Along with Ondersma, local church member Marlene Bouwkamp, and Kelloggsville Board of Education member Jane Ward, are volunteer readers, each committed to read with students during Faulk’s third-hour class one morning a week. Their help gives students an academic boost by giving them time to practice important skills, Faulk said.
“Most of my students don’t hear English when they go home,” she said. “Their parents don’t speak English. People in their community don’t speak English… They don’t have a lot of opportunities to one-one-one practice speaking and listening to English.”
Tutors ask questions, discuss meaning and help students with pronunciation to improve fluency, comprehension and conversation skills.
“Sometimes it’s just conversation, and that’s important too. It’s just having the opportunity to practice English with a native speaker,” Faulk said. “Any time a kid can have a positive relationship with an adult, it benefits them.”
Freshman Carlos Borregos laughs at what he calls “bad jokes” with volunteer Wayne Ondersma
Reading Impacts Lives
Ondersma is a pastor at The PIER, a church held inside The DOCK, an after-school program that meets in a building located across the street from Kelloggsville Middle School. He has worked with youth for 35 years and directed programs at The DOCK for nine years. He said he loves the Kelloggsville community, and that reading with Faulk’s students over the past four years has been another way to impact lives.
“It’s really fun because you get to know the kids through reading and learn their life stories,” he said. “Reading leads to life. As they are able to read better, they are able to experience more life and grow. Reading is a great foundation for ELL kids.”
Carolyn Garcia has been reading with Ondersma for the past four years, starting as a limited English speaker who spent seven years of her childhood in Mexico. She plans to to attend Grand Rapids Community College this fall for nursing. She and Ondersma have enjoyed reading poems and discussing their meaning.
“She does a really, really good job with that kind of reflection,” Ondersma said. “When we started we struggled with basic communication. Her reading has really improved, but I think, too, her character has changed. She has become stronger… She has great people skills.”
Carolyn said she appreciates having someone to read to and talk with.
“Sometimes I have problems and he tells me to never give up,” she said.
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Senior Maria Cedillo reads about mermaids with volunteer Wayne Ondersma
Seated on comfy new furniture inside the Kent District Library-Kelloggsville Branch, community member Jim Ward said getting books into children’s hand has always been his passion. Now he’s helped make books and other library resources even more accessible to families in the neighborhood where he lives and raised his daughters.
Ward, who is retired, was instrumental in planning the library, which opened this winterinside Kelloggsville High School. A Forest Hills Public Schools media specialist for 38 years, he had a strong interest in the concept of public libraries operating within schools, and worked with administrators, who tapped into his knowledge to make that happen.
im Ward, a longtime media specialist, has remained involved with Kelloggsville for 26 years, recently offering his library science expertise
He especially likes the idea of reaching underserved communities like Kelloggsville, a low-income district where many students can’t easily get to a library miles away. Before working for Forest Hills, Ward worked at Grand Rapids Public Library for five years in an elementary outreach program and summer reading program.
“The connection with Kelloggsville was I thought, ‘Gee, we should really go with that (concept), because these kids in a more urban setting don’t have the mobility they have in Forest Hills,’” Ward said. “It’s difficult for them to get somewhere else for a library.
“As far as I know this is the only (school-public library) in an urban setting,” he added. “That’s what really motivated me. These kids deserve good services and access to stuff.”
The 6,000 square-foot, two-story library offers an 8,000-item collection, children’s section and materials for all ages. It fills an acute need in the district, which is located some 4 1/2 miles from the Kentwood KDL branch and 3 1/2 miles from the Wyoming branch.
Ward and administrators planned the library design, funded by a $250,000 grant from the Steelcase Foundation, to incorporate technology like interactive whiteboards, projectors, computers and many outlets, increasing access to digital library services as well as print.
Trees are flourishing in Kelloggsville, thanks to Jim Ward
Longtime Kelloggsville Advocate
Helping plan the library is one of many ways Ward has helped shape the district over the past 26 years as he has remained rooted in the community.
The Wyoming native and Godwin Heights High School graduate actively campaigned to build a new Kelloggsville Middle School in the early 1990s. He has remained involved ever since, most recently helping campaign for the Kent ISD Enhancement Millage, which passed last year, and the district’s bond campaign to renovate the high school, especially in planning the library.
He is the father of Kelloggsville graduates Emma, Abby and Rachael. His wife, Jane Ward, has served on the Kelloggsville Board of Education for 22 years. A member of the City of Wyoming Tree Commission, Ward has also included Kelloggsville students in tree-planting, last year passing out saplings to Southeast Elementary fourth-graders.
“Jim has always cared about educating kids. His interest in library science stems from his desire to help students gain all the knowledge they need,” said his wife, Jane Ward, noting that Jim was a enthusiastic supporter of their daughters’ many extra-curricular activities in Kelloggsville. “And he maintains an interest in supporting Kelloggsville programs both academic and extracurricular. We both seek to have the the most opportunities as possible for all students.”
Assistant Superintendent Tammy Savage said Ward is a cherished voice in the district and a person they can always turn to.
“When you have a heart for a community such as Jim has for Kelloggsville, the district benefits by his consistent involvement,” she said. “Jim is a community member who understands and can communicate needs to others when the district goes to the community for support on bonds, millages and projects.
“Jim’s experience, passion and expertise as a library media specialist was a key component in shaping the vision of a ‘future forward’ Kelloggsville.”
Jane and Jim Ward meet the KDL elephant, Katie L
Passing Down Book Love
Jim and Jane, who is a retired teacher, inspired their daughter Emma Fogg to become a teacher in the district. She is Young Fives teacher at Kelloggsville, where she runs her own little library.
“I have so many books of my own that I had to start a lending library in my own classroom, so that students can bring home more books each week to read with their parents, as my parents read to me when I was their age,” Fogg said. “My dad and mom inspired in me a love of reading and books that I want to share with my students each year, in the hopes that it will inspire them to love reading and books as well.”
For Jim, Kelloggsville is home, a close-knit community where teachers and students have always cared for each other and worked hard to bring great programs and instruction to students.
He’s been steadfast in doing his part – lending a hand, or a book.
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From left, fifth-grader Benjamin, third-grader Brieseida and Daniel, 4, play with jumbo chess pieces while mom Cecilia Pumay watches
Kelloggsville Public Schools will hosting its 2018 Kindergarten Round up on Tuesday, April 10 from 6 – 7 p.m .at the East Kelloggsville Elementary School, 4656 Jefferson Ave. SE. Children must 5 years old by Sept. 1, 2018 to enter kindergarten.
The 2018 Preschool Registration for 3- and 4-year-old programs already has started. To register a children or children who will be 3- or 4-year-old by Sept. 1, 2018, go to the Early Childhood Center, 977 44th St. SW.
To register a student for either kindergarten or preschool, a parent must bring a bright certificate, a short record and two proofs of residency.
Art teacher Amber Warren sees the difference in students who have had experience in art and those who haven’t. The latter have little faith in their artistic abilities, she said. “They are not confident.”
After offering art at reduced levels due to budget constraints for the past few years, the district has restored and is rebuilding programming so that every grade level will get some art instruction.
“I slowly have been building up their confidence,” Warren said of fifth-graders, who haven’t received much art education. After leading them through a basic, step-by-step project to make a Frankenstein picture, “That completely changed their perception on art,” she said.
Third-grader Alivia Walker shows her shape
She recently helped younger students lined up in the hallway at West Elementary build up their savvy with paintbrush, scissors, pencils and even a little DaVinci knowledge. To get their attention, Warren said, “Mona,” to which students answered in unison, “Lisa.” They made lines with their arms, airplane-style: vertical, horizontal, diagonal. She asked them to name textures. “Bumpy.” “Rough.” “Soft.” “Smooth,” they answered.
Students created name monsters, creatures that revealed themselves in the outline of their own names, written in crazy-style letters on paper and cut out. “Mine is like a brain with legs,” said third-grader Zachary VanderMeer.
Students enjoy their time in class so much that she said they work hard to earn art passes to use in Warren’s classroom during recess.
“I’ve learned about warm and cool colors,” said third-grader Kaitlyn Boroff. Added third-grader Pilar Carrillo: “I learned how to make a big flower.”
New art teachers also include Lynette Robinson at Southeast Elementary, and Jake Gless at Kelloggsville Middle School. Krista Bodo heads the high school department, and hosted the district’s first art show last year.
Drawing Out Creativity
Rebuilding the art program is an important way to give children enriching opportunities and creative outlets, said Assistant Superintendent Tammy Savage. Kelloggsville staff and administration members are extensively researching educating students in poverty. About 80 percent of students in the district are economically disadvantaged. “Our philosophy is that all students need opportunities in all areas,” she said. “Every experience they have helps them build background knowledge.”
Third-grader Zachary VanderMeer holds up his name monster cut-out
Warren sees well-rounded instruction as important for future success. She talks to her students about the many careers available in art. “Nowadays, the way society is going creative-based, it teaches them to have those 21st century skills.”
Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.
In the recent WKTV Journal newscast, we talk to officials from Kelloggsville Public School and the Kent District Library about the new collaborative project to make the Kelloggsville High School library open to everyone in the community. We also visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park for a look at its 23rd annual Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around the Word exhibition. Lastly, renowned musician and original member of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Mark Woods visits Kentwood Public Schools for a concert that was electrifying and had everyone dancing, especially the musicians.
