Tag: Chapman School

Middle School students code for Project Zero Waste

Curious about if you can recycle something? Anything? And then … where to take it on the Kenai Peninsula?
Embedded maps of Kenai Peninsula recycling locations
Middle School students in Anchor Point, Alaska, built a website to give you what you need to know, on the go.
The Kenai Peninsula Recycling website is hosted on KPBSD servers, and Chapman School students explain they will keep adding pertinent information, “Hopefully we’ll need to do so as recycling programs continue to expand!”

“This project helped me learn more about where to recycle. It allowed me to use my skills and discover the wonderful world of coding.” –Andy Drake, Chapman School
Chapman 8th grade web coding class
“Learning how to code can help us change the world because electronic devices are popular and people are more likely to use a website than a book. Coding is a fun and educational way to use time.” –Melissa Baxter, Chapman School

“The project grew out of the “Zero Waste Project” that Chapman School eighth grade students are doing with the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies,” explained teacher Mr. Jon Crocker. “We realized that a lot of people don’t know what can be recycled, and where to go locally. There are resources out there, but none that can be easily accessed while somebody is on the go. It also fits in with our year-long thematic unit about community. Once it became clear that such a resource would be a good idea, I asked my eighth graders to put designing their personal webpages on hold for a few weeks while we developed the site. Each student took one topic, researched it, and came up with their page based on a few guidelines. If a student was assigned something that isn’t recycled locally (such as #3 plastic), I asked them to focus more on reducing and reusing strategies. We wanted it to be something people could access from their phones while doing things like making decisions on what to buy in the grocery store.”
Students worked to improve on the information available on the Borough website. For example:

  • Embedded maps (students figured out how to do this!) replace written descriptions of facility locations
  • Recycling #5 plastics through private parties is included
  • Recycling #4 plastics—many plastic bags are actually #4, and those can be recycled in a couple of places

Visit the Chapman School coding class Kenai Peninsula Recycling website: http://bit.ly/KenaiPeninsulaRecycling
Embedded maps of Kenai Peninsula recycling locations
 
What do you want to recycle? Click a link below to find out where it can be recycled.
Tip: you can also learn about reducing and reusing strategies for each item! Or visit the main site at http://bit.ly/KenaiPeninsulaRecycling

Find your local recycling center
Visit the Kenai Peninsula Recycling website: http://bit.ly/KenaiPeninsulaRecycling
The Chapman School 8th grade coding class built the website, and the 7th grade students are also learning HTML. Chapman School 5th and 6th graders are learning programming with Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu.

Changing times for schools in Southern Peninsula

Plan ahead

In August, 2017,  with the start of the new school year, ten school locations in the southern peninsula will begin with new school start and end times. This change is taking place to accommodate a switch from single-tier to double-tier bus transportation, which is already in effect for other schools throughout the KPBSD. No changes will take place in the 2016-2017 school year.
New School Times beginning August 22, 2017:
KPBSD so pen school start and end times FINAL
Bus transportation
Important transportation clarifications taking effect with the change to two-tier busing in the southern peninsula include:

  • KPBSD transportation routing will only be from home-to-school, and school-to-home.
  • Some situations in which out-of-area transportation is provided for students to attend a school outside their attendance area currently exist, and will not be available beginning with the 2017-2018 school year.
  • Parents may continue to have a child attend an out of area school through the Out-of-Area Attendance Request process (see E 5116(a)) but KPBSD will no longer provide bus transportation if a bus serving another school was available.
  • Bus routing and schedules will be updated in the summer of 2017, and available on the KPBSD website, at the same time as districtwide school routes are posted.

A series of community meetings took place throughout 2016, with parents, KPBSD staff, students, and community members in attendance. School administrators met, and worked together to create the new school start and end times. If you have questions about specific schools, please contact the school principal with your questions.
Southern Peninsula principals continue to meet together and work with community service providers to discuss after school childcare, recreation, and structured activity options to accommodate family needs for the 2017-2018 school year.
Changes will take place at southern peninsula schools served by bus transportation and include:
Chapman School
Fireweed Academy
Homer Flex School
Homer High School
Homer Middle School
McNeil Canyon Elementary
Ninilchik School
Paul Banks Elementary
West Homer Elementary
Links:

If you have questions about specific schools, please contact the school principal with your questions.

News Release: Meeting dates | school start and end time options

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Southern peninsula school start and end time options
Soldotna, October 12, 2016—Changes to school start and end times will begin in August, 2017, and in order to inform and gather input, three southern peninsula community meetings will take place in November. The same content will be presented at each meeting. Parents, KPBSD staff, students, and community members are invited and encouraged to attend a community meeting of their choosing:

  • Tuesday, November 1, 2016, 6:00 PM, Ninilchik School

  • Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 6:00 PM, Homer High School

  • Thursday, November 10, 6:00 PM, Chapman School, Anchor Point

Following community meetings and feedback from community members, on Tuesday, October 4, 2016, school principals met with district administration and staff to develop three options for new school start and end times in the southern peninsula. The preferred option from all school administrators is “X”. However, two additional options were also developed. Option “Y” adds ten minutes to start and end times, and option “Z” is most problematic, swaps the start times, and tiers schools without like needs.
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Next steps:

  • The transportation department analyzed X, Y, and Z options, and transportation routes for X and Y are viable.
  • School administrators will share the three options with site councils, and gather input.
  • November community meetings will be an excellent time for a shared conversation and discussion.
  • Principals will evaluate input and make final recommendations to district administration.
  • KPBSD transportation will make certain bus transportation for the chosen option is viable.
  • The district anticipates completion and a final decision before winter break so that parents and communities can begin to plan for the changes that will start in August, 2017.

Parents, staff, and community members are encouraged to attend a community meeting in November.
To offer suggestions, questions, or thoughts, please use this online public comment link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SouthernPeninsulaSchoolTimes
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Contact: Pegge Erkeneff, 907.714.8888
PDF Flyer: start and end time options

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Educator Linda Brady receives Golden Apple award

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Golden Apple Award | March 7, 2016
Ms. Linda Brady, Educator

Ms. Linda Brady has been a dedicated employee for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District for sixteen years—teaching at Nikolaevsk School, Ninilchik School, and currently, Chapman School. “She is exceptional in her position as a special education teacher at Chapman School and provides the school its cornerstone for building all other programs,” said Conrad Woodhead, principal. “Linda is an active leader on our staff, conducting aide meetings each Monday morning and participating in all of our I-Team and Data Day meetings. This is great, but what makes Linda so special isn’t her willingness to step up whenever she’s needed; what makes her exceptional is her ability to seemingly pull effort out of kids that they never knew they had. The students she works with achieve what was otherwise impossible. Simply put, Linda is good for kids.”
Linda Brady Golden Apple
Linda is selfless in her devoted stewardship to students. When need presents itself, Linda, and her husband Gary, have housed students, given students rides home, and on occasion, helped them with clothing items. She’s a fan favorite amongst the student body, probably because she’s there whenever they need her. A little known fact about Linda is that she has spent her life savings on her classroom library. We’ve had to give the UPS driver her own parking space, as she never drives by our school without dropping off another scholastic book order box for Linda. Every day, students work in her classroom before and after school. She even eats lunch with kids.
Legend has it that Linda does not sleep. When she finally goes home at night, she simply cooks dinner, tucks in her devoted husband Gary, and returns to work. Her colleagues have given up trying to beat her to work. “On more than several occasions, I’ve woke up to the ding of an email from my phone, only to find that’s it’s another IEP reminder from Linda. Most people are still sleeping at 5:45 a.m. in the morning; she is sending emails,” said Mr. Woodhead. “Linda is modest about her hard work and dedication, and she is deeply appreciated. We recognize Linda for her steadfast dedication to our students, our school, our community, and our district.”
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education is proud to recognize Ms. Linda Brady for her dedication to the students of the school district, past, present, and future.
Link
Golden Apple recipients
Linda Brady Golden Apple 2
Linda Brady Golden Apple 3

Chapman School and Nikolaevsk School named National Title I Distinguished Schools

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Contact: Pegge Erkeneff, 907.714.8888

News Release
Soldotna, November 23, 2015—Each year two Alaska schools are honored as a National Title I Distinguished School. This year, Chapman School in Anchor Point was recognized for exceptional student performance for two or more consecutive years. Nikolaevsk School in Nikolaevsk was recognized for significantly closing the achievement gap between student groups. Both schools are in the diverse Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD). 

We are very proud of the schools,” said Sean Dusek, superintendent. “Their staff, students, and communities have worked very hard. There is an obvious focus on meeting individual student needs which has shown great results. We are very excited that the schools have earned this honor from the state level.”
A November 20, 2015, press release from the State of Alaska Department of Education and Early Development stated: “Title I schools receive federal funds to support programs that supplement instruction to meet the educational needs of low-achieving students in high-poverty schools. The National Title I Distinguished Schools Program is a project of the National Title I Association. Selected schools must have a poverty rate of at least 35 percent and have been recognized by the state as a reward school in either the highest performing category or the highest progress category. Each state, using its own selection process, may select one school in each category for the honor.”
“The educators, students, and parents of Chapman School and Nikolaevsk School believe that all students can achieve, and they prove it every day,” said Commissioner Mike Hanley. “It is a great pleasure to congratulate these school-communities for their well-deserved recognition.”
Chapman School
Chapman School focuses on interventions and supports for grades K-3 in an effort to help decrease the learning gap between student groups. The foundation for these interventions is based on district-adopted and research-based curriculum partnered with strong data-based decision making for all students. The students at Chapman get a rich and varied education experience thanks to strong community partnerships.
“Through our Title I programs, Response To Intervention (RTI) program, community involvement, and top-notch staff, we continue to make it possible for all of our students to achieve—our students continue to rise to the challenge and do just that,” said Principal Conrad Woodhead.
Nikolaevsk School
Nikolaevsk School is proud of its high expectations for students and consistent 100% graduation rate. All students at Nikolaevsk develop SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) based on their personal academic data and lead their own student-parent-teacher conferences. All Nikolaevsk teachers work as a cooperative team and operate under a shared philosophy that every student is everyone’s responsibility.
Principal Michael Sellers said, “As a result of the teachers’ efforts toward focusing on individual student needs, adopting programs that fit within those goals, and focusing on research-based methods in instruction, Nikolaevsk has seen years of success as a five-star school and a school with successful students.”
Alaska identifies eligible schools for the award based on their students’ performance on state standards-based assessments. Identified schools then must choose to apply for the honor, providing evidence of effectiveness in research-based instructional strategies, opportunities for all children to achieve, coordination of Title I with other programs, professional development of staff, and partnerships with parents, families and communities.
Links and contacts

News Release: Two KPBSD Schools named National Title I Distinguished Schools
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Nikolaevsk School
Nikolaevsk School

Chapman School
Chapman School

Chapman School students head outside for service learning

Chapman School Charitable Works
The eighth grade class in working on a documentary about the good that the Chapman School students do. The main focus of the documentary is about a field trip in late September. During the field trip, the students erected a new trail. That required clearing out the path, hauling the wood a quarter mile up a hill, then laying out and constructing the boardwalk.
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Not only did we build a trail, we built a new outhouse. A lot had to be done to build the outhouse: first, the hole was dug, the wood was gathered and transport-ed, then the wood was measured and cut, a couple nailed the boards to put the walls together, then the ground where the hole was had to be leveled, after that, the walls were put up. We were not able to complete the outhouse, but we helped them a lot. Please stay tuned for the documentary.
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Contributed by Garrett Cooper