As the year comes to a close and we send our Class of 2016 into the future, we couldn't help but put a little different spin on "Where Are They Now". We caught up with some of the fine young people who are graduating at the top of the class. While it was fun to hear where they will be next year, it was even more interesting to take a peek at where they think they will be 10 years out. Take a moment and enjoy learning about the aspirations of some of our graduates.

Congratulations to the BHS Class of 2016

At the beginning of the 2015-16 school year one of the instructional goals presented to faculty was to engage their students in at least two career connection experiences . A look inside classrooms has shown numerous examples of meeting this task. While it looks different depending on the grade level and career, our staff is working diligently to introduce young minds to a multitude of job opportunities. Most importantly, this leads to deeper conversations about work ethic, necessary academic skills, knowledge and being productive members of our community.  Below is a brief list of only a few examples of how this goal has been addressed in the last year:

Second Grade/Mrs. Jessica Nawroth, Teacher - Mrs. Nawroth regularly hosted a session called "Job Chat" where she invited parents to talk with her students about their careers. Mrs. Nawroth pointed out that this not only met the district goal regarding career focus, it also aligned with the second grade social studies standard of identifying goods and services. A great by-product was getting parents actively involved in her classroom. Mrs. Nawroth's students heard from a paralegal, military sales, assistant manager of a restaurant, quality control manager, clinical pharmacist, MRI/XRay tech, highway traffic foreman, radiologic tech, programmer, engineer and a vet tech.  What a great experience for these young students!! Video from two of these "Job Chats" can be found on our YouTube channel, here and here.

Seventh Grade/Ms. Anne Drake, Teacher - Ms. Drake ran a series of Science Cafe gatherings. These after school experiences were sponsored by the Science & Ecology Club and all BIS and BHS students were welcome. Presenters were individuals working in science related fields who came after school to share about their careers. Everyone was treated to snacks, cafe style and enjoyed the casual learning opportunity. A couple of examples would be an electrical engineer and a computer engineer that shared cyberspace operations! You can read about the human factors engineer and more on this cafe experience in the February 29, 2016 edition of the Blue Connector .

Eighth Grade Career Day/ Mrs. Spangler, Guidance Counselor - In a much more traditional career day setting eighth graders were greeted by professionals who shared important insight regarding their careers. Students had the opportunity to move from class to class and hear about such occupations as the army, nursing, web design, plastic surgery, skilled trades, marketing management and law enforcement. These experiences were priceless. Click here to see a few photos and visit our YouTube channel for videos from the day.

Mrs. Spangler also arranged for a "Power Lunch" for our students with representatives from  modern manufacturing on hand. The professionals brought a display with a small CNC milling machine, a 3D printer and information about manufacturing career opportunities!

The number of examples to share are not practical for one publication. Needless to say our students were introduced to many learning opportunities around available careers. We thank all who participated.

Got a headache?  Will you reach for aspirin? BHS sophomore Jeremy Penick recently parlayed that same aspirin into a superior rating at the state science fair. More importantly, Jeremy enjoyed a great learning experience.  

Searching the internet for a good science fair project came up empty, so Penick turned to chemistry teacher Mrs. Anna Porter. After gaining advice on a project that Mrs. Porter had done years ago, Jeremy tweaked her suggestion. This resulted in his project to test purifying aspirin by washing it with DI and HCI and using a re-crystallization method as a constant. Approximately six weeks later he had completed his work and was ready to present. Scoring very high with the judges he advanced from the local level to the county level then on to OSU for the state science fair.  

A bonus was that Mrs. Porter was was able to pull some strings which allowed Penick to work on his project in the chemistry labs at Wright St. University. Jeremy commented afterward that, "I felt like I was a true chemist, even if the project was basic. Overall this experience has influenced me to go into a researching field where I can work in a lab setting full time."

And for the state competition? Jeremy dubbed it "...a great experience. I not only got to present to judges at a professional level but I got to meet other people with similar interest as I. I am really looking forward to next year." Click here to see the "State Sendoff" by our high school marching band.

Jeremy Penick represented Brookville Schools very well throughout the science fair trail. We are proud of him and wish him continued success as he pursues his interest and goals.

Almost a year ago in the Blue Connector we proudly told the story and shared pictures of the beginning of a major athletic field renovation project. You can see the video timeline of this project from last summer on our YouTube channel here. Part of the commitment by the school district at that time was greater attention given annually to the field maintenance and upkeep. Taking this approach to the new playing surface was not only needed but also fiscally responsible.

This spring, the Mercer Group, who completed the field renovation, returned to do spring maintenance. The field was properly aerated, top dressed with 40 tons of sand and 200 lbs. of grass seed. In close conjunction with the Mercer Group, the school district will continue to monitor and treat the field throughout the summer with hopes for a more mature and thick sod covering this fall. Here is a short video from the maintenance.

Brookville Schools are proud of our series "Where Are They Now", which features profiles of past Brookville High School graduates. These graduates have responded to brief questions concerning their education or training after high school, their current occupation and their words of wisdom to the students in our buildings.

As this school year is coming to an end, our profiles will be taking a break. We will be bringing it back in full force beginning with our August 22, 2016 edition. In the meantime,  our past profiles on our  website .

So many good things happen in our District, but in the Spring, there are even more activities and celebrations. We put together a brief synopsis of some of the "goings on" in the last couple of weeks:

Elementary Field Day - Elementary students were not to be deterred by a little rain.  On Tuesday, May 17, they enjoyed their annual field day.  This year the PTA came up big hiring a group called SuperGames to facilitate field day. This group brought in multiple inflatables for the kids to play on and in plus a host of other outside-the-box game events.  Fortunately these could all be set up inside and field day went on as planned!!  See pictures here and a video of the day's events here .   

Farm on the Lawn Day - Another great annual event to take place was the FFA Farm on the Lawn Day.  FFA students brought in several farm animals that they shared with the students.  The FFA members were great at teaching their younger counterparts about the animals and answering questions. Here   are some great pictures from the day.

Grade Level Choir Concerts - Over the last two weeks all of our school choirs performed their spring concerts.  This began with the third graders on Grandparents Day and went all the way through to our Shades of Blue show choir. You can see several of the performances on our YouTube channel here.

Relay for Life Event - Our high school Relay for Life Club attended an area wide event at Northmont High School's athletic stadium.  This Relay for Life event is held  in support of raising funds to fight against cancer.  Our high school team is large in numbers and one of the most active in the area.  They are under the direction of Mrs. Jenni Phillips.  We encourage you to look through the pictures of our students in attendance at the Saturday May 7th event here.   

Band Ice Cream Social - To the delight of parents, bands representing grades 5-12 including the winter percussion group held their spring concert. As always this concert had a sweet side to it in the way of available ice cream.  Parents and other guest could hear their child's band concert and then stop for a bowl of ice cream in support of the bands.  You can listen to several musical numbers from the evening here .

Coach Hetrick, Trevor Good & Kyle Wheat - The Brookville football team will be well represented at the Miami Valley Coaches Association North-South All Star Game.  Seniors Trevor Good and Kyle Wheat will both play in the game.  Head Coach Mike Hetrick will be an assistant coach for the North squad.  The game will be played Friday, June 10 at 7 p.m. at Centerville High School.  Good Luck guys!!

Mrs. Anyanwu & Miss Henry - Mrs. Amy Anyanwu, Director of Curriculum, Professional Development and Instructional Technology along with Miss Katie Henry, BIS STEAM Teacher, were recent presenters at a large STEM collaborative meeting.  The meeting was held at Cincinnati Sycamore Schools and focused on successful STEM programs sharing their successful ideas.  Thank you ladies for representing Brookville Schools so well!!

Mrs. Joyce Dorsey - A 6th grade Social Studies teacher at BIS received a renewal of her Master Teacher status on May 18, 2016.  Master Teacher denotes those who demonstrate excellence inside and outside of the classroom through consistent leadership and focused collaboration to maximize student learning. After reviewing the components of Mrs. Dorsey's application, the scoring committee found that it embodied the standards of excellence valued by the Master Teacher Program. We congratulate Mrs. Dorsey!!