Thirteen years after the dream of a new school facilities plan became reality, the brick and mortar project has morphed to a community hub.  At the time of construction, there was much conversation around these new facilities being able to support more than just K-12 education.  This would include buildings that would become a resource to our community. The 52 acres, just a quarter mile southwest of Hill St., could become an anchor to activities needing the parking, space, seating capacity and technology necessary to host programs adequately.

Evidence of this was abundant this Fall.  

In September, the rapidly growing Brookville 5K Breast Cancer Walk made the school facilities their new home.  In what organizers have called "the perfect venue", the front of the Intermediate and High School served as the start and finish line for the 5K Walk.  Parking was excellent and restrooms were available.  The circle drive gave display booths and vehicles a nicely contained focus area.  It is estimated that well over 1,000 people attended the event.  

Friday, November 10th, Brookville Schools honored area Veterans with a program hosted by the high school.  Over 50 area Veterans were in attendance and enjoyed the festivities.  The guest speaker was Commander

	Commander Steve Thomas with Mr. Bronner

Steve Thomas, who not only thanked the Veterans for their service, but spent time speaking to the high school students about those parts of life that are important to future success.  Commander Thomas challenged students that their most important goal in school should be to "learn how to learn."  

The program began with kindergartner, Addison Stammen leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance and high school senior, MacKenzie Banta performing the National Anthem.  During the program the high school band saluted each branch of the military and a solemn tribute of Taps was performed to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.  The 'Shades of Blue' also performed patriotic music to commemorate Veterans Day. Senior, Colton Streck read a moving piece describing the young men in the military and junior FFA member, Zach Chambers read the name of each Veteran in attendance.  Our FFA members provided a small token of appreciation to each Veteran at the end of the program.  You can view photos of the program here.

Special recognition was given to school employees Pete Chakiris, Scott Petry, Jenny Davis and Jeff Requarth who are military Veterans.  Likewise, high school teacher Anna Porter was recognized as a military spouse.

The schools take great pride in recognizing our Veterans each year.  Very sincerely put we simply say "Thank You For Your Service."        

We invite you to take a moment to watch the video which highlights some of the exciting things that are coming up in the next fe w weeks at Brookville Local Schools.

Each night in the United States, an estimated 600,000 people live on the streets.  In October, there was an effort to have 2 million people donate a pair of socks to make a difference in the lives of our neighbors who are homeless. The event has been deemed Socktober.  

The K Kids Club, a service club that is connected to the local Brookville Kiwanis Club, and advised by fifth grade teacher Mrs. Wick and Mrs. Wigger, led their own Socktober drive.  The club is made up of 4th, 5th and 6th grade students.  They  put together a friendly competition to see which homeroom in these three grades would step up to donate the most socks or other small personal items to help homeless children.

Their peers stepped up to the challenge in a big way.  In all, a grand total of 1,445 items were collected.  The fourth graders donated 613 items (led by Mrs. Sano's class), the fifth graders donated 637 items (led by Mrs. Wick's class who just squeaked out Miss Huelskamp's class) and the sixth grade donated195 items (led by Mrs. Lenser's class).  

K Kids is a club that is all about community service and helping others.  The advisors will now deliver these items to a homeless shelter in Dayton that specifically provides shelter for children ages 9-18.  We want to thank the BIS students and their families for supporting such a worthy cause.  This certainly endorses a life-long lesson.  

Are you not looking forward to all the cooking that comes with the holidays. Dreading the extra eaters in the way of visiting family, friends and children who aren't normally home for three meals a day.  Imagine trying to cook for over 1,500 every day!!  On top of that, you have to find something they like within strict dietary guidelines set by a government entity.  Welcome to school food service.

On average, the Food Service Department of Brookville Schools feeds about 700 lunches a day.  That number includes 200 at the elementary building and 500 at the IS/HS.  The task of preparing, serving and cleanup after such a massive lunch bunch falls squarely in the hands of 8 ladies in food service and their director Mr. Mark Porter.  Two "cafeteria ladies" work in the elementary and another six at the intermediate and high school.  

They feed these 700 meals everyday, right after about 125 students go through the cafeteria lines each morning to eat breakfast.  School breakfasts are gaining in popularity and Mr. Porter reports that approximately 30 more students than last year are eating breakfast at school.  As a side note, none of those numbers given reflect how many students go through the line and just purchase à la carte items.  "The most popular à la carte items include cheeseburgers, chicken tenders and most any kind of french fry," says Mr. Porter.  However, he notes that sweet potato fries are an exception and have not gone over with students.  

Then there are those nutritional guidelines that must be met.  "The most difficult nutritional guideline for us to meet each week is serving from a different vegetable subgroup each day," Mr. Porter points out.  "There are five subgroups that must be chosen from and all five must be served each week. They are, dark green, red/orange, beans and peas, starchy and other.  The subgroups include many unusual items such as mustard greens, squash, chickpeas, water chestnuts and eggplant."  He went on to point out, "Not only are many of these items very expensive to purchase, you are not going to get the kids to eat them.  Therefore, it becomes difficult to meet this requirement without being repetitive."  So, if someone asks "Why does the school serve broccoli every week?" it's because broccoli is the only item in the dark green subgroup that anyone has ever heard of (except maybe Spinach).

So what goes over really well?  Mr. Porter says there are two meals that seem to be student favorites, pasta bowl and french toast with sausage and hash browns.  They are both extremely popular.  The kitchen staff does their best to stay away from "lea st popular" meals.  "We are always in the process of looking for new things that we can try,"  says Mr. Porter.  "If we try a new item that proves to be a clunker, we learn from that and move on to something that might be more appealing to the kids."   

In conclusion Mr. Porter points out that, "Each day is its own challenge. Each day, 700 students must be fed an appetizing, nutritious lunch that is not only inexpensive to prepare, but must also fall within state guidelines. This must be done in just a few minutes per class or the kids don't have enough time to eat.  I think we have a wonderful staff at each building and that they do a terrific job of meeting this challenge."

We think so as well.  So during these holidays.  Enjoy preparing those meals.  Just think, you could be cooking for 700 adolescents!

Football has been played at Brookville High School for a long time.  The decades have passed with numerous student-athletes having suited up for Friday Night Lights, while sporting the blue and white colors.  At some point, in what appears to be the decade of the 1960's, attention turned to keeping statistical records.  While teams, coaches, conference affiliations and uniforms changed, this "record keeping" allowed for individual performances to be memorialized into the history of the football program.

As the 2017 season came to an end, a member of this year's team left an indelible mark on those record books.  Senior running back, Bailey Wallen finished his Blue Devil football career holding six school records.  While all post season honors have not yet been announced, Wallen was recently named the SWBL Southwestern Division Offensive Player of the Year, while making 1st Team All-League on both offense as a running back and on defense as a linebacker.  This is the third consecutive year Wallen has been chosen as 1st team all league.  

Bailey enjoyed an outstanding senior season with 2,035 yards rushing on 229 carries, for an average of 8.9 yards per carry.  Amongst other season stats, he had 28 td's, 96 tackles, 6 qb sacks and 1 interception.  

Stacked on top of previous seasons, these numbers help to build the school records set.  They include:

• Most Career Rushing Yards - 5,507  (660 carries for an average of 8.3 yards per carry)
• Most Yards Rushing in a Season - 2,035
• Most Yards Rushing in a Game - 382
• Most Points Scored in a Game - 42
• Most Touchdowns in a Career - 79
• Most Points in a Career - 482

Obviously, many dedicated teammates over the last four years were significant players in helping Bailey to achieve such lofty numbers.  Football is a team sport. These accomplishments can be shared by teammates and coaches alike.  Also, as often stated, records are set to be broken.  We may or may not see such numbers put up anytime soon.  We take this opportunity to congratulate Bailey on establishing these records in such a storied program.  They are remarkable numbers and it was a pleasure to watch them achieved.

Beth Young & Jenny Davis  - 

Ms. Young and Mrs. Davis oversee the schools two libraries.  They just finished book fairs at both the elementary and intermediate schools.  The book fairs were well run and attended.  The money made from the book fairs goes back into books and materials to be used in both libraries.  Thank you to these two ladies and all who participated in the book fairs!!

Annual Tree Lighting

Brookville Chamber of Commerce's Downtown Christmas Tree Lighting will be held on Wednesday, November 29th at 6:30 p.m. at the Samuel Spitler House on Market Street.  For more information, please see the flyer.