A small group of upset parents and students voiced their distaste for Capital School District’s new grading policy at the Oct. 15 meeting.

Architects gave a presentation about the W. Reily Brown Elementary School renovation and expansion at the Oct. 14 Caesar Rodney School Board of Education meeting. As presented, the school would expand slightly with an administration area added at the front as well as a bus entrance on the west side of the building. The pod behind the school, which currently holds classrooms, would have an enclosed connector and house the library and a multipurpose room.

Central, South Elementary addressing math and reading
 

As the renovation and expansion of the McIlvaine Early Childhood Center gets fully underway, another sort of construction is taking place deep underground, behind the school. McIlvaine will become the first public school in Kent County to be heated by geothermal wells – 130 of them, in fact.

The Lake Forest School Board used its meeting Sept. 25 to show off the brand new South Elementary School in Harrington. Board members, students, teachers and administrators held a ceremonial ribbon cutting prior to the regular meeting in the school’s cafeteria.

The Capital School District Board of Education recently agreed on its legislative priorities for fiscal 2009, putting funding for Division I and III, Response to Intervention  and additional positions on top. Initially starting with nine priorities, the list was trimmed to four after debate.

More Lake Forest High School students are taking AP classes and exams, but fewer are taking SATs. The board of education discussed these trends and others at its Sept. 11 meeting.

The Caesar Rodney School District's cell phone policy was changed at the Aug. 26 school board meeting. The revision now has confiscated phones being returned to parents instead of having the school principals hold them for a certain number of days, as the old policy stated.

The CR Riders Marching Band held its last night of Summer Band Camp Aug. 19.

Aug. 20 was the first day of school for students in the Caesar Rodney School District, as hundreds of youngsters boarded buses and headed for class. At W.B. Simpson Elementary School in Wyoming, kindergarten teacher Colleen Cabaud ended her summer vacation by bringing in her teaching supplies with the help of her daughter, Rylee Cabaud. Rylee, who also attends Simpson, is starting second grade.

Click here to see more photos from the first day of school.

The Capital School Board got some good news at its monthly meeting Aug. 20, when it was presented with information on a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education. The Alcohol Reduction Grant, an award of $674,654, will be given over the course of three years, starting this school year.

   Like many school districts, Lake Forest had some huge gains and some noticeable misses in this year’s DSTP results. J. Glenn Davidson, administrative assistant – curriculum, detailed the reasons for the hits and misses and what the district is doing to improve at the Aug. 21 school board meeting.

Downstate superintendents and assistant superintendents have comparable salaries to their upstate counterparts, which have three to four times as many students enrolled in some cases.

Homeschooled children are an option for parents and their kids can still participate in many extra-curricular activities

Back-to-school shopping, anxiety over the first day and excitement about meeting the kids in your class are just as important to teachers as they are to students. Right before school started, local teachers talked about what they've been up to during their summer break.