Dexter High School - This listing of weekly activities is a service offered by the ShowMe Times, working in partnership with Dexter High School principal, Alana Dowdy, and DHS Asst. Principal Melissa Hahn for your convenience.
We hope you will mark your calendar and we encourage everyone to support our local students and their activities. The education and growth of young people in our community is the key to everyone's future!If you would like to submit information and a picture of a student and his/her accomplishments, send it to dloflin@showmetimes.com
Calendar
Monday 3-16-2020
FCCLA State at Tan Tar A
Top 10% Banquet, 6:00 pm
Tuesday 3-17-2020
FCCLA State at Tan Tar A
Winter Band Concert, 6:30 pm in auditorium
Wednesday 3-18-2020
Choir in the auditorium (4-8th periods)
Thursday 3-19-2020
Choir in the auditorium (4-8th periods)
STUCO State Convention
FFA Mineral Area TSA, bus 7:00 am
School Board Candidate Forum, 6:00 pm in auditorium
Friday 3-20-2020
Choir in the auditorium (4-8th periods)
STUCO State Convention
FFA Meeting, 3:15 in Ag Classroom
BETA Blood Drive in BEC Lobby
Saturday 3-21-2020
STUCO State Convention
Varsity Baseball at Malden, bus 8:45 am
Dexter vs. Malden at 10:00 am
Dexter vs. Clearwater at 2:00 pm
Sunday 3-22-2020
DECA to Kansas City
Choir Spring Concert, 3:00 pm in auditorium
UPCOMING EVENTS
March 22-27 Spring Fever Reliever Week
April 18 PROM
May 8 Graduation
May 15 Last day of school - dismiss 12:30
Poplar Bluff, MO - An educator with 20 years of experience working with at-risk students has been hired to lead the planned Mark Twain School on North Main Street.
Corey Jameson, lead instructor of the Poplar Bluff Graduation Center, has accepted the position of principal of the alternative educational facility set to serve grades 7-12 beginning in the fall.
“From my perspective, Mr. Jameson took an indirect path to public education, but on his journey he was always focused on a population of students who needed something a little different than what was offered via conventional methods,” commented Dr. Scott Dill, R-I superintendent. “I genuinely believe Mr. Jameson sees it as a place of opportunities for students who have experienced trouble with the system, and he has the skill set to recognize what the students need from us to be successful, whether that’s extra support or really just us getting out of the way.”
Jameson earned his master's degree in secondary administration from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau in 2018. He started his undergraduate education at Three Rivers College and went on to receive his bachelor's in organizational management from Hannibal LaGrange College, and later his teaching certificate from Central Methodist University in Fayette.
Before joining the R-I school district in 2015, Jameson served at Sears Youth Center in various capacities including special education teacher, group leader, youth specialist and service coordinator beginning in 2002, and two years prior to that when counting his part-time work.
“My entire career has centered around helping students who have had barriers to success, and helping get them past those barriers,” Jameson said. “That’s what I’ve done for a long time, since I was about 18 years old.”
The nontraditional school will provide services on site through FCC Behavioral Health plus become the district’s headquarter for its social workers and attendance office. According to Jameson, a district as large as Poplar Bluff needs to have an alternative pathway for students who may have “slipped through the cracks” due to various life circumstances, yet have found the self-motivation to earn their diplomas.
“These students got themselves up, caught a bus and came to school,” Jameson continued. “That’s when an individual becomes most successful, when they’ve decided to do it for themselves. Because the bottom line is they see their value.”
Filling the top position was accelerated so that the principal can be part of the programming process as well as staffing, which will include reallocation of faculty as well as additional posts approved by the Board of Education in February.
The Mark Twain building, to be retrofitted once the Early Childhood Center moves to the Kindergarten Center campus over the summer, will absorb the district’s credit recovery services and RISE Transition Center long-term suspensions, as well as become the home of the future Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) program. Education officials are also in discussions with higher education partners about college credit offerings
“Everything is on the table at this point,” Dill explained. “We’re crafting programs to address the needs of learners for whom the traditional brick and mortar school is not meeting – on both sides of the spectrum.”
The grand openings of the new Early Childhood Center and Mark Twain School later this year will mark the completion of the second and final phase of the long-range plan financed in a single levy measure approved by voters in 2014.
Photo and article submitted by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District
Poplar Bluff, MO - Poplar Bluff Middle School Principal Dr. Brad Owings was named ‘distinguished principal’ of the Southeast Region during the 31st annual conference of the Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals held Saturday, Feb. 29, at Osage Beach.
A principal of 17 years, Owings was hired in Poplar Bluff in 2015 at the former 5th and 6th Grade Center, and led the transition the following year to the Middle School which—with 1,200 students at the time—was the largest upper elementary school in the state, according to education officials.
The move to the former High School campus involved bringing fourth grade teachers in from the district’s lower elementaries, helping to develop procedures and schedules for the reconfigured grade span and planning the logistics of traffic patterns for parents, all the while having hired 15 first-year educators.
“I have often been amazed at the number of students Dr. Owings knows by name” and frequently “knows their story,” wrote Middle School intervention teacher Kris Sittig in a nomination letter for the award. She continued: Owings shows the “same respect to his secretarial, maintenance and school cafeteria staff” as he does faculty.
Cultivating a positive climate is the most important job of a building administrator, wrote Owings in his nomination essay, and a leader does so by providing teachers with “autonomy, mastery and purpose,” he stated. His personal mission, he went on, is to equip staff members with “everything they need to be the best version of themselves,” and create a “culture of continuous learning for adults.”
“It’s so easy to get caught up in the ‘busy-ness’ of being a principal that we lose sight of the real work,” which is relationship-building, Owings noted as a professional challenge.
“Dr. Owings possesses a broad working knowledge of both the pedagogy and the business of education,” said R-I Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill in a letter of support, adding that Owings is an “asset to the profession” and believes in students “at his core.” The superintendent elaborated: “He believes in their potential and sees for them a future brighter than they, themselves, can often envision.”
On a personal note, Owings is married to sixth grade Middle School teacher Holly, and together they have four children. Dave Elledge, co-pastor of The Bluff Church, where the family attends, stated that Owings “seems to have found a wonderful balance” between home life and his career. “Dr. Owings is seen in our community as an administrator who truly cares for his students, his teachers and staff, and the Poplar Bluff community,” Elledge commented.
While Owings has recently accepted a job offering in Southwest Missouri for the 2020/21 school year, his successor—to be recommended for approval by the Board of Education during the next monthly meeting—will be left with a solid foundation once he or she takes the reins in July. Gains were made in both English language arts and mathematics, along with all subgroups on state assessments from 2018 to 2019 at the Middle School.
The three best practices that the outgoing principal—who received his doctorate in 2010 from the University of Missouri at Columbia—listed are vital in helping all students find success are: School-wide Positive Behavior Support, Response to Invention and Professional Learning Communities.
Over the past few years, the Middle School has ‘rebooted’ its PLC model, collaborating in teams to track data on student progress using common formative assessments; established common RTI time so each grade level can provide differentiated instruction for students struggling or in need of extension activities; and started the SW-PBS process, reinforcing student expectations.
Pictured: Dr. Brad Owings, Middle School principal, is recognized among colleagues on Saturday, Feb. 29, during the MAESP Distinguished Principal banquet at Osage Beach.
Photo and article by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District
Poplar Bluff, MO - More than 100 children’s books were given away to students participating in the fourth annual Book Bingo hosted during Read Across America week on Thursday, March 5, at O’Neal Elementary School.
“Every kid leaves with a book,” noted Ashley Robertson, O’Neal librarian, who helped organize the event. The books were paid for by Mossy Oak Properties/Mozark Realty, which also supplied a free Mules T-Shirt for each participant. Chartwells provided the snacks and beverages.
This year’s grand prize winner during the final blackout round of bingo was second grader Elena Butler, who received an eight-book hardcover series of “Dog Man” by Dav Pikey, creator of “Captain Underpants.”
Book Bingo, along with the elementary school’s popular Movie Night, was established by the Bright Futures Site Council during the 2016/17 school year in an effort to put on additional functions for families to participate in, according to Principal Dr. Amy Dill.
Pictured: The team at Mossy Oak, led by broker Lucas Edington (green shirt), pose with their various family ties to the school during Book Bingo night.
Photo and article by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District
Bloomfield, MO - The Bloomfield School Board met in a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, March 9, 2020.
During open session, the board approved:
1. Summer School Dates - May 26 - June 15
2. Health Insurance Plans for the 2020-2021 School Year
3. New Student Information System - SISK12
In executive session, the board approved:
1. Casey Karnes Resignation Effective the End of 2019-2020 School Year
2. Haley Silman Resignation Effective the End of 2019-2020 School Year
3. Kaylin Goins HS Softball Assistant Coach Resignation Effective Immediately
4. Kaitlin Orr as HS Softball Assistant Coach for the 2019-2020 School Year
5. Emily Haring as HS ELA Teacher for the 2020-2021 School Year
6. Hannah Dement as JH Math Teacher for the 2020-2021 School Year
7. Ryan Alexander as JH/HS Physical Education Teacher for 2020-2021 School Year
8. Certified Teaching Staff for the 2020-2021 School Year
