At the end of each regular Board of Education Meeting, board members take a moment to share some of the great things they see in the district while serving on the Board. Here are this month's points of Pride & Progress:
“The first day of school is always exciting! After visiting the elementary campus in the morning, I made it to the high school. It’s always fun to see the energy of the students on the first day! I also had the opportunity to walk the halls at the later elementary with Mr. Davison. It’s such a positive building experience, and it was great to see the teachers so excited to welcome students. After attending the open houses, one thing that stood out to me was seeing our incredible office staff in action in all the buildings. Their ability to multi-task as they greeted families, directed traffic, answered phones, as well as juggled their other duties was incredible to see. As a team, they’re moving in different directions, but they all support each other. Shout out to all our administrative assistants for all they do! Brent McNitt
“The positive changes brought about by the cafeteria addition at Paw Paw High School (PPHS) have been remarkable not only in terms of facility improvements but also by allowing better scheduling and more consistency. Thanks to the entire Paw Paw Public Schools (PPPS) Food Services staff for working hard to keep our students fed and thank you to the community for approving the bond that made it possible! A new initiative at PPPS “Disconnect to Reconnect” has been a resounding success! Kids and parents are getting on board. At the high school, students are allowed to have their phones at lunch, but in my observation today there were not many phones in sight. Kudos to the PPPS administrators on the implementation of this program.” Ray Martin
“At Paw Paw Middle School (PPMS), I was able to attend their Open House. It was fantastic! In other news at the middle school, Star testing has begun, and enrollment is up so far this year. I was also happy to hear that with the new “Disconnect to Reconnect” cell phone policy, there has only been one violation at PPMS. Lastly, almost 70 sixth-grade students attended the Disney movie “Safety” at the Strand Theater, and they had a fun time!” Lindsay Clark
“I’d like to give a shout-out to Elementary Teacher Melissa Shugg for her work with classroom contracts, which sets the students up for success. The open houses were also very successful. It was nice to see all the vendors and department representatives who showed up for this event.” Nate Mitchell
“I would like to recognize the PPPS Maintenance and Facilities staff for all their hard work.” Jon Vick
“I was able to spend time with Beckah Chartier working the Cedar Street Campus table at Wine and Harvest Festival, which was fantastic! I want to thank Beckah for all she does for the students. I noticed current and former students were seeking Beckah out, which shows she is clearly invested in their success, and I love that! One thing we talked about was reaching out to the families of Aspire and Thrive Online students to see if they could benefit from Adult Education. Kudos to Beckah for reaching out to so many people in our community who might benefit from these educational opportunities! Lastly, I also want to thank Corey Harbaugh for all the work he is doing with the Van Buren Youth Initiative.” Sarah Thomas