WestChesterBuzz.com

The West Chester Board of Trustees approved the establishment of “No Parking Zones” near several of the community’s schools on Tuesday. The schools affected by the new “No Parking Zones” are Hopewell Junior and Hopewell Elementary, as well as Endeavor Elementary and Adena Elementary.

The West Chester Police Department, Community Services, Lakota Local Schools and the Butler County Engineer’s Office recommended the zones be identified due to safety issues with student drop-off and pick-up.

Vehicles stopping within the school zone and/or on neighboring streets to drop off or pick up children from school created obstructions for pedestrians and vehicular traffic traveling near the schools.

A “No Parking Zone” was approved near Endeavor Elementary on Smith Road prohibiting parking, standing or stopping of vehicles in the school zone on school days between the hours of 8 to 9 a.m. and from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Additionally, no parking will be allowed anytime on R.E. Smith Drive between Smith Road and Misty Shore Drive, and no parking anytime on Bar Harbor Way between Smith Road and South Port Drive.

Also approved is no parking, standing or stopping of vehicles in the school zone between Heritage Drive and Adena Hills Court between the hours of 8 to 9 a.m. and from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on school days.

A “No Parking Zone” will also be enacted for Manor Drive near Hopewell junior and elementary schools. This would prohibit parking, standing or stopping of vehicles on Manor Drive on school days from 7 to 9 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. on the north side of Manor Drive between Candlelight Terrace and Rickhaven Court and on the south side of Manor Drive between the west property line of 7849 Manor Drive and the east property line of 7879 Manor Drive.

The “No Parking Zones” will be marked and become effective on Jan. 4, 2013.

Posted in: Government, News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: Adena Elementary, Adena Elementary School, Butler County Engineer's Office, Endeavor Elementary, Endeavor Elementary School, Hopewell Elementary, Hopewell Junior, Lakota Local Schools, No parking, no parking zones, no parking zones Lakota schools, No parking zones West Chester, West Chester Police Department

John Johnston reports:

She traveled to Grand Rapids, Mich., the last week of July expecting to compete in 10 events at the Transplant Games of America.

Asia Werner plays soccer at the Hopewell Elementary field in West Chester. In July, she won 11 medals at the Transplant Games of America. Photo taken by Tony Jones.

By the time it was over, 12-year-old Asia Werner had won 11 medals.

Yes, 11. Once members of Team Ohio saw how fast she was, they recruited her to run the 4 x 100 meter relay and the 4 x 400 meter relay. She and her teammates earned silver in both.

“It was really cool to go,” Asia said the other day, awaiting the start of her soccer practice.

“The most common question was: What organ did you get?”

Asia’s answer: A heart.

Part of her story has been told before. She was on the front page of The Enquirer on Christmas Day 2000, two days after her heart transplant at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and three days after her first birthday.

Without the donated heart, Asia, who was born with multiple heart defects, likely would have died within days, the doctor who performed the surgery said.

“We’d already started making funeral arrangements,” said Dawn Werner.

Werner was her grandmother and legal guardian in 2000. She adopted the girl in 2004 and is now her mom.

After the Transplant Games, Werner contacted the newspaper partly because she thought readers might be interested in an update on Asia, and partly because “we do a lot to promote organ donation.”

Nobody is more grateful for that than Mary Hollenback, who lives in Dubuque, Iowa.

Her son’s heart beats inside Asia.

Asia was saved by a little hero from Iowa

His name was Cole. He died at 5 months, and it’s unclear why.

A geneticist theorized he had mitochondrial myopathy, a disease that affects the brain, but it was never confirmed.

As her son’s life slipped away almost 12 years ago, “I looked at my husband and said, ‘I want to make him a hero. I want to donate his organs,’ ” Hollenback said. (more…)

Posted in: News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: Asia Werner, Hopewell Elementary, lakota ridge junior school

A total of 18 Lakota educators were recognized in late June for teaching excellence at the Ohio Educators Connect for Success Conference in Columbus.

Battelle for Kids honored the local educators as part of its “Celebrate Teaching” initiative that is used to find out what makes a teacher highly effective and how to best learn from their practices.

Teachers were selected for the recognition based on surveys and evaluations from their principals and students, as well as achieving consistent gains in student performance.

As part of the initiative, Battelle for Kids celebrated 83 educators in Ohio. Receiving the honor from the Lakota school district includes teachers Beverly Gfroerer, Mary Jo Cooper and Tina Cramer of Adena Elementary; Julie Gunderson of Endeavor Elementary; Donna Martin and Lori Vanover of Heritage Elementary; Nadine Gallam of Hopewell Elementary; Joseph Schorr of Hopewell Junior; Laura Brown and Teresa Dempsey of Independence Elementary; Marianne Sample, Marilyn Adams, Aaron Nunley, Scott Slomsky and Heather Blaylock of Lakota Plains Junior; Susie Green of Lakota Ridge Junior; Debbie Turner of Liberty Junior; and Laura Murphy of VanGorden Elementary.

“This award is particularly noteworthy because the focus is on how these teachers consistently make a difference in their students’ academic growth,” Lakota Superintendent Karen Mantia said. “Nothing is more important to us academically than student growth.”

For more information, visit www.celebrateteaching.org.

Posted in: News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: Aaron Nunley, Adena Elementary, Battelle for Kids, Beverly Gfroerer, Debbie Turner, Donna Martin, Endeavor Elementary, Heather Blaylock, Hopewell Elementary, Independence Elementary, Joseph Schorr, Julie Gunderson, Lakota Plains Junior, Laura Brown, Laura Murphy, Lori Vanover, Marianne Sample, Marilyn Adam, Mary Jo Cooper, Nadine Gallam, Ohio Educators Connect for Success Conference, Scott Slomsky, Teresa Dempsey, Tina Cramer, VanGorden Elementary

Cincinnati Enquirer photographer Tony Jones recently visited Hopewell and Heritage elementary schools to watch their annual field days.

The field days usually signify the end of the school year, as all Lakota schools will have their last day next Thursday, May 31.

For more West Chester and Liberty Township photos, there are many other events captured on our Flickr photostream and more West Chester and Liberty Township related photo galleries on our Photos page.

Also, remember to share your photos through the Photos page.

Posted in: Events, News, School events |

Tags: Tags: Heritage Elementary field day, Heritage Elementary photos, Heritage Elementary School, Heritage field day, Hopewell Elementary, Hopewell Elementary field day, Hopewell Elementary photos, Hopewell field day, Lakota photos

Harlem Globetrotter Buckets Blake visited students at Adena Elementary and at Hopewell Elementary this Thursday. Blake was there to promote the C.H.E.E.R Challenge, a program developed with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Education.

The program is designed to focus on student Cooperation, Healthy Mind and Body, Effort, Enthusiasm, and Responsibility (C.H.E.E.R).

Cincinnati Enquirer photographer Tony Jones was at Hopewell to capture the visit.

>>>PHOTOS: HARLEM GLOBETROTTER VISITS HOPEWELL ELEMENTARY<<<

There are also many other great moments captured on our Flickr photostream. And more West Chester and Liberty Township related photo galleries on our Photos page.

Also, remember to share your photos through the Photos page.

Posted in: Events, School events, Schools |

Tags: Tags: Adena Elementary, Adena Elementary School, Buckets Blake, C.H.E.E.R Challenge, Harlem Globetrotter Buckets Blake, Harlem Globetrotters, Hopewell Elementary, U.S. Department of Education

For the 10th consecutive year, the Lakota school district will receive a rating of Excellent or better from the state. According to a release from the school district, Lakota students met 26 out of the 26 indicators for testing as well as improved its performance index from last year’s 104.2 to 105.9.

“This is no small achievement. I understand and recognize what this means in our team’s daily work and what these results mean for advancing student learning,” Lakota Superintendent Karen Mantia said in a release.

“Our team recognizes that continuing excellence means that we are always improving and always working to bring our students the best teaching to help them succeed in their world.”

According to Cincinnati.com, Lakota is the seventh largest district in Ohio and the biggest in the state to earn the top academic ranking (Excellent with Distinction).

Individually, every school within the district received a rating of Excellent or better.

Schools receiving the Excellent with Distinction rating include Adena Elementary, Freedom Elementary, Heritage Elementary, Hopewell Elementary, Independence Elementary, Lakota Plains Junior, Lakota Ridge Junior, Liberty Junior, Union Elementary and VanGorden Elementary.

Meanwhile, both high schools (Lakota East and Lakota West) and two elementary schools (Cherokee and Woodland) received Excellent ratings.

Overall, the district showed improvement. Seven of the 10 Lakota schools, which received the Excellent with Distinction rating in 2011, had an Excellent rating in 2010. None of the schools in the district fell in rating.

Posted in: Board of Education, News, Schools, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: Adena Elementary, Cherokee Elementary, Excellent, Excellent with Distinction, Freedom Elementary, Heritage Elementary, Hopewell Elementary, Independence Elementary, Lakota, Lakota East, Lakota Plains Junior, Lakota Ridge Junior, Lakota schools, Lakota West, Liberty Junior, school rating, Union Elementary, VanGorden Elemenatry School, Woodland Elementary

More than 6,000 students had to find a new way to school yesterday, Jan. 18, as the Lakota Local Schools busing cuts went into effect. The reductions caused an increase to traffic all over West Chester Township and Liberty Township in the morning and afternoon.

On the elementary school level, like Hopewell Elementary in West Chester, students who live within a mile of the school no longer had a bus to take them to school.

>>>PHOTOS OF SCENE AT HOPEWELL ELEMENTARY<<<

Students in grades seventh and eighth no longer had a ride if they lived within two miles of the school and all high school students officially lost their busing.

“It was crazy today,” Lakota West High School senior Marcus Jones told Cincinnati.com.

“It’s a big change even though we all knew it was coming. I can give some of my friends a ride to school but I can’t get them all here.”

Meanwhile, at Lakota East High School, Principal Dr. Keith Kline e-mailed parents and students Tuesday evening about the first day without busing.

Those folks who dropped off before 7 a.m. had little difficulty getting in and out quickly. It is after that time that traffic began backing up onto Cincinnati-Dayton Road. Reminder, the building opens at 6:30 a.m.

Lauren Anderson said that she arrived at Lakota East High School at 7:05 a.m. and didn’t get to the student drop off zone until 7:25 a.m.

“After school was worse, though, with three lines of cars all blocking each other,” Anderson said.

Students had to find their ride and then hope for the car in front of them to move.

Kline is recommending parents to wait to pick up their students between 3 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. to avoid the traffic. Due to the busing cuts, Lakota East now lets out at 2:39 p.m. Prior to yesterday, the school day ended at 2:24 p.m.

Later that night, the West Chester Board of Trustees met to discuss the 2011 operational budget. During that meeting, trustee Lee Wong mentioned the increase in traffic that took place that morning due to the Lakota busing cuts. Wong thought the board should consider adding more sidewalks so children can walk safely to school.

Trustee President Catherine Stoker thought that the school district was taking the appropriate steps through state funding to address the issue and thought the board of trustees should focus on its legal responsibilities.

“I don’t think it is up to us to take on Lakota’s responsibilities too, I think it is important for us to take care of our responsibilities first,” Stoker said.

Posted in: Board of Education, Board of Trustees, News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: Catherine Stoker, cuts, Hopewell Elementary, Lakota East, Lakota Local Schools, Lakota West, Lee Wong, photo gallery, photos, reductions, traffic

Hopewell Elementary held a special event this week, welcoming their students’ grandparents into the classroom. Fourth grade teacher Staci Hathaway hosted a full room of parents and grandparents late this morning, Nov. 23.

>>>PHOTOS OF GRAND PERSON’S DAY AT HOPEWELL ELEMENTARY<<<

More than 1,000 grandparents and parents attended the event at the elementary school, which currently has 801 students.

Lakota Local Schools will be off the rest of the week, due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

For more West Chester related photo galleries, visit WestChesterBuzz.com’s photos page and Flickr account.

Posted in: Events, School events, Schools |

Tags: Tags: Grand Person's Day, grandparents, Hopewell Elementary, photo gallery, photos