Incline Village Schools

Come meet Washoe County's dynamic and energetic new Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Heath Morrison.  He will discuss why the International Baccalaureate (IB) program makes sense in general and specifically for our community.  He intends to include an open Q & A session.  This meeting is for anyone interested in the long-term health of Incline Village/Crystal Bay, so please encourage your friends and neighbors to attend as well.  Childcare will be provided by ROTC volunteers from the high school.

Monday, September 28th             

• Homecoming dress theme:  Hip Hop @ Rap
• Homecoming lunchtime activity: Rap battles
• Any IHS student intending on bringing a guest not from Incline High School to the Homecoming dance MUST complete the guest paperwork by Wednesday, September 30th. NO GUESTS WILL BE PERMITTED INTO THE DANCE WITHOUT CLEARANCE!!

Tuesday, September 29th    

• Homecoming dress theme:  Disco
• Homecoming lunchtime activity: Dance, Dance, Revolution Contest
• Any IHS student intending on bringing a guest not from Incline High School to the Homecoming dance MUST complete the guest paperwork by Wednesday, September 30th. NO GUESTS WILL BE PERMITTED INTO THE DANCE WITHOUT CLEARANCE!!

Wednesday, September 30th                     

• Homecoming dress theme: Rock-n-Roll
• Homecoming lunchtime activity: Guitar Hero Contest
• Any IHS student intending on bringing a guest not from Incline High School to the Homecoming dance MUST complete the guest paperwork by Wednesday, September 30th. NO GUESTS WILL BE PERMITTED INTO THE DANCE WITHOUT CLEARANCE!!

Thursday, October 1st    

• Homecoming dress theme:  Country
• Homecoming lunchtime activity: Country Karaoke Contest

Friday, October 2nd   

• Homecoming dress theme:  Green-n-Gold
• Homecoming parade begins at 2:15pm
• Volleyball vs. North Tahoe:  JV @ 3:00, Varsity @ 4:00
• Football vs. ROP-Silver State Academy, 6:00
• Homecoming Dance, IHS small gym, begins after football game until 11pm

Dates to Remember:

• September 28th:  IB Night at the Chateau @ 6:30PM.
• September 29th: SHARE parent review at IMS Forum 6 – 8 PM.
• October 1st:  Mini Field Day.  Parent Volunteers be at IMS by 1:00.  All parents are welcome to observe, be at IMS at 1:20 PM.
• October 5th – 9th:  October Break
• October 29th:  End of the Grading Period

Memberships: 

Jr. Booster isn’t a fundraising organization and as a result, our membership dues are the only vehicle for raising funds for our activities, such as Take Dad to School, Halloween Dance and the 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony.  If you haven’t submitted your Jr.. Boosters membership dues for the 2009-2010 school year, please do so.  Membership forms are available at the office and you can leave a filled out form with check in the Jr. Booster’s box at the office. Please support our group.  If you’re not sure whether or not you have supported IMS for this school year, please send me an email (SevGroup@nvbell.net).

• Halloween Dance: October 23rd  IMS Forum.  6:30 – 8:30 PM

Kevin and Jeanette Martinez are chairing the event.  Joy Strotz is assisting with forum decorations.  Stacy Hanna and Amy Smith will head up refreshments.

Volunteers needed for:

* Decorations

* Tear Down

* Chaperones

Thank you!
Dianne Severance

Attached, please find the IMS Jr. Boosters Newsletter for September.

The number of H1N1 flu cases in Washoe County has climbed significantly this month, particularly among children, teens and young adults, but have yet to affect operations in Washoe County’s schools.

Washoe County reported that 93 of 115 confirmed and probable cases of swine flu reported last week were sustained by those ages 5 to 24.

That brings the total number of Washoe cases since April to 311 in people ages 5 to 18 and to 122 for those ages 19 to 24. Overall, 646 cases have been reported.

Still, local schools remain open.
“What we’re doing is sanitizing common surfaces daily and encouraging the use of hand sanitizer,” said Steve Mulvenon, school district spokesman. “Our intent through all of this is to keep schools open and function in a normal manner.”

Mulvenon said health officials initially requested staff at schools record information about symptoms a child is having when their parents called them in ill.  “H1N1 is now so widespread that they said it was pointless to keep that up,” Mulvenon said. “It’s widespread. It’s everywhere.”

Individual schools don’t draw district attention unless an absentee rate among students rises above 10 percent.  “It’s happened several times at several schools since the school year started,” Mulvenon said.

Information on medical absenteeism from Thursday was released by the school district Friday and indicated only Johnson Elementary and Gerlach middle and high schools had more than 10 percent of its students out for medical reasons that day. Seventeen of 39 students were absent Thursday at Gerlach.

Johnson-Gerlach principal Edna LaMarca said she knows of no official H1N1 diagnoses in the area, but some children had symptoms that included nausea, headache and congestion.

“It could be a blend of things,” LaMarca said. “It seems to be short lived, but we’ve never seen this many (absences) at one time.”

Six Washoe elementary schools and one middle school had absences “above normal limits” Thursday, among them Hunsberger Elementary School.  “We sent something home in our newsletter this week that talks about that and symptoms and what the children have to be free of (before returning to school),” said Layne Clarkson, Hunsberger secretary.

Mulvenon said medical-related absence data changes among schools daily.  “You tend to see clusters of illness in various parts of the community that come and go,” Mulvenon said. “What’s true for a given school today night not be the case tomorrow.”

Letters about combating seasonal and swine flu were sent to parents of Washoe County School District elementary students before the start of the school year. 

If the flu becomes more severe, the district plans to take additional steps that might include on-site screenings of students and staff, postponing field trips or moving student desks farther apart.

Mulvenon said the health department determines the definition of “severe.”  However, health department spokeswoman Judy Davis said there isn’t a universal definition.

“It’s a rather subjective topic and the decision made around ‘worse’ or ‘severe’ would be customized to the (affected) community or school,” Davis said. “A component to ‘severe’ would be the number of deaths and hospitalizations.”

The numbers:  Of the 22 flu hospitalizations so far in Washoe County, seven of those patients were between ages 5 and 18 and one was between 19 and 24, according to the health department.

Washoe County had its first reported death from swine flu Wednesday. The victim was a woman between ages 25 and 49 who reportedly had other underlying health conditions.

In a guidance document outlined for school and health officials released in August, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said whether to dismiss students from school should be made at local levels.

However, it said decisions should balance the goal of reducing the number of people who become ill or die while minimizing social disruption and safety risks to children that can be associated with school dismissal.

“Based on the experience and knowledge gained in jurisdictions that had large outbreaks in spring 2009, the potential benefits of preemptively dismissing students from school are often outweighed by negative consequences, including students being left home alone, health workers missing shifts when they must stay home with their children, students missing meals, and interruption of students’ education,” the document said. “Still, although the situation in fall 2009 is unpredictable, more communities may be affected, reflecting wider transmission.”

The need for a series of initiatives by the Washoe County School District to further assist its English Language Learners (ELLs) has been reinforced by a new report showing that the district did not meet all of the Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAOs) required under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Nevada school districts must meet a progress requirement that 50% of ELLs achieve a 25-point gain on English language skills test; a proficiency attainment which requires 14% of ELLs meet language proficiency; and an academic requirement that ELLs meet Adequate Yearly Progress.  The state tests measuring the objectives are conducted annually.

On the test which measures language skills, 55% of ELLs in Washoe County achieved a 25 point gain in  language skills.  And, 19% of students met proficiency.  The district did not make the adequate yearly progress (AYP) target on state tests.

“The good news here is that our students performed above the state standards in two of the three targets and we are already working to rectify falling short of AYP,” said Heath Morrison,  Washoe County School District Superintendent, citing three district-wide actions:

• Avenues, a school-wide language development program at the elementary schools (already begun.)
• Establish a tuition program in which regular classroom teachers can earn certification to teach ELL students.
• Provide professional development for entire schools to enhance the teaching skills of educators so they can better support ELL students.

“These initiatives and others will help support our schools, but even more importantly our English Language Learners, who deserve all the assistance we can give them so they can achieve, succeed, and graduate,” Morrison added.

The best and the brightest academics at Incline High School share one commonality — their level of involvement.

Whether playing soccer, participating in local internships or serving as class president, a top-notch student at IHS often wears a number of different hats and excels in a number of fields.

Four of those students earned recognition last week on a national basis. Michael Ceragioli, Sean McClelland, Shanna Murray and Sterling Vinson each were named semifinalists for the National Merit Award, which recognizes 8,200 students an awards them with a slice of more than $36 million is scholarships.

They are competing with about 16,000 students nationally for the coveted finalists awards, handed out next spring.

Ceragioli is a four-year varsity soccer player and has two years of varsity basketball under his belt and intends to play again this year. The senior said he is excited for the award, and said his strengths as an academic are in the social sciences.

“My strengths are more in social studies, English, writing and reading,” he said. “Math is a little more difficult for me, but I think I do pretty well on everything.”

He, like the other four students, is enrolled in Incline's “We The People” civics course this year, and views the course as potentially the most challenging in a classload including four advanced placement courses.

Vinson, a four-year cross country and track runner who also serves in the Incline JROTC Highlander Battalion and on the IHS Academic Olympics team, said he's also looking forward most to the “We The People” course this year.

“I think it's the class I can take the most away from, that I can learn the most from,” Vinson said. He said his strengths are in math and science, adding that to combat a perceived weakness in English, he needs to put extra time in.

Murray said getting help in classes she's struggled with, like math, is easy.

“Because we're so small you're able to work one-on-one with a lot of teachers here,” Murray said. “I think that's a big advantage to going to a smaller school.”

Murray has played volleyball all four years and has so far earned two varsity letters in basketball, in addition to her duties as senior class president and her positions on the National Honor Society and with the school's French Club.

McClelland said the key to his academic success is an inquisitive nature.

“I pride myself on asking a lot of questions,” McClelland said. “I'm constantly questioning the norms — I think that's where my success comes from.”

The two-year cross country runner, also a black belt in tae kwon do, said “We The People” will provide the stiffest academic challenge this year in a schedule which includes five AP courses.

For recognition as a National Merit finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal and earn SAT scores confirming the student's earlier performance on the qualifying test.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced the week of December 6-12, 2009, as National Influenza Vaccination Week. This event is designed to highlight the importance of continuing influenza vaccination, as well as foster greater use of flu vaccine through the months of December, January and beyond.

This flu vaccine protects against the three main flu strains that research indicates will cause the most illness during the flu season. The 2009-10 influenza vaccine can protect you from getting sick from these three viruses, or it can make your illness milder if you get a related but different influenza virus strain.

In general, anyone who wants to reduce their chances of getting the flu can get vaccinated. However, it is recommended by CDC and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that certain people should get vaccinated each year.

Most of these people are recommended for vaccination because they are at high risk of having serious flu complications or they live with or care for people at high risk for serious complications.

People recommended for seasonal influenza vaccination during the 2009-10 season remain the same as the previous season:

• Children aged 6 months up to their 19th birthday

• Pregnant women

• People 50 years of age and older

• People of any age with certain chronic medical conditions

• People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities

• People who live with or care for those at high risk for complications from flu, including: Health care workers, household contacts of persons at high risk for complications from the flu, household contacts and out of home caregivers of children less than six month of age.

Flu shots are being offered now in Incline Village at the following locations. Call them for price information.

• Village Pharmacy, 898 Tanager St. (775) 831-1133.
• Raley's Pharmacy, 930 Tahoe Blvd. (775) 831-3400.
• Incline Village Community Hospital, 880 Alder Ave. (775) 833-4100.