0805 news

Academic Team headed to Governor's Cup

By Al Owens

The Lewis County Middle School Academic Team is going to the state Governor's Cup. That’s academically equivalent to the state tournaments in one of the major athletic sports.

The competition will be held at the Galt House in Louisville March 12-14. The team coaches are Bill Billman and Charity Burriss.

Last Wednesday afternoon the team practiced their Quick Recall abilities in the school library.

Team members are Blake Bivens, Scott Lewis, Casey Clark, Victoria Sullivan who is also the team captain, Michael Lewis, Megan Ruark, Casandra Tanner, Amanda Applegate and Mollie Caskey.

Billman said that this is the first time since the 90s that the Quick Recall Team has been to the state competition.

He said the season is rather long running from August through March.

The team competes during the season in the Limestone Academic League. Eight teams participated in the league this year.

In the District Governor's Cup the Quick Recall Team was the runner up. Scott Lewis earned fifth place in Math Written and third place in Science Written competition.
Victoria Sullivan placed fifth in Science Written and first in Arts and Humanities Written.
In the regional tournament Scott Lewis came in fourth in Science Written and Victoria Sullivan was the runner up in Science Written and also the runner up in Arts and Humanities Written.
The Quick Call Team was the runner up in the Regional and overall Lewis County came in third place in the region.
In addition to the Quick Recall Team the competition involves individual assessment in Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts and Arts and Humanities.
Lewis County is in the 72nd academic district and in the 18th region.
Blake Lewis asserts that he doesn’t get nervous about the competition but does get excited.

Magistrates hear road problems and updates

By Al Owens

Meeting in regular session last week the Lewis County Fiscal Court encountered a constant problem: maintaining the county roads.
A resident of Blue Springs appeared before the court to ask if the court could extend service to Blue Springs Road for about two more miles.
He said that the wind had blown his neighbor's barn into the creek totally blocking it, and now the water runs down the road.
County Judge Steve Applegate told him that he would have Road Foreman Dane Howard look at the road and report back to the court.
Randy Thornton of Willim Branch made about his fourth appearance before the court in two years asking for help with that road.
Thornton said that no rock was on the road and it is completely mud.
He asked, "How are we going to get it fixed?" Thornton became visibly upset during the discussion.
First District Magistrate Milt Stanfield told him that he isn't the only man that's got mud.
Stanfield stated, "I've got through roads in the same condition you're in, and you're on a dead end road."
He continued, "The boys are doing the best they can do."
Thornton replied, "I knew this was going to happen. If any of you, any of the magistrates, the newspaper or any one wants to ride up this road, show me that it's not in need of work, with a school bus on the road, I will stay out of this office."
Applegate assured Thornton that the court would look at the road again and re-evaluate the situation.
Records show that last year the county government spent $15,000 on Willim Branch for a piling project, repairing a slip on the road and adding gravel.
During a fiscal court meeting during the tenure of George Plummer as County Judged Executive, Stanfield made the comment, "Maintaining the roads in Lewis County with the money we have is like spreading one jar of peanut butter on a whole truckload of bread."
The court gave second reading to a Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance and adopted the legislation. It will go into effect upon publication in this paper and is also on file in the Flood Plain Office.
It applies to all special areas of flood hazard within the jurisdiction of the county as identified by the Federal Insurance Administration. The ordinance stipulates that no structure in those areas can be located, extended, converted or structurally altered without compliance with the ordinance’s provisions. A permit for any such work must be obtained from the Floodplain Administrator and the Kentucky Division of Water.
A fine of $250 for each day of violation will be levied against violators of the ordinance.
The court approved the 2004 Lewis County Sheriff's Department Fee Settlement. Sheriff Bill Lewis reported that the excess fees turned over to the county total $3661.44.
County Clerk Shirley Hinton also presented her department's fee settlement for 2004. She said that receipts for 2004 totaled $1,809,896.45.

Disbursements came to $1,789,546.81 leaving excess fees of $20,349.64 to be turned over to the county government. The court approved the settlement.

Three officials from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for District 9 attended the session and announced their department's recommendations for the Rural Secondary Road Program.

Katrina Bradley, Chief District Engineer introduced Randy Stull, Transportation Engineering Branch Manager for Maintenance and David Leach, the engineer for Lewis County to the court.

Stull reported that the allotment for the Rural Secondary Program for Lewis County for 2006 is $853,500. Of that total the Transportation Department has set aside $395,362 for routine maintenance and administration and the remainder of $458,138 for improvements.

The Transportation Cabinet will recommend KY 984 for improvement, which is Cabin Creek Road, from the Mason County line to the junction of 3309, a little over two miles, at an estimated cost of $113,000. The second priority is the resurfacing of KY 344 from Foxport at the Fleming County line to the junction of 559 at Petersville, a little over six and a half miles, and the estimate for that project is $355,000.

The court passed a resolution approving its priority list for next year. It includes six blacktop roads and one gravel road. Topping that list are Quicks Run, Cabin Creek Road and Murphy's Lane in Garrison.

The court approved a request by Peoples Self Help Housing to adopt Deerview Lane into the county road system. That request approval means that the Road Foreman will inspect the street to see if it meets all the requirements mandated by the county and will then make a recommendation to the court.

By approval of the court Loil Jordan was reappointed to the Garrison Fire Tax Board.

The court also approved a $250 donation to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life of Lewis County.

A contract amendment between HMB Professional Engineers, Inc. and Lewis County was approved for the amount of $4289.

The court gave first reading to a budget amendment ordinance to show the receipt and disbursement of unbudgeted funds totaling $75,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of Lewis County.

In a matter of routine business the court approved the annual order setting the maximum amount of the salaries for deputies and assistants.

In other routine matters the court approved the treasurer's report and the claims and transfers for the General Fund, Road and Bridge Fund and the Jail Accounts.

Stanfield presented a petition from the residents on Holly Road to the county judge. The petition requests that the road be repaved. Applegate announced that the Kentucky DOT is taking steps to repair Holly this year.

Applegate also announced that the next Lewis County Cleanup Week is scheduled for Sunday through Saturday, March 20-26. That week old tires and appliances can be taken to the county lot at no charge.

School Board hears success stories

By By Al Owens

Meeting in regular session Monday evening the Lewis County Board of Education heard several stories of success in the school district from Superintendent Maurice Reeder Jr.
Reeder noted that Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher said a lot of nice things about Lewis County Schools during the Grand Opening ceremonies of the Boys and Girls Club held Friday, February 11, at Clarksburg Christian Church. The school system provides after school transportation to and from the club. Average attendance at the club runs about 140 to 150 and has surpassed the originators expectations.
On Wednesday, February 9, a group from Page One Schools in Pennsylvania visited the high school. Lewis County was selected out of a nationwide search to find a school similar to that community's demographics but with test scores on the rise. The group was well impressed not only with the academic achievements in the district but also with the behavior and respect shown by the students.
Last Friday a representative from the National Trust Fund in Washington, DC, also visited the high school to observe the release day activities of the teachers and staff.
Reeder noted that Wednesday, February 23, Belinda Forman and Jendra Enix are scheduled to speak at KEDC about the high school reading program.
He also related that the one half day sessions have worked out well, and the teachers are really involved.
Kasey Nolen informed the board about improvements on the school's web site although the sites for the elementary schools need improvement. He said that the most important factors in creating a web site are usability, color, easy-to-read text, accessibility and page load time. In the near future a search feature will be added so a key word can be used to locate information quickly and easily.

Paula Lewis, principal at the Middle School and Richard Anderson, principal of Central Elementary made presentations to the board showing what strategies their schools are using to help students succeed. She told the board that the school’s 2004 Accountability Index Biennium Goal is 69 and the score was 68.9 missing the goal by .1 of a point.

At LCMS the targeted gap for the 2006 biennium is the free and reduced lunch group. This group only scored 58 on the index, far short of the goal of 69.

Lewis listed eleven strategies selected to help these students close the learning gap. Those strategies include continuing the At-Risk Committee and working with Ruby Payne’s book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty; continuing the Content Area Literacy Grant and implementing it school-wide during the 2005-2006 school year; going deeper instead of wider with professional development activities in order to build upon current practices rather than developing new ones and starting over; continue Team Planning Meetings to better meet the needs of all students; and continuing with club activities that target specific groups of students.

Richard Anderson at Central elementary said that his school has also selected free and reduced lunch students as its target gap.

The kindergarten is using a word list from the books in the Start To Read Series. All the kindergarten students are offered the opportunity to participate. The word list is sent home, and the parents are encouraged to help their child learn the list. After the students read a book they are permitted to take a test on it. Anderson said that the results have been remarkable and encouraging.

Anderson told the board that Central has just purchased a site license from the Essential Skills Classroom Software Sight Word List to be used for kindergarten students. This program divides reading into six levels and teaches word discrimination and the concept of word families.

On the primary level every free and reduced student scoring below the 50 percentile in grades 1-3 have been identified as a target gap group. The teachers have implemented researched-based intervention strategies either through one-on-one tutoring or Earobics for intervention.

In the fourth grade the teacher has identified and targeted 15 fourth graders to receive intervention strategies designed to move them from the Novice or Apprentice level to that of Proficient.

Anderson said that Ms. Lewis is doing one-on-one tutoring using Delta Science content for reading. Mr. Stapleton is doing one-on-one tutoring using reading and writing strategies. The Soar to Success and Early Success programs are implemented during the mornings with Special Needs teachers Baker, Lancaster and Cooper.

He said that all the fourth and fifth graders reading below grade lever are using Earobics either in the classroom or during regular scheduled computer lab.

The board approved a BG1 for the Lewis County Middle School. It permits the addition of a make up air unit and a fire alarm system at a cost of $125,000. The board approved the KISTA equipment and security agreement. The board purchases its school buses through this program.

The board also approved the gap reduction targets for the district. Each school has selected certain categories of students that have a gap in test scores compared to other groups. The teachers and administrators then plan educational strategies for the lower scoring groups to bring them up to par with the rest of the students.

The board moved to stop the transportation of Head Start students as of July 1, 2005. Reeder cited rising costs, reduction in school funds by the state and problems with some of the monitors as reasons for dropping the service. He pointed out that Head Start is a federal and not a state program, and that Lewis County is the only school system around that has been providing transportation for the program. All other Head Start locations provide their own transportation.

Photo Catch

Dan'l Sisson/Lewis County Herald

Members of the VFW Monte Lewis Stamm Memorial Post 5438 funeral detail are, left to right, Commander Kevin Hilger, Executive Officer Kenneth Skidmore, PLT Leader Charlie Ison, Don Skidmore, PLT Leader Kibbey Hilger, Homer Wilburn, Junior Sizemore, Barry Reeder and PLT Leader Larry Logan. Members not pictured include Jack Thomas, Wayne Clark, Lloyd Spear, Steve Williamson, Raymont Bolander, Rick Underwood and Wayne Gilliam.

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