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District Information Vision The Bobcat Way: 100% of our students will graduate and be fully prepared for a post-secondary education. Board of Directors William Gingerich, President Margie Walker, Vice-President Vanessa Snell, Treasurer Albert Byrnes Kevin Gebhart Joseph Griffith Christine Hess Linda Morningstar Chris Neiman The Board of School Directors meets on the first and third Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Administra-tive Center, unless noted otherwise. Administration Jody L. Nace, Superintendent Stacey A. Sidle, Asst. Superintendent Shawn D. Minnich, Asst. Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Brian K. Geller, Director of Operations Contact Information Administrative Center 266-3667 Conewago Elementary 266-1644 York Haven Elementary 266-5007 Orendorf Elementary 266-5621 Mt. Wolf Elementary 266-6570 Spring Forge Intermediate 266-9833 Shallow Brook Intermediate 266-7030 Northeastern Middle School 266-3676 Northeastern High School 266-3644 District Website www.nesd.k12.pa.us Social Media twitter.com/NESD (@NESD) www.facebook.com/NortheasternSD Northeastern Highlights is published six times per year. Questions or com-ments may be directed to Kim Brenner-Zirkle, Communications Coordinator, at zirklek@nesd.k12.pa.us or 266-3667.

On June 2, the Northeast-ern Board of School Direc-tors unanimously ap-proved a final, balanced b u d g e t w i t h a $54,489,387 expenditure spending limit for the 2011-12 school year. Given the fact that the district originally faced a $5 million deficit with a $1.8 million reduction in state funding, the board sought to minimize the financial im-pact on Northeastern stakeholders by creating an equitable, long-term financial plan. This plan includes spending cuts, no use of general fund balance, and a real estate tax increase equal to the state index to offset the reduction in funding com-ing to the school district. Final budget cuts total $3.7 million. Employees at each level are taking part in various wage concessions. This includes a voluntary administra-tor salary freeze, a teacher contract step freeze, and reduced raises for all non-union employees. These wage concessions equal $580,000 in savings to the district. Fifteen em-

2011-12 Final Budget Approved ployees have resigned or retired this year, and 12 of those positions are not be-ing filled, resulting in ap-proximately $1 million in savings. A debt restructur-

ing plan will save the dis-trict over $1 million of debt service payments during this year. In addi-

tion, each building and department will reduce their budget by 10%, and the district will be holding off on re-placing computers for one year. The board voted not to exceed the taxing index stipulated by the state of 1.9%, which is lower than the tax levied on the Northeastern commu-nity in the 2010-11 school year. The final, approved millage rate is 23.72 mils. This equates to a 1.9% tax in-crease which is an additional $44 of school taxes for any home valued at $100,000. As a result of the Home-stead Farmstead Exclusion, qualified homeowners will see a $204.23 re-duction in real estate taxes for the upcoming school year. To view the distr ict ’s f inal budget, vis it www.nesd.k12.pa.us.

A group of 12 seniors at Northeastern High School are planning to honor World War II veterans again. In May, the students planned the first Honor Bus trip as their senior project.

Fifty-seven WWII veterans, students, and family members traveled to Washington D.C. to see the WWII Me-morial and Arlington National Ceme-tery. A second trip is planned for Sat-urday, November 19, 2011. The students are seeking inter-ested WWII veterans who would like to participate in the trip. The

veterans will travel by coach bus. They will be treated to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Family members will be invited to attend breakfast and the celebration dinner banquet that will take place when they return. Vet-erans will be paired with a student “buddy” for the day. They will also receive a commemorative DVD. If you are or know of a WWII veteran that would like to participate, please con t a c t Duane Swa r t z a t swartzd@nesd.k12.pa.us or call Northeastern High School at (717) 266-3644. Donations are also needed to help cover the cost of the trip.

November Honor Bus Trip Planned for Veterans

Northeastern Highlights

Brian Geller, Director of Operations

kk Page 3

Heather Friedah Grade 5,

Shallow Brook

Lynette Lehman Spanish, MS/HS

John Rau Music, Conewago

Jeffrey Plummer Math, MS

Hillary Hartley Learning Support, MS

Jaclyn Gross Spanish, HS

William Spangler Emotional Support,

Spring Forge

Lindsey Clark (ETS) Science, HS

Adrienne Cleland (ETS) English/Reading, MS

Travis Clemens (LTS) 6th Grade,

Shallow Brook

Caitlyn Eckenrode (LTS) Learning Support,

Spring Forge

Julia Koch (ETS) English, HS

Andrew Krape (LTS) Music, York Haven

Lisa Lucas (LTS) Learning Support, MS

Kaitlyn Myers (LTS) 4th Grade,

Spring Forge

Brittany Shaud (ETS) Guidance Counselor,

Orendorf

Erin Stewart (LTS) 3rd Grade, Orendorf

Rebecca Watt Speech Therapist,

Mt. Wolf

Lauren Ramspacher Learning Support,

Conewago

Northeastern Highlights

Welcome,

New Teachers!

LTS—Long Term Substitute ETS—Extended Term Substitute

The Bobcat Foundation The Bobcat Foun-dation is a non-profit organization that partners with the district to pro-vide for the great-

est needs of the students. The goal of the foundation is to raise dollars to support academic, cultural, and athletic necessities that may not be covered by the district’s operating budget. The Bobcat Foundation is dedicated to offering stu-dents opportunities that would not otherwise be possible. The foundation reaches out to indi-viduals and businesses to encour-age a lasting connection with

Special thanks are extended to the following people who helped make The Bobcat Foundation Car Show and Baby Buffalo Patty Drop a success: Tom Kessler and members of the York College Wrestling Team, Diane Wolf, Bryan Stephens, Stacey Quinlisk, Margie Walker, Dr. Robert Tabachini, Dr. Dennis Baughman, Chris Izzo, Jes-sica Sands, Dawn & Bill Brenner, Dave Zirkle, Dr. Jody Nace, members of the NHS Golf Team, Tim Howell/the NHS Marching Band, the Revolution Corvette Club, Forge Hill Farms, Giant, K&K Coffee, and Concepts-Carlisle. Thanks also go to the event vendors and sponsors: Beshore & Koller (Grand Sponsor), 31 Gifts (Nancy Zayas/Kristie Koons), Tastefully Simple (Jo Ann Shearer), F&S Transportation, Athletic Chiropractic Center (Dr. Baker), Kitchen Saver, Fat Boy Concessions/Parma, Aunt Lydia’s Pretzels, Glacier Flakes, and Bricker’s Fries.

Congratulations to the winners of the Baby Buffalo Patty Drop and Golf Shootout:

1st Prize: Scott Steimel ($400) 2nd Prize: Kathy Minnich ($200) 3rd Prize: Heather Mackley ($100)

the district. Businesses can gain exposure through placing ads in the district newsletter or calendar, hanging banners in school athletic arenas, sponsoring needs, or in-vesting in naming rights for district venues (also available in honor/memory of a loved one). The Bob-cat Foundation is also eligible to receive funds via PA’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC). Individual donations are welcomed and may be offered to fulfill the greatest needs of the district or benefit a particular school; allocated to enhance aca-demic departments; or earmarked to support a specific extracurricu-lar/co-curricular program.

Gifts are vital and enable The Bob-cat Foundation to offer more aca-demic, cultural, and athletic oppor-tunities to our students. No matter the amount, your donation can make an impact! Please contribute to The Bobcat Foundation! Send your tax-deductible donation (made payable to The Bobcat Foundation) to The Bobcat Foun-dation, 41 Harding Street, Man-chester, PA 17345. Questions may be directed to Kim Brenner-Zirkle, executive director, at (717) 266-3667 or zirklek@nesd.k12.pa.us. Please visit the foundation’s web-site at www.nesd.k12.pa.us/foundation.

Sales managers Rick Schaffner and Todd Ahrens of Beshore & Koller Inc. present Kim Brenner-Zirkle, executive director of The Bobcat Foundation, with a check for $1,000. The dealership was the Grand Sponsor of The Bobcat Foundation Car Show.

Car Show & Baby Buffalo Patty Drop Raises Dollars for Education

Jeffrey Hines, CEO of the York Water Company, presents Kim Brenner-Zirkle, executive director of The Bobcat Foundation, with a $7,500 check. The funds were offered through PA’s Educational Im-provement Tax Credit Program (EITC).

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updates!

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Students at Mt. Wolf Elementary School celebrated Patriot Day by wearing red, white, and blue and listening to patriotic music. A rainy day hampered the all-school flag raising ceremony, but it did not dampen spirits. Third grade students spoke over the morning announcements regarding the purpose and meaning of Patriot Day. Students at all grade levels created patriotic themed crafts led by guidance counselor, Mrs. Kinsinger. They also discussed the importance and meaning of the day.

In the picture to the left, third grade teacher, Mrs. Donnelly, gives tips to third grader Madyson Knokey about her craft project. Be-

low, third grader Andrew Blankenship shows the patriotic pa-per lantern that he created. Kindergarteners and first graders made patriotic windsocks and second graders made firecracker crowns.

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Important Dates to Remember

Mt. Wolf Elementary Celebrates Patriot Day

October 10—No School (Columbus Day) October 12—Special Education Parent Workshop @ 6 p.m. October 15 & 16—NHS Underclassmen Play @ 7 p.m. October 16—Manchester/Mt. Wolf Halloween Parade October 17—NESD School Board meeting @ 7 p.m. October 19—Early Dismissal October 27—End of First Marking Period October 27—Halloween/Fall Festivities (K—6) October 28 & 31—No School November 4—Report Card Distribution (K—6) November 4 & 5—Basketball Cheerleading Craft Show November 7—NHS Report Card Distribution November 7—NESD School Board meeting @ 7 p.m. November 9 & 10—Early Dismissal for Conferences November 11—Battle of the Buildings @ 7 p.m. (NHS Gym) November 16—Early Dismissal November 18—Elementary Parent Visitation Day November 18 & 19—NHS Upperclassmen Play @ 7 p.m. November 21—NESD School Board meeting @ 7 p.m. November 23—Early Dismissal November 24—28—No School (Happy Thanksgiving!) November 29—Classes Resume

Special Education Department Offers Workshop for Parents

Helping parents ensure their child’s success

The Special Education Department plans to offer a parent workshop on October 12th from 6:00—7:30 p.m. at the Administration Center. The focus of this workshop is to provide parents with ideas on how to be supportive of their children at home with home-work, study skills, and building an effective line of communication with the school to ensure their child’s success.

new report cards will be in place beginning with the first report card in November. These new report cards provide a more de-tailed account of the skills a child has mas-tered and those that they have yet to learn. A separate sign-off sheet stating that you received the report card and a place to in-clude questions or comments will be sent

home with each report card and then returned to school. Please remember that the report cards are just one way of communicating with your child’s

teacher and you are encouraged to contact them throughout the school year whenever a question or comment arises, or simply to check on your child’s progress.

The Northeastern School District has re-vised the elementary and intermediate re-port cards. A report card committee, as well as various curriculum groups, met throughout the 2010-2011 school year with the goal of creating a report card that com-municates student’s current knowledge and specific abilities. We held many discussions about how to best meet this goal and examined numerous report cards from other school districts. A draft of the report card was piloted with ap-proximately 40 students during the fourth quarter of the 2010-2011 school year. Parents and teachers com-pleted a survey about the effectiveness of the new report cards. We are pleased to announce that the

Curriculum Focus

Northeastern School District is grateful for a $10,000 anonymous donation that was made to the Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center to be used specifically for our students. This donation will allow students in grades 1-6 to participate in the Byrnes Health Education Center’s outreach program. Representatives will travel to our schools to present the information, which saves the district the cost of transporting students to the center. Topics include drug education, team building, bullying pre-vention, nutrition and fitness, and human growth and development.

The high school physical education department was the recipient of a Highmark Healthy High 5 Super+ School Challenge Grant in the amount of $49,052. The funds were split into a two year cycle. The main goal of the first year was to obtain data that reflected student effort during car-diovascular workouts, so heart rate monitors were purchased. This year, a cardio fitness center was created that is comprised of safe and easy to use equipment. For the 2011-12 school year, the fitness center moved into the auxiliary gymnasium. With the added space, the new area is equipped with 10 stationary

Northeastern Highlights

Anonymous Donor Funds Visits from Byrnes Health Education Center

Grant Funds Transform NHS Fitness Center bikes, five ellipticals, four treadmills, two ARC train-

ers, one hand bike, and a complete set of weight ma-chines. The room is fur-nished with three flat screen TVs to create a nice, moti-vating area for students. There is also a rock climbing wall and agility stations that use mini hurdles, agility lad-ders, jump boxes, five dot drills, or medicine balls. There is also space where students can watch and fol-low fitness DVDs. The origi-nal weight room is now used specifically for free weights. This is a safe space where

students who are advanced in personal training can exercise. A five year plan is in place to update, main-tain, and add to the new fitness center.

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Dr. Shawn Minnich, Assistant Superintendent

of Curriculum & Instruction

,

York Haven Elementary School is getting a new dish machine, thanks to a $25,000 govern-ment grant. The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) received $720,976 to distrib-ute to schools for food service equipment. In order to be eligible for the grant, the request had to improve the energy efficiency of the food service operation to drive down energy costs, improve the food safety of food served in the school meals programs, expand partici-pation in school meals program, and/or enhance the nutritional quality of school meals. York Haven Elementary was one of 54 schools in the state chosen to receive the funds. The dish machine is required to be in place and functional by January 2012. According to Kim Alessandroni, Director of Child Nutrition Services, “This is an exciting time for our depart-ment as we work to save money and become more energy efficient.”

Students are required by PA compulsory attendance laws to attend school a minimum of 180 days each year. The Northeastern Board of School Directors considers the fol-lowing conditions to constitute as reasonable cause for an excused absence from school:

Illness Quarantine Recovery from an accident Required court attendance Death in the family Educational trips

Any student absent from school for any reason other than those listed above will be considered as having an unlawful absence. The following are examples of excuses that will NOT be excused: oversleeping, a hunting/fishing trip, any trip without prior permission, suspension of bus privileges, or helping out at home. The “No Child Left Behind” legislation has caused districts across the county to reexamine the procedures and policies that govern our operation. Each school is required to main-tain an attendance rate of 90% or higher. When schools possess an attendance rate lower than 90%, the building is forced to implement an Improvement Plan that is designed to remedy this situation. Being proactive in this effort, NESD made several changes to the attendance procedures in August 2004. Please review this policy and contact your child’s principal with questions.

During the first semester, when a student accumulates five days of absence, a “Letter of Concern” will be mailed to the parent/guardian. It will indicate our con-cern for your child’s attendance. During the first semester, students who accumulate seven days of absence during the first semester will be required to submit a doctor’s note for any absence that

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Child Nutrition Services Department Receives $25K Grant

Policy Spotlight: Northeastern School District’s Attendance Policy follows. Students who accumulate their tenth day of absence during the second semester will be required to submit a doctor’s note for any absence that follows. The district will not include days for court appear-ances, religious holidays, funerals, and pre-approved educational trips when determining the need for a doctor’s note. All absences of three days or longer require a doctor’s note, regardless of the student's attendance record. Students will be permitted—three days after their re-turn to school—to produce an excuse for any absence from school. An absence from school, which is not supported by a written note from parents within three school days of the absence, will be charged as unex-cused. Students accumulating three days of unexcused ab-sences will receive an official warning. This warning will be mailed to the parent/guardian and will not be issued again until the student moves to a different grade level at a different building in the district. Once this warning is issued, any unexcused absences will require the district to issue a citation for violation of state attendance laws. A new citation will be issued for every day of unexcused absence. Please note that the first citation will cost $25 and every violation thereafter could cost an additional $300, plus court fees. All requests for Pre-Approved Educational Trips will be approved for no more than five days. This opportunity is available once per year and must be approved by the principal and superintendent at least two weeks in advance. It is the expectation of NESD that children attend school regularly. Students absent from school do not receive the instruction necessary to achieve mastery of the standards established by the district. Questions concerning your child’s attendance should be ad-dressed by the building principal.

Kim Alessandroni, Director of Child Nutrition Services

The Superintendent’s Message

Our thoughts and prayers go out to families who have experienced significant loss due to the recent flooding. Our students and staff members have been reaching out to those families who have been displaced by the flood, and are working to provide support to those who experienced significant damage. It never ceases to amaze me how our community deeply cares for one another. During the days of the flood, it became necessary to send our students home early, and to close school for two days. I would like to review the ways in which we will communicate with our families regarding school closures. Global Connect telephone call—We will make a district wide Global Connect call.

Please also know that we have discovered that especially during weather emergencies, the phone lines are not always operational or messages may be difficult to understand. Please do not depend on this as the only way your family will be notified. We also still use the “old fashioned” media sources as well. Media Sources—Announcements will be posted at the following TV stations: WGAL-TV 8, FOX43, WHP-CBS 21, abc27-WHTM, WITF-33 and the following radio stations: 910 WSBA, WINK 103, 96.1 WSOX, 98.5 The Peak. Internet Sources—Announcements will be posted on the homepage of our website at www.nesd.k12.pa.us and on both our Facebook and Twitter pages (see below). It is especially important for families to update your school office personnel of any changes in emergency contact numbers. Currently, our Global Connect system only houses one emergency number. We are looking to expand this option for the future. Please know that we understand the importance of communicating clearly with our families during an emergency and are constantly reviewing our practices to improve those systems of communication.

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