Newsletters 2014-15 Focus newsletter, [1] fall | Page 17

TRANSPORTATION — FOCUS ON SAFETY PAGE 17 View the winning district posters on our Facebook page. The Anoka-Hennepin winners, which include the state winners, are: • Kindergarten, Lucy Mertes, Madison Elementary School. (State winner) • First grade, Lydia Shaddrick, Madison Elementary School. • Second grade, Izabella Moses, Epiphany School. A number of the district's 2014 school bus safety poster contest winners posed for a photo after their recognition ceremony. From left: Lydia Shaddrick, Madeline Gams, Naomi Tu, Victoria Dzyuba, last year’s seventh-grade winner and 2013 national poster winner Hannah Svihel, Izabella Moses, Abigail Alvarado, Courtney Killian and Travis Chooraman. • Third grade, Madeline Gams, Epiphany School. • Fourth grade, Victoria Dzyuba, Madison Elementary School. ‘Be Smart, Be Seen:’ District’s 2014 School Bus Safety Poster Contest winners Anoka-Hennepin learned this summer that six students who were winners in the district’s 2014 School Bus Safety Poster Contest went on to receive awards in the state contest. The safety theme was: “Be smart — be seen. I wait in a safe place.” One of the winners — Jackson Middle School eighth-grader Naomi Tu — will also be moving on to the national contest, which will be judged in November. She also earned $50 as a prize for her entry. Other state winners are: Courtney Killian, a seventh-grader from Coon Rapids Middle School (CRMS), and Spencer Seiber, a ninth-grader from Anoka High School; second place, Travis Chooraman, a fifth-grader from McKinley Elementary School; Abigail Alvarado, a sixth-grader from CRMS; Cassie Fulks, a senior with the district’s Transition Plus program; and third place Lucy Mertes, a kindergartner at Madison Elementary School. Both Killian and Seiber also received $35 prizes for their first place entries. Finding it is easy! • Click on the lock and key icon on the district’s website. • Sign in with your username and password. (New usernames and temporary passwords for the new website were mailed to all families July 29. If you did not receive yours, call 763-506-HELP.) The NHS students were really involved from the beginning, according to Johnson. Not only did the students participate in trainings of their own, but they also did improvisation with a local theater to build their skills in facilitating the classroom discussions. “They then went into the PAWS classrooms and did skits with the trainings,” • Seventh grade, Courtney Killian, Coon Rapids Middle School. (State winner) Jeff Mueller, the district’s transportation safety coordinator, said he and the Transportation Safety Committee were very impressed during the voting process with the artistic ability of the students. “The creativity, design and the messages the students displayed were exceptional. It truly illustrates that the staff at our schools are teaching, promoting and reviewing the important rules of riding the school bus safely,” he said. ■ • Click on the My Student Information icon and login. • Click on your child’s photo. Scroll to the bottom of the screen to find your child’s transportation information. Only parents/guardians with whom the child lives will be able to access the child’s bus information when they log in with their password. The Information Systems and Transportations Departments worked together with Synergy to customize their student information system to accept and display information from Transfinder, the district’s updated transportation system. The goal is to provide everything in one easy location for parents so they don’t have to log in more than once to get the information they need. The new system will be available for use in mid August. ■ Bengal Bystanders cont. from page 10 “Hearing those NHS student ambassadors sharing those personal stories with freshman and seeing them open up was really special,” she said. “Some of the stories were really raw and emotional. Having the kids in there with their peers — it makes it real and powerful for everyone and there was a lot more buyin.” • Sixth grade, Abigail Alvarado, Coon Rapids Middle School. (State winner) Anoka-Hennepin originally announced its 11 poster contest winners back in March. Winners of the