Fort Zumwalt School District

The Fort Zumwalt School District is scheduling screening appointments for children entering kindergarten in the fall of 2012. Early screening is beneficial toward preparing children for kindergarten. 

An assessment of large and small muscle skills, speech and language use, and concept knowledge will take place as well as vision and hearing screening. This vision screening does not meet the new state law requirements for the comprehensive vision examination. The process takes about one hour.

Day and evening appointments are available. To schedule a child's appointment, call 636-474-8445 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Francis Howell School District

• The Francis Howell Central High School football team and coaching staff lent a hand to the Joplin High School football program on their annual trip in late July.

Joplin is cleaning up after a devastating tornado damaged the city. The coaches and team members were housed in a middle school gymnasium and worked for two days in various capacities.

The Central High activities department raised $1,000 for the Joplin relief fund. The funds will be used by the Joplin Activities Department to purchase supplies and equipment for the upcoming sports season.

• Francis Howell North High School students Ben Cradick and Sarah Luebbert; Michael Barbara of Howell Central High School; and Justin Jacob of Howell High School were chosen from a pool of 120 area applicants, along with 25 others, to attend the 2011 Walgreens St. Louis College of Pharmacy Explorers Outreach Program.

All participating students spent 10 days at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy taking an introduction to pharmacy class, visiting different area pharmacies and learning about different types of medications. The remaining days of the program were spent working in a local Walgreens pharmacy as a licensed pharmacy technician. 

The outreach program is designed to help students learn about different types of pharmacy careers. 

• The Francis Howell School District Peabody Logos Leaders in Education are asking for help in choosing an educator of the year.

Six district educators were recently selected by a committee of educators and corporate and community leaders. Peabody Energy wants the Francis Howell community, students and faculty to share the next phase of the program by voting to choose the educator of the year.

To participate, join the Peabody Energy Leaders Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/PeabodyEnergyLeaders) to vote. The winner will be announced Aug. 30 during an awards dinner and reception at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark. Voting ends Aug. 26.

The six educators are Darlene Ederer, a third-grade teacher at Central Elementary; Melanie Hiemenz, a sixth-grade special education case manager and special education teacher at Francis Howell Middle School; Laurie Fay, an English teacher at Central High School; Brandy Leffeler, a special education teacher at Howell High School; Kathy McMillan, a literature specialist at Becky-David Elementary; and Sara White, an English special education teacher at Francis Howell North High School.

• Neel Kothari, a senior at Francis Howell Central High School, is the receipt of the LMI Aerospace/D3 Technologies Award for Excellence in Research for his research, titled "Development of Pdots for Near Infrared Molecular Imaging and Treatment of Tumors."

The award is presented to students who distinguished themselves during the 2011 Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Kothari is one of 78 students who spent six weeks conducting intensive research with St. Louis-area professionals and professors. 

STARS introduces high school juniors and seniors to various aspects of the scientific enterprise as practiced by scientists in academic, private or corporate research institutions. UMSL partners with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur, Saint Louis University, Solae and Washington University in St. Louis to provide research opportunities for the participants.

The students researched everything from neural circuits in the brain to the effects of early life stress on learning to improving satellite efficiency.

Fifty-three faculty members from the participating academic institutions, three scientists from Solae and five scientists from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center volunteered as mentors for STARS. Following six weeks of research, Kothari presented his research paper to peers, parents and research mentors.

Wentzville School District

• A $50,000 grant from MasterCard Worldwide to the Wentzville School District has helped to fund additional training for teachers in the Singapore Math program. Since Singapore math was introduced into the elementary school curriculum in 2008 (also funded through a grant from MasterCard), improvements in student test scores have outpaced the state average.

Test data shows that since 2008, district students in grades 3-5 have scored about 10 points higher on MAP tests than the state average for those grade levels.

As elementary students trained in Singapore Math start to move into middle school, math teachers in grades 6-8 will be trained in the program.

This summer 25 middle and high school teachers took part in a comprehensive Singapore Math strategies course that incorporated fractions, decimals, ratios, equations, problem solving and methods for transitioning these skills through Algebra I.

Continuing professional development was also provided for 87 elementary teachers who observed experts in Singapore Math demonstrate lessons to students. In all, more than 350 teachers have been trained in the program.

MasterCard has supported the Singapore Math program since 2007 and recently donated 80 used laptop computers to the Wentzville School District.

• Hundreds of families in the Wentzville School District took part in the first Wentzville Back to School Fair Aug. 13 at Holt High School.

The district teamed with the Lake Saint Louis-Dardenne Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce and Wentzville Chamber of Commerce to host the fair, which featured 76 local businesses and nonprofit groups.

The event was free to families and included booth activities, carnival games, bounce houses, health screenings and free back to school supplies. Thousands of dollars' worth of school supplies and other services were given away, a portion of which were donated by Operation Food Search. The remainder were paid for by businesses and groups participating in the fair.

• Ashley Barton, a fourth-grade teacher at Peine Ridge Elementary School, has been selected to serve as honorary grand marshal of the Wabash Days Community Club Parade.

Barton has taught in the Wentzville district for six years. At Peine Ridge she serves as the grade level chair, professional development co-chair and PTO teacher liaison. Along with participation on a number of school and district committees, she was instrumental in implementing the Singapore math program.

Now in its eighth year, Wabash Days is a celebration of the town's history and railroad heritage. The parade is scheduled to begin at noon Aug. 27 at Budget Towing on Luetkenhaus Boulevard and move west on Pearce Blvd, left on Linn, right on West Main Street and end at the Wentzville Community Club.

St. Charles Community College

• St. Charles Community College will undergo a comprehensive evaluation Nov. 7-9 by a team representing The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

SCC has been accredited by the commission since 1987.

The commission is one of six agencies in the United States that provides institutional accreditation on a regional basis. Institutional accreditation evaluates an entire institution and accredits it as a whole. Other agencies provide accreditation for specific programs.

The evaluation team will visit the college to gather evidence that the self-study is thorough and accurate. The team will recommend to the commission a continuing status for the college; following a review process, the commission will take the final action.

The public is invited to submit comments regarding the college to Public Comment on St. Charles Community College, The Higher Learning Commission 30 N. LaSalle St., suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60602.

Written, signed comments may be submitted online at www.ncahlc.org/wrapped/thirdparty.php by Oct. 7.

• Fall classes in social dance will begin Sept. 11 at St. Charles Community College. The classes, held one night each week for eight weeks, will be in the College Center dance studio on the SCC campus, 4601 Mid Rivers Mall Drive in Cottleville. Instructors Linda Landwehr and Stan Mayer are former professional champion dancers with more than 25 years of experience in dance competition and instruction.

Instruction is available in various dance forms, including foxtrot, waltz, rumba, swing, jitterbug and tango, for all skill levels, ages 14 and up. Registration costs $48 per person.

Social dance classes are offered through the Continuing Education Department of the SCC Division of Corporate and Community Development. Register online at www.stchas.edu/learnforlife or call 636-922-8233.