Loveland Magazine

LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

Without fear or favor

Since 2004

Tag: students

  • #TigerCare: Hope Squad comes to Loveland Schools

    #TigerCare: Hope Squad comes to Loveland Schools

    By Eric Dool, Loveland Director of Student Services

    It is built into our district goals: Tiger Care. When considering all that Care could embody for our students, resilience – the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness, and self-efficacy – one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task, stand out as being of paramount importance in preparing our children for life’s challenges. Unfortunately, for some students, a lack of resilience and self-efficacy, combined with episodic and/or long-term mental-health needs, results in suicidal ideation. The reality is frightening, and has touched every single school throughout the nation. However, we are not without hope.

    Loveland is truly blessed with a wealth of caring staff and mental-health supports to meet the ongoing needs of our students. Yet, when considering the danger posed by suicidal thought, even those supports do not feel like enough.

    Loveland is truly blessed with a wealth of caring staff and mental-health supports to meet the ongoing needs of our students. Yet, when considering the danger posed by suicidal thought, even those supports do not feel like enough. We must do more. We will do more. To that end, over the next several months, Loveland will be embarking upon a partnership with Grant Us Hope (https://www.grantushope.org/) and Hope Squad (https://hopesquad.com/) to provide our students with the tools needed to join us on the front line in doing all that we can to identify and intervene with suicidal thought and behavior.

    Hope Squads – are trained to identify suicide warning signs in their peers, and to alert adults to those signs.

    Grant Us Hope, the official Hope Squad Founding Agency of Ohio, has partnered with Hope Squad’s founder, Dr. Greg Hudnall, to bring the model to the Greater Cincinnati region, and eventually the entire state. Building upon a researched-based model, student groups – or Hope Squads – are trained to identify suicide warning signs in their peers, and to alert adults to those signs. District staff are also trained in the model, and serve in the capacity of organizing and guiding as advisors. To be clear, Hope Squad members are empowered to seek help and save a life; Hope Squad members are not taught to act as counselors. This group of students will be educated on how to recognize signs of suicide contemplation, and how to properly and respectfully report this to an adult.

    This group of students will be educated on how to recognize signs of suicide contemplation, and how to properly and respectfully report this to an adult.

    In May, school counselors from Loveland Intermediate School, Loveland Middle School, and Loveland High School will receive training to equip them with the skills to serve as advisors. Staff training, parent meetings, and student selection and training will follow in the late fall of 2018. Hope Squad will then launch as an official Tiger Care program in January 2019.

    If you have any questions about Loveland’s participation in this program, I invite you to contact me directly.

    Eric Dool dooler@lovelandschools.org

    Director of Student Services
    Loveland City School District

    Wildflower House — where women & girls bloom!

  • Award-winning: Loveland High School Teaching Professions Academy

    Award-winning: Loveland High School Teaching Professions Academy

    Award-winning LHS Teaching Professions Academy students with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria at the Educators Rising Conference.

    Andrea Conner is Director of Secondary Programs Loveland City School District

    By Andrea Conner

    Take 40 Loveland High School (LHS) students with a passion for education and a teacher with a vision to not only provide rich course offerings for students but also help develop future educators, and you have Loveland’s new Teaching Professions Academy (TPA). That’s right – in Loveland, we are teaching Tiger students how to become Tiger teachers for their future careers.

    This program, designed and instructed by Bre Sambuchino, gives our high school students the unique opportunity to make real-world connections between the curriculum and instructional strategies they study in this new class when they apply them to field-placement experiences within our district. From Loveland Elementary School to Loveland Intermediate School, TPA students get hands-on experience learning the different skills teachers must possess to be successful at the various levels of student development. TPA students work together to prepare real, vibrant lessons for our young Tigers – taking care and pride in representing their program with professionalism.

    A table-top sized tree quickly grew with various versions of what might be the best technique to use to create a tree that both captured the passion of the group while still making certain it was versatile enough to be transported.

    The pinnacle of the program’s successful first year was evident on March 15 when the TPA students and Ms. Sambuchino traveled to the EdRising Ohio conference at Ohio Dominican. TPA students participated in various speaking and lesson-planning competitions and worked as a group to create their chapter display with the theme “Where do we grow from here?” A table-top sized tree quickly grew with various versions of what might be the best technique to use to create a tree that both captured the passion of the group while still making certain it was versatile enough to be transported. “Their ideas continued to grow with the tree!” commented Sambuchino.

    The conference and the tree certainly delivered in true LHS TPA fashion! The tree won first place (chapter display), and LHS Senior Maddy Butts won second place in the STEM lesson planning and delivery competition teaching a robust “states of matter” lesson to her field placement class. She is now a National Qualifier, and she will be competing in Orlando, Fla., in June. In addition to these accolades, Loveland High School’s program was awarded as an Honors Chapter, one of 12 out of 64 total state chapters. The students, along with their award-winning tree, even made State Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria’s Twitter feed!

    Success like this isn’t based on luck. It is the result of focused, strategic effort; the LHS TPA is the first of a series of Academic Pathways the Loveland City School District is developing to prepare our students for tomorrow, today. It is our mission, in action – and – it is award-winning.

    RP Diamond Printing & Embroidery

      RP Diamond is the exclusive retailer of LOVELAND HIGH SCHOOL SPIRIT WEAR Welcome to  RP Diamond Printing & Embroidery located at 370 Loveland Madeira Road
  • Apply now for ACLU’s Summer Advocacy Institute

    Apply now for ACLU’s Summer Advocacy Institute

    Are you a rising high school junior or senior interested in gaining political and grassroots experience?

    From free speech to privacy and from mass incarceration to voting rights, students will become experts on the issues currently being confronted in the United States’ courts and political arena.

    The ACLU’s Summer Advocacy Institute will bring together a diverse group of students entering their junior and senior years of high school from across the United States to participate in an advanced, firsthand learning experience for the next generation of social justice advocates. Through an intensive 8-day program (July 18-25, 2018) in Washington D.C., students will learn directly from lawyers, lobbyists, community activists, and other experts working to defend the civil rights and liberties critical to a free and open society. The Close Up Foundation — a DC-based civic-education nonprofit — will serve as a partner with the ACLU to provide substantive experiential learning opportunities that help students hone their skills as issue-focused campaigners.

    In classroom sessions, lectures, and daily debates, students will explore the complex nature of defending and advancing civil liberties as well as examine the importance of these freedoms in our current society. Students will be immersed in the real world of political and legal decision making in Washington, D.C., meeting with elected officials and/or congressional staff and community organizers as well as participating in workshops with civil rights pioneers and other current youth activists.

    APPLY NOW

    Scholarships are available.

    If a Loveland Area student qualifies, we are committed to helping raise $’s beyond what is provided by the financial assistance available.

    Wildflower House — where women & girls bloom!

  • Loveland School’s donations serve more than 200 Loveland families during the holiday season

    Loveland School’s donations serve more than 200 Loveland families during the holiday season

    Loveland Intermediate School and Loveland Middle School students walked donations from their buildings down the street to the L.I.F.E. Pantry during the 2017 Pass-it-On drive, an annual tradition. (Provided Photo)

    Tiger Family helps to ‘Pass-it-On’ during annual food drive

    Loveland, Ohio – A Holiday Box with all of the fixings – decorative holiday napkins included – with enough food to serve families for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah. That was the gift to more than 200 Loveland families thanks to a community pulling together, and a 17-year partnership between the Loveland City School District and Loveland L.I.F.E. Pantry. The Tiger Family donated nearly 8,000 items during the November Pass-it-On donation drive.

    “Thanks to the enormous efforts of our team working with the school – the teachers and students, parents, and police officers, the L.I.F.E. Pantry was able to serve 207 area families,” said L.I.F.E. Pantry Director Linda Bergholz. “The blessings of this community are abundant, and we are both humbled and grateful for the outpouring of our school community.”

    Families picked up the Holiday Boxes from the pantry on Saturday, Nov. 18. The pantry provided families with additional fresh items, some donated from area businesses, as well as gift certificates for the main course for the two meals. This year, the pantry also provided recipe cards for each family so they could make traditional holiday foods, like green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and even hot cocoa with marshmallows, too – and clients could taste-test the delicious recipes at box pick-up.  

    “Our Preschool through fourth graders collected over 2,500 items towards making winter holiday meal baskets for families right here in our own district,” said Stacy Fitzgibbon, LEPTA Pass-it-On chairperson.

    “Our Preschool through fourth graders collected over 2,500 items towards making winter holiday meal baskets for families right here in our own district,” said Stacy Fitzgibbon, LEPTA Pass-it-On chairperson. “This is my third year helping with Pass-it-On, and the generosity this community exhibits with its time and resources always amazes me.”

    “For the 17th year, Pass-it-On has been a great partnership between Loveland Schools and L.I.F.E. Food Pantry,” said Lauren Aiello, M/INT Pass-it-On Chairperson. “The fifth through eighth grades at Loveland Intermediate School and Loveland Middle School collected over 5,200 items toward the holiday baskets. That is twice what was requested! Loveland’s generosity to its neighbors is inspiring, and shows just one aspect of our wonderful community. We couldn’t do any of this without the families taking part, teachers supporting our efforts, and the volunteers who help pull all of this together.”

  • Internationally recognized student social skills authority speaks to Loveland educators

    Internationally recognized student social skills authority speaks to Loveland educators

    Michelle Garcia Winner part of district’s ongoing professional development

    Loveland, Ohio – Monday, Oct. 9, Loveland educators focused on their own learning district-wide as internationally recognized author and speaker Michelle Garcia Winner presented about social thinking. Her mission is to help people develop their social competencies to better connect with others and live happier, more meaningful lives.

    “Loveland is very fortunate to be able to bring Michelle Garcia Winner before our staff,” said Eric Dool, Loveland director of student services. “Michelle is widely known as an expert in the development of social competencies among all students, competencies that are critical for success in school and in life. Skills such as how to build relationships and work as teams touch on all aspects of what we do as educators to prepare students for their futures – work that embodies both Tiger Care and Tiger Growth – two of our three big district goals.” 

    “This time is precious – we are in the business of growing people and to do that we must be continual learners,” said Loveland Interim Superintendent Dr. Amy Crouse.

     

    Winner is the founder of Social Thinking®, a methodology which specializes in developing treatment frameworks and practical strategies for individuals with social communication challenges. The Social Thinking and Its Impact At All Ages presentation was part of a larger professional development opportunity for district employees who spent the remainder of the day in learning sessions at each building.

    “This time is precious – we are in the business of growing people and to do that we must be continual learners,” said Loveland Interim Superintendent Dr. Amy Crouse. “The department of Teaching & Learning along with all of our building leaders do an excellent job of making the most of each moment during our professional development opportunities throughout the year, and having an expert like Michelle Garcia Winner as part of our training was priceless.”

    513-683-1052
    215 Loveland-Madeira Rd
    Loveland, Ohio 45140

  • School District says: “A promise maintained”

    School District says: “A promise maintained”

    By Brett Griffith,

    At the September 18 Board of Education Business Meeting, it was time to once again revisit our five-year financial forecast – a tool we use twice each year (fall and spring) to anticipate both the financial stability and future needs for the district. You have heard me say this before, and I will say it again now – as the chief financial officer of the Loveland City School District, I want you – our investor – to know that it is of the utmost importance to both our Board of Education and my team to operate in a fiscally conservative manner while maintaining excellence for the students we serve. I am pleased to report to you that the district has maintained financial stability – as promised during the last levy campaign.

    I am pleased to report to you that the district has maintained financial stability – as promised during the last levy campaign.

    To provide you with relevant history, the Loveland City School District passed a 5.6 mill operating levy in May of 2014; passage of the levy provided our team an opportunity to invest in and enrich the excellent education we provide by enhancing the classroom experience for the 4,700 students we serve. Those investments included one-to-one technology for students in grades five through 12, the addition of a tuition-based all-day kindergarten option, a five-year commitment to investigating and purchasing the best instructional materials by subject annually – district-wide, development of more robust offerings at our high school, and strategic investment in classroom instruction district-wide through Innovative Instructional Grants. None of these investments could have happened without your support, and – as always – we offer a sincere thank you to those who believed in our mission and continue to support our district. Our expectation is that the money from that levy will continue to fund the district – as promised – until 2018.

    Our expectation is that the money from that levy will continue to fund the district – as promised – until 2018.

    At this time, our five-year forecast projections show a need to be back on the ballot in the future for an operating levy; this information was shared with our Board of Education to consider during the Business Meeting. At this time there has been no discussion regarding any specifics, but as those discussions progress, the district will provide timely updates to you. Additionally, the Board is considering future needs regarding our facilities which were brought to our attention by community members who spent a good portion of the 2016-17 school year working with district staff to identify these needs for our district and research current best practices at surrounding districts. While any upgrades to facilities would be separate from an operating levy, it is important for you to understand that the Board is considering how to address both issues. Again, as those discussions advance the district will keep you informed on the latest.

    As I have expressed to you before, I feel it is my privilege to serve our Tiger Family by ensuring our team prepares students for tomorrow, today while maintaining the fiscal health of our operations. I invite you to contact me directly should you have any specific questions about our district finances. My door is always open.

    Brett Griffith is  & CFO of the 
    Loveland City School District 

    Accounting Plus–Bingaman Accounting and Tax Service, LLC is a tax preparation, payroll and bookkeeping company locally based in Loveland, OH.