MEDORA
In the 2019-20 school year, Medora Community Schools plan on continuing to grow inside and outside their classrooms.
Class commenced Tuesday for 166 Hornets, from preschool to 12th grade, an increase of 14 from last February’s student count.
"Everyone is getting back into the school routine," Medora Dean of Students Kara Hunt said. "We have a lot of new students this year, especially in our elementary. We are getting to know them and their interests. We have a large group of preschoolers that start (today). It’s the largest group we’ve had in several years, so we have some aides helping in that room, too, so there is more individualized instruction for the kids."
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One of the main focuses for this school year will be continuing to grow the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) initiative.
"Once again, our focus this school year is for our students to show growth in learning," Hunt said. "We’re also focusing on our STEM curriculum. We’ll be applying for a certification in the elementary this school year, so hopefully by the end of the year, we’re a STEM certified school."
The staff at Medora also has grown this year.
"We have three new certified staff members and four new aides," Hunt said. "They all came to us with some experience working in education with children, which is always great."
Fourth graders Damon Branaman and Josie Bowers both said their favorite part of their first day in Carrie Brewer’s class was building STEM All About Me towers.
"STEM has been my favorite part of the day. It has all of my favorite subjects in it," Branaman said. "Engineering and math are my favorite. Engineering is where you build stuff, and math is just my favorite subject in school."
Bowers said the first day was good.
"I like (STEM) because I get to build things," she said. "I like science the best because you get to see if stuff works. I’m looking forward to meeting new people this school year."
Hunt said more extracurricular actives will be offered this year, too.
"We have some more clubs that will be starting with our after-school program. I know they are talking about an archery team and a Girls Who Code," she said. "One of the new people we’ve hired has actually taught STEM classes in the past. This will be the first year with our robotics team. Last year, Timothy Gothra volunteered to do our robotics. He has lots of training in computers and coding. He started it last year, and this will be the first year we will take our teams to meets."