With the maelstrom of Warren County School District fiscal concerns, the possible charter school birth and regular business worries, it's easy to overlook the positives in our local educational structure.
But this week our nearly 4,000 students will experience myriad positive influences that teachers and school personnel strive to include during each of the 180 school days every year.
One of many positive influences is a celebration of National School Counselors Week at Warren Area Elementary Center. During the in-school broadcast of Miss Manners on Monday morning, Gillian Rapp - a.k.a. a British-accented Miss Manners -encouraged the grade school students to compliment one another. She started the effort by hosting school counselor Deb Jannotti who in turn thanked Mrs. Rapp for being Miss Manners every Monday, Ms. Beckerink for organizing the Adventure Club daily broadcast, and Ms. Walters and Mrs. Gurdak for allowing her to co-teach in their classrooms.
Jannotti, the only counselor for WAEC's nearly 700 students, tries to reach as many students as possible, providing classroom presentations on safety, careers, character education, anti-drug abuse, friendship and more. No small task.
In another effort further north, a group of about 20 teachers and Eisenhower High School's two principals are rehearsing a "multi-faceted" play, donating their free time to rehearse and present a stage comedy to raise money for a Knightime Players theater arts trip to New York.
The trip itself is yet another example of faculty and staff going above and beyond. According to the play's co-director, groups of Eisenhower students have taken theater arts trips to California, London, NYC, Toronto and Chicago.
These are just a few examples of our district's action to doing what they do best - teaching our children - not only reading writing and arithmetic. But arts, manners, generosity, life skills and more.