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The Kiwanis Club of Mason has honored Peter Mintz as its October Student of the Month.

The Mason High School senior was nominated by his science and Spanish teachers, Liz Imrie and Jane Margraf.

The teachers praised Mintz’s academic achievements, which include induction in the National Honor Society, in which he serves as vice president.  Mintz also plays on the volleyball team and is a summer camp counselor.

“Peter is a very involved young man. Academically, he challenges himself to go above and beyond every day in the classroom.  Outside of class, Peter is a wonderful role model and truly one of our school leaders,” said Margraf.

The Kiwanis Club presented Mintz with $50 and a certificate at a recent meeting.  He is the son of Howard and Ann Mintz of Mason.

Posted in: Schools, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: academics, character, howard and ann mintz, kiwanis club of mason, mason high school, peter mintz, student of the month

Mason High School introduced its largest number of National Honor Society inductees at a ceremony held last month.

The school honored 120 new members for academic achievement, service, leadership and character.   New members are:

Class of 2013

Hira Adhami, Kathryn Albers, Katharine Amoroso, Madalyn Baehre, Omer Baig, Rajit Banerjee, Brianne Brenneman, Cassidy Brown, Alex Buddemeyer, Kathleen Connor, Madison Cooper, Matthew (David) Ellison, Peter Greene, Kaitlyn Harrison, Parker Henry, Carolyn Hilley, Natasha Kesav, Andrew Kremer, Kevin Liao, Gabrielle Nogueira, Madison Owens, Emily Rumford, Corrie Strayer, Gelila Tefera, Samuel Whipple and Evan Wilder.

Class of 2014
Brittany Astles, Wajihah Baig, Abbigail Barham, Kaitlyn Barnes, McKell Belnap, Alison Berry, Rachel Besse, Samantha Besse, Victoria Blakeman, Peter Bruns, Shelby Carney, Reilly Carr, Kathryn Carr, Jacob Carson, William Chappell, Rukmini Cheeti, Sunnia Chen, Kelci Culp, Jacob Damge, Taylor Doan, Miranda Dubler, Gabriel Dubois, Mohamed Elzarka, Vineet Erasala, Tong Tong (Alisa) Feng, Laura Forero, James Gao, Jennifer Giang, Lucille Giordullo, Jennifer Haines, Meredith Haller, Katherine Hansen, Jessica Hart, Jessica Hastings, Savannah Headley, Caroline Heywood, William Hoffman, Emily Huff, Amulya Joseph, Saie Joshi, Sydney Kaplan, Allison Kenneally, Johnathan Kenneally, Jaina Lane, Sabrina Latapy,

William Leathers, Angela Lee, Jaclyn Leitch, Stephanie Li, Zhuyao (Joanna) Li, Stephen Lightfield, Bryan Lightfield, Catherine Lin, Stephanie Liu, Christopher Martin, Nicholas Martin, Rebecca Martin, Arjun Mathur, Alyssa McAninch, Kinsey McBeath, Lindsay McCalmont, Dylan McElhenny, Megan Mumma, Jennifer Nelson, Komal Paradkar, Morgan Perkins, Alexis Porter, Heather Posner, Andrew Probel, Shreetej Reddy, Christine Reid, Catherine (Katie) Rojas, Clement (Brad) Satterthwaite, Jonathan Schulman, Andrew Schwitzgebel, Emily Schwitzgebel, Kendal Searer, Emmanuel Setegn, Elizabeth Sexton, Derek Shu, Heather Smith, Alexandria Specht, Rachel Stein, Jessica Sun, Holly Suter, Harrison (Harry) Taylor, Rickey Terrell, Megan Than Win, Johnson Thomas, Tivon Tsung, Monica Vermillion, Angela Vettikkal, Anna Wirth, Justin Wise, Megan Wolf and Wen Zhong.

Posted in: Schools, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: academics, ceremony, inductees, induction, mason, mason high school, national honor society

Mason City Schools representatives were presented with the SOAR Award for Significant Progress on Nov. 14. The district was one of 5 in the state to be awarded the honor. Provided photo

Mason Schools was one of five Ohio school districts to be recognized with the 2011 SOAR Award for Significant Progress.

Battelle for Kids, a nonprofit educational organization, awards the honor each year to high-achieving schools and districts participating in its SOAR initiative, which seeks to improve education through value-added analysis.

The 11,000-student Warren County school system that is rated among the top academic performers in Ohio is one of about 120 school districts participating in the program.  Lakota Schools was also recognized.

The organization honored Mason Intermediate with its SOAR Award for High Progress.  The elementary school, which serves the district’s fourth through sixth grades, is among the top 10 of 684 participating SOAR schools to see exceptional growth with students, according to Battelle.

Mason Intermediate also received a SOAR award for the highest reading growth of all participating SOAR elementary schools.

Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner presented each school and district with the awards last month.

“Our results convey a powerful message,” said Mason Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline.  ”High-performing districts like Mason are not exempt from the expectation that all students, including the high percentage of students who are accelerated and advanced, should chart significant academic gains.”

“These awards are a testament to Mason’s educators– whose hard work ensures that students are going above expectations and achieving at some of the highest levels in the state,” she said.

Posted in: Schools, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: academics, battelle for kids, education, mason, mason city schools, mason intermediate, mason schools, soar award for high progress, soar award for significant progress, student achievement

Mason’s superintendent defended the district’s top academic ranking amidst new claims that Ohio’s rankings for schools are too low.

The Enquirer’s Denise Smith Amos reports:

A first-of-its-kind study claims Ohio gives the equivalent of A grades to districts that don’t deserve it, and it calls the state system of school report cards “an illusion or cruel hoax.”

And the state’s top education official agreed: The state’s expectations for its schools are too low.

The Ohio Association for Gifted Children, a statewide advocacy group of parents and teachers, says the state should evaluate districts based on how well they prepare students for college, not on how many students meet minimum academic standards.

The report, called “Grading on a Curve: The Illusion of Excellence in Ohio’s Schools,” says the number of districts Ohio labeled Excellent or Excellent with Distinction (similar to an A and A+) has quadrupled in nine years, even though other national measures place student performance in this state below national averages.

“The standards used to grade districts in this state are shockingly low,” the study says. “The more one analyzes what it takes to be an excellent district, the clearer it becomes that something is horribly wrong with Ohio’s standards for excellence.”

Read more details about the report and the state’s response to it at cincinnati.com.

In the 2010-11 school year, Ohio rated 57 percent of its school districts – 352 of 614 – as Excellent or Excellent with Distinction, the top two of six state rankings. That’s up from only 85 Excellent districts in the 2002-03 school year. (Ohio had no Excellent with Distinction rating back then.)

Mason, one of the state’s premiere academic performers, earned the state’s top academic ranking of “Excellent With Distinction” this year.

The previous school year saw the 11,000-student district, which consistently ranks among the top 10 of Ohio’s 614 districts, fall one rating to “Excellent” for the first time since Ohio began the annual district rankings in 2000.

Mason was among several Cincinnati-area school districts who disagreed that their academic standards are too low, saying they’ve set higher academic standards than the state requires for their graduates.

Mason Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline said her district’s ACT and SAT scores are above national averages and 619 students lat year took AP exams, with 90 percent passing them.

“We view the state’s assessments as a starting point,” she said.

Posted in: Schools |

Tags: Tags: academics, achievement, excellent, excellent with distinction, grading on a curve, mason school district, mason schools, ohio, ohio association for gifted children, report, school report cards, study

The Enquirer’s Michael D. Clark reports:

If Mason school Principal Eric Messer started seeing double, people could understand.

As the first principal in Mason Schools’ history to be in charge of two schools – Western Row and Mason Heights elementaries – Messer has doubled his work load and often now finds he has two of many things.

He splits his hectic schedule between two offices, with two desks, two computers, two school staffs and juggles two separate school calendars, and so on.

“And I have twins,” he says with a chuckle. “So I do see double some times.”

The 37-year-old father of three had run Mason Heights for years but recent cost-cutting included a proposal for this school year to have Messer handle both academically top-rated schools, which each house grades two and three.

Only a handful of districts in the region besides Mason have a single principal managing two schools.

Armed with an ever-present iPad, Blackberry and Nextel two-way walkie talkie, Messer is wired for action, if not occasional distraction.

“Last Thursday I had 11 meetings between the two schools. I like to be highly involved but with two schools I’m having to learn work through what I can and can’t do. I’m not sure how anyone could do this without technology,” he says.

Talent and energy help too, says Mason Schools Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline.

(more…)

Posted in: Schools |

Tags: Tags: academics, elementary schools, eric messer, gail kist-kline, mason, mason city schools, mason heights, mason schools, principal, schools, students, superintendent, western row

Michael D. Clark reports:

The nation’s top educator came to Mason Schools on Wednesday evening to praise the district’s outreach to parents but also to warn that America is lagging internationally when it comes to educating the next generation.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan held a town-hall meeting at Mason Intermediate School with more than 200 parents from Mason and other Greater Cincinnati school systems.

Duncan touched on a wide array of subjects including this week’s Ohio elections, specifically the passage rate of local school tax issues statewide, which continued the trend of recent years of about 20 percent approval by voters for new school taxes.

• View photos from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s visit to Mason

Locally, four out of 10 new school tax hikes passed Tuesday, well exceeding Ohio’s average rate of ballot victories for school levies.

Statewide, the passage rate for new school levies or bond issue was 23 percent, said Rob Delane, deputy executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association.

Overall there were 187 school measures on ballots throughout the state, but nearly half of those were for renewals, not new or additional school taxes. Nearly all the school tax renewals passed, he said. But among the 108 new school tax issues or bond issues on ballots around Ohio, only 25 passed, he said.

Duncan touted recent federal initiatives of millions of dollars to improving local school districts nationwide but added “we (federal government) can’t do it alone.”

“We are the minority investor and states and local districts have to step up,” Duncan said. “We need states and districts in tough times to continue to invest in education.”

Duncan said America needs to change its thinking on school funding as only expenditure.

“Education is an investment, not an expense. We have to educate ourselves to a better economy,” he said.

The appearance mixed national politics with praise for Mason Schools.

Duncan also stumped for President Barack Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act, which he said will benefit public schools in Ohio and Kentucky and provide critical resources during tough budget times.

Duncan will appear in another school event in Louisville on Thursday to push for the act, which he said will bring Ohio $985 million and Kentucky $390 million for modernization efforts to rebuild crumbling buildings and classes. The funding would support 12,800 jobs in Ohio and 5,100 in Kentucky, he said.

He added that Ohio would also receive $1 billion – enough to prevent an estimated 14,200 teacher layoffs for one school year. Kentucky would get $406 million – enough to prevent an estimated 6,100 teacher layoffs for one school year.

“We desperately want Congress to pass this but frankly it is an uphill battle now,” he said.

Tracey Carson, spokeswoman for the 11,000-student Mason Schools, said the district was chosen for Duncan’s visit in part because of “our high level of parent engagement.”

Mason school parent Carolyn Tepe thought Duncan picked the right district.

“They allow parents to have input here and they try to customize a solution to your child’s education needs,” Tepe said.

She added, “when you call a teacher here, they get back to you quick.”

Staff writer Denise Smith Amos contributed to this story.

Posted in: Events, Schools |

Tags: Tags: academics, arne duncan, education, election, greater cincinnati schools, levy, mason city schools, mason high school, mason intermediate, mason school district, mason schools, school reform, students, taxes, town hall, u.s. education secretary

The Enquirer’s Michael D. Clark has a great story out today on Mason Schools’ increasing enrollment of Asian-American students.

The top-rated suburban school system has become a magnet for Asian-Americans, he writes, who make up 15 percent of Mason Schools’ total enrollment of more than 11,000 students.

• Photos: Mason trusts in diversity
• Photos: World Mission Sunday celebrates Asian culture
  

It’s a percentage that has nearly doubled in six years, thanks in no small part to the district’s decision three years ago to make the schools more welcoming to Asians.

The 15 percent is as much as five times or more the percentage of Asian-American students at most of the other 62 school districts in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

Some reasons are obvious, Clark writes.

Mason Schools is one of the top 10 academic-performing district’s among Ohio’s 613 public school districts and Northern Kentucky’s 14 school districts.

But in a region that features many other highly rated districts in similarly affluent, suburban districts, why Mason Schools?

Clark spoke with Asian-American parents on their decision to move to Mason, who cited a far-sighted school district that has welcome and catered to an Asian-American demographic ahead of other school systems and word-of-mouth among foreign-born newcomers.

“We were among the first wave of Chinese-Americans to move to Mason,” explains Xin Wei as she relaxed recently in her family’s Mason home, a quarter of a mile from Mason High School.

The Wei family had lived in Butler County’s Lakota district for years before deciding to move into the next county and the adjacent Mason Schools.

Her husband Karl says, “Mason Schools were a big part of our move. When you look at the community closely, it was the perfect environment for us. The people are friendly, and it’s safe. And there was already a high population of Chinese-Americans, and it was very easy to make friends.”

Xin adds that “we have witnessed the growth here” of a variety of families of differing Asian heritage.

She attributes Mason’s popularity in part to local Chinese-American organizations that newcomers often join to ease their transition.

“We talk and exchange information, and the word gets around,” she says.

Hank Savani and his Pakistani-American family also cited Mason Schools as the primary reason for moving to Mason.

“We were amazed when we visited the schools,” Savani says, referring to Mason’s many modern facilities, most of them built in the last decade.

“The diversity here was important too – they are very sensitive about the needs for diversity – but the school district is the major thing for most people like us,” says Savani, who has two children in Mason Schools.

Clark goes into more detail on how Mason’s Asian-American population compares to other local districts — and what the district is doing to attract those students.

(more…)

Posted in: Schools |

Tags: Tags: academics, asian, asian-american, chinese, community, diversity, education, indian, indian-american, mason city schools, mason high school, mason school district, mason schools, muslim, students

Fifteen Mason High School seniors have been named Commended Students by the National Merit Scholarship program.

The honored students include: Bhanu Banda, Alexandra Besse, Kaushik Chagarlamudi, Kevin Feng, Regina Goldsmith Katelyn Kang, Branden Labarowski, Mili Patel, Kaitlyn Pontious, Eleanor Roth, Tajana Schneiderman, Mackenzie Shivers, Elliott Valentine, Nathaniel Webb, and Kathleen Yang.

About 34,000 students in the nation are named Commended Students for demonstrating strong academic achievement and promise for admission to selective colleges.  Commended Students make up the top 5 percent of the more than 1.5 million students who take the SAT test each year.

Nazharie Brandon was also recognized as an Outstanding Participant in the National Achievement program, which recognizes the nation’s top academically-promising black high school seniors.

Brandon scored in the top 3 percent of the more than 160,000 black students who requested consideration for the program.

The students will be recognized at the Oct. 7 home football game.

“All of these students are extremely talented student leaders, and being named as commended scholars will help enhance their educational opportunities,” said Mason High School Principal Mindy McCarty-Stewart.

Posted in: Schools, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: academics, achievement, college board, commended students, mason high school, national merit scholarship program, sat

Mason Schools was among Southwest Ohio schools that either improved or maintained their Ohio Report Card ratings last year, despite fears that changes in the way the state calculates its Ohio Report Card ratings would hurt them.

Mason, one of the state’s premiere academic performers, reported it had returned to the state’s top academic ranking of “Excellent With Distinction.”

The previous school year saw the 11,000-student district, which consistently ranks among the top 10 of Ohio’s 614 districts, fall one rating to “Excellent” for the first time since Ohio began the annual district rankings in 2000.

The Enquirer obtained the Report Card data Wednesday from the Ohio Department of Education through a public records request. The ratings reflect academic performance in the 2010 -11 school year. The state had planned to release the results for all 614 Ohio districts next week.

The state changed the way it calculates “Value Added” this year – a measure of how much students improved on state tests over the course of the year. The changes make it more difficult for districts to maintain or elevate their rating.

Overall among Southwest Ohio’s 49 school districts, 13 local districts went up one or two Report Card categories, 25 stayed the same and 11 dropped one to two ratings.

Read the complete report at cincinnati.com.

Posted in: Schools |

Tags: Tags: academics, education, excellent with distinction, mason city schools, mason school district, mason schools, ohio, performance, ranking, state

Archbishop Moeller High School’s varsity football team is being honored for excellence both on the field and in the classroom.

The team has been named Academic All-Ohio by the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association, according to the Archbishop Moeller High School athletic department.

Only 20 of the more than 715 eligible teams in Ohio received this honor.  To be eligible, schools  must submit the grade point averages from the first quarter of the top 22 varsity letter winners.

The team boasts 11 players from Mason, including: Kyle Bobay, Andrew Curtin, Nick Edwards, Cody Elias, Charlie Fiessinger, Evan Jansen, Daniel Lang, Matthew Qualters, Eddie Rein, Matthew Reiniger and Dante West.

Posted in: Fall sports, Sports |

Tags: Tags: academics, acdemic all-ohio, archbishop moeller high school, football, honor, mason, ohio high school football coaches association, sports