This Friday, both the high school and middle school jazz bands will travel to Pittsburg, Kansas to compete at Pittsburg State University. Both groups perform in the Memorial building. MS performs at 10:00am and HS at 11:00am.

On Saturday, both Jazz Bands will compete at Drury. Middle School performs at 11:30 and high school performs at 1:00. Both will be in Clara Thompson Hall on the Drury campus.

All the upcoming activities will involve more students than ever in Republic. Since agriculture teacher Mike Shumaker started here more than a decade ago, the number of ag students has quadrupled. He says the growing interest reflects a realization that agriculture courses are not only about working on a farm.

“I think they see now, we don’t teach a whole lot of pure production agriculture. We teach a lot of the mechanical skills, a lot of animal science, plant science, soil science,” Shumaker says.

“Our curriculum crosses over very well with a lot of the Science Department’s. We try to augment their curriculum with a lot of the things that we also teach.”

Shumaker says agriculture classes in high school translate into a lot of job opportunities for students later.

“The first thing they think is ‘I don’t need a class about farming.’ But the addition of jobs between the producer and the consumer has just created that much more of a need for jobs and occupations,” Shumaker says. “They get a little bit of knowledge about where the food comes from, and they understand how that end product needs to be, and that just opens the door for more job opportunities.”

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One of the biggest FFA events of the year is coming up this week. It’s the group’s annual Chili Supper and Pie Auction March 1st from 6-8 p.m. The event serves as FFA’s biggest fundraiser of the year, with pies and handmade items from students being auctioned to the highest bidder. Last year’s event raised about $1,500.

Last week’s celebration of National FFA Week was a busy one. It included an FFA breakfast, and culminated in several students driving their tractor to school on Friday, to showcase their ties to agriculture. But things won’t slow down after this week’s pie auction, according to Shumaker.

“Our spring altogether is just very busy,” he says. “We’ve got some public speaking competitions going on. We have so many things going on in the months of February, March or April. We’re pretty busy here throughout the spring.”

The FFA state convention is April 19-20, with the chapter banquet scheduled for May 1.

Stewart has spent the past three months teaching third-, fourth- and fifth-graders about bullying in schools, how they can avoid it, and how they can respond to it when it happens. To cap off the three-month unit, the fifth-grader classes have prepared skits to perform for second-graders.

Second grade “seems to be where things kind of start in the bullying world,” says Stewart. The short plays focus on the three main types of bullying that younger children experience: physical, emotional, and verbal bullying.

“I think the one that’s the hardest to pick up on is the emotional bullying, because it overlaps with the other ones,” says Stewart. “But we talk a lot about…pretending to be someone’s friend, and then not really being a friend. A lot of it is ‘friendship bullying.’

“It happens all the time, and the kids see it and recognize it, but it’s hard for them to actually show it.”

Stewart says most of the bullying she sees this time of year are related to friendship issues with fourth- and fifth-graders.

“They’ve been together all year, and they’ve been cooped up with each other and not been able to go outside,” she says. “So I’m really trying to get their footing on what a true friend is, and how to be a true friend, and not put up with bullying behavior.”

What is friendship bullying? Some examples, according to Stewart: “I’m not going to be your friend if you don’t do this for me,” or “If you’re friends with them, I’m not going to be friends with you.”

Stewart says she has an open-door policy, encouraging students to visit her–even the students who realize they’ve been engaging in bullying behavior themselves. That gives her a chance to talk to students about how they could have changed things. She says students, especially girls, are “constantly coming in (to ask) ‘What could I have done differently?’”

This year’s three-month unit is much longer than last year’s, which lasted one month. Stewart says encouraging students to come in and talk to her about bullying results in real progress in their behavior.

“It’s opening the flood-gates in a way, then giving them the tools to deal with it, and watching them go forth with that,” she says. “At some point I do have to put the brakes on, and say ‘I’ve given you these tools, you need to show me how to use them.’ But we go through that process together.”

The students were at Fantastic Caverns in Springfield for part of the day. The field trip was tied to lessons the four classes have been studying in science.

“Some of our grade-level expectations have to do with particular environments and the life that they will best support,” says fourth grade teacher Whitney Hoodenpyle. “So we connected that with some of the presenters’ speeches about particular cave organisms that exist in that environment. We learned about special features on their bodies that help them adapt.”

Hoodenpyle says Thursday’s outing was a great learning experience for her students.

“They were amazed, and they were engaged beyond belief,” she says. They were fascinated with the cave formations and the age of some formations. I heard some of them ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over how many years exactly that must have been forming.”

The science-related trip was part of a recent trend in Republic. The district has made a push to link field trips to the curriculum and make them more educational.

The awards were given by the Republic Community Teachers Association after an election by all Republic teachers and staff.

In addition to the teacher awards, faculty and staff chose Superintendent Vern Minor as Administrator of the Year. They voted Linda Letterman, lead secretary at the high school, as Associate of the Year.

The CTA’s goal for the award was to “bring honor and recognition to the dedicated educators of Republic R-III school system,” according to a press release.

Here’s more information on the winners:

Sherri Coates has taught for 12 years, 10 of them in Republic. She teaches science at the Middle School. She also co-sponsors Middle School Student Council.

From one nomination: “Sherri is a master teacher and uses different approaches to education to ensure that all of her students are learning, such as assisting other sixth grade teachers with improving science lesson plans.”

Julie Brown teaches 1st grade at McCulloch Elementary, and has been teaching for nine years. She moved from 4th grade to 1st grade this year.

From one nomination: “She uses a variety of resources to make learning fun and meaningful for her students. Besides working hard, Julie has an amazing attitude. She is always smiling and has a kind word for everyone.”

Ryan Lacson is in his 4th year of teaching, all of them at Republic. He is head of the High School Science Department.

From one nomination: “Ryan Lacson is one of the hardest working, most reflective people I have ever known. Ryan is doing amazing things in the classroom and is leading the HS science department in a direction of increased rigor and exceptional support for students.”

Vern Minor has been superintendent in Republic since 2008.

From one nomination: “He truly cares about each individual faculty/staff member, but isn’t afraid to make hard decisions. Under his guidance, we have shifted our focus away from maintaining the status quo, and towards improving student engagement, literacy, and math skills. “

Linda Letterman is lead secretary at the high school. She has 23 years in education, including 19 at Republic High School.

From one nomination: “She brings a level of integrity to our workplace that is beyond reproach.  Linda Letterman is the glue that holds our school together.”

The CTA also selected three “Friends of Education,” based on write-in votes.  McAlister’s Deli was selected in the “business” category. People Helping People was chosen in the “group” category. And in the interest of disclosure, I was selected as the “individual,” but I’d have written the story anyway.

“Kids are always fun. That’s the reason I’ve done this for so long,” says Meers. “I talk to kids about a variety of different topics, but it all boils down to just making healthy choices.”

Meers has been a mascot for the Chiefs for more than 20 years. Before that, he was Fredbird for the St. Louis Cardinals, and Truman the Tiger during his days at Mizzou. He spoke to students at McCulloch and Schofield elementary schools about diet and exercise, and encouraged them to get involved in the running club.

“You’ve got great kids here in Republic. I’ve enjoyed my time here,” says Meers.

For children to participate, parents will need to sign and return a permission slip. Students will walk or run on scheduled days after school in the weeks before the 5K.

McCulloch nurse Nancy Leonard says it’s about keeping everyone at the school active.

“It’s not just for kids, it’s for the staff,” says Leonard. “We give kids assignments for them to keep active for the week, and once we all come back together each week, we have our plan for the next week.”

Permission slips for all students will be going home soon.

Shelby Yake, Brooklynn Flippo and Erin Manasco at FBLA Districts

The business department at Republic High School will be especially busy for the next few weeks. Republic qualified six students for the state competition sponsored by FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America). Overall, Republic placed 5th out of 21 schools in the district.

Lindsey Carlson, Brooklynn Flippo, Camry Cowan, Desmond Dornak, Shelby Yake and Alex Botkin will all be competing at the State Leadership Conference in April.

“For the last two years, we’ve gotten ninth. I think my first year we got 12th in the sweeps. So to go from 9th to 5th, that was very exciting,” says sponsor Robin Robertson.

Robertson says the improvement shows Republic has a “really strong” business program, and she gives much of the credit for that to the students.

“Three of the events we’re going (to state) for, we don’t even have classes for,” says Robertson. “So not only do we have a really strong business department, but we have some really dedicated students.”

Republic FBLA President Lindsey Carlson qualified in three events: Technology Concepts, Cyber-Security and Computer Problem-Solving. For all three, she’ll be studying for a rigorous test, and hoping to score high enough to qualify for nationals. She competed at nationals in “Introduction to Technology Concepts” last year.

All that knowledge will be put to good use if Carlson continues pursuing her current career goals. “I want to major in business administration with a focus in computer information systems, and do IT or something like that,” she says.

Alex Botkin, who wants to minor in business administration in college, will compete at state in Business Procedures. “It’s business ethics, and how you’re supposed to handle certain things in the business world,” she says.

Carlson, Botkin and the others will have a lot of preparation before the next round of exams.

“We take a lot of practice tests,” Botkin says. “So now, since the tests are going to be harder, we have to get more information going.”

In addition to Carlson and Botkin, four other students qualified for state. Brooklynn Flippo qualified in two events, Word Processing I and Computer Applications. Camry Cowan and Desmond Dornak qualified for their work in Desktop Publishing. And Shelby Yake qualified in FBLA Principles and Procedures.

Science Department head Ryan Lacson says it’s about giving the students the college-level experience they’ve asked for.

On Wednesday, an MSU biology professor visited Republic to lead a lab with two sections of AP biology students.

“Students historically have had no exposure to plants, and now they’re expected to know quite a bit of it on the AP exam,” Lacson says. “So I thought, ‘What better way to get them to learn this stuff than to expose them to several experts?’”

On Thursday, the students traveled to MSU to participate in a botany lab with Dr. Michelle Bowe, an expert in plant systematics. Students examined various types of plants and their structures, covering the same material that Bowe’s own students will cover this week.

Bowe says she enjoyed working with the Republic students.

“What they know is not that different” from college students, Bowe says. And she says research indicates that advanced science in high school is an important part of college success.

“It has actually been shown that the more biology they have closer to college, the better they’ll do once they get to college,” Bowe says. “If students have only had freshman biology in high school, then it’s three years before they get anything else, they forget everything. So the more science the better. And the closer to going to college they take it, the better.”

Lacson says his students also get a boost of confidence from the exposure to college-level work.

“From what I’m hearing, they feel like AP is the closest to college they’ll get. It’s not completely college, because they’re still getting a little bit of scaffolding along the way,” he says. “But by the time AP is over, they’re going to think, ‘Okay, I can do this now.’ It won’t be such a shock to them.”

The varsity team is comprised of Senior Marisa Vasquez (captain), senior Vincent Sommerer, junior Julie Nelson, and junior Adam Peavler. The JV team involves freshman Sam Heinzler, sophomores Will Hyde and Connor Hayes, and junior Richard Johnston.