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You've got eMule!
Vol. 12 No. 5
Welcome back to The eMule! Here is the latest news from Poplar Bluff Schools to help start your week on the right hoof.
| TCC awarded another $500K of $1.3M total toward Culinary Arts Center |  | |
Another $513,000 in grant money has been awarded toward the Culinary Arts Center at the Poplar Bluff Technical Career Center, adding to a total of approximately $1.3 million or, all told, about two-thirds toward the project externally funded.
The R-I school district was among 17 that applied for the 50/50 matching grant that was awarded through the Area Career Center Construction fund bill of which the TCC captured about 10 percent of the $5.5 million dispersed, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced on Friday, Sept. 22.
“The PB R-I School District is very excited to be considered and selected for this matching grant opportunity,” wrote Superintendent Dr. Aaron Cornman to Dr. Roger Barnes, DESE career and technical education coordinator. “We are very proud of the good work that Mr. [Charles] Kinsey started and Dr. [Leigh Ann] Cornman is continuing with regard to our CTE programs.”
TCC Director Dr. Leigh Ann Cornman, the superintendent’s wife, submitted the successful proposal in August upon learning about the opportunity from her predecessor Charles Kinsey, R-I assistant superintendent of business, when she took the helm the previous month. “The workforce needs have exploded across the country and as a result interest of the program is also increasing among our core sending schools,” Leigh Ann wrote in the project description, citing projections from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.
Last year, Kinsey partnered with Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission and the Butler County Commission to secure a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development. He additionally was awarded $267,000 toward the project of three total rounds of funding approved under House Bill 3002, including an ACCC grant earlier this year that went toward a campus-wide HVAC overhaul at TCC.
Counting $45,000 in matching Vocational Enhancement Grant money for commercial kitchen equipment, the district will be committing around $700,000 locally toward the Culinary Arts Center including ancillary expenses such as paving the parking lot, ADA accessibility, a security system, fire alarm and ventilation hood.
“Our current governor, Mike Parson, is very pro-workforce development, and career and technical education, and many of our career centers are older, having been built in the early 1960s, or some before then,” Leigh Ann explained. “It was time to put some dollars into updating the infrastructure because we’re training tomorrow’s workforce, and we need to emulate the industry and have quality facilities that house our programming.”
The Board of Education approved a bid of $1.4 million from Zoellner Construction based out of Perryville in March. On Friday, June 9, ground was broken on the 4,640-square-foot state-of-the-art Culinary Arts Center, including the existing 1,400-square-foot conference room, which is being converted into a dining room/classroom for the culinary arts students.
Designed by Dille and Pollard Architecture of Poplar Bluff, the facility will feature a foyer with a reception area, private dining room, restrooms, dry storage, deep freezer, office overseeing the kitchen, and an expanded workstation that includes a pizza oven, indoor smoker, and double the number of fryers, flattop grills and range ovens.
Project officials are hopeful for a midyear move by wintertime to the new location from the present 2,880-square-foot space in the Administrative Building on North Westwood Boulevard. Options are being explored to design the décor of the future student-run restaurant to highlight all of the programs of the TCC, according to Brandon Moon, culinary arts instructor.
“I’m just really excited about all the pomp and circumstance around getting a new facility and having our culinary program here on campus – kind of the missing piece that will bring unity to the TCC,” Leigh Ann continued. “This opportunity wouldn’t be possible if Mr. Kinsey and his staff hadn’t done their due diligence earlier securing funding to be able to break ground, and I’m honored to be active in the process to possibly accelerate the timeline so we can have an even greater impact in our area and beyond.”
Above: Framing for the grand entrance of the future Mules Café is installed on Wednesday, Sept. 27, on the west end of the Poplar Bluff Technical Career Center.
| School garden used to exhibit life cycle of plants at O’Neal |  | |
For years, O’Neal Elementary has been using its school garden to help provide students with a hands-on botany education that extends beyond Missouri Learning Standards.
“My goal for them is to one day be able to supply their own food through gardening that they learned back in the third grade,” stated Laura Beth Smith, third grade instructor.
Smith explained that teaching about plant life cycles is part of the science curriculum; students learn about math measurements by using rain gauges, thermometers and yardsticks; and the class does some reading through research conducted.
“There are so many things they can learn, and we try to make all the appropriate connections,” she continued, adding that the students get vitamin D, fresh air and exercise in the process.
Smith, who is in her 20th year teaching at O’Neal, has been growing plants with students for the majority of her tenure, beginning with pots and inflatable swimming pools outside of her classroom windows.
The present-day garden was made possible by utilizing a pest-free, enclosed space from when the connections were constructed between the district’s individual elementary buildings in 2016. Smith’s students water, weed and harvest on a regular basis, as weather permits. “The kids have learned so much about the things that plants need to flourish,” she said.
This school year the garden has really taken off, according to Smith. Instead of relying on store-bought plants, students for the first time were able to harvest the seeds that were sown over the winter by last year’s third graders, who used milk jugs to generate moisture from the sun. “They acted just like greenhouses,” Smith pointed out.
Several more kiddie pools were added over summer school to the space outdoors, along with a compost area. Vegetables that students get to bring home to eat include: tomatoes and cucumbers; bell, chili and banana peppers; and green and yellow beans. The class is additionally caring for a visiting praying mantis named Pincher that they feed grasshoppers to in a netted butterfly house.
The school garden has been a collaborative effort by other faculty members, as well as a supportive principal, Dr. Amy Dill, who has freed up building funds for the purchase of items such as soil, claws, trowels and hoses, Smith noted. A former physical education teacher donated extra timbers from a deck project at home to build the garden beds that Smith and her colleague Amy Ethridge helped put together, along with their spouses. Second grade teacher Jeannie Isom also added a small butterfly garden for the younger students to observe.
Growing up in St. Louis, Smith remembers her parents operated a farm between Rolla and Salem, and she “just loved being in the country,” getting a break from city life. She now lives in Grandin, where she loves “being in the dirt,” she said, and “doing stuff with my hands outside.”
Jayson Jones of the third grade shared on Tuesday, Sept. 26, how he has learned about “reducing things” (pruning) in order for plants to “get enough sunlight.” “Tomatoes are basically fruit,” added classmate Raylee Burleson about how flowering plants produce fruit, both students enthusiastically exhibiting how much they have retained about horticulture.
Above: O’Neal students (left to right) Malachi Sharkey, Kayden Dugger and Luke Provance hold up a thermometer last week in their school garden.
Below: Laura Beth Smith's third grade class stands under a sign asking "How does your garden grow," created 17 years ago to mark the site of the school’s evolving garden.
Click here to view all of the photos in our album, and be sure to hit Like!
|  | PBHS Beta advisers earn national recognition for club growth |  | |
Outgoing teacher advisers at Poplar Bluff High School have received national recognition for their work growing the Beta Club as their swan song, having passed the baton to a new set of capable leaders this school year.
Pam Davis, business education teacher, and Assistant Principal Dr. Stephanie Kuper were named 2023 John W. Harris Educators of Excellence, among only 170 of over 20,000 sponsors to earn the honor out of more than 8,500 clubs across the U.S. and beyond.
“Due to the extraordinary commitment it takes to lead a club to this success, the John W. Harris Educator of Excellence award is the highest honor offered to National Beta sponsors,” the organization wrote in a press release issued last month. An accompanying award letter stated: “Your enthusiastic commitment to National Beta has earned you this most prestigious sponsor award and we applaud you for your outstanding leadership.”
To qualify for the award, named after the organization’s founder, sponsors must focus on club growth, community service and networking at National Beta events. The PBHS Beta Club was named a National Beta School of Merit in July by offering membership to all eligible grades across campus; the club grew from below 50 members to approximately 130; and each member has completed 50-75 service hours across the campus community.
Over the summer, 34 members from PBHS competed at the National Beta Convention, the largest group ever to qualify. To help subsidize travel costs, the club brought in a total of $14,500 in the last four years via Dr Pepper’s Collect the Caps promotion. Bryden Fuemmeler, a senior, was named Missouri Beta president, the first state officer in PBHS history, according to Kuper. Further, junior Emaly Clyburn was named one of three state leadership representatives.
“I have been involved with Beta since the early 2000s when I was a high school student, so Beta provided me opportunities to branch out of my comfort zone and connect with friends from other schools, as well as scholarship opportunities,” Kuper stated. “Whenever I had the opportunity to help enrich our club in Poplar Bluff, I knew that was something I felt passionate about.”
Davis added: “For me, one of the biggest takeaways is it is a place that everybody can belong. Not all students are athletes, or even have to be top students [academically]. But all our students can serve our community, find a place where they fit in, and be good humans.”
Kuper and Davis have served together for the past couple of years, and Kuper was an adviser for another two years prior. The duo was succeeded by math teacher Mona Blackburn and language arts teacher Emily Padilla, both new to PBHS. National Beta is the largest independent, non-profit, educational youth organization in America.
Above: Dr. Stephanie Kuper (left) and Pam Davis earned the 2023 John W. Harris Educator of Excellence awards for their dedication to helping grow the PBHS Beta Club.
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Substitute Training
Southeast Missouri State University is hosting an in-person substitute teacher training from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, Oct. 9-11, at Three Rivers College: 2080 Three Rivers Blvd. The seminar, which costs $180, is designed to provide the 20 hours of training needed to become certified via the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. To register, email metraxel@semo.edu.
5K and Fun Run
The PBHS Unified Champions will host a 5K fundraiser beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at Rodgers Theater on West Pine Street. Cost to enter and receive a shirt is $30 per person. Proceeds support the club, which aims to promote an all-inclusive school environment for students with intellectual disabilities seeking to play sports. Click here to register!
Movie Night
O’Neal Elementary will host its annual Movie on the Playground Night, sponsored by Southern Bank, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, at the elementary school. A costume parade will be held prior to the airing of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Hotdogs, popcorn and soft drinks will be provided.
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On Tuesday, Sept. 26, KBSI Fox 23 reported about our new outdoor classrooms opened or in the works.
On Wednesday, Sept. 27, KWOC reported about the Rotary Club’s partnership with Lake Road in operating the Good Habits Store.
The DAR reported about our Aspiring Administrators Academy; as well as Junior High’s newest certified therapy dog.
KBSI Fox 23 reported about the Mules Café opening to the public for the final time in its Administrative Building location.
On Thursday, Sept. 28, KFVS12 aired a news segment about our outdoor classroom at Oak Grove.
KAIT8 also carried the Oak Grove segment.
KWOC reported about the reopening of our Mules Café.
On Friday, Sept. 29, the DAR reported about PBHS junior Kaitlyn Booker being named Class 2, District 1 girls singles champion in tennis for the second straight year.
On Saturday, Sept. 30, the DAR also reported about the Mules Café; as well as our first of three outdoor classrooms opened across campus.
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