Publications & Sites 
District 70 Notes
Updated: May 31, 2012 3:40PM
Teacher named Golden Apple finalist
Rockland Special Education teacher Danya Greenberg has been named to the top 32 finalists in the prestigious 2012 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Greenberg, 24, was selected from a pool of 265 applicants and 560 nominations of kindergarten through third grade teachers in the Chicago metropolitan area. For 27 years, the Golden Apple Awards have recognized and honored outstanding teachers for their role in building a stronger, better-educated society.
With only 2.5 years of professional teaching, Greenberg is one of the youngest Golden Apple Award finalists named.
The Golden Apple selection committee, comprised of prominent retired teachers, college and university professors, administrators and former Golden Apple Award recipients, noted that Greenberg “believes all children can learn, no matter what. She believes learning is invigorating, and it’s a teacher’s job to make it inspiring and attractive to students. Danya uses the backwards design approach. She decides first what she wants her students to be able to do as a result of her lessons. Her first, second and third grade special education students role play in the classroom, learn songs that boost the understanding of various concepts and use iPads apps to enhance the lesson.”
As a finalist, Greenberg will participate in a final round of review and be observed in her classroom before the 10 award recipients are named in May. Her colleagues, supervisors, students and parents also are subject to be interviewed in the process.
The tenfinalists receive a tuition-free spring semester sabbatical to study at Northwestern University and a $3,000 cash reward. They also become Fellows of the Golden Apple Academy of Educators.
Greenberg began her teaching career with Libertyville Elementary School after graduating from Indiana University with a bachelor of science degree in elementary education and special education. A highly accomplished young adult, Greenberg has a long-list of successes. She expects to graduate this July from Concordia University, River Forest, with a masters degree in School Administration and Leadership. She graduated with highest distinction and spoke at the Indiana University School of Education graduation ceremony. Greenberg served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the School of Education and served as vice-president and president respectively. She was named the Indiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education ‘Outstanding Future Educator Award’ in April 2009 and received the Indiana Reading Professors Council of the Indiana State Reading Association ‘Outstanding Future Reading Teacher’ award in March 2008.
Posters raise awareness
Posters now appearing on Libertyville Elementary District 70 school grounds featuring “The Blue Kids” is a Lake County wide project honoring April as Child Abuse Prevention Month. The posters are meant to raise awareness to child abuse, which national statistics state goes unreported 80 percent of the time. “The Blue Kids” was created by the Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center. For more information, see the website www.bluekidslakecounty.org.
Authors visit classrooms
As part of a mini-grant from Partners for Excellence in Education, Highland Middle School students will visit with authors over Skype in their classrooms at the school. The project is called Virtually Connected: Authors and Students Discuss Reading and Writing. On April 26, Ted Scheu, children’s poet, will be meeting with Linda O’Connell’s classes from 10:30 - 11:10 a.m., 11:15 a.m. to noon, and 1:30 - 2:10 p.m., and on May 10, Jame Richards, author of Three Rivers Rising, a novel in verse, will be meeting with Carey Fox’s classes from 10 – 11 a.m., 12:15-1:15 p.m., and 2:15-3:15 p.m.
Highland Open House April 12
Highland Middle School parents are invited to attend spring Open Houses for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at 7 p.m. on April 12 at the school. Examples of students’ work, performances and exhibitions will be on display during the Open Houses, which are set up for both parents and students to attend.
Principals to read to students
Butterfield Principal Candice Kehoe and Asst. Principal Andy Elbert will read to children from 6:45 to 7:30 p.m. on April 12 at Cook Public Library in downtown Libertyville. The event is set up to encourage reading.
Rockland Principal Jeff Knapp will read to children at 6:45 p.m. on April 16. Adler Park Principal Jon Bogie will read to children at 6:45 p.m. on May 3. Copeland Manor Principal Erik Youngman read to children in March.
KidPower assembly set for April 13
An all-school assembly, called KidPower, will be held from 1:30-2:30 p.m. on April 13 at Adler Park School, 1740 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville. Adler students will experience an interactive media show designed to help them learn the value of good nutrition and exercise. Kid Power’s Operation Lunch Line in 3-D! will “miniaturize” the audience so they can join Kid Power on an amazing journey inside the human body of a boy named Max. Max feels lousy because he doesn’t eat or move properly. Kid Power (aided by anatomical sidekicks such as the brain and heart) monitors Max’s inactivity and poor food choices in the lunch line day after day. Through audience participation, the students help to educate and motivate Max to develop the knowledge and behaviors necessary to feel great. The assembly also will be held at 8:30 and 9:45 a.m. on April 13 at Rockland School.
Rockland Open House is April 19
An Open House will be held at Rockland School at 6:30 p.m. on April 19. Parents can view classrooms and an art display.
Open House at Butterfield
Butterfield School will hold an Open House at 7 p.m. on April 19 for kindergarten, first, second and third grade at the school.
Will Maes finished 4th in state
Highland Middle School seventh-grader Will Maes competed on the state level of the National Geographic Bee, finishing fourth in the state.
To begin the state competition, a preliminary competition was held consisting of eight rounds for the 99 qualifiers, said Dr. Erin Wyatt, Highland’s learning center director, who also sponsored the bee at the Libertyville school.
Because the College of DuPage was still in session, space was limited to participants only in the classrooms. There were no spectators.
Maes qualified to compete on the state level after winning the National Geographic Bee at his middle school for the second year in a row.
Maes is the son of Marianne and Bill Maes of Libertyville.
Highland musical set for May 4 -5
The musical comedy, “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown,” which tells the story of beloved cartoon character Charlie Brown during several average days from Valentine’s Day to the baseball season as he mingles with friends and life’s little adventures, will come to life at 7:30 p.m. on May 4 and 5 at Highland Middle School, 310 W. Rockland Road, Libertyville. Tickets are $5 and are on sale.
In the musical, Charlie Brown (played by Jake Stueckemann) is swept into their center by a rousing tribute of only slightly qualified praise, in the song You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He is then left to his own musings as he eats his lunch on the school playground, complicated unbearably by the distant presence of his true love, the “little redheaded girl (played by Hannah Highsmith),” who is always just out of sight.
True love also seems to be the only unmanageable element in Lucy’s (played by Jackie Ovassapian and Kendall Lueder) solid life, which we discover as we watch her try to bulldoze her way through to her boyfriend’s sensitive, six-year-old musician’s heart, in Schroeder (played by Nick Kraus and Zach Pearson). The little scenes then begin to accumulate, and we learn that Lucy’s little brother, Linus (played by Preston Wrolstad and Emmanuel Koutsouras), is thoughtful about many things but fanatical when it comes to the matter of his blanket; that Charlie Brown’s dog, Snoopy (played by Kelly Keefe and Claire Keefe), spends much if not most of his time thinking of being something else-a gorilla, a jungle cat, perhaps a handsome trophy or two-but that mostly his life is a pleasant one spent with his friend Woodstock (played by Elizabeth Murphy, Hannah Loizzo, Troy Sanchez, Harriet Legan, Jacob Kamin and Grace Lynch); and that Charlie Brown’s sister, Sally (played by Ellie Frega and Taylor Skie) crushes on Linus.
Valentine’s Day comes and goes with our hero receiving not one single valentine, which brings him to seek the temporary relief of Lucy’s five-cent psychiatry booth-The Doctor Is In.
Act Two roars in with Snoopy lost in another world atop his dog house. As a World War One flying ace he does not bring down the infamous Red Baron in today’s battle but we know that someday, someday he will.
The day continues. We learn of the chaotic events of the Very Little League’s Baseball Game as Charlie Brown writes the news to his pen pal. Lucy is moved to conduct a personal survey to find out just how crabby she really is, and all the group gathers for a misbegotten rehearsal of a song they are to sing in assembly.
It is suppertime, and Snoopy once more discovers what wild raptures just the mere presence of his full supper dish can send him into. And then it is evening. The gathered friends sing a little about their individual thoughts of happiness and then they go off, leaving Lucy to make a very un-Lucy-like gesture: she tells Charlie Brown what a good man he is.
None of the cast is actually six years old. And they don’t really look like Charles Schulz’ “Peanuts” cartoon characters. But this doesn’t seem to make that much difference once we are into the play, because what they are saying to each other is with the openness of that early childhood time, and the obvious fact is that they are all really quite fond of each other.
The musical is under the direction of drama teacher Shelby Burton and French teacher Andy Hillier. The music director is Kristen Barnes, orchestra director is Emily Walters and the choreographer is Jan Hutchins.
The cast includes (Little Red Haired Girl’s Friends) Hannah Smith, Samantha Ross, Maddie Duco, (Lucy’s Friends) Kate Vittore, Kaitlynd Gledhill, Libby Conely, (Schroeder’s Friends) Anthony Milunas, Luke Miller, Maddie Stokis, (Linus’ Friends) Jilly Cousins, Rebecca Townsend, Alex Pagura, (Sally’s Friends) Beth Vogg, Molly Almer, Hailey Anderson, and the (rest of the Peanut Gang) Julia Thurau, Samantha Ross, Addie McKenna, Beth Vogg, Julia Wilson, Molly Almer, Molly Cayce, Angela Piedrahita, Olivia Richardson, Hailey Anderson, Maddie Rogin, Sarah Green, Hannah Hartung, Carly Wegren, Scout Springgate, Julia Cleary, Maddie Duco and Hannah Smith.
Second graders to hold Dinomite Night April 19
Butterfield School second-graders will show off what they’ve learned about dinosaurs during a Dinomite Night at the school on April 19. The special event, to run from 7 to 8 p.m. at the school will have the students showing their parents and family members how much they’ve learned about the prehistoric beasts. The event will act as an Open House for the second-graders as they show off their incredible dinosaur work including; Powerpoint slideshows, dioramas, dinosaur research, and journal writing.
Kindergartners and first graders also will hold an Open House at 7 p.m. the same night.
Four teams go to state
Four Libertyville Elementary District 70 teams involved in an international problem-solving program will compete on the state level on April 14.
Destination Imagination challenges students in problem solving techniques. This year, students from Adler Park, Butterfield, and Highland had teams competing in the regional competition that placed in the top three slots and now advanced to the state contest.
The sponsors for all the District 70 teams this year are teachers Karen McLean and Ashley Zeinz.
The following teams are competing on the state level.
• Being awarded first place was Adler Park School team “Gator Warriors” that performed the challenge “News to Me” where students performed a skit about the cause-and-effect relationship between two unrelated news stories, then have all the plans suddenly become discombobulated by a one-minute glitch. Members include Annika Bjorklund, Abigail Cima, Maddy Jacobs and Ellie Seyl. The team manager is Eric Cima.
• Three teams also ranked in second place at the regionals. They include:
Highland Middle School “That Team Over There” team competed in the “Assembly Required” challenge where teams designed and built equipment that retrieved parts and delivered assembled products made to order, all to a special story. Highland team members are Elias Anderson, Mitry Anderson, Alex Dikelsky, Jacob Dikelsky, Andy Liu, Annika McDermott-Hinman and Adam Sparks. The manager is Greg Sparks.
Butterfield School “1, 2, 3 Not It” team also did the challenge “Assembly Required.” Team members of the all female group include Emma Chandler, Jillian Cote, Hannah Hartshorne, Alyssa Kline and Erin Leese. Team managers are Elizabeth and Doug Chandler.
Butterfield School “One Small Step For Kids, One Giant Leap For DI” team performed the “Coming Attraction” challenge where the team presented a movie trailer involving characters from at least two nations and featured an original soundtrack. Team members are Jake Duffy, Tate Constable, Milica Lukic, Allison McLean, Scott Patterson and Jonathon Timm. The managers are Dan Timm and Fred Duffy.
The teams will compete at the state competition on April 14 at Northern Illinois University.
Special Ed expands in D70
The success of a special education classroom created this year is making room for a similar classroom at Butterfield School as the program expands in the fall.
Libertyville Elementary District 70 will create a second instructional classroom next year to house up to ten students requiring special education, said Marilynn Menuey, the district’s director of special education. The Board of Education approved the new program last month.
The program is completing its first year on the elementary level at Rockland School and has been highly successful.
By running its own program, the district is allowed to monitor teachers, control curriculum and see first-hand the progress students are making, said Supt. Dr. Guy Schumacher. It also allows students to stay in the district instead of being transported outside the district to other private schools.
At this time, it appears that kindergarteners and first-graders will be located at Butterfield School, while Rockland will house second through fourth grade. By 2013, the program may be set up so that kindergarten through second grade is at Butterfield while Rockland houses third through fifth grade. Details will be worked out over the summer months.
Three years ago, a similar program was created at Highland Middle School to allow ten students in special education to remain in their home school and be integrated with their peers in selected academics, physical education and fine arts classes. This fall, the program will support two elementary classrooms at Rockland and Butterfield schools. The question of which grades are housed in each building is still being determined as families register for the new school year.
As these students advance to new grade levels, the program needs to be expanded.
Marilyn Menuey, the district’s director of specal education, expects to hire an additional teacher and to reassign two paraeducators for the new classroom.
By educating the children locally, Menuey said it allows student to stay with their peers and neighbors, provides more focused instruction and allows the district to provide the District 70 Board approved curriculum. It also saves the district money by not having to pay tuition and transportation when students are placed in classrooms outside of the district. However, the district fully expects to continue to keep a child’s needs as a top priority and when a child’s needs are beyond the scope of the district, they will continue to be placed in specialized schools that meet their needs.
Olympiad Team places 8th in region
Highland Middle School students on the Science Olympiad team placed eighth at the regional competition in Oswego on March 3.
After many months of preparation, Highland Middle School competed both a Varsity and Junior Varsity team,” said co-coach and teacher Tara Oshinski, who guided the students along with teachers Rebekah Rogers and Jamie Taylor.
For the regionals, students competed in 23 events, including Anatomy, Bottle Rockets, Crime Busters, and Mission Possible.
The regional results are as follows:
First place was Jacob Leib and CJ Allen in Road Scholar (Junior Varsity), second place was Jacob Leib in Rocks and Minerals (JV), third place was Dillon Petz, Joe Gasick, and CJ Allen in MIssion Possible (JV), and fourth place was Brian Lemay and Kirsten Reid in Disease Detectives (Varsity), Tara D’Souza and Melissa Manetsch in Bottle Rockets (JV), Kevin Karahoalios and Dillon Petz in Crime Busters (JV), Sarah Green and Nick Silvas in Forestry and Write it/Do It (JV), fifth place was Katie Xu and Rohan Kanianchalil in Anatomy (V), Ryan Bonate and Hezekiah Chan in Towers (V), Ryan Bogan and Jasmine Li in Computer This (V), Brian Lemay and Danny Samelson in Crime Busters (V), and sixth place was Ryan Bonate and Hezekiah Chan in Bottle Rocket (V), and Amanda Fan and Rohan Kanianchalil in Mission Possible (V).
The Science Olympiad Club members include Megha Adya, CJ Allen, Ryan Bogan, Ryan Bonate, Hezekiah Chan, Eunice Choi, Tara D’Souza, Rob Ervine, Amanda Fan, Joe Gasick, Sarah Green, Zach Jenkins, Eric Johnson, Rohan Kanianchalil, Kevin Karoahalios, Jacob Leib, Brian Lemay, Jasmine Li, Raymond Lor, Melissa Manetsch, Luke Miller, Quinn Mooney, Derek Nedland, Daniel Oh, Dillon Petz, Nihar Phadke, Kirsten Reid, Danny Samelson, Reed Sattizahn, Addison Whitney, and Katie Xu.
Mathcounts students having great year
Highland Middle School’s MATHCOUNTS team is having a great competitive year. The team competed twice in February.
In the College of Lake County Mathcounts competition on Feb. 18, the team earned fourth place. They scored high enough as a team to go to the state competition on March 3 in Lisle. The team came in 19th place at State.
The team competing at CLC and State included Elliot Stahnke, Ken Wu, Daniel Zou, and Preston Wrolstad. Rohan Kanianchalil, Nihar Phadke and Aaron Chen competed at CLC also as individuals and Aaron Chen was the alternate at state.
The team then competed in a Carmel High School event on Feb. 25. The eighth grade team was Elliot Shahnke, Preston Wrolstad, Daniel Zou, Hannah Manetsch and Jesse Ou. The seventh grade team was Rohan Kanianchalil, Aaron Chen and Jesse Yan.
The remaining mathletes who practice each week are Sarah Green, George Legan, Harriet Legan, Katherine Liu, Colin Miller, Tim Miller, Lewis Wang, Claire Williams and John Zhan.
Fourth graders to be authors
Several Copeland Manor fourth graders will be honored for their essays in an upcoming Creative Communications bound book.
The students submitted 250-word essays on “What is Important to Me,” according to teacher Ann Livermore.
The selected writers are: Niko Agiunaga, “Legos; Molly Bath, “The Best Water Park Ever;” Rachel Bond, “Have You Ever Jumped on a Horse?;” Amanda Gourley, “Surf’s Up;” Cameron Hamilton, “The Birthday Surprise for My Grandma;” Samuel Hurh, “The Dog Farm;” Daphne Hurtle, “The City of Lights, Paree;” Elizabeth Manley, “My First Trip;” Bennett Scheunemann, “How Many Rides Are There?;” Jonathan Simon, and “Bugs, Dinosaurs, Fish, and Animals.”
The students are in the process of proofing and correcting their draft and learning about the printing process first hand.
