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Source: Poplar Bluff Schools A student wrote a heartfelt essay about her school janitor and won $500 plus an all-expense paid trip for the pair to attend the Missouri High School Football Championship in St. Louis. Poplar Bluff High School junior Katie Huskey and long-time custodian Jan Ethridge enjoyed the Fort Osage versus Chaminade game together on Saturday, Nov. 28, receiving on-the-field recognition and a behind-the-scenes tour of Edward Jones Dome. Huskey said she chose Ethridge in the Missouri National Education Association-sponsored writing contest, Teacher Words Matter, because of the custodian’s welcoming smile and positive influence on the lives of cohorts of high schoolers. “It’s not big things that matter. She inspires us to do little things every day,” Huskey

Source: Poplar Bluff Schools Two Poplar Bluff Graduation Center students earned scholarships and eight were awarded certificates of completion by Mayor Betty Absheer through the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce’s Gateway 2 Jobs program on Thursday, Nov. 19. “I’ve had wonderful mentors in my life who taught me that education can help me move from one level to another,” said G2J co-founder Sharon Kissinger of Kissinger & Kirkman Investment Centre. Earlier the financial consultant told the students about her struggles raising two children as a teenager. Nicole Eason, a junior, was nominated to receive the second annual G2J scholarship from the Three Rivers College Endowment Trust, announced Student Loan Management Specialist Karen Beers. New this year, Kissinger took her passion

Source: Poplar Bluff Schools The Poplar Bluff Kindergarten Center received regional recognition for its successful implementation of a statewide initiative through which at risk students are taught to track their own progress in the classroom. Literacy Consultant Carol Reimann of the Southeast Regional Professional Development Center in Cape Girardeau, whose tenure in education spans 48 years, selected the Kindergarten Center as one of two schools in the region for its effective teaching practices in the Missouri Collaborative Work program on Friday, Nov. 20. “Time is such a precious commodity in the education business,” said reading interventionist Debbie Harper, who is a member of a four-person team of kindergarten teachers leading the effort. “We have so much to accomplish, this initiative

Source: Poplar Bluff Schools The Patrons of the Arts Society has a mission of delivering high-quality theater to the Tinnin Fine Arts Center on the Three Rivers College campus at a discounted rate. Now the society has gone a step further, bringing the live performances directly to the school systems within the community college’s service area. The Repertory Imaginary Theatre Company performed “The Elves and the Shoemaker”—underwritten by the Daily American Republic—on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the Poplar Bluff Kindergarten Center. “Exposing young people to art and culture has a big impact on their development,” said R-I Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Patty Robertson, expressing gratitude to the society. “Students need a strong academic foundation, but they also need to be

Source: Poplar Bluff Schools Oak Grove Elementary School is holding a book drive November 30-December 4 as part of its Jingle Jog community service project to help stock a Little Red Bookshelf at participating businesses. The Bright Futures Site Council of the elementary school announced the Little Red Bookshelf project earlier this year with an ambitious goal of collecting 4,500 new or gently used children’s books by the end of the calendar year. The books will be collected by a project volunteer who will sort them and place a sticker on the cover indicating whether the book may be taken home or should be kept on the shelf. The books will then be distributed among local businesses in the community that have agreed to be distribution sites. Project volunteers plan to stock the