By Sally Absher

Kindergarten Round-up Tuesday, April 12

Kindergarten Round-up (registration/application) will be held Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at all Knox County Elementary schools for the upcoming 2016-2017 school year. At Kindergarten Round-up, parents receive important enrollment information about the upcoming school year. Children should be five years old by August 15, 2016, to enter kindergarten for the 2016-2017 school year, and parents are asked to register their child at the child’s zoned school.

Note that Kindergarten is a full day program. The school day begins 7:45 am and dismisses at 2:45 each day. The first two weeks of school will be a staggered schedule for Kindergarten students. Students will attend one day each week during the weeks of August 8th and 15th, beginning a full day schedule on Monday August 22, 2016.

If you are unable to attend Kindergarten Round-up on April 12, you can still enroll at your zoned school. For more information, call 865-594-1787.

 

Dancing with the Knoxville Stars 2016

Lonsdale Elementary School announces that the Lonsdale Dance Club will perform at Knoxville’s Dancing with the Stars to benefit Children’s Hospital on Saturday, April 9. The program will be streamed live so you can watch them perform from home! Lonsdale’s dance club will perform about halfway through the show (between 7:45 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.). Here is the link: https://www.etch.com/giving/dancing-knoxville-stars/.

This event is a take-off of the hit reality TV show “Dancing with the Stars” and will take place at the Grande Event Center at the Knoxville Expo Center. The event features local celebrities performing a variety of dances with a professional dance partner from Dance Tonight.

Since the event began in 2009, Dancing with the Knoxville Stars has raised more than $450,000 for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital’s Home Health Care program through donations, proceeds of ticket sales and VIP table events.

If you wish to attend the event in person, general admission tickets are available for $60 each, and may be purchased online at https://www.etchtickets.com/.

 

C-SPAN Bus visit to honor StudentCam winners at Hardin Valley Academy

C-SPAN will be visiting Hardin Valley Academy to honor  StudentCam honorable mention and third place winning students on Wednesday April 20 beginning at 9 am.

Third Place honorees include Sophia LaSorsa and Mikaela Chavis, who will receive a $750 prize for their video Racial Injustice in America

Three groups of HVA students will receive honorable mention and a $250 prize:

Megan Cos, Bryce Stiles and Abigail Bradfield: Climate Change: Debatable

Ryan Hart, Tarver Nicely and Seth Maxwell: Saving our Skies: America’s Air Pollution Problem

Simon Jolly, Drew Freshour and Jake Brown: How Will America Power Tomorrow? – Clean Energy

The national competition, now in its 12th year, invites middle school (grades 6-8) and high school students (grades 9-12) to produce a five-to-seven minute documentary on a national policy issue.

This year, students used video cameras to address the theme, “Road to the White House: What’s the issue YOU most want candidates to discuss during the 2016 presidential campaign?” In response, C-SPAN received a record 2,887 video submissions from almost 6,000 students in 45 states and Washington, DC.

 

Emerald Academy Charter School Receives Over 600 applications

Emerald Academy Charter opened in July 2015 to 120 Kindergarten and first grade students. Grades 2 and 6 will be added in 2016-2017. A total of 631 applications were received for the 2016-2017 school year, 468 of which are for the 120 available kindergarten and sixth grade slots for next year.

Because there are only 120 spaces available, the school will conduct a lottery operated by an independent third-party. Families will receive notification of acceptance by letter, and students who are not selected through the lottery system will be placed on a waitlist.

Emerald students, referred to as “scholars,” are held to strict behavioral and academic standards. Students are required to wear uniforms.  The school year is 192 days, and students are in class for 8 hours each day. The 2015-2016 school year began on July 27 and ends June 1.

The proposed KCS FY 2017 budget includes nearly $1 million in additional funding for Emerald charter for next year, due in part to the additional 120 students.

 

Joint Education Committee to Meet Thursday, April 7

The Joint Education Committee, comprised of members of the Knox County Board of Education and County Commission, will meet on Thursday, April 7 at 4:30 p.m. in the first floor board room of the Andrew Johnson Building (912 S. Gay Street).

The meeting will be broadcast live on KCS-TV (Comcast channel 10) and streamed live on knoxschools.org.  The agenda and any supporting materials can be accessed online at the following link: http://agenda.knoxschools.org:8085/agenda_publish.cfm.