Five T-M Grads Are Back As Teachers

By Bruce Kettelle

Five Trotwood-Madison City Schools graduates are back at their hometown school for the first day of classes today. This time they are going to school as teachers.

Among the newly hired teachers introduced at Friday’s district wide 2009 opening day convocation for staff were the five alumni returning to their alma mater.

DelMaria Watts ’94 (Ohio State) is teaching science at the middle school. Marnika Buchanan ’02 (Kentucky State) is teaching 5th grade at Madison Park Elementary. Latasha Van Kleek ’01 (Central State) is also at Madison Park teaching 2nd graders. Ryan Vance ’04 (Central State) and Brittany A. Nalls (Harris) ’01 (Wright State) are both at the Early Learning Center.

This isn’t the first time T-M graduates have returned to teach here but it may be the largest number starting in the same year.

All the teachers will have their work cut out for them as they embark to help improve the district’s State Report Card. Assistant Superintendent Rexann Wagner gave the staff a preview of the new report card due to be released by the state this month.

Wagner said the district maintained a rating of Continuous Improvement despite some proficiency scores declining slightly. “This is not good, we cannot continue on this path,” she said. “We must do better, our students are counting on us.”

Wagner introduced a new resource for the teachers this year. District teachers and staff prepared the homemade primer of teaching concepts. It is a compilation of many techniques to help improve learning from many current sources. Wagner said it shows that “our staff collectively has answers.”

They have a lot of work to do to advance the district’s state rating. The new report card will show the district met 11 of 30 indicators. She said the district has not met adequate yearly progress for many years.

The good news is that most students are meeting the proficiency scores. Wagner stressed that the district needs to do better to assist those students that are close to achieving these goals.

What doesn’t show up in the state’s report is the successes students have after graduation. A record 67% of T-M’s class of 2009 made plans to continue their education after high school. Sixty-two of the 188 graduating seniors were offered scholarships totaling over $3,000,000.

Wagner also recognized six returning teachers that were recently awarded advanced degrees. Five T-M teachers received Masters and one earned their PHD during the last 12 months.