What's the Buzz?

We have had a tremendous start to the 2023-24 school year here in Monroe. The fall is always my favorite time of year as we welcome back all of our students to the buildings. Monroe staff does such a great job to ensure that students have a positive experience as they start back to school. My message to staff as we started off the school year was a simple one: Take each day and evaluate the things we are doing, then try to get a little better each day. As a group, if we work hard to get better for our students, there is no limit to what they can accomplish. #ThriveInTheHive

This summer we repaved the front parking lot and made some adjustments to the front drop-off lanes at the main campus. We are working with traffic engineers to look at the placement and traffic flow for a possible second driveway at the north end of the property. Our hope is to continue to improve the traffic patterns at arrival and dismissal, but we also need to ensure any changes that we make will continue to make sense if we were to add a new school building somewhere on campus. We worked closely with community members on our facilities committee last school year and are getting closer to making decisions on our needs for future facilities in Monroe.

After conducting a months-long search and extensive interview process, the Monroe Board of Education has selected Amy Moore to lead the district’s financial services.

Moore will succeed Holly Cahall as district treasurer, who has served Monroe for the last 12 years and will retire Jan. 1, 2024.

“The school board’s number one goal was to find the right financial leader for the district,” said Monroe Board President Dave Grant. “After our search, we are 100% confident that Mrs. Moore will exceed not only our expectations, but those of the entire community. The board feels that with her unique background in school finance and government finance, Mrs. Moore will be an incredible asset to our district and the Monroe community. We are looking forward to having her in Hornet Country!”

Moore served as the assistant treasurer for Sycamore Community Schools for the last two years and as the assistant treasurer for Kettering City Schools immediately prior. She obtained her Ohio School Treasurer's License in August 2019.

Prior to her move into school finance, she worked in government finance for 21 years beginning her career at the State of Ohio Auditor's Office. After seven years of performing audits of schools, municipalities and other government entities, Moore spent the next 14 years directing finances at the City of Sharonville and then the City of Blue Ash. During that time she had the opportunity to work on financing community projects such as the expansion of the Sharonville Convention Center and the construction of Summit Park.

During her years in municipal finance, her team’s clean state audits resulted in multiple awards from the Ohio Auditor of State including Awards with Distinction and Making Your Tax Dollars Count Awards, as well as a Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association.

“I am eager to collaborate with district leaders and educators to continue to provide great opportunities for our students,” said Moore. “I look forward to working with the community and continuing the strong financial leadership you've grown to expect. I am so excited to join the Monroe Local Schools team!”

Moore’s first day in the district will be Nov. 1, 2023.

Ohio School Report Cards were recently released by the Ohio Department of Education, and Monroe Local Schools earned a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, which equates to “exceeds state standards.”

ODE’s rating identifies Monroe as the second highest performing school district in Butler County and ranks it higher than 71% of Ohio school districts.

Superintendent Robert Buskirk called Monroe’s rating an outstanding achievement and credited it to a team effort across the district. “Our building leaders, teachers and staff deserve all the credit for helping our students grow academically and exceeding our academic goals for the school year. This data reinforces how well we all work together to support learning for all of our students.”

The report card evaluates and rates Ohio school districts in five categories: Achievement, Progress, Gap Closing, Graduation and Early Literacy. Monroe earned between three and five stars in the various categories with three stars indicating the district “meets state standards;” four stars noting the district “exceeds state standards;” and five stars meaning the district exceeded expectations “by a larger magnitude.”

Monroe Local Schools was rated four stars in the Achievement category, which evaluates “whether student performance on state tests met established thresholds and how well students performed on tests overall.”

The second metric that the district was graded on was Progress, which “measures the academic performance of students compared to expected growth on Ohio's State Tests.” Monroe earned four stars in this category, and the State of Ohio reports that there is “significant evidence that the district exceeded student growth expectations.”

The Gap Closing component shows how well schools are meeting the performance expectations for students in English language arts, math and graduation. It also measures how schools are doing in supporting English learners to increase language proficiency, reducing chronic absenteeism for all students, and identifying gifted students and providing gifted services. Monroe achieved the highest component rating in Butler County, with five out of five stars in this category.

Monroe was rated five stars for the Graduation component that measures the four-year and five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate. Monroe High School’s weighted graduation rate was 96.9%, compared to Ohio’s statewide rate of 87.9%.

“We continually evaluate our practices in our PreK-12 classrooms to ensure that we are not only meeting but exceeding the needs of all our students,” said Curriculum Director Jody Long. “While the state report card is just one of several measures that the district uses to evaluate itself, it provides us with some very valuable insights that help us track our progress and challenge ourselves to find more opportunities for improvement.”

Last school year, junior high and high school students in the Monroe Environmental Club began noticing that a lot of food waste ended up in the garbage after lunch. With that in mind, club members decided to conduct a survey of their peers to determine why this happened and what they could do to fix it.

After presenting their findings to the board of education, club members came up with a plan that not only keeps food out of our waste streams but also provides nourishment for our neighbors.

With the Food Share Program, students who purchase school meals can now opt to donate any unopened or unwanted food or drink to local food banks in our community.

“It is a great program and I am so proud of all the students that are involved and continue to be involved in this,” said Jessica Thornton, Environmental Club advisor and MHS intervention specialist.

After rolling the program out with great success at Monroe Junior High and Monroe High School at the end of the 2022-23 school year, the club decided to expand the program to also include students from Monroe Elementary beginning in September. Club members produced a video to help educate elementary students on what the program is and how it benefits both our local community and our world.

"The Food Share Program results from students recognizing issues in their community and having the drive and belief that they can make a difference," said JEE Foods Executive Director Levi Grimm. "We commend the students' work and were honored to play a role in helping the project come to life. Our team is grateful to the Monroe School District for empowering the next generation of community-oriented leaders."

JEE Foods, a student-powered food rescue organization founded in a Butler Tech/Ross High School classroom in 2018, is the organization that connected the Monroe Environmental Club with Bethany Church, the recipient of its donations.

Just one week into this year’s program, so much food had been gathered that donations had to be paused so more room could be made for storage. When volunteers from Bethany Church arrived that first Friday to collect more than eight boxes of food, Monroe Varsity Football Coach Bob Mullins had to send over two players from the team for help with heavy lifting.

Donations are now picked up twice a week, an increase from last year’s weekly collection.

"On average, we are sharing our bounty with 150-180 people each week," said Bonnie Greenwood, administrator of God's Bounty Table at Bethany Church. "Every little bit that we are receiving is blessing a belly. Even food that is spoiled or unfit for consumption gets composted. We are super excited about the partnership with JEE and Monroe students to help us care for our community. We have seen God's hand in our ministry since its inception, and we marvel at the doors He opens for us!"

This year's Fun Run, coordinated by the Monroe Elementary PTO and school fundraising organization Booster, raised more than $35,000 to support the purchase of interactive Clevertouch displays for several MES classrooms. Thank you to the PTO, participating students and staff, our parent volunteers, and all of our community members who made this incredible effort possible!

Despite some inclement weather that forced us inside on the day of our run, MES students and staff had a fantastic event inside the high school gymnasium. Click below to watch the 60 second highlight reel!

Let’s Go, Hornets!

Fall sports are in full swing and the Monroe Athletic Booster Club (MABC) is working hard to support our student-athletes! MABC is a 100% volunteer organization dedicated to facilitating and promoting activities for ALL Monroe athletic programs. We work with coaches and administration to support the athletic programs by providing funds, boosting attendance, building morale, and providing an enjoyable, healthy environment for Monroe student-athletes.

Coaches can request funds for team spirit wear, equipment, camps, tents and other expenses that may not be covered within the athletic program’s budget. This helps support our coaches and equips our teams to achieve their maximum potential in their sport! Additionally, the MABC awards scholarships each year to graduating student-athletes.

Where do these funds come from? Our largest fundraiser is the fall and winter concession stand. Staffed by parent volunteers from each sport, profits are shared across ALL programs. We also host Bingo Night, Yardline Blitz, Super Bowl Squares and more.

But, Monroe, we can always use more help:

1. Work the concession stand. When your child plays a school sport, you are asked to take one shift per season. Please give a few hours to support your Hornet student-athletes.
2. Join boosters. Anyone can join — parents, grandparents, community members. Your membership shows your support. If you want to be an active member, meetings are held bi-monthly and volunteer opportunities happen year-round.
3. Support fundraisers. Buy a hot dog! Play bingo! You are helping raise funds that directly support our students.

-Christy Rolph, Jenna Beason, Kevin Taylor & Angee Walters

Check us out online at www.monroeathleticboosters.com or visit us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Monroe Local Schools

500 Yankee Road

Monroe, OH 45050

www.monroelocalschools.com

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