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My Word

  • MY WORD: Special idea from special sisters

    Kate Schaefer has won awards in art. Claire Schaefer has won awards in dance and beauty contests.

    They wish every student had the same opportunities, especially since Claire remembers only one time seeing children with special needs competing in a contest in which she participated.

    Their wish has come true because of their own efforts.

    These two sisters have worked out arrangements with the Shelby County Fair Board to have an art contest and a Miss Sensational Pageant for students identified with disabilities.

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  • MY WORD: A new learning experience

    Recently I heard the phrase “the new norm” being tossed around. I cannot specifically remember to what it was in reference, but I started thinking about what Shelby County Public Schools will look like when we meet our Big Goals: all fifth-graders going to middle school on grade level, all middle-schoolers going to high school on grade level and all students graduating college and career ready.

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  • NEIHOF: Here’s how to prepare for K-PREP

    We are preparing for the annual state assessments in May – but it’s out with the old and in with the new.

    The new state system is called Unbridled Learning: College/Career-Readiness for All. It takes into account all areas of a school’s work and even replaces No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements because of a federal waiver. That means Shelby County Public Schools will have a single set of goals to meet.

    I am excited – and anxious – about the changes.

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  • MY WORD: Shelbyville's requirement isn’t just an issue of paying for a sidewalk

    This spring, my wife and I will be replacing the sidewalk abutting our home on Henry Clay Street in Shelbyville. We were among the first 150 residents in a 22-square-block area to receive notice from the Codes Enforcement Office that a 16-year dormant ordinance requiring homeowners to pay for sidewalk repairs was being resurrected and enforced.

    The letter directed us to start making arrangements within 30 days and complete the work within 60 days, or the city would make the repairs and file a lien against our home for the cost of the work, plus fees and penalties.

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  • MY WORD: What organic farming is really like

    I was very interested to read the article The Sentinel-Newsthat started out talking about beef prices but ended as a discussion about organic livestock (“Shelby’s beef prices jumping,” March 23). My husband and I own Earth's Promise Farm. We are among the state's first certified organic farms, and we raise certified organic pastured poultry for meat and eggs, certified organic pastured pork and certified organic produce.

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  • NEIHOF: New grading system up for discussion

    “Grading procedures do not reflect today’s teaching standards,” said Thomas R. Guskey from the University of Kentucky at a recent training session for principals in Shelby County. He could prove his point with a 1917 report card that belonged to his grandmother, which looked pretty much like a report card issued today.

    He and Lee Ann Jung, also from UK, shared their expertise in standards-based grading for Shelby County Public Schools because we have completed a study of their book, Grading Exceptional and Struggling Learners.

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  • MY WORD: Money versus minds – what matters most

    As a student at Northside, at Southside and at Shelbyville High School, I never thought about the funding behind the quality teachers I had, the nice desks and school environment, the playground equipment, the athletic facilities, and especially the textbooks.

    I fondly remember my textbooks – seeing what upperclassman had carried the book before it came to my hands and covering it with wallpaper sheets or plastic wrap from JJ Newberry 5 & 10.

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  • MY WORD: So here’s why I’m a Democrat

    Usually when I tell someone that I am a Democrat, I get a puzzled look and then they blurt out “WHY?!?,” as if they can’t believe anyone could be a Democrat. 

    What I always say is that first of all I am more of a Moderate or Independent but they don’t win elections, and I feel that the Democrats actually look out for the greater good more than the Republican Party does or claims to do.

    That statement probably angers some, so let me explain. 

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  • MY WORD: Pleasureville issue needs clarification

    Articles that have recently been published in your newspaper about the Pleasureville City Commission have been very one-sided (“Issue about clerk’s pay linked to chicken letter,” Feb. 17). Those same articles have appeared to be making a joke out of the serious problems that have occurred and continue to occur within Pleasureville city government.

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  • MY WORD: Kentucky has 'rotary dial laws in an iPhone world’

    In 2006, the Kentucky Legislature took a major step towards building Kentucky’s economy by overwhelmingly passing the Emerging Technology and Consumer Choice Act. Lawmakers recognized that outdated, monopoly-era regulations were hampering competition and stifling investment in advanced technologies, and took direct action to reduce them.

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