Fall 2024 Edition
Sections include:
Starlight School News
FANS and Advocacy Calendars
Employed and Empowered Spotlight, Employment Breakfast
Starlight School News
Letter from the Director
The 24-25 school year is off and running and we have been super busy here at Starlight. Our new teachers are learning about their classrooms and working with the assistants to assure the students are getting the educational supports they need. We are continuing to make improvements to our playground, recently planting 4 trees in our Butterfly Garden/Sensory Trail. We just have a couple more projects to finish and this area will be completed!
This fall the kiddos have been able to engage in a lot of fun and educational activities. Both our preschool and school age students got to visit Cherry’s Orchard and the McDonald’s Pumpkin Patch. Some of our students got to go swimming at the YMCA and others got to go bowling at Sunrise Bowling Center. We had several students attend assemblies at their home districts, which gives them a great opportunity to socialize with their peers. We also have two classrooms and the front office competing in the Downtown Zanesville Scarecrow Contest. A special thanks to these organizations and all the organizations around the area that are so welcoming to our students.
We had our first PBIS sponsored event of the school year on Wednesday, September 25th, which was a school-wide messy play. It went great and all the students had a wonderful time. Our school-wide PBIS plan helps to encourage and support positive behaviors throughout the school, and allows each student to earn Superhero Bucks that can be used to purchase special items from our PBIS Store. It also allows them to participate in these special events, which are held monthly. A special thanks to the PBIS committee for organizing this event and to Sam Shomaker of Happy Messy Play LLC.
The transition students continue to be busy performing job skill training at various locations around the community. We have students completing work study hours Monday – Friday. I would like to thank all the local business/organizations that allow our staff and students the chance to come out and complete this work training each day.
I would like to give special recognition to all the preschool staff for their hard work earning the Ohio Step Up to Quality Gold Award! We have a special group and I am extremely proud of our program. Keep up the great work!
Lastly, I want to thank all the families and friends who continue to support our school, our staff, and our students. We are so proud of the work we do providing educational supports for your loved ones. I want to wish everyone a happy Fall and have a save and warm winter!
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Sincerely,
Brent Brannon, Director of Educational Services
Tree Planting
School-Age 4 and School-Age 5 students helped maintenance plant the trees in the Butterfly Garden and on the Sensory Trail. The four trees are Gum Tree, Eastern Redbus, Gingko, and Thundercloud Plum. Thanks to Timber Run Gardens for letting us come and pick out the trees for our playground.
Philo Pep Rally
Hannah, a Franklin Local student who attends Starlight School, showed her Electric Pride by participating in Philo's Pep Rally recently. Hannah loved participating and cheering on her home school!
Messy Play
Students enjoyed a Messy Play Day as a PBIS reward last month. Happy Messy Play brought all sorts of fun sensory play items for students to explore. Older students enjoyed take home sensory kits.
PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports.
PBIS is a framework that guides school teams in the selection, integration and implementation of evidence-based practices for improving academic, social and behavior outcomes for all students. PBIS is not a curriculum or a one-day training, but a process that requires on-going commitment in order to create effective systems for teaching and addressing behavior and social-emotional skills.​​
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Each month there is a different PBIS sponsored activity that students can earn by exhibiting positive behaviors throughout the school day.
Busy Students
Transition age students have been busy working on job skills in the community. They have enjoyed work experience at Dillon State Park, Masonic Lodge Northpointe, Muskingum County YMCA, Muskingum County Senior Center, Sunrise Bowling Alley, and GABE's.
Scarecrow Contest
Students participated in the Zanesville-Muskingum County Convention and Visitors Bureau's Scarecrow Contest. They came up with some very creative scarecrows including Sponge Bob, the Old Lady Who Ate A Fly, and a Spooky Pumpkin.
Welcome New Staff!
Starlight welcome several new staff member this year, including teachers, classroom assistants and transportation assistants.
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New Teachers:
Vince Winters, SA5
Jessica Kennedy - SA3
Destiny Dawson - SA2
Gracie Lewis - PS4
New Classroom Assistants:
Tristin Talley - PS1
Shandi Miller - PS2
Daveena West - SA1
Transportation Assistant:
Mercedes McManes - Route 1
Advocacy and FANS November Calendars
Employed and Empowered Spotlight
Meet Christopher! Christopher is employed at ShopGoodwill as a Poster.
Christopher identifies items that might be appropriate for website sales and uses Google Lens to learn more about the item. He then photographs the item and loads the photo to the ShopGoodwill website to be sold. Christopher is great with technology. His favorite part of the job is “all of it!”
Goodwill, the FUSE Network, and the MCBDD worked with Christopher to find a position where he could use his technology skills to excel in the workplace.
Keep up the great work Christopher!
Employment Breakfast
In October the Muskingum County Board of DD held an Employment Breakfast to celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
Many employers, employees, and community members joined us to recognize the progress people have made in their employment journeys and the strides employers have made in becoming more inclusive.
Chelsea who works at Shaggy Chic Dog Grooming was our guest speaker and shared her experience looking for and finding employment.
The MCBDD would like to thank everyone who came out to help us celebrate!
