Beech Tree News Network

The first day of school is just around the corner as the summer continues to move at a very fast pace.  I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome all of the students, parents, and guardians back for what we hope will be a successful school year.  I hope each student has had a restful and fun summer.  It is hard to believe that we have been out of school for approximately two and half months.  

We have been working hard to make sure the buildings are ready for that first day.  Our custodians and maintenance staff have done a wonderful job with cleaning and waxing the floors.  We have also done some painting in the buildings, especially in the high traffic areas.  We have trained several new bus drivers during the summer months and our transportation department is ready to go.  Our bus mechanics and bus drivers are second to no one  We installed a new buzzer system at the high school so now we have a system on the first set of doors and the second set of doors.  The new tile has been completed in all of the hallways and classrooms at Morgantown Elementary School.

As many of you know, our district became accredited last year through an organization called Advanced Education.  Butler County is one of thirty-one districts in our state to earn this recognition.  Through this process, we looked at our mission and vision statement.  It did not take us long to determine these were outdated and needed to be revised.  

The new Mission Statement for Butler County Schools is as follows:

 - Building Character and 21st Century Skills

 - Collaborating with Families and Community

 - Shaping the Next Generation of Local and Global Citizens

With this three-part approach, we hope that each student will be successful.  A strong partnership between the home environment and school environment is also very critical in the success of each student.  These mission statements will guide us as we make decisions every day.   I feel like we have some of the best teachers, support staff and administrators in the entire state of Kentucky.  I know they are ready to build relationships and help our children in any way that they can.  

I am very proud of all of our students.  They continue to be involved in many activities that lead them to compete both on a state and national level.  I am sure that the college and/or career readiness is a phrase that you have heard or read about as we try to prepare our high school students.  I am happy to say that our district continues to do very well with making sure our students are ready in these areas.  As a community we need to talk to students about their aspirations after high school starting at a very young age.   We want to make sure that if students want to enroll in an educational path after high school, they are capable and confident to meet the requirements.  We continue to work with the businesses in and around our county to see what skills they are expecting new hires to have so that if a student wants to enter the work force upon graduation, they have the necessary skills to do so as well.

We have also purchased a reading series that supports the Kentucky Core Academic Standards for both North Butler Elementary and Morgantown Elementary Schools.  This will enable both schools to collaborate with the same materials and bring a high quality literacy curriculum to students.   Each child will have his or her own reading book and the text will be available on line as well.  The middle school began implementing an intensive Literacy initiative in 2012-13 that asks students to think critically.  They will continue with this initiative and expand the strategies to more classes in 2013-14.  Literacy programs will help the middle school students be successful in each class.

We will have opening day for all of our staff on August 7th at the Butler County High School.  Our cafeteria staff always prepares a wonderful breakfast for everyone. I want to send a special thank you to all of food service workers for their hard work.

Please stay involved in your child’s education.  It is more important now than it has ever been for students to come to school every day and ultimately earn their diploma.  If you have the time, please make visits to each school and talk with principals and teachers.  As always, we would love for you to eat breakfast or lunch with your children.  If I, or anyone in my office, can do anything for you, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  I am excited about the upcoming school year because I think it is going to be best yet!  It is my wishes that everyone has a very successful year.

Superintendent Scott Howard

Butler County Schools