Ohio’s State Board of Education has granted Chagrin Falls Schools its Overall A Award. As an Overall A Award winner, the district’s report card shows high academic performance and the building of bright futures for students of every background and ability level.
Chagrin Falls Schools Receive Overall A’s
Ohio’s State Board of Education has granted Chagrin Falls Schools its Overall A Award. As an Overall A Award winner, the district’s report card shows high academic performance and the building of bright futures for students of every background and ability level.
“Ohio’s strategic plan for education, ‘Each Child, Our Future,’ is the state’s plan to ensure each student is challenged, prepared and empowered for his or her future by way of an excellent prekindergarten through grade 12 education,” said President Tess Elshoff, Ohio Board of Education. “Our mission is to prepare students for a future that has yet to be written. Many consider this to be a daunting endeavor. Your education team, however, has clearly embraced this challenge. I want you to know how much we appreciate your leadership and the dedication your team has to providing a high-quality experience for all students. Please share our gratitude with all of those who contributed to this accomplishment.”
The high school, intermediate school and Gurney Elementary School also received Overall A Award recognition. In addition, Chagrin Falls High School was granted the 2017-2018 Momentum Award. Now in its fourth year, the Momentum Award is the state board’s way of recognizing schools that received A’s on every Value-Added measure included on the Ohio School Report Cards. As a Momentum Award winner, Chagrin Falls High School’s report card shows the school is committed to its students’ success by ensuring students exceeded the growth expectations in English language arts and mathematics.
“I also congratulate you on recruiting and motivating the high-quality leaders and staff needed to make this happen,” said Elshoff.
Perotti Lays Down the Law
By CFHS junior Alexis Christie
Starting during the 2016-17 school year, students in Chagrin Falls Intermediate School began participating in Mock Trial with the help of sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Katherine Owen and local lawyer Thomas Perotti.
Perotti volunteers his time to the Mock Trial team, attending various meetings throughout the year, to help Owen coach and guide the students through procedures like opening statements and witness examination.
“In the beginning, his help was everything. He knew courtroom procedures and helped walk the kids through different parts of it,” said Owen.
While she knew some basics of how a typical courtroom worked, she described the professional influence as instrumental in the kids’ learning process. In addition to providing this first-hand knowledge of the courtroom itself, Perotti also has the opportunity to provide the students with anecdotes about the kind of unusual cases he has come across.
“After practicing law for 23 years, I have handled a great variety of unusual and interesting cases, and have many stories to share, which the students seemed to enjoy,” said Perotti.
Not only do the students enjoy hearing about Perotti’s experiences, but they also look forward to hearing his feedback about their own performances, which Owen describes as extremely constructive.
“He’s always positive with the kids. All the students leave feeling good about how they performed,” said Owen, elaborating that they receive constructive adjustments as opposed to blunt criticisms.
For Perotti, this coaching experience has been a unique one, as he has been working in law for many years, but has never coached young students, such as those in Mock Trial.
“I have had no experience working with middle school students. I have taught personal injury law at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike,” said Perotti. “One day, my then sixth-grade daughter, Maddie, came home and said, ‘Dad, Mrs. Owen needs a lawyer to help her with Mock trial.’ I learned that the theme was Johnny Tremain, and because I love American History, and Mrs. Owen was so nice, I was sold.”
One would never guess that Perotti had never worked with kids, much less with Owen, as the partnership between the two has been seamless.
“When I first started, I didn’t know what I was doing. He was patient and he took the time and never made me feel like I didn’t know what I was doing. Now I feel so well-prepared and qualified and it’s all because of his help,” said Owen.
Perotti echoed these sentiments, praising Owen’s skills with keeping the team on track. “Mrs. Owen makes the experience gratifying for me as she ensured the class was organized and prepared,” said Perotti.
However, both coaches agreed that the most rewarding part of Perotti’s work with the Mock Trial team is the growth they have seen in the students.
“Public speaking forces students to push past their fears, whether standing before a group of peers, or as in Columbus at the mock trial competition, a panel of judges, and risk ‘failure.’ After the mock trial competition, the students were all exhilarated at having tried something so daunting,” said Perotti.
This type of enthusiasm is exactly what Perotti was striving for when he started volunteering his time with the team, as he and Owen hoped to energize student interest in their futures.
“My goal is to help them to see law as a possible career path and to continue to cultivate their gifts,” Perotti said. “I want to see students ‘have fun while learning.’”
Owen echoed this emphasis on the future saying, “He’s in the field…this is his expertise. For him to be able to share that is awesome.”
Overall, Perotti’s time with the team has been instrumental in building student confidence and ambition, but he continues to remain humble about his impact.
“Chagrin students, whether they are aware yet or not, are burgeoning future leaders of society,” Perotti emphasized, showcasing his true care for the growth of the team.
The Gingerbread Man Escapes to Gurney
The Gingerbread Man spent some time at Gurney Elementary School this holiday season by leading students on a scavenger hunt throughout the school to try and find him.
Students had read the book “The Gingerbread Man” by Jim Ayelsworth as part of a unit focusing on comparing and contrasting books. The focus is on discovering how story elements may be similar or different in books that have a common theme.
In this version of “The Gingerbread Man,” he was eaten by a fox. But the note the Gingerbread Man left the following morning let students know that was not the case. He left a stuffed animal in his image and a letter informing students that he escaped the jaws of the fox and had visited the student’s classroom, but couldn’t find anyone. He wrote that he had gone to the nurse’s office with a stomach ache, which is where the hunt began. The Gingerbread Man left subsequent notes throughout the school until the search stopped with a last note saying he left Gurney to avoid being captured. He left students a candy cane treat to remember him.
In order to try and locate the sneaky Gingerbread Man, students created wanted posters and placed them around the school hoping someone might spot him and report his whereabouts. No one has spotted him yet, but the search continues.
Chagrin Valley Rotary Student of the Month
Chagrin Falls High School (CFHS) senior Margaux Augier has been selected as the December Chagrin Valley Rotary Student of the Month. Augier was chosen based on her leadership and service qualities she has displayed in her community.
Augier has been the recipient of several awards during her high school career. These included AP Scholar with Distinction, High Honor Roll, recipient of five Chagrin Falls Art Show Gold Keys and Power of the Pen State Qualifier in 2015. She also received two Gold Keys, a Silver Key and honorable mention from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She was the district champion at the American Mathematics Competition, with the highest score in the district on the AMC 12A Test with 61.5 points. Further, she had one piece of artwork in the top 300 and two pieces of artwork in the top 2,500 out of 11,000 entries in the Ohio Governor’s Art Awards.
In her time at CFHS, Augier has been involved with several clubs and sports. She is in the International Thespian Society, Key Club International, Art Club, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes and she has participated in theatre. She also was on the girls’ varsity tennis team, and served as team captain in 2017 and 2018. Further, Augier is vice president and interpretation squad leader for the National Honor Society Speech and Debate team, and won ninth in state in 2018 and 12th in state in 2017. She was vice president and currently serves as president of the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee.
Outside of school, Augier works with children in various ways, whether it be tutoring middle school students and underclassmen in Spanish with the Tiger Society, teaching children with profound mental disabilities how to ice skate with the Gliding Stars Program, or volunteering for the nonprofit W.A.G.S. 4 Kids fundraising events. She also is a nanny and weekend babysitter, an office assistant to a speech pathologist, and attended Ohio University E.W. Scripps School of Journalism’s High School Journalism Workshop in 2018.
Her accelerated classes include Honors Spanish 4, AP English Literature, AP Psychology, AP Drawing, AP Environmental Science, and AP Statistics.
After high school, Augier plans to attend a four-year university where she will likely major in broadcast journalism and minor in business marketing.
Chagrin Falls Schools’ December Super News is Now Online
The latest issue of Chagrin Falls Schools’ digital magazine, “Super News,” can be viewed at http://bit.ly/SuperNewsDec2018or by going to the district’s website at www.chagrinschoolsorg. This issue features a message from the superintendent and Board of Education, as well as photos of the Intermediate School construction project. Dozens of stories feature our students, staff and buildings and all they have accomplished this past month.
For archived issues of all communications from Chagrin Falls Schools, go to http://www.chagrinschools.org/Communications.aspx.
