Good things happening at Greenfield Middle School were highlighted at the Monday board of education meeting held in the middle school gym.

This school year started with a new system of support for students at the middle school called Family Group. A couple students stood up to tell school board members about it at the meeting.

Kalliegh Freeze and Lila Banks told board members what they liked about Family Group, which places sixth, seventh and eighth graders into groups together. Students remain in the same group throughout middle school, as do the adults heading up the groups, which includes teachers, aides and monitors.

According to principal Jason Potts, the idea for the program came from reflecting over the last three years of his time in the middle school where the need for social-emotional support had become imperative, especially with the pandemic and the negative impact possible with social media. Many students struggle with anxiety, he said, and helping them learn to cope with the daily stressors of life as well as to communicate face-to-face instead of hiding behind their phone screens is important. The program is meant to focus on those things and appropriate social interactions.

Freeze and Banks talked about the closeness of their groups, the interaction within their groups, and how the group setting has facilitated goal setting.

The groups are competitive as points are assessed for absences, disciplinary incidents and grades. Potts said, “It’s like golf. The lowest score wins.” Winning groups receive rewards and during the challenges, the winning groups get to post a banner above their door.

The program is something that is yielding good things for not only the students, but staff also, Potts said.

Assistant principal Jeremy Andrews covered some information regarding disciplinary and attendance matters. This includes the attendance rate’s steady improvement over the last three years as well as the reduction of disciplinary referrals, detentions, in-school reassignment and suspensions. Some of these have dropped drastically over the last three years, according to Andrews. One thing that has not dropped, but has increased, are the instances of after-school cleanup. It’s something that Andrews said he believes to be a valuable disciplinary tool, doing good things for other people.

The improvement at the middle school is something Potts touched on when he shared a letter from the Ohio Department of Education stating that the school is no longer a Targeted Support and Improvement school. In Ohio that means that the middle school was previously a school identified as one that struggled with large achievement gaps among student subgroups.

Moving beyond the designation, Potts said, is something he credits to the staff that have worked hard to make it happen.

In other meeting matters, the school board recognized two girls sports teams, the seventh grade basketball team and the high school swim team.

The seventh grade team won the Frontier Athletic Conference (FAC) Tournament and ended their season with a 14-5 record.

The high school girls swim team is FAC champs, and according to coach Jeana McNeal the girls worked harder this year than ever before to earn that top spot after six years at number two.

Allie Flowers, high school student and the evening’s representative of the superintendent’s student advisory council, spoke about band. Recently, she said, four McClain band students participated in a solo and ensemble competition, and each of the four students achieved high marks. The participating students were Lillian Bates, Leland Ewry, Alexis West and Alexis Arthurs. Flowers also discussed the experience of being in band and about upcoming performances and competitions.

Gray, in her report, noted that Flowers is this year’s Konneker Scholarship winner. Also, the district very recently hosted the annual Rotary Four-Way Speech Contest with Nicholas Alvarez winning. The superintendent said the spring musical, “The Little Mermaid”, is being performed March 22 and 23.

In other business, it’s the end of an era as treasurer Joe Pat Smith will be retiring at the end of March. The school board accepted his resignation effective March 31.

The board voted on a couple related matters regarding the treasurer. One of those was hiring Brad Barber, a McClain graduate, as the new treasurer effective March 4. The others were for Smith to serve as assistant treasurer beginning on that date until March 31, and thereafter in a consulting position to aid Barber and the district in the transition to the new treasurer.

Other employment approved included Mikel Pritchard, junior high track; Shania Massie, softball assistant; Craig Wise, softball assistant; Kameron Reed, junior high track; Spring Roberts, softball assistant; Richard Swan, baseball assistant; Taylor Boeckman, softball assistant; Emma Stegbauer, softball assistant; and certified substitutes Shane Fligor and Tyler Carman.

Angela Shepherd is a correspondent for the Greenfield Exempted Village School District.