And the Parents' Choice Award winners are!

The Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation (FEEF) has announced the winners of its first Fairhope Parents’ Choice Award, a new award to recognize faculty and staff at each of the Fairhope public schools who have had a significant positive impact on students.

The winners are: Kateri O’Connor, 1st grade teacher, K-1 Center; Charlotte Norris, 2nd grade teacher, FES; Judy Humphrey, art teacher, FIS; Susan Grace, building and grounds manager, JLN; Jennifer Salley, band instructor, FMS; and, Tim Reddy, mathematics instructor, FHS.

Parents were invited to submit nominations based on the following criteria, and a panel of judges selected the winners based on the strength of the nomination.

1. The nominee must encourage creative thinking and inspire learning OR provide support to faculty and parents.
2. The nominee should exhibit the highest ethics and integrity.
3. The nominee should communicate effectively with the parent/guardian or student and empower the student to be his/her very best.

“This has been a great way to say ‘thank you’ to a dedicated member of the Fairhope public schools’ community for going above and beyond on behalf of our children,” Diana Brewer, executive director of FEEF said. “These folks work so hard on behalf of our students and our communities, and they deserve to be recognized in a positive and meaningful way.” One winners was chosen for each school. The winners, who were announced during student award ceremonies, each received a $100 monetary gift and a plaque on display on each school.

Pictured are: (top photo) Gina Walcott, FEEF Board; Tim Reddy, PCA winner, FHS, Dr. Beverly Thomas; (center photo) Helen CHappelle FEEF Administrator; Ginger Taylor, FEEF Board; Suellen Brazil, principal, JLN; Susan Grace, PCA winner, JLN, Hinyub Brunson, assistant principal, JLN; (bottom photo) Judy Humphrey, PCA winner, FIS, Robin Coleman, FEEF Board; Jack Burrell, president, FEEF Board.

FEEF donates $7,500 to school libraries;

issues challenge to private sector to do likewise

Students in the Fairhope public schools will have more books and other resources to choose from when they enter school next fall, thanks to the Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation and the Kiwanis Club of Fairhope and the Eastern Shore.

Members of the Kiwanis Club began the effort to raise funds for the struggling libraries by forming Bookin 4 Books and holding the inaugural 5K Plot Trot and 1 Mile Fun Run on April 24. When the FEEF board members learned of the effort, the board voted April 22 to join the Kiwanis Club and donate $7,500 to the libraries.

“When we learned that the Fairhope schools’ library budgets were completely eliminated last year, and would again be eliminated this year, we decided to step in,” Jack Burrell, president of the FEEF Board said. “Although there are many needs for additional funding in our schools, we felt that this was one of those situations in which we need to give where the need is the greatest.”

Collectively, the six Fairhope schools’ library budget went from $54,000 to zero this year. The budget forecast for next year also has the libraries funded at zero, Burrell said.

“With zero funding, the schools can’t order new releases or replace old books,” Burrell said. “Magazine and newspaper subscriptions can’t be renewed, and up-to-date printed resources for research projects become scarce.”

The FEEF Board also issued a challenge to other local private foundations and corporate citizens to follow FEEF’s lead and help shore up funding for school libraries.

“Revenue generated by the recently approved sales tax will not help the libraries,” Burrell said. “We believe it is going to be incumbent upon the private sector to fill in the gap. It’s one thing to go through one year without funding, but two years would be devastating.”

The FEEF donation will be divided among the six schools, prorated according to each school’s enrollment. According to Randall Gautney, president of the Kiwanis Club, Bookin 4 Books has raised $11,400 for the libraries to date, not including FEEF’s donation. Those funds, based on an earlier agreement with the school librarians, will be divided equally among the schools.

“We were pleasantly surprised when we learned that FEEF saw the benefit of what we were trying to do, and stepped in to help,” Gautney said. “There is definitely strength in numbers, and this just proves that we can do so much more, as a community, when we work together.”

FEEF announces Summer Enrichment Academy 2010

The Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation has announced the lineup for the FEEF Summer Enrichment Academy 2010, including a playwriting workshop and a monologue workshop lead by award-winning playwright Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder.

Wilder, winner of the 2008 Elizabeth M. Osborn Award for Gee's Bend, recently returned to Alabama after living in New York and Los Angeles. Her play Gee's Bend, which was originally commissioned and produced by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, received additional productions at The Denver Center, Cleveland Playhouse, Northlight Theatre, Kansas City Rep and the Arden Theatre, among others. Other commissions include The Bone Orchard for the Denver Center Theatre. Her play Fresh Kills premiered at The Royal Court in London.

Wilder’s workshops, for rising are 8th – 12th graders, are “Bringing Characters and Stories to Life: A Playwriting Workshop” and “Monologue Workshop.” Both will be offered at Fairhope High School June 14-17, with the playwriting workshop from 9 a.m. – noon, and the monologue workshop from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

“We are thrilled to have someone of this caliber working with our students,” Miranda Schrubbe, chairman of educational excellence for FEEF. “This is an incredible opportunity for students who have any interest in writing for theatre, or in learning the art of writing and delivering a brief monologue. We are very excited and grateful to her for sharing her talents with our students.”

Other Summer Enrichment classes for the middle and high school ages include a critical thinking course for rising 9th – 12th graders, lead by guidance counselor and author Suzanne Hudson, an Algebra I Review for students who have completed Algebra I and who will be preparing for the AHSGE, and a fun twist on writing called “Help! I Hate Writing” lead by Fairhope Middle School teacher Kelly Lanicek.

For younger students, there’s a two-week theatre workshop lead by Jitterbug Theatre’s Erin Langley, and a behind-the-scenes stagecraft workshop, lead by Nadine Andrews, who has worked with Mobile Opera. Both are for rising 3rd – 8th graders, and will be held at the USABC Performance Center June 1-11.

For 3rd – 6th graders, there is “The Magical World of Harry Potter” lead by Lisa Keenan and Rose Wiles from June 7-11, and “Art History for Elementary Students” June 21-25, lead by Lori Havard.

Gifted teacher Margaret Dumas will lead “Oh My Gods” in which rising 4th – 6th graders will delve into the Greek myths. This class will be offered July 12 -16 at Fairhope Intermediate School. The Pelican’s Nest Science Lab will be the site for “Sharks and Creatures of the Gulf Coast” for rising 3rd – 5th graders, June 14-18. This class, lead by Kacie Hardman and Worth Stewart, will be offered twice, with a morning session and an afternoon session.

Budding musicians will also have an opportunity for summer instruction, with “Intro to Band” for rising 6th graders, lead by Wayne Fillingim and Jennifer July 26-30; and a percussion camp lead by Karl Langley July 12-16 for rising 4th – 8th graders.

The cost for the courses ranges from $75 - $150. For complete details on dates, times, locations and cost, download form here or call 990-3333.

Mayor's Golf Tournament raises $60,000 for Fairhope schools

The Annual Fairhope Mayor’s Golf Tournament on March 26 raised $60,000 to benefit the Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation (FEEF). The proceeds will once again directly benefit the public schools in Fairhope.

“Thanks to great support from businesses like Terry Thompson Chevrolet, our Title Sponsor, and others like Abner's Famous Chicken Tenders and Wintzell’s Oyster House, who provided lunch and dinner for the tournament, the tournament was a huge success,” Jack Burrell, tournament chairman and president of the FEEF Board of Directors said. “We had 130 golfers, it was a beautiful day, and most important, we’ll be able to provide some much-needed funds to our schools.”

Other sponsors were:

Double Eagle Sponsors: Heritage Compounding Pharmacy - Chris Burgess; The Colony at the Grand/The Grand Hotel; City of Fairhope, Fairhope Public Utilities; Wal-Mart.

Eagle Sponsors: BB&T; Mary Jane & Gene Bouchillon; BP Energy Company; Jack & Patti Burrell; CM Associates; Dade Paper; Don Gordon Construction; Eastern Shore Children's Clinic; Eastern Shore Sertoma Club; Jones & Coleman DMD PA; Kiwanis Club of the Eastern Shore; McCarron Insurance Group; Mediacom; Merrill Lynch; The Myrick Agency - Martin Myrick; Publix Super Markets; Wintzell's Oyster House.

Birdie Sponsors: Abner's Famous Chicken Tenders; Barnhart Crane & Rigging Company; Jerry Brock, CPA; Fokker Airinc; Dr. Rod Grissett, Facial & Oral Surgery; Hutchinson, Moore & Rauch, LLC; Red or White Wine; Robert Seaborn; Thomas Hospital; Vision Bank; and, White-Spunner & Associates, Inc.

“The Mayor’s Golf Tournament is one of FEEF’s biggest fundraisers,” Burrell said.  “The grants that FEEF provided to the six Fairhope principals last fall would not have been possible without last year's golf tournament proceeds. Among other things, the tournament proceeds provided an assistant band director during marching season and new library books for Fairhope High; an art teacher for second semester at the K-1 Center, and a SMART Table, which allows students to interact with the high-tech SMART Boards, at Fairhope Elementary.”

The first place net team in the tournament was the Jack and Patti Burrell team of Ryan Fillingim, Mike Fillingim, Beau Daves, and John Bush. The first place gross team was the Dade Paper team of Jaime Gardner, Robert Parmar, Doug Jones, and Billy Wilkins.

Click here to see more photos

Click here to see Tee Sign Sponsors and Door Prize Sponsors

FEEF awards $5000 to FES for laptops

Thanks to a grant from the Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation, any classroom at Fairhope Elementary School can be transformed into a fully functional computer lab where every child can work on reading comprehension and writing skills on a personal laptop.

Called NEO2 Laptops, these high-tech computers are made specifically for classroom use. Teachers at Fairhope Elementary have been using them in their classroom since the beginning of the school year, but only had a couple of laptops per classroom for students to share. Although some teachers have been able to purchase more with donations from parents, the FEEF grant of $5,000 allowed the school to purchase a “mobile lab” that contains 30 laptops and can be moved from room to room.

“Reading and reading comprehension have been very important to our overall curriculum at Fairhope Elementary for many, many years,” Terry Beasley, principal, said.  “The NEO2s help us take it to the next level, allowing students to work at a faster pace with their reading and comprehension, while improving other skills such as writing, critical thinking, expression and grammar.”

Beasley said every classroom has shown improvements in their reading and comprehension scores, and he expects those scores to improve even more with the addition of the mobile lab.

Benefits of the NEO2 laptop include the following: reduces the possibility of students guessing the correct answer; deepens critical-thinking skills; requires students to answer questions with concise, highly-focused responses; keeps students motivated and engaged in learning; improves expression, writing, fluency and grammar; encourages daily writing practice; and, they are designed with students in mind.

“One of FEEF’s initiatives from years back is improving technology in our schools,” Jack Burrell, president of the FEEF board of directors said. “This grant was right in line with that initiative. One of the most compelling arguments for the grant was in the data. Since they introduced the NEO2s at Fairhope Elementary, they have seen a direct correlation between the classes that are using the NEO2s to their fullest benefit and higher scores in reading comprehension and amount of books being read.”

FEEF supports professional development

It is widely known that the more resources and training we provide for our teachers, the better the results for our students. Therefore, it was a great decision recently to provide a two-day workshop, in Fairhope, for nearly 100 Fairhope teachers and administrators.

At a fraction of the cost to send that number of teachers to out-of-town conferences, FEEF and the Fairhope principals, using their own local resources, were able to provide extensive training in Building Common Assessments. During the workshop, led by a national leader in the subject, Nicole Vagle of Solution Tree, teachers identified target learning concepts in which students need assistance, they gained skills in writing common assessments that provide valid, reliable data, and they gained real understanding of how to use assessment data to formulate instruction.

Pictured during conference registration are: (l-r) Trina Jackson, teacher, Fairhope Intermediate, Rachel Broadhead, AMSTI, Hendon Brunson, assistant principal, J. Larry Newton School, and Suellen Brazil, principal, Newton School.

A fifth-grade teacher from J. Larry Newton School gave this assessment following the workshop, summarizing well the positives results and effectiveness of the training.

"I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed Nicole Vagle's training. I was able to begin applying what I learned immediately. Thursday morning, I made a short formative assessment on simplifying fractions and mixed numbers. I gave it to my students and I was able to identify who had the concepts and therefore did not need any more instruction. I was also able to pinpoint weaknesses in other's learning and review with them before the summative. I divided the students into groups depending on which objectives they missed. Many were able to independently work and show me their learning. That gave me time to work with six students who were completely lost. I felt so much more productive. In the past, I would give all of my students review problems and spend the entire class period running from student to student to make sure they got it all correct. I never had much time to spend with any one student. I truly believe this will lead to better teaching and learning. Thanks again for the opportunity!"

FEEF welcomes new board members

New board members are Robin Coleman, Marsha Foster, Elizabeth Hammock, Jason Tickle, Amanda VanDerHeyden and Sherri Williams.

Pictured at the January meeting of the FEEF Board of Directors are (seated, l-r) Jack Burrell, Katherine Allen, Elizabeth Phyfer, Miranda Schrubbe, Elizabeth Hammock, Monteigne Brown, Amanda VanDerHeyden, Ann Miller; (standing, l-r) Ashley Baker, Jason Tickle, Dahlia Davis, Margaret Davis, Ginger Taylor, Traci Watson, Lori Hutchinson, Sherri Williams, Marsha Foster, Ken Cole and Matt White. Not pictured are: Mark Breslin, Robin Coleman, Beth Dotson, Laura Gamard, Kim Melton, Gail Tart, Conan Terrell, and Gina Walcott.