Friday, November 5, 2010

Superintendent search firm hired

The Lapeer Community Schools Board of Education agreed at its regular meeting on November 4 to contract with School Exec Connect in its search for a new superintendent.

The board will meet in a work session November 18 to discuss the timeline for the search. School board President Bill Laidlaw said the board hopes to have a candidate selected by March of 2011.

Laidlaw added that the process will have a lot of input from both the staff and the whole community.

Current LCS Superintendent Debbie Thompson is retiring at the end of the 2010-11 school year in June. She has served the district as its superintendent since August 2005.

High School parents to host Lapeer County Prosecutor

Lapeer County Prosecuting Attorney Byron Konschuh will be the featured speaker at a meeting of the Lapeer East and West High School Parent Advisory Councils at 5:30 pm Tuesday, November 9, at the Lapeer East High School Media Center.

Konschuh’s discussion will focus on several topics that affect high schoolers, including bullying and hazing, the use of cell phones, texting and social media such as Facebook and MySpace.

After the prosecutor’s presentation, East and West parents will split into separate building PAC meetings.

Lapeer East High School and Lapeer West High School host combined PAC Meetings throughout the school year. Mr. Roper, Principal at Lapeer East, and Mr. Zeeman, Principal at Lapeer West, look forward to parent involvement at these meetings.

Future meetings are set for January 11th at West; February 8th at East; March 8th at West; April 12th at East; May 10th at West.

Enrichment for Kindergarteners and Early 5's

Kids and Company still has openings in its Kinder Kids Plus Friday enrichment program for Kindergarteners and Early 5's.

Kinder Kids Plus is staffed with certified teachers. It is part of Lapeer Community Schools Kids and Company, which offers a variety of programs including pre-school and school-age latchkey programs.

Kinder Kids Plus is especially designed for Lapeer Kindergarteners and Early 5's children. It is an enrichment program taught by certified elementary education teachers. The teachers extend the kindergarten curriculum to give children that extra help they may need in their first year of school.

Kinder Kids Plus is available on Fridays from 8:00 am-3:00 pm. at three sites in the District. Transportation is provided for the program through Lapeer Community Schools.

Kinder Kids Plus is available at Turrill, Mayfield, and Murphy Elementary. It is open to all children in Lapeer Schools. Students from Maple Grove and Seaton are shuttled to Turrill. Lynch and Schickler students are shuttled to Mayfield.

Kinder Kids Plus is tuition-based, and a full day (5 hours or more) costs $25 per day. A half day (5 hours or less) costs $15 per day. There is also a $40 registration fee.

Please contact Kids and Company at (810) 667-2454 for more details or to register your child in the program.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Lapeer East student wins 5 Golds in Scotland

Lapeer East Senior Austin Dudley grabbed 5 gold medals in an international martial arts competition in Scotland last week. The 17-year-old also grabbed a silver and bronze medal to earn medals in seven of the eight competitions he entered.

His huge medal collection came in the WKA (World Kickboxing and Karate Association) World Championships at the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland, Oct 23-29. Austin was one of more than 1,000 athletes from 27 countries competing at the event.

His medal count included golds in Weapons with music, Weapons/no music, Freestyle with music, Traditional Korean Forms and Traditional Hardstyle Forms. He also grabbed a silver in Extreme Freestyle Forms and a bronze in Extreme Weapons. Austin brought home 7 medals for Team USA in the 13-17 junior male division.

He is very dedicated to his sport and trains for several hours daily and says he loves what he does. Austin has been studying martial arts for the last 10 years and recently earned his 3rd degree black belt through Dragon Karate in Lapeer, under Master Dan Cousineau.

Seven students from Dragon Karate participated in the international competition, including Annthony Cotton, 13, a student at Rolland-Waner Middle School. Anthony captured a bronze medal in Extreme Weapons in the Edinburgh competition in which teammate Austin Dudley won the gold.


Austin has competed on the Michigan Sport Karate Circuit and has held state titles in weapons and forms consecutively since 2005. Austin also has competed as a member of the US National Karate Team and has attended three WKA World Championships in which he brought home medals for the U.S.

In 2007 he won a Bronze medal in weapons with music at Karlsruhe, Germany, and in 2008 in Orlando, Fla., was a Gold medalist in Weapons with music, a Silver medalist in Open Forms with music and a Silver medalist in Traditional Korean Forms.

While in Scotland last week he was offered an all-expense paid trip to Germany to conduct a martial arts seminar for the German National Karate Team.

Austin loves teaching martial arts and currently teaches at GLE gymnastics in Oxford, MI. He hopes to have continued success and open his own karate school one day.

Lapeer West featured for Spirit Cup broadcast

Lapeer West High School was the featured school Oct. 29 on the ABC-12 Spirit Cup Challenge.

The honor brought with it a live broadcast from the West gym, beginning at 5 am.

Lapeer West is in the lead in the Spirit Cup Challenge. The efforts of 143 West athletes to harvest squash at an Almont Farm last week alone brought in more than 30,000 pounds of food.

Last year students across Mid-Michigan helped raise more than 673,000 pounds of food to help the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan through the ABC-12 Spirit Challenge.

Students collect canned food and other non-perishable items. Cash donations also are welcome. Each dollar donated can be used to buy nine pounds of food. The students’ efforts last year provided food for people in 22 counties.

At the end of the school year, the school that donates the most food gets to claim the ABC-12 Spirit Cup trophy and keep it for a full year.

For a look at photos from the spirited Friday morning rally at Lapeer West, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/LapeerCS/WestSpiritCupChallenge#

The broadcast segments from ABC-12 are available at: http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/video?id=7753190

Monday, November 1, 2010

Lapeer East Boys advance to state soccer semifinals

THe Lapeer East Boys Soccer team will make its first trip to the state semifinals when it takes on Bloomfield Hills Lahser at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Bloomfield Hills Andover High School.

East downed Dearborn Divine Child Friday, 1-0, in the Division 2 Regionals to advance to the state semis.

The Eagles scored the only goal of the Regional final game Friday afternoon at St. Clair’s East China Stadium when Nate Kolvek took a cross from Alex Podolski with three minutes to go in the first half and put it past the Divine Child goalkeeper.

"It was obviously a huge emotional lift going in 1-0. We knew they would really bring it in the second half," East coach Chad Kenny told the Flint Journal after the team victory.

The Eagles are now 18-4-1 on the season and will meet ninth-ranked Bloomfield Hills Lahser (19-4-1).

"We're thrilled to be there," Kenny said after the game. "Our kids have come together and played hard. They wanted to do something the program had never done, and I'll be darned if they didn't do it."

East keeper Colin Owen made 10 saves and notched his 13th shutout of the season for the Eagles.

"It speaks volumes about our league," Kenny said of Friday's win. "We finished second in our league and here we are in the final four in Division 2."