Courtesy of Newark Post
September 24, 2009

It's not every day you get to be on television.  It's even more rare to win your school's science fair.  Put the two together and you truly have an event to talk about.  And that's what Nicole Hemphill gets to do this Friday.

In January 2008, Nicole, then 6 years old and
in kindergarten at John R. Downes Elementary School, submitted her science experiment, entitled "What Makes Eggs the Fluffiest?" to
the school's science fair. Since she could not cook at the school, Nicole asked her mother, Traci, if she could videotape the project for her. Using a cooking show format and doing it in only two takes, Nicole narrated the piece and acted as the show's host, while Traci documented all facets of the experiment, from breaking the eggs to measuring and cooking them. Scientists from DuPont watched the video and awarded Nicole first prize in the fair.

Click here to view the complete Newark Post article.

Douglass School Plants a Garden

Douglass School is growing a community of learners.  September 10, was the beginning
of the school’s first garden project.  Dean of Students Pamela Loatman has helped Douglass connect with the Healthy Foods for Healthy
Kids initiative and the Delaware Center of Horticulture by receiving a generous donation from Mrs. Helen Eliason. The Douglass garden
is one of many service learning projects the students will be involved in during the upcoming school year.

The garden will be used to help students develop a sense of collaboration and community with a central focus on academics.  Core content lessons will provide an opportunity for students to connect with academics in a creative and innovative way. 

The most exciting part of the program is that students will be able to eat what is grown. Additionally, Douglass students will be taught valuable lessons about recycling and saving our planet.  Parents are encouraged to keep students engaged in this special project by asking their children weekly,  “What’s new in the garden?!”

A chance to win a Netbook-style Laptop computer is sure be a great motivation to the Delaware School for the Deaf (DSD) school students, where the prize is being used as an incentive for perfect attendance.  Horace Mann insurance agent Kevin Lammers is donating these items to the school to use as rewards for perfect attendance in the 2009 school year.

The program, titled Perfect Attendance Spells Success – or PASS - works like this: Student Attendance is tracked from September 21 to May 21.  All students who have perfect attendance will be entered into a drawing for the prize at the end of the school year.  Lammers says of the donation, “This is a small thing I can do to help the educators in the Christina School District do their job.  Attendance is such an important part of the learning equation, and being in school every day gives kids a greater chance of success.  I’m proud to support the efforts of the educators in our community.”

Horace Mann is the largest national multiline insurance company focusing on educators' financial needs.  For more information visit www.horacemann.com.

The Bancroft Elementary PTA has brought a unique gift to the school this year. While the school is expanding its mission as part of Eastside Community School, the PTA has provided a new memento of its origins as the namesake of William Poole Bancroft.  Mr. Bancroft’s portrait now hangs proudly in the lobby of the school that was built in 1925, two years before his death. 

The painting was commissioned by the PTA and rendered from a black and white photograph by Christina art teacher Soyoung Park-Bovee. She is a very talented and highly trained painter, who has also graced Bancroft with a colorful canvas depicting a pride of lions - the spirited school mascots. Ms. Bovee is on staff at Jennie Smith Elementary, but was formerly assigned to Bancroft. She continues her affection for the Bancroft community, and was very pleased to receive the commission. She explains, “Yes, I was so happy to paint Mr. Bancroft because the school is very special to me and because the students need to know him better.”

The Bancroft name is an old and familiar one in Wilmington, but the legacy of William P. Bancroft goes far beyond a story of commerce and wealth in milling. William Bancroft dedicated his life to our small city, giving his time, money, and energy to the planned development of land around the beautiful Brandywine River. Mr. Bancroft made several other progressive and insightful civic changes to benefit Wilmington’s populations, then and now. Reflecting his belief in education as a key element in the improvement of the human condition, Mr. Bancroft intervened to eliminate the specter of the closing of the Wilmington Institute Library in 1916. He generously resolved its debt of $20,000 and granted ownership and operation to the entire community- transforming the library for the first time into an institution of service for the general public. Mr. Bancroft was also dedicated to the welfare and quality of life of the working class, through whose efforts his family fortune was accumulated. He provided bequests and trusts which even today benefit the Wilmington public through Woodland Trustees, which still operates and continues to represent his vision and values.

William P. Bancroft was also a correspondent of Booker T. Washington, and visited Mr. Washington’s establishment in Tuskegee. This connection underscores the significance of naming a school for such a civic figure. Likewise, revisiting the legacy strengthens the Bancroft Elementary family as it moves forward into a widening and influential civic role as part of the Eastside Community School.

Christina In the News

Great Things Happening In Our Schools