Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Breast Feeding at School

Due to privacy regulations we cannot comment on the specifics of a 15 year old student that has received a lot of media attention. But, should a student ask to pump breast milk at school, this is what our response would be.

Lake Forest High School has many female staff members who have personal experience with breast feeding their own children and managing that goal after returning to work. They are wonderful resources for teen moms wishing to do the same. We encourage any teen mom to seek their advice.

We have no specially designed room for that purpose but we would do our best to accommodate that student’s request. The student would be responsible for providing her own cooler for storage. Any refrigerators in school are in use for other purposes. To use them to also store a student’s pumped breast milk would risk contamination.

Our teen moms have access to the DAPI program in Camden which is specifically designed to support pregnant teens. There they can take their classes, take their baby with them, breast feed and pump whenever necessary. A student who chooses to leave that environment and return to regular school also chooses to leave behind a certain level of support.

Friday, January 4, 2013

2012 in Review

Everybody has their version of the year in review. Although our school years always straddle two calendar years, I thought it would be interesting to review 2012 in Lake Forest. We'll not go month by month but lay out some of the seasonal events. I’m going by memory here so this is not a comprehensive list - just those things that I remember. It was a very good year.


Winter:

• It was a very mild winter with no snow days and little accumulated snow due to the fact that I bought a new snow blower. Weather was great but snow blower would’ve been fun.

Spring:

• We launched the Spartan Sprouts – a home visiting program where parents of new born babies would get some coaching and assistance in the development of their children in order to help them be prepared for school when the time comes.

• Spring testing in DCAS yielded some of the best scores ever seen in Lake Forest. In grades 3-10, Lake Forest Students exceeded state averages in reading and math in all but two categories. In those they tied the state average. All schools met AYP (adequate yearly progress).

Summer:

• Early College School District. At Lake Forest High School Graduation it is announced that 90% of the class of 2016 will graduate from high school with college credit in hand.

• All incoming high school freshmen get a home visit by one or more of the teachers at Lake Forest High School. The goal is to get all freshmen off to a good start.

• Lake Forest Board of Education decides to ask voter for approval of 2 referendums – one for operating funds and one for capital expenditures.

• Vision 2015 identifies 24 schools in Delaware that are beating the odds. These are schools with higher than average poverty levels and much higher than average student performance. Four on the list are Lake Forest Schools. W.T.Chipman Middle would be on the list because it has consistently been among the highest achieving middle schools. The poverty level is average so that's why it's not included.

Fall:

• Spartan Strength and Conditioning Center is open to the public and announced to all district households by an accidental 5a.m. Saturday morning phone call.

• Lake Forest is one of only two districts to pilot “College Application Week” which leads to 90% of our seniors having successfully submitted applications to college by late November.

• Expected partial approval from the state causes the Lake Forest Board of Education to postpone plans for a capital referendum.

• Operating referendum passes on December 4.

2012 was a very good year in Lake Forest.