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‘Amazing’ teachers at Pine Grove offer a beacon of hope for students like Evan
For Evan Valdivia and his parents, Aaron and Shelli, the Pine Grove Learning Center is a beacon of hope. Evan, 14, is non-verbal and has cerebral palsy. He also has a rare neurological disorder called...
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Students progress despite their impairments at Pine Grove Learning Center
Special education teacher Robbie Becksfort gives Enzo Costellanos-Morales a warm hug after he shows visitors how he is learning to use a computer tablet that displays restaurant menu items. It will...
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Pine Grove Learning Center offers profoundly challenged students an...
Serving Special Students Here is a list of all nine center-based programs that will transfer from Grand Rapids Public Schools to Kent ISD this summer: Ken-O-Sha Home Community, moving to a remodeled...
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SNN is having an impact on the perception of local education
“Eighty-one percent of parents and 87 percent of school staff who are School News Network readers say that SNN helps them be more informed about their schools.” When we started SNN, an innovative...
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Health Department has one word for measles: vaccinate
With national and local news swirling about measles making a comeback in the United States, SNN spoke to the Kent County Health Department for some facts. Steve Kelso, marketing and communications...
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Kindergarten-readiness tests show need for early childhood programs
A series of first-time tests of kindergarteners in Kent County shows many of them need exposure to more early childhood programs, according to Kent ISD educators specializing in early childhood...
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State legislators get schooled on effect of Michigan’s education cuts
School superintendents from Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties gave their state legislators an earful about how state funding cuts have impacted students during a meeting on Monday, June 24. Chris...
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Dean Transportation: It’s all about the kids
The entry to Dean Transportation’s state headquarters in Lansing is nebulous, spartan, almost obscure. The company’s awards and tributes are crowded onto a countertop, stuffed into a spare room Myles...
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Michigan’s New ‘Read by Grade 3’ Law: A Guide for Parents
The new school year is finally here. Parents helping their younger children transition into the regular routine of daily school attendance will find a new focus on reading as their schools and their...
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Some districts reschedule activities after EEE found in Kent County
Kent County school districts are taking precautions in scheduling sports events and other after-school activities following discovery of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) in the autopsy of a deer in...
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Final comments taken in K-12 Social Studies Standards debate
Local educators and students weighed in on the proposed revision of State Social Studies Standards — under debate and hotly contested for the past five years — during a session hosted recently at Kent...
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Five percent of third-graders could face retention under cut score for...
Prompted by teacher Alex Kuiper, Godfrey Elementary School third-graders identified the base word of “sweetness.” “Sweet,” they said in unison. “Did we have to change the word at all?” Kuiper asked,...
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Adults, students hold discourse on challenges facing teens
What are the toughest challenges teenagers face? Kent County adults who work with youth in various fields joined several high school students in addressing that question during Wedgwood Christian...
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Halloween-day change brings ‘treat’ for local schools
Just 10 days after the Kent ISD School Board unanimously passed a resolution to intervene in a tax fight involving the company Switch, Caledonia Community Schools and the ISD, the matter was...
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Simple plans, solid training, most effective for school emergency response
Districts nationwide have added exterior and interior security equipment, held staff trainings and run lockdown drills as they face the threat of school shootings and other violence. But while...
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Protecting cyber security in schools: ‘This is kind of scary’
Glen Finkel smiled as he stood in front of 75 superintendents, business managers, and technology directors and system administrators. “One of the reasons we picked October 31st for this event,” the...
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Educators back bill on more flexibility in graduation requirements
School superintendents in Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties are backing legislation that would give schools and students more flexibility in earning credits towards high school graduation. The bill,...
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Maranda given 2019 Education Advocacy Award by Kent educators
In 1985, Lori Cook found herself back in Grand Rapids after being laid off as a news producer for a Chicago television station. Barely in her 20s, she created a persona named Maranda and talked a...
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Michigan’s New ‘Read by Grade 3’ Law: A Guide for Parents
Parents helping their younger children transition into the regular routine of daily school attendance will find a new focus on reading as their schools and their teachers prepare students for...
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‘I would love to have a house that I own where my kids could play outside’
For much of her life, Kayla Morgan has faced uncertainty about where she would lay her head down at night. As a teenager, she attended a different high school each school year, moving from foster...
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