​Cheatham County Central High School has a new mural for its new mechatronics class.
 
Freshmen Karina Kane (left) and Madelyn Harter (right) worked together to complete the painting.
 
Art teacher Ellen Beard collaborated with mechatronics teacher Amy Herrin to find out what design would be the most creative and best fit for her subject area.
 
“We decided on a general design and I worked with the students to help them decide color choices and lettering. They exceeded my expectations with their creative touches with the letters and gear details,” Beard said.
 
She added: “We wanted to celebrate this class being a new addition to our school this year with the encouragement of (CTE Director) Dr. Tara Watson. One of my goals for our art department is to bring new murals in our school every year to bring new life to our building.”

Congrats to our Employees of the Month!

• Ashland City Elementary School: Amanda Hunter, Computer Lab Instructor
• East Cheatham Elementary School: Lori Speich, Teacher
• Kingston Springs Elementary School: Lisa Bailey, Special Education Assistant
• Pegram Elementary School: Teresa Hunt, Front Desk Receptionist
• Pleasant View Elementary School: Rebecca Jaggers, Teacher
• West Cheatham Elementary School: Cindy Weakley, Librarian
• Cheatham Middle School: Caleb Patterson, Special Education Assistant
• Harpeth Middle School: Melanie Buchanan, Teacher
• Sycamore Middle School: Lindsay Jurek, Psychologist
• Cheatham County Central High School: Kelly Lewis, Teacher 
• Harpeth High School: Elizabeth Davis, Media Specialist
• Sycamore High School: Stacey Tinch, Front Desk Receptionist
• Riverside Academy: Jeff Hobbs, Behavior Interventionist
• Daycare: Wanda Givens, HMS Site Director
• Nutrition: Lucy Anderson, ACES Cafeteria Manager
• Technology: Resha Garrison, Technology Trainer
• Transportation: Kathy Binkley, Driver

The Cheatham County School Board recognized the employees at its April 2 meeting.

The employees receive a $25 WalMart gift card that is sponsored by A.O. Smith through the Cheatham County Chamber of Commerce.

We thank them for their continued support of the Cheatham County School District.

​Service Learners at Harpeth High School completed a service project this semester collecting goods for the Cheatham County Animal Control.
 
The goal of the project was to have students create and lead a project important to them that begins to solve a need within the community.
 
These students contacted Cheatham County Animal Control to ask what would help them out the most.
 
Service learners began in early March creating boxes for classrooms around the school to collect food, paper towels, detergent and animal toys for the shelter.
 
The class with the most donated items per student would win a pizza party with the chance to meet one of the dogs from the shelter. 
 
Harpeth High School responded in a big way! The items brought in were so numerous that it took multiple days and cars to get all of the goods to the shelter. Mrs. Amanda McCoy's class enjoyed the "Pizza with a Puppy" party on March 20.
 
Thank you, HHS Service Learners and the Cheatham County Animal Control shelter for making this an amazingly successful service project.
 

Sycamore High School has named the winners of the second annual Night of the Arts.

Guests who attended the March 9 event were able to vote on their favorite musical and theatrical performances and art pieces. Congrats to our very talented students!

Best of Show: Arnault Fequant

Instrumental Music
First: Arnault Fequant, piano
Second: Karilynn Leopard, Lily Carney, Jill Mayo, Alexis Hall, Trenton Michon, Lauren Shelton, Brianna Sullivan, Autumn Carruthers and Galaxie Ruiz, clarinet
Third: Andrew Hamilton, Brianna Shaw, Garrett Brown, Michael Harris, Chase Walsh, brass ensemble

Vocal Music
First: Dalton Wolf
Second: Caroline Colvard
Third: Jo Jo O’Dell

Theater Solo
First: Emily Herrin
Second: Kaitlyn McNeely

Theater Small Group
First: Sadie Collins and Michal Young
Second: Kaylee Michon, Zach Azbill and Jordan Bailey

Visual Art 3D
First: Max Schaber (not pictured)
Second: Cade Corlew and Sam Smith (not pictured)
Third: Casey Breedlove

Visual Art Drawing
First: Lauren Hunsicker
Second: Sugarlyn Anduyan
Third: Kaylyn Green
​
Visual Art Painting
First: Jordan Casesa
Second: Alex Benne (not pictured)
Third: Jordan Survance

Chris Cooper’s RTI class at Harpeth Middle School has started a weekly “Celebrate Cheatham” podcast.

The podcast will highlight the many successes of the Cheatham County School District.

The recording of the first podcast took place on Monday, March 11 and featured Director of Schools Dr. Cathy Beck, Coordinated School Health Supervisor Shelley Duke and Schools Resource Officer Supervisor Sgt. Chris Gilmore.

The episode focused on school safety - an important topic facing schools across the nation.

The podcast is being produced, edited and managed by students in Cooper’s RTI class. Cooper is the school’s band director.

Cooper and HMS eighth-grader Austin Thompson facilitated the first podcast.

The students have spent the past several weeks getting familiar with the equipment and what goes into preparing and recording the podcast.

​Cooper hopes to have the inaugural podcast ready this week. Once available, we’ll let you know how you can listen to it.

​Ashland City Elementary School students proudly showed off the robots they recently created.
 
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) teacher Kristin McQueen received a $1,459 grant in the fall through a cooperative effort between the Cheatham County Chamber of Commerce and A. O. Smith to start a Robotics Club at the school.
 
Students have had a lot of fun building the robots over the past several months.
 
Lisa Williams, the human resources manager at A.O. Smith in Ashland City, and Dr. Melinda Broyles, the assistant principal at ACES, visited McQueen’s classroom on Thursday to see the robots in action and even had a little fun competing in a race.
 
The district was fortunate to be awarded 11 grants, totaling $16,122.47, through A.O. Smith and the Chamber.
 
As always, the district is thankful for the support it receives from Cheatham County businesses.