​Jeff Schertz is quickly settling into his new role as the boys basketball coach at Harpeth High School.
 
The Huntsville, Ala., native took over the Indians program this summer.
 
“The people here at Harpeth that I’ve been able to work with have been very supportive, and the community has been great, too,” Schertz said. “They are excited about basketball. Basketball is important to them and it’s important to me so that’s a nice combo.”
 
Schertz, a graduate of Auburn University, taught and coached at Virgil I. Grissom High School in Huntsville for 11 years. He was the assistant boys coach for nine years and the head coach for two years before coming to Harpeth.
 
Under Schertz’s leadership in his first season at Grissom, his team posted a 24-9 record and sent three seniors to play basketball at the next level.
 
In his second season, Grissom spent the entire year ranked in the top 10 in Class 7A and finished the season 22-9. His team advanced to the Sweet 16 before being eliminated.
 
Schertz graduated from Grissom in 2001 and was a two-year letterman in basketball.
 
As a Wendy’s High School Heisman Award winner, he helped the 2001 team to an Elite 8 appearance and a 28-7 record.
 
Schertz, who teaches Integrated Math I and II at Harpeth, said he had initially planned to study engineering in college, but quickly changed his mind after the first semester.
 
“Coaching has always been of interest to me,” he said. “When I sat down and really looked at what I wanted to do day in and day out, I wanted to be interacting with people … I knew I wasn’t going to be a player forever so the next best thing to me was to be a coach.”
 
Since arriving at Harpeth, Schertz said he’s been impressed with the school’s tradition of basketball as well as the excitement and importance of the sport.
 
“We have great community support. I am thankful that they have welcomed me and they are excited to see what we have going on here,” he said.
 
Schertz said this year’s team, which features the leadership and experience of six seniors and six juniors, has been great to coach.
 
“The guys are incredibly hard working and enjoyable to coach,” he said. “They go hard in everything they do. You can tell that just didn’t happen overnight. That was something that started at home with their families, but also the previous coaches who were here did a good job, too,” he said.
 
Harpeth has had a tough schedule early this season, but Schertz said his team is showing signs of improvement.
 
Schertz said his players have positive attitudes and play extremely hard.
 
“That is something we need every night in order for us to be successful,” he said.
 
Schertz added he wants to create a family-like atmosphere at Harpeth and give his team an enjoyable high school playing experience like he had in Huntsville.
 
To help accomplish that, the team went to the Belmont-Middle Tennessee State University game on Dec. 14 and the whole Harpeth family (parents, players and Bouncing Blue youth team members) will attend the Belmont-Southern Illinois University game in January.
 
As of Dec. 16, the Indians were undefeated at 3-0 in District 9-AA play, and the team will be playing in the Beech Christmas Classic Dec. 28-30. 

For the past two months, members of Harpeth Middle School’s Creative Writing Club have been meeting on Thursday afternoons to write their own children’s books.

Students were tasked with creating likable, colorful characters, a setting, a simple and easily resolved conflict, and a moral or lesson that a child could understand.

They created covers and dedication pages, stapled them together and presented them at a recent meeting.

Dressed in holiday attire, club members shared their books with the children in the HMS daycare on Thursday, Dec. 15.

Later in the afternoon, the students enjoyed a holiday party by watching a holiday movie, enjoying snacks and experimenting with holiday-themed stream of consciousness writing.

Club sponsor Lindsay Sproles said, “I am really proud of these students. They wanted to do something to give back to the community during the holiday season and reading to the daycare kids was all their idea. We have a great group this year. They are full of heart and talent.”
​
Projects on the horizon for next semester include making a poetry portfolio, writing a one-act play and putting together the HMS literary magazine, Âmes Sauvages.

​The Tennessee Department of Education has released the state’s annual Report Card, and students in the Cheatham County School District are performing well.
 
The Report Card includes results from the 2015-2016 school year.
 
“We are proud of the overall academic growth our students are making,” said Interim Director of Schools Stacy Brinkley. “Our administrators, teachers and staff are working together to improve our scores, and our schools should be commended on a job well done.”
 
Brinkley added: “There are some areas for improvement, and we will be focusing on them as we move forward.”
 
This year’s Report Card contains only achievement and growth data for high school students who took the end-of-course exams in the spring.
 
It does not include data from grades 3-8 after testing was suspended by the state due to issues with the state testing contract.
 
Here are some highlights from the Report Card:
 
• Four elementary schools – Pegram, Pleasant View, Kingston Springs and West Cheatham – earned high marks for their Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) scores in grades K-2.
 
TVAAS is used to measure student growth from year to year. Levels 4 and 5 indicate a school is exceeding the expected growth and Level 3 indicates that they are making about the expected growth.
 
Pegram and Pleasant View earned a 5, while Kingston Springs and West Cheatham achieved a 3.
 
On the high school level, Harpeth and Sycamore earned an overall score of 3 on the TVAAS.
 
• On the end-of-course assessments in several subjects, Cheatham County students outperformed students from across the state and in the 12-county Mid-Cumberland region, which includes Davidson, Williamson, Wilson, Rutherford, Montgomery, Cheatham, Dickson, Robertson, Stewart, Sumner, Houston and Humphreys counties.
 
Data shows that 40.9 percent of Cheatham County students are on track or have mastered English 2 (compared to 37.7 percent in Mid-Cumberland and 35.8 percent in state); 41.6 percent in Integrated Math 1 (23.8 percent in Mid-Cumberland and 25.6 percent in state); 39.5 percent in U.S. History/Geography (31.9 percent in Mid-Cumberland and 29.9 percent in state); 61.9 percent in Biology (56.7 percent in Mid-Cumberland and 56.5 percent in state); and 45.7 percent in Chemistry (43.7 percent in Mid-Cumberland and 39.7 percent in state).
 
• Overall, Cheatham County has achieved a Level 3 composite rating by the state in terms of growth scores. The state has five levels, with five being the highest. A Level 3 means a district is at “average effectiveness.”
 
• Cheatham County’s graduation rate is 91.9 percent – well above the state average of 88.5 percent.
 
• The 2016 graduating class from Cheatham County scored an average ACT composite score of 19.9, which matches the state average.
 
However, Cheatham County students rank above the state average on the ACT 21+, which measures the percentage of students who meet the composite score of 21 on the ACT and qualifies them for the HOPE Scholarship.
 
Cheatham County’s ACT 21+ rate is 43.1 percent, which is above the state rate of 41.9 percent.
 
• Cheatham County surpasses the state average in the attendance rate. The county’s rate is 92.1 percent compared to the state’s rate of 88.5 percent.
 
Parents and community members can view the Report Card on the Tennessee Department of Education website at www.tn.gov/education.

The Cheatham County School District has announced its school-level Teachers of the Year for the 2016-2017 academic year.
 
“These outstanding educators are great examples of the caliber of teachers we have in Cheatham County,” said Interim Director of Schools Stacy Brinkley. “They are passionate about what they do and their efforts have inspired their students, their colleagues and the communities they serve.”
 
To be selected as a school-level Teacher of the Year is a significant honor because they are selected by their peers.
 
The Teacher of the Year program honors and awards teachers who exceed expectations to provide meaningful and rewarding learning experiences for the students of Cheatham County.
 
The school-level Teachers of the Year are:
 
Ashland City Elementary School: Kristi Hasse
East Cheatham Elementary School: Emily Wong
Kingston Springs Elementary School: Deanna Mealio
Pegram Elementary School: Jennifer Bolton
Pleasant View Elementary School: Megan Frost
West Cheatham Elementary School: Amanda Willoughby
Cheatham Middle School: Amanda Bradley
Harpeth Middle School: Lori Johnson
Sycamore Middle School: Molly Hudgens
Cheatham County Central High School: Rachel Balthrop
Harpeth High School: Anita DeFrancesca
Sycamore High School: Andrew Gaskill
Riverside Academy: Nathaniel Walker
 
The district-level Teachers of the Year from each academic level (elementary, middle and high) will be announced in January. All the teachers will be honored at a banquet in April.

​As winter weather approaches, we want to remind parents, students and staff of the Cheatham County School District’s winter weather procedures and announcements.
 
In an effort to help the community prepare, the district could possibly call stakeholders on the Skylert phone notification system in the afternoon or evening before an anticipated weather event that could cause the closing of schools.
 
If the decision to close schools is made overnight, stakeholders will receive a phone call early in the morning.
 
In addition, parents, students and staff may “like” the “Cheatham County School District” Facebook page and follow the district on Twitter (@CCBOE) to receive school closing information.
 
Notifications about any closures will also be sent to Nashville television stations and the local radio station and newspapers.
 
On occasion, the district may delay the start of the school day or dismiss early due to inclement weather. Should this occur, information will be shared in the same manner.
 
Parents are encouraged to establish an emergency plan for their children in the event that schools are closed, start late or dismissed early.
 
Interim Director of Schools Stacy Brinkley said student safety is the ultimate factor when making a decision whether to close schools.
 
“We will try to make a decision to close schools as early as we can so parents can make any necessary arrangements,” Brinkley said. “Usually, the decision to delay or close school will be made the night before, if weather conditions warrant. If not, the announcement will be made as early in the morning as possible.”
 
Transportation Director Cal Blacker monitors road conditions around the county as well as school resource officers and the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office. He will make a recommendation to the director of schools, who makes the decision to close or delay the opening of school.
 
“Since Cheatham County has many rural roads, it is possible we could have adverse driving conditions in one part of the county, while roads are just fine in other parts. We must take into consideration the conditions of all roads in the district,” Brinkley said.
 
The district has 12 inclement weather days built into the 2016-17 calendar.
 
School leaders also remind parents to dress your children appropriately during the winter months. Layered clothing, head coverings, gloves and proper footwear are essential.