Congrats to our Employees of the Month!

• Ashland City Elementary School: Jane Crocker, Teacher
• East Cheatham Elementary School: Brittany Crouch, Teacher
• Kingston Springs Elementary School: Sue Hasse, Librarian
• Pegram Elementary School: Rachel Burns, Teacher
• Pleasant View Elementary School: Nicole Hackett, Teacher
• West Cheatham Elementary School: Cathy Gilstorf, Teacher
• Cheatham Middle School: Frances Ford, Teacher
• Harpeth Middle School: Allison Mueller, Teacher
• Sycamore Middle School: Elizabeth Southards, Speech Language Pathologist
• Cheatham County Central High School: Tony Pierce, School Resource Officer
• Harpeth High School: Andrea Holley, Counselor
• Sycamore High School: Brooke Derrick, Teacher
• Riverside Academy: Robert Hoffman, Teacher Assistant
• Daycare: Belinda Knight, PVES Site Director
• Nutrition: Rhonda Johnson, SMS Cafeteria Manager
• Technology: Jake Greer, Computer Technician
• Transportation: Justin Smith, Bus Mechanic and Substitute Driver

The Cheatham County School Board recognized the employees at its March 5 meeting.
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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. 

​Harpeth High School senior Devin Copeland has been nominated for the “I Am Sport” Award by The Tennessean.
 
The “I Am Sport” Award is a contest created to honor high school student athletes who are committed to giving back to the youth in their communities.
 
You may vote once per day through 11:59 a.m. on March 19 at the following link: http://tennessean.secondstreetapp.com/I-AM-SPORT-Award-Contest/gallery.
 
Devin has given back to this community through Special Olympics.
 
As he closes out an amazing Harpeth basketball season earning the District 9-AA Player of the Year, Devin is already gearing up to play unified basketball at both the regional and state level as well as unified volleyball and unified track with Special Olympics. 
 
Special Olympics means the world to him and he is planning on going to college to work for Special Olympics one day. 
 
Please take a few minutes and vote for Devin. 

The three nominees who garner the highest number of votes will be contacted and invited to attend The Tennessean’s Sports Awards, where they will walk the red carpet, find out if they won and celebrate with the other local nominees. The winner will be announced live and called to the stage to receive their trophy.

​The Cheatham County School District has launched a new School Safety e-mail tip line that will enhance the safety and welfare of our students and staff.
 
The tip line is designed for use as an online reporting and prevention tool.
 
If students, parents or community members know of an unsafe situation in one of our schools, they can pass on that information to school officials by sending an e-mail to tip@ccstn.org.
 
Sample issues could include cyber or physical bullying, situations of abuse, talk of a fight, drug abuse or anything that could impact the safety and well-being of students and staff.
 
When making your report, please include as much detailed information as possible because doing so will greatly assist school administrators in investigating and addressing the concerns.
 
The tip line is intended to give students and parents a fast, effective and safe way to report unsafe situations and not worry about being identified as the source of the information.
 
For questions regarding the tip line, please contact our individual schools or Coordinated Health Services Supervisor, Shelley Duke, or School Resource Officer Sgt., Chris Gilmore, at 615-792-5664.

Seventeen Cheatham County wrestlers qualified for the state wrestling tournament, which will be held Thursday-Saturday at the Williamson County Ag Expo Center in Franklin.
 
The top four wrestlers from last weekend’s Region 4-A/AA tournament advanced to the tournament.

Cheatham County Central High School wrestlers who qualified for state:
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113 pounds – Kolby Blake Levrets
120 pounds – Matthew Beavers
152 pounds – Noah Mayo
160 pounds – Timmy Kern
195 pounds – Nate Hicks
 
Harpeth High School wrestlers who qualified for state:
 
106 pounds – Jackson Whitlow
120 pounds – Dylan Becker (region champ)
126 pounds – Junior Lucio
132 pounds – Thomas Hatcher (region champ; selected Region 4 Wrestler of the Year)
138 pounds – Mason Lovell
145 pounds – Matthew Pack (region champ)
285 pounds – Devin Spence
 
Sycamore High School wrestlers who qualified for state:
 
132 pounds - Bonnie Hudgins (girls tournament)
140 pounds - Lilly Pendleton (girls tournament)
113 pounds – Micah Webb (region champ)
138 pounds – Tyree Bass (region champ)
160 pounds - Will Pendleton (region champ)
 

Congrats to our Cheatham County Central High School and Harpeth High School students who qualified for the state HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America) competition, which will be held March 24-28 in Chattanooga.

The students participated in the regional competition on Jan. 26 at Vol State Community College in Gallatin for the opportunity to advance to state.

CCCHS students who placed in the regional competition and headed to state are:

• Kiah Fisher and Page Hickler, CPR and First Aid
• Alicia Harrington, Pharmacology
• Hailey Harrington, Transcultural Health
• Rylee Whittaker, Medical Terminology
• Mallory Anderson, Pathophysiology
• Alexus Prater, Medical Terminology
• Macy Douglas, Jorden Hoffman, Breanna Cook and Rylee Whittaker, HOSA Bowl

HHS students who placed in the regional competition and are headed to state:
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• Byars Adcock, Dylan Leifheit, Alyssa Young and Rachel Roberts, Creative Problem Solving
• Trish Nguyen, Medical Math
• Gillian Russell, Veterinary Science

​The Cheatham County School District has named three exceptional educators as the 2017-2018 District Wide Teachers of the Year.
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Nominations are accepted from all schools and then one teacher is selected from each academic level.
 
“Cheatham County is a district filled with caring, motivated and highly-qualified teachers. To be selected as a district-wide winner is a distinguished honor for an educator,” said Director of Schools Dr. Cathy Beck. “The three finalists represent the exemplary teaching that goes on every day across our district. They truly inspire their students and colleagues, and we are fortunate to have educators like these in our county.”
 
The 2017-2018 District Wide Teachers of the Year are:
 
High school: Maggie Mason, Sycamore High School fine arts teacher. Mason has taught for 25 years and has been with the district for 23 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Lipscomb University and master’s degree from Austin Peay State University. Mason started her teaching career in 1992 at Portland Middle School. Two years later, she joined the district as the general music and choir teacher at Sycamore Middle School. She has been at the SHS building since it opened in 1996 and was on staff during its transition from a middle school to high school. At SHS, she has taught a variety of classes, including English, general music, choir, creative writing, introduction to fine arts and dual enrollment music history. Mason currently chairs the school’s Fine Arts Department and serves as a Fine Arts Mentor Teacher and on the District Advisory Committee. She has been named the SHS Employee of the Month three times during her tenure. She is a member of the Sycamore Chapel Church of Christ.
 
Middle school: Matthew Shuff, Sycamore Middle School eighth-grade science teacher. Shuff has taught for four and a half years – all at SMS. He earned his associate’s degree from Nashville State Community College and bachelor’s degree from Austin Peay State University. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in school counseling from the University of Tennessee at Martin. Shuff is the school’s wrestling coach and has been named the SMS Employee of the Month twice during his career. He currently serves on the District Advisory Committee and has been a member of the school’s discipline, textbook and bullying committees.
 
Elementary school: Kristin McQueen, Ashland City Elementary School K-4 STEM teacher. McQueen has taught for five years and has been with the district for four years. She is the only educator in the district that teaches STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as a separate class at the elementary level. McQueen earned her bachelor’s degree from Tennessee Tech University and master’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Before joining the district in 2014, she taught for one year at St. Bethlehem Elementary School in Clarksville. McQueen has received three A.O. Smith grants, and she currently serves as the Grade Level Chair representative at ACES and on the district’s Teacher Advisory Board. She led a six-week STEAM Robotics summer camp in 2017 at Lipscomb University and Pellissippi State. For the past three years, she has been the assistant softball coach at Cheatham County Central High School. In August, McQueen was selected as one of 45 educators across the state to serve on the inaugural Tennessee Rural STEM Collaborative.
 
The 2017-2018 School Level Teachers of the Year are: 
 
Ashland City Elementary School: Kristin McQueen
East Cheatham Elementary School: Melissa Barr
Kingston Springs Elementary School: Amy Brown
Pegram Elementary School: Nathan Anderson
Pleasant View Elementary School: Amber Pennington
West Cheatham Elementary School: April Long
Cheatham Middle School: Megan Hunter
Harpeth Middle School: Brittney Burgess
Sycamore Middle School: Matthew Shuff
Cheatham County Central High School: Susie Kephart
Harpeth High School: Alesia Beshears
Sycamore High School: Maggie Mason
Riverside Academy: Doug Hungate
 
“I want to congratulate all who were nominated. This nomination is a commendation for your leadership, your commitment to excellence and dedication to our students, our schools and our district,” Beck said.
 
All of the winning teachers will be recognized at a banquet in April.