TEAM BUILDING
LH employees take the stage for new school year
PEARCY — Administrators, faculty and staff members in the Lake Hamilton School District kicked off a week of professional development on Monday with a lip sync battle as part of a fun team-building exercise.
Each school in the district performed a song or medley of songs from a differ-
ent decade from the 1940s to the 2000s, based on a random drawing, and chose costumes and choreography appropriate to their particular era.
Lake Hamilton Elementary won Monday’s battle with its rendition of “Jailhouse Rock,” representing the 1950s.
The district’s theme for the school year, according to Brian Bridges, communications coordinator, is “Now is the Time,” to encourage all employees, students, and parents to focus on the present.
Bridges said many times people say “I’m going to do this tomorrow,” but the district is hoping to change that focus to the present. That goal will be accomplished, in part, by focusing on reading and literacy.
“The district is encouraging all of our students and families to read together and become lifelong readers,” Bridges said. “We are in the process of partnering with the Kamo’s Kids Foundation to create a mobile library that will be housed inside one of our remodeled school buses and driven around our community allowing students the opportunity to check out new books over school breaks. We are hoping to have the bus finished by the end of this school year.”
The lip sync battle was coordinated as a fun way to welcome staff back for the new school year, he said.
“Our educators take their job very seriously at Lake Hamilton. They are constantly raising the bar when it comes to educating our students. I always like to add a little fun for our first day back meeting and thought the lip sync would be a perfect way to do that. Plus, it served as a great team building opportunity for each of our school buildings as the groups worked together to come up with their skit,” Bridges said.
Today, the district will go through campus safety and security training with Strategos International. After receiving good feedback from staff, Superintendent Steve Anderson said the district invited Strategos back to evaluate the campus’ safety and security and provide guidance to employees on preparation and prevention strategies specifically related to safety of students and staff.
“We always want our staff to be prepared for any sort of situation that might arise since the safety and security of our students is our number one goal at Lake Hamilton,” Anderson said. “We are gearing up for a great 201819 school year and look forward to meeting our students and parents throughout the week at our open house. Another area I am excited about is that our Pre-K program is in its second year and is at full capacity with a waitlist. Our Pre-K is something I’ve wanted at Lake Hamilton for a number of years and I am so proud to see it reach capacity in only its second year and even more proud of how well it is preparing our students for kindergarten.”