April - June 2013 Carson City School District Page 1 Carson City School District Hires Project Leads for Race to the Top Special points of in- terest: Race to the Top, a federally ed to Race to the Top. These dates selected for these posi- What is a Project awarded grant to Carson City individuals will support both tions have previous experi- Lead? School District, has allowed the district office as well site ence performing the many Getting to know your the district to implement spe- leaders at each location in the duties encompassed within site leader cific curricular, instructional, implementation of instruction- these crucial positions; how- and assessment improvements al, curricular, and assessment ever, all four selected staff Meet the implemen- in it’s secondary schools. To modifications, in alignment members posses the ideal tation teams for our help facilitate these changes, with the district’s previously skill sets to lead the many secondary schools Carson City School District has submitted and approved grant projected tasks and ventures hired Implementation Special- application. Project leads will on their perspective campus- ists as well as Project Leads at also mentor implementation es. each site. specialist members, assisting in Inside this issue: their continued growth and As project leads, staff members familiarity within these posi- will serve as the campus coor- Carson High Implementa- 2 tions. Three of the four candi- tion Team dinators for all endeavors relat- Pioneer High Project 4 Lead - Candi Ruf Carson Middle School 5 Project Lead and Imple- Carson High School Project Lead-Allen Gosselin mentation Specialists Eagle Valley Project 6 Allen Gosselin is an RTT-D Gosselin served as a regional Lead and Implementation Implementation Specialist and trainer for WNRTP, facilitating Specialists the designated team lead for professional development for Carson High School. He brings Nevada’s five western districts Three Administrative 7 27 years of experience to the in the areas of school improve- Assistants Hired district, including 25 years as a ment planning (SIP), co- Quarterly Accomplish- 8 classroom teacher, grades K-12, teaching, instructional strategies ments and has twice been recognized (T4S) and PLC/collaborative by his peers as a teacher of the practices. year (Eureka County School District, 1989 and Douglas High School, 2000). In addition to his classroom experience, Mr. Page 2 CARSON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT Volume 1, Issue 2 Carson High School Implementation Team Ben Contine is an Implemen- the co-teach model. Recently, izing. He holds a Bachelor’s tation Specialist for Career and Mr. Contine served as Chair- Degree in Political Science, a Technical Education (CTE) in man of the Carson City School Master’s Degree in Special the Carson City School Dis- District’s Strategic Plan Com- Education, a Master’s Degree trict. He serves as the lead mittee, facilitating the develop- in Educational Leadership outreach coordinator and de- ment of the Empower Plan. and holds an Administrative veloper of the district’s com- The plan was unanimously License and TESL endorse- munity partnership program. adopted by the Carson City ment. Mr. Contine has been After an early career in politics School Board in 2012. Mr. identified as an educational and community organizing, Contine has been named the agent of change committed Mr. Contine worked as a spe- Ormsby County Education to empowering students as cial education teacher in both Association Rookie of the Year, lifelong learners ready to the Clark County and Carson Carson City Rotary’s Teacher of innovate, adapt, and succeed City School Districts. He was the Month, and presented a City in a changing world. Ben Contine recognized for his work as an Life Magazine “Local Hero” interventionist and expertise in award for neighborhood organ- Michele Lewis is the Career and Tech- ment Manager before recently recognized by the nical Education (CTE) Administrator moving on to become Nevada Association for Ca- in the Carson City School District. the Administrator at reer and Technical Educa- She began her career in 1983 in Eure- Washoe County School tion with the Award of Ser- ka, Nevada, where she was the agricul- District’s CTE high vice – the highest recogni- ture science teacher and advisor for school – Regional tion given by the associa- the Diamond Mountain FFA Chapter. Technical Institute tion. She has earned the She then served as one of the first (now AACT). Honorary American FFA Tech Prep coordinators in Nevada She has been with Car- Degree and has served on and was instrumental in moving this son City School Dis- the Douglas County School initiative forward by working with the trict since 2005 and has District Board of Trustees Nevada Board of Education and Uni- served as dean of stu- and the Nevada Interscho- versity of Nevada Regents to develop dents and administrator lastic Activities Association a joint tech prep agreement, which – for CTE programs at Board of Control. All of after many modifications and amend- Carson High School. these awards speak to Mich- ments – is still in use today. She has received many ele’s passion for inspiring Ms. Lewis then went on to serve as awards for her dedica- students to reach their full- the Nevada FFA Executive Director tion to CTE, such as est potential for premier where her work revitalized the Neva- the Nevada CTE Edu- leadership, personal growth da FFA Foundation and established cator of the Year, Ne- and career success. the Nevada Agriculture license plate, vada Agriculture which provides annual income to the Teacher’s Association FFA organization. After earning a Member of the Year, Master’s degree in Education Leader- and the coveted Bill ship, Ms. Lewis spent a year at Cuesta Trabert Memorial Award for Excellence in College as the Workforce Develop- Occupational Education. She was most Page 3 CARSON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT Volume 1, Issue 2 As a native sinusitis and medical imaging da Teacher of the Year. This honor Carsonite, Cheryl Macy exams. Although her hospi- gifted her with a great deal of profes- attended Carson High tal work excited her, she sional development on topics ranging School, where she now decided to become a teacher from ESEA to teacher leadership to works as Implementa- and returned to UNR for her crafting messages for the media. During tion Specialist. After education classes. Mrs. Macy this time, Mrs. Macy developed her high school, she attend- has taught English for four- platform on the relationship between ed the University of teen years, spending five sleep and success in school. In 2012, Nevada, Reno, earning a years as Speech and Debate Mrs. Macy had to opportunity to visit degree in English with a Coach and five years as Lan- China with the NEA Foundation, minor in American His- guage Arts Department where she was able to visit a middle tory. During this time, Chair. Her work as a teacher school and a specialized career and Mrs. Macy worked as a leader inspired her to get her technical high school, as well as an clerk and Continuous Master’s degree in Education American company out-sourcing in Quality Improvement Administration from Grand China. These opportunities have ex- coach for the Medical Canyon University, which panded her understanding of what our Imaging Department of lead to a year-long internship students and our schools need to im- Carson-Tahoe Hospital. as dean at Eagle Valley Mid- prove. All of these experiences fur- While there, Mrs. Macy dle School. In 2011, Mrs. thered her love of curriculum, instruc- co-authored a paper on Macy was named the Neva- tion and teacher leadership. Mena Dedmon has been a teacher for 13 end of her first year and remained in years. She lives in Minden with her hus- that capacity until returning to the Unit- band, an English teacher, and her two ed States. daughters aged 8 and 3. Her first job in education was teaching US History, World Next, she taught grade 7 World Geogra- Geography, and Leadership at Pau-Wa-Lu phy and Leadership at Carson Middle Middle School in Douglas County. During School from 2011 until she was moved this time she was an annual participant in to Carson High School as an implemen- the Teaching American History Project tation specialist under the RTT-D grant. (TAHP) in Washoe County. She twice While at CMS, she mentored her second served as the master teacher for TAHP student teacher. summer institutes and participated in fel- lowship program at the National Archives. Ms. Dedmon has a Master's Degree in In 2008 she sat on the panel which revised Teaching History (MATH) from UNR. the Social Studies standards for the state of Nevada. Next came a three year stint as an ESL teacher at the Koc School in Istanbul, Turkey. The Koc School is a private Turk- ish school working with a focus on bilin- gual instruction. While there, she and two colleagues developed a discipline policy that was adopted school-wide. Ms. Ded- Mena Dedmon mon was selected as the 6th grade level leader for the English department at the Page 4 Carson City School District Page 4 interests focus on working with other Sarah Lobsinger received her Bachelor’s teachers and her current projects include degree in Secondary Mathematics from implementing Common Core Standards in Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, mathematics throughout the district. In Oklahoma and has taught middle school addition, she serves as the Implementation and high school mathematics in Oklaho- Specialist for the Race to the Top Grant at ma, Texas, and Nevada. She has taught Carson High School. Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry at Carson High School for the past 8 years. Ms. Lobsinger’s love of teaching began at the age of 4 when she taught her cats and stuffed animals how to write numbers and letters on her chalkboard.