Clay City High School’s newest staff member, Mrs. Jenna Talbert, comes from Marengo, Illinois, which is about the same size as Clay City. Mrs. Talbert graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale with a bachelor’s of science in mathematics education.
As a teenager, Mrs. Talbert began working as a secretary for a sales company for oil parts and equipment. That experience should help her today now that she is working as a math teacher in a community highly dependent on the oil industry.
Graduation is a step on to the next part of a student’s life. In High School, what comes next can be unsure. In Junior High, the details may be fuzzy, but these students know where they’re headed: to high school and back to the bottom of the pile as freshmen.
Flora, North Clay and Clay City Schools all held their ceremonies for the end of eighth grade: a promotion in Flora, a commencement at North Clay and a graduation in Clay City.
Whatever the title, the gist of it is the same, these kids are headed on.
A new chapter of life has begun for the seniors of all three Clay County High Schools this weekend, as all of the school's held graduation exercises.
Clay City started the weekend out with its High School Graduation held Friday night at 8 p.m. Next was North Clay High School at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. Finally, Flora High School's graduation tied the weekend up at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Clay City's class of 2011 featured Cassandra Lybarger as their salutatorian and Katelyn Hosselton as their valedictorian.
Hosselton's speech centered around around sticking with your dreams through thick and thin.
Clay City High School Clubs (NHS, Student Council, FFA, Pep Club, and FCCLA) joined forces to celebrate Earth Day two days early in 2011.
On April 20, the day before spring break officially began, over half the students at Clay City High School in Clay City, Ill., gave 1 day of volunteer hours to clean up and beautify their community.
Students picked up trash, pruned bushes, planted a tree, and weeded and filled flower beds with a mixture of annuals and perennials at school, in the local park, and in pots along Main Street.
The 2011 fifth grade classes of Clay City School are daring to keep off of drugs. The two classes, Mrs. Parish’s and Mr. Williams’ celebrated their graduation from the program with a pizza party and a ceremony attended by their parents and last year’s DARE class (the sixth graders).
“DARE is basically a law enforcement led series of classroom lessons that teach students how to resist peer-pressure and,” said the classes’ DARE instructor, Clay County Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Myers, “To lead productive drug and alcohol free lives.”
Clay City High School Clubs (NHS, Student Council, FFA, Pep Club, and FCCLA) joined forces to celebrate Earth Day two days early in 2011.
On April 20, the day before spring break officially began, over half the students at Clay City High School in Clay City, Illinois, gave one day of volunteer hours to clean up and beautify their community.
Students picked up trash, pruned bushes, planted a tree, and weeded and filled flower beds with a mixture of annuals and perennials at school, in the local park, and in pots along Main Street.
Clay City’s School Board held their regular monthly meeting this Monday evening. The Board voted to dismiss nine members of non-certified staff at the end of the school term.
Those to be dismissed following the Board’s reduction included Gayle Harris, Ruth Herdes, Sharon Hoffman, Jerra Klein, Megan McCoy, Mary E. Patridge, Lori Quinn, Katie Washburn and Kathy Weidner.
The board also received donations from both N.A.L. and from Wal-Mart, as well as the Energy Conservation Grant.
May 2, 2011, has been set as a date for a special board meeting in which new members of the school board will be sworn in. The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m.
The 2011 Clay City High School Prom is in the books and a new king and queen has been crowned.
This year’s event took place at the Holiday in Olney on Saturday night.
The king and queen candidates were Robert Sturm, Katelyn Hosselton, Eric Spitzner, Cassie Lybarger, Logan Michels, Chelsie Lee, Jordan Noll and Katie Ford.
The 2011 Clay City High School Prom will be at the Holiday in Olney from 7 to 11p.m., April 16 with coronation at 8 p.m.
Pictured are CCHS High School students who prepared art displays for the Clay City Lions' Club pancake breakfast. The following students participated:
In the sketch category: Lelia Herdes - 1st Place, Sam Clark - 2nd Place, Kaylee Kuenstler - 3rd Place and Promise Russel - Honorable Mention
In the photography category: Megan Kessler - 1st Place, Lauren Lybarger and Shelby Welch - 2nd Place, Shelby May - 3rd Place and Breanne Buerster and Sydney McKnelly - Honorable Mention.
Nationally known performance artist and speaker, Bobby Norfolk, visited Clay City Elementary and Junior High School Monday.
Norfolk, a master storyteller, brings literature to life. Students and faculty alike enjoyed Norfolk's interactive presentation that was coordinated by Title One teachers and and funded by the Clay City Excellence in Education Foundation.
Norfolk began his career as a stand-up comedian at the Funny Bone, and as an actor with The St. Louis Black Rep and Imaginary Theater Company in St. Louis. He also worked ten years at the Gateway Arch as a Park Ranger. In 1979, Norfolk made his first appearance as a storyteller at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival, and discovered that through storytelling he was able to combine his theater and comedy background to be-come a “story-performer.”
In television, Norfolk won him three Emmy awards as the host of the CBS TV show “Gator Tales” and also hosted the Emmy nominated series “Children’s Theater at Norfolk’s House.”
Agricultural Legislative day is held each March in order for Ag organizations to meet with state senators and representatives to discuss the importance of their support for the Ag community.
This year FFA chapters from all over the state delivered commodity baskets and lunches to the members of legislature on March 9th.
In addition Rep. David Reis also took time out from his schedule to meet with the chapter and discuss what FFA and agricultural education means in their lives. Kendra Courson ’11 was glad to be part of the process, “Probably more than 500 students were in attendance. It was a sea and blue and gold.
Plus, that only represents a small percentage of FFA membership in Illinois. It was pretty cool to be part of something so big. ”
On the evening of Monday, February 28, the Clay City School Board met for their regular monthly meeting.
The meeting featured a number of informational presentations, including a presentation on E-Books by librarian Rita Hunt, as well as those from Principal Cathy Croy and Superintendent Jim Jones.
The main decision made by the Board was to reschedule the March meeting for the evening of March 21, 2011, in order to comply with the law if a RIF (Reduction In Force) is necessary at that time.
The regular meeting for the Vinsans Trace Chapter of the NSDAR was less regular than normal for the month of March, when the highlight event of the meeting was recognizing those young people that the Chapter named their Good Citizen Award winners for 2010.
The winners of the Good Citizen Awards are typically selected as the top applicants from each of the high schools in the Vinsans Trace area. This year, there were four winners.
They were, Lindsey Drewes from West Richland High School, Andrew Grahn from North Clay High School, Hannah Leib from Flora High School and Cassandra Lybarger from Clay City High School.
On Wednesday, February 9, Clay City High School students Breanne Buerster and Clinton Rauch competed in the FCCLA Section 18 Proficiency Event competition at Cisne. Breanne participated in the public speaking competition while Clinton entered the cake decorating arena.
The public speaking event requires the participant to recite the FCCLA creed from memory and then respond to questions about the meaning and importance of the creed. Breanne received the highest rating of gold for her efforts. This was her first FCCLA competition.
On Friday, Feb. 18, CCHS FFA students attended the Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, KY.
The chapter would like to thank their sponsor, Clay City Banking Company.
Those who attended included, Will Klingler, Preston French, Walker Workman, Kyle Dawkins, Logan Thomas, Jesse Buerster, Andy Kessler, Dylan Stanford, Aaron Rauch and Bryce Weber. Also attending were Travis Buerster, Dylan Frohning, Breanne Buerster, Keenan Hance and Taylor Hopson.
On Thurs., Feb. 24, Haley Sharp, '13, Ally Payne, '14, and Brandi Hall, '14, competed in the Regional Poetry Out Loud Competition at the Varsity Center for the Arts in Carbondale.
Payne performed ee cummings, "i carry your heart with me," and Lewis Carroll's, "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky;" Hall performed, Robert Frost's, "Fire and Ice," and Kay Ryan's, "A Hundred Bolts of Satin;"
Sharp performed Albert Guest's, "On Quitting," and Stephen Crane's, "In the Desert." Other Clay City students in attendance included Shelby May, '11, Mason Spitzner, '13, and Cassie Lee, '14.
I going to try and write the news article but we are having trouble with our phone lines since the storm.
My son was back in hospital again this weekend to get a tube replaced. The ambulance had trouble getting in to our place. It bottomed out coming in and going out. My son is having surgery on Friday of this week.
Clay City Opry will be held the first Saturday in March at the Community Center in Clay City. For more information you can call Velda 676-4200. There will be food and a lot of fun.
On Thursday, March 10 at 7:00 P.M. the very popular Gospel Messengers will be in concert at Clay City Christian Church at 907 South Main Street in Clay City beginning at 7:00 P.M. There is no charge for this concert: a freewill/love offering will be received.
The group (made up of father. Bart and sons Dennis and Daniel, ages 10 and 13, and veteran professional singer Carl Sanders) sing traditional southern gospel music. Of the group's development Bart states, "What began as an effort to combine family harmony and voice talents with our strong desire to serve God became our purpose statement: delivering the gospel message through relationship, example, and song."
One hundred and eighty-three students from 14 area high schools participated in the 31st annual Academic Challenge contest at Olney Central College.
The statewide event is sponsored by the University of Illinois.
Division 300 schools competing this year were: Edwards County, Palestine, Oblong, Clay City, Hutsonville, North Clay, Red Hill and West Richland.
