Michele Nelson
Recent stories
- A tale of two Sisters
- May 25, 2012
- “I’m shaking all over,” said a girl with jet-black hair and striking blue eyes, on the morning of a day she’s anticipated all her life. Oddly enough, she looks just like Payson High School senior Natalie Black. Well, actually: that’s not odd at all. She’s Natalie’s sister. But the two have never met — until today. And now after years of questions and quests, two families have arranged for these long-separated sisters to meet as a gift for Natalie’s graduation from high school.
- HS job shuffle
- School board skeptical about new position
- May 25, 2012
- In her first meeting with the Payson School Board, soon-to-be Payson High School (PHS) Principal Anna Van Zile on Monday faced a board skeptical of her proposal to shuffle duties to create a new position to showcase the importance of an athletic director. Van Zile suggested the board not fill her vacated post as vice principal for a year. Instead, she wants to shift duties to hire a full-time athletic director who would share a portion of her workload. Van Zile said she could for one year take on the lion’s share of the principal and vice principal duties if the proposed athletic director could handle some discipline and attendance responsibilities, even if lacking the administrative credential required of a vice principal.
- Solar eclipse spurs family adventure
- May 24, 2012
- Months ago they told me we had to see it. “Mom!” said my youngest daughter, “Dad says there will be an eclipse over Lake Tahoe on May 20. He’s invited us to go!” she insisted, begging with her sweet, brown eyes. “I can drive,” said my eldest, “I’ll have my permit.” “No way, girls,” I shook my head, “Just no way,” I said with finality, thinking of the lost weekend, the family complications. “But Mom…you don’t want us to miss it,” said my youngest. Could I make them miss it? Hadn’t I always told them to accept life’s adventures?
- Farmers Market starts
- The buzz has started.
- May 22, 2012
- The buzz has started. “So many friends in Phoenix are asking when Payson’s Farmers Market will open,” said Katie Klein one of the new partners of the organization. Katie and her husband Joe have joined with John and Lorian Roethlein, the original founders, to expand the market. “The four of us have the capacity to do more,” said John. The two couples plan to open the market on Memorial Day weekend with new vendors and attractions.
- Paint like an Egyptian
- First-grade students create Egyptian art — with some help
- May 22, 2012
- Brittney Skousen’s mom helped her to create an Egyptian dress and draped her in jewelry to get in character for the day. Brittney’s first-grade teacher, Leslie Reisdorf , with assistance from the Payson Art League (PAL), then transported the children to Egypt — complete with an art project, food and dress. “I suggested kids could dress up in either modern or ancient Egyptian clothes,” said Reisdorf. Reisdorf herself dressed up in a costume with a long white sheath dress, gold encircled headband and gobs of jewelry. “I explained to students that jewelry identified the wealth of the person in ancient Egypt,” said Reisdorf. She decided to put together an Egyptian day after going to a Gifted and Talented conference in February, which included a section on teaching history and art.
- Payson schools juggle jobs after layoffs
- May 18, 2012
- The fallout from school budget cuts continues. Payson school administrators continue to shuffle the deck to save money by eliminating and restructuring positions causing staff resignations and loss of student services. “Our personnel actions are about trying to preserve as many programs as possible and protect class sizes for our elementary schools,” said Superintendent Casey O’Brien. At Payson High School (PHS), incoming principal Anna Van Zile has suggested restructuring the position of the vice principal position she has held for the last two years to possibly save money. “Anna Van Zile has been researching cost-cutting measures,” said O’Brien, “but this will be tough to do for more than a year.”
- Time Out Shelter’s funds drop, but need rises
- May 18, 2012
- The only domestic violence shelter in Rim Country lost some $200,000 in state and federal support, just as the sickly economy has pushed domestic violence and the need for shelter to new highs. Time Out Shelter staff member Barbara Glinzak knows that such a trend can produce fatal results. Her own harrowing tale of abuse started when she was 8 and a friend of her father’s started to sexually molest her. After four years of terror and abuse, she fled her home at the age of 12. But she sought shelter with a boy six years older than she, who began to abuse her mentally and physically. She finally escaped that relationship with her current husband.
- Testing the waters
- High school ecology class examines the East Verde
- May 15, 2012
- Kalynn Roggenstein, a junior at Payson High School (PHS), reached between the rocks to grab the gigantic spider. Her classmates gasped at her boldness. They wanted nothing to do with the eight-legged creature until Roggenstein safely put the 2.5-inch-long arachnid in a sieve. “We let everybody look at it,” she said, “then we took measurements and wrote down information to identify it.” Roggenstein loves to study macro-invertebrates, the scientific name for spiders and other critters that have a hard outer shell. She found the spider during a field trip with PHS science instructor Beverly Adams. Adams takes her ecology students to test the waters of the East Verde River to study the science of the environment, macro-invertebrates like the spider, are a vital part of the lesson.
- PHS principal sees life from different angle
- May 15, 2012
- In one of her English classes, Anna Van Zile had her students design a vanity license plate with words that best described them. For her license plate, Van Zile wrote in italicized letters: “CNLIFE.” She translated what it meant for her class: seeing life at a slant. This has double meaning for Van Zile. She looks different because of her Asian heritage, and she also looks at life differently from everyone else. “I don’t see solutions as everyone else does,” she said. She also believes students benefit from understanding accountability and standing up for themselves. These attitudes, she believes, will help her at her new position as principal of Payson High School (PHS). This past week, the district hired Van Zile as principal to replace Kathe Ketchem, who will retire at the end of the year. For the past two years, she has worked as assistant principal.
- ‘Helping is not doing’
- Fitzgerald’s educational philosophy wins top award
- May 11, 2012
- Early in what proved an award-winning career, Dr. Barbara Fitzgerald noticed something interesting in her elementary school computer lab: The boys always controlled the mouse. “Every time there was a mixed sex group, even if a girl sat alone and asked for help, the boy would control the mouse and do the work for the girl,” said Fitzgerald. She mulled over the problem. Seeing the boys did the work for the girls instead of helping them do it themselves, she started telling the children, “Helping is not doing.” That observation grew into her Ph.D. dissertation on the subject and helped define an educational philosophy that led to a recent statewide award as at the Payson Unified School District.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Question of the week
Do you think new Principal Anna Van Zile has a valid idea in eliminating the Asst. Principal and replacing it with an Athletic Director position that would share her duties as Principal?
Advertisement