This week, 21 students from all three LSR7 high schools performed their own poetry, essays and stories, as well as those written by other African American writers, for a crowd of a hundred at the first ever NCTE African American Read-in in LSR7.

Congratulations to Ra’Niya MacNeal, Destiny Whittington and Kaylee King for their art recognition at the University of Central Missouri’s 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Reception. Their artwork was submitted in December and judged by the Warrensburg Main Street Arts Committee.  This year’s contest theme was “From Dream to Reality: The March Continues.”

LSR7 high schoolers recently participated in the VRoKCs international Virtual Reality Hackathon, an event that required students to use problem-solving and teamwork skills to create innovative Virtual Reality projects that help solve a real world problem.

All three Lee’s Summit R-7 high schools were recognized in Newsweek’s Top 5,000 STEM High School 2020 rankings this year.

The rankings were generated by Newsweek and STEM.org and included data from nearly four years of school.

Film and broadcasting students from two LSR7 schools were honored in the Student Television Network competition, in which students have six days to create videos without the help of their teachers. The students received topics to build their ideas around via social media.

Lee’s Summit High School students Alyssa Eyre and Hope Kelsey took third place in the high school short film competition

Bernard Campbell Middle School students Milo Johnson, Ethan Pack and Leila Potocnik received an honorable mention in the middle school music video category.

Seven Lee’s Summit High School art students placed in a Raymore-Peculiar Studio Art Competition last month.

Fourteen total students competed in the competition and 24 additional students had their work accepted into the show.

Thank you to those who completed our community telephone survey and/or online surveys relating to a potential Spring 2020 “no tax increase” bond issue. We are currently in the information gathering stage of preparing for an anticipated “no tax increase” bond issue and are working with Patron Insight to finish compiling the survey data. The first round of telephone survey topline data was presented to the Citizens’ Advisory Committee and the Board of Education this week. 

Homecoming courts from all three LSR7 high schools for the 2019-2020 school year can be found here. Congratulations, students!

Pleasant Lea Elementary’s commitment to greeting and welcoming students at school each day isn’t new. But this year, Principal Aaron Barnett says, PLE decided to “take it up a notch.” With the help of LSHS Athletic Director Tracy Bertoncin, LSHS athletes visited PLE for drop-off Friday morning to help out with “High Five Friday.” This year, PLE staffers aim to greet students at least six times a day.

Thanks to our high school athletes for modeling what it means to be a leader to our elementary-aged students.

LSHS senior Darrias Pearsall and Tigers football coach Eric Thomas were featured on Fox 4’s morning show this week. Darrias and Coach Thomas talked with reporter Matt Stewart about the team’s new Riddell football helmets, which are equipped with sensors that allow coaches and trainers to monitor the impacts that players experience.