BWSD to be honored for ‘Move’ program

Story and photo obtained from The Sea Coast Echo.  View the full story here.
By Cassandra Favre

Bay-Waveland School District Superintendent Dr. Rebecca Ladner announced Monday that the school district will receive the Mississippi Association of Partners in Education 2014 Governor’s Award for outstanding school-community partnerships.
“The district will be honored at the governor’s awards luncheon on March 19,” Ladner said. “The partnership was between the Bay-Waveland School District, the Bower Foundation and the Mississippi Department of Education.
“It’s very exciting and to my knowledge, we’ve never been given the governor’s award.”
The project, coordinated by the district’s Director of Operations Brad Barlow, is the series of videos entitled “Move to Learn.”
According to its website, “Move to Learn” is about getting students moving and learning better than ever before.
In 2013, the school district partnered with the Bower Foundation and MDE in the expansion of the “Move to Learn” videos.
“North Bay Elementary was chosen as the site for the filming of the videos,” Barlow said. “Coach Kenny Guess, health and PE instructor, participated in the videos, along with third-and sixth-graders from North Bay and Bay-Waveland Middle School.
“The videos are now nationally-syndicated and numerous articles have been published about the exercise effort.”
“The Bower Foundation is a Mississippi-based company,” Barlow said Tuesday, “It was founded by retired nephrologist, Dr. John D. Bower.
“The foundation directs its funds into school health systems.”
Learn more about the Bower Foundation, Move to Learn and Mississippi Association of Partners in Education at bowerfoundation.org, movetolearnms.org. and mapie.org
In other action Monday:
• Board member Mike Benvenutti was sworn in for another five-year term.
• The board held its official election and Dr. Sherry Ponder was once again elected president and Cleveland Williams was re-elected as secretary.
• Ladner said the construction on the central office is moving along and officials hope to be in the new building by June or July at the latest.
• The building project at the Bay High School football field is also progressing, with the demolition of the home side bleachers a few weeks ago, Barlow said.