Here we are again at the start of another school year in Mariemont City Schools! I consider it a great privilege to head into my 10th year as your Superintendent. I remain humbled to lead a truly remarkable team of expert educators to impact the lives of our students and the next generation of leaders.
September 2022 Work Smart. Create Experience. Embrace Growth.
Superintendent’s Update
Meet the Staff Page 3 Summer Stories Pages 4-5 Alumni Spotlight Pages 6-7Continued on page 2 Elementary students enjoyed the second annual Camp BEyond this summer
Each year at Mariemont City Schools brings awards, accolades and achievements for our students, staff and our schools. I enjoy celebrating each of these moments with our community and hope you are proud to be a Mariemont Warrior whether you have a student currently enrolled in our schools or not.
UpdateSuperintendent’s
I remain committed, as does our administrative team and Board of Education, to responsibly managing each resource and stretching every penny to effectively and efficiently continue our tradition of excellence and maintain our reputation as a top-performing district.
This year we are going to continue to shine a spotlight on the everyday excellence of our students, staff, classrooms, extracurricular activities and programs. I will be sharing more of an inside look into the moments that make up each day at Mariemont City Schools and invite you to follow along and cheer on our students and staff as they use each day to discover new things, try new experiences, develop character and skills, and become their best selves.
Another way the district continually stretches and maximizes every dollar is through grant resources. Although our district is not eligible for many grants, we continue to apply for those that can alleviate our reliance on local funding. As a result of this strategy, our district has been awarded $400,000 in additional grant dollars over the last two years. Added to that total, we were recently awarded a $150,000 safety grant from the state of Ohio. These funds will be used for updates at Mariemont Elementary, Terrace Park Elementary, and Mariemont Junior High School at no added cost to our residents.
Our ability to stretch our current resources is due to several factors that have fluctuated since 2018. Mainly, the federal emergency relief dollars awarded to Mariemont City Schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have thoughtfully and strategically deployed these dollars and will continue to responsibly use the remaining funds.
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Thank you for your continued partnership. Our community’s dedication to education and desire to see our students succeed and be supported in their academic, personal and future endeavors is a hallmark of our Mariemont culture. We honor our community’s partnership through transparent and thorough management of our resources and open communication. Please feel free to reach out to our district if you have any questions or want to learn more about the work we do to educate our community’s children!
Treasurer’s Update
I am proud to share that Mariemont City Schools is in a stable financial position as we head into the 2022-2023 school year. School finance is a complex topic and can fluctuate year to year based on changes in local, state, or federal resources. We work hard as a fiscal staff to conservatively and carefully manage each resource and provide regular updates to our community through the Five-Year Financial Forecast and regular updates to the Board of DueEducation.tostateand
Over the last two years, the district has employed strategic budget reductions and leveraged emergency funding in such a way that now, we have sufficient funds to maintain operations through the current 2022-2023 school year and as a result will be able to delay a request for funding. This is great news! And depending on the impact of inflation and other unforeseen changes, we may even be able to stretch beyond this school year.
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federal funding formulas, our district will remain reliant on local funding to provide the quality of education our community expects. The last 2.5 mil operating issue was passed by voters in 2018 and was projected to fund the day-to-day operations of the district for four years through the 2021-2022 school year.
As we celebrate what makes Mariemont City Schools extraordinary, it must be said over and over again that we are only as strong as our staff. The excellence that you see in our students and schools is a reflection of the caliber of our staff They deserve our immense respect and support as they daily invest in students.
Tom Treasurer,GolinarCFO
Steven SuperintendentEstepp
Check out our district YouTube page (Mariemont City Schools) for all of the latest videos featuring our students, staff and programs.
Joe Veeneman
“I am grateful for the caring, nurturing environment, the supportive parents and the focus of our teachers and staff on the health, education and safety of all of the students in the Mariemont City School District.”
As we kick off another school year, get to know some of the faces of our district and learn what they believe is the true meaning of the Mariemont Experience.
Annie Hobson General Music (K-4) and Chorus Teacher (5-6), Terrace Park Elementary School & Mariemont Elementary School
We have some truly excellent staff members at Mariemont City Schools who work smart, create experience and embrace growth for our students, their colleagues and this community each and every day.
Holly McCormack Health Aide, Mariemont High School & Terrace Park Elementary School
“To me, the Mariemont Experience is an inclusive experience that encompasses the entire individual. Mariemont does a great job of not only teaching students academics, but also providing different opportunities based on interest, allowing students to learn skills, lessons, and gain life-long memories from those moments.”
Alex Hrovat Intervention Specialist, Mariemont Junior High School
“As an alumnus, the Mariemont Experience is about being part of a tradition of excellence while embracing new opportunities to grow as Warriors.”
“The Mariemont Experience provides the best support for each individual student and guides them to find their passion by offering various opportunities.”
Trista Lai Mandarin Teacher and Master Class Advisor, Mariemont High School
Social Studies, Health and PE Teacher, Mariemont Junior High School & Mariemont High School
“The Mariemont Experience means achieving musical excellence with wonderful people; it’s a joy!”
Paola Biro Special Education Aide, Mariemont Elementary School
“The Mariemont Experience is about creating opportunities for all students, regardless of where they are in their learning journey, to enrich their education within and beyond the classroom walls and help them develop their unique path of success.”
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Mariemont High School has long participated in the AFS program, and this past year was part of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (CBYX) which is jointly funded and managed by the U.S. and German governments and provides scholarships for students in Germany to spend the academic year in U.S. schools.
The U.S. Department of State has awarded Mariemont High School with the 2022 Department of State Medallion. This medallion is awarded to schools that participate in the AFS-USA program, bringing the world to its students, teachers and community. AFS is an inter-continental student exchange program with a commitment to fostering intercultural and global competence in students, host families, schools and communities.
Mariemont High School Earns Department of State Medallion
Below you will read about three exemplary honors that the district was notified of during the summer months. We are proud of these award winners, and of our entire Mariemont City Schools community, for continuing to represent our district on the highest stages and showcase the excellence that has become synonymous with MCSD all year long.
STORIES
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The district is proud of Mariemont High School for earning this distinction and for continuing to set our students up for success in and out of the classroom.
MHS was awarded the Department of State Medallion for exposing its students to diverse cultures, attitudes, beliefs and languages, helping them to be life-ready no matter where their next steps take them. It also advances a key component of our Destination 2026 strategic plan that states that all Mariemont City Schools students will become global learners.
As soon as the clock struck midnight on the 2021-22 school year last June, students and staff raced out the doors into a couple months of rest, relaxation, sunshine and quality time spent with friends and loved ones. And while summer is always a welcome break from the daily grind of the school year, it doesn’t mean that the work stops. In fact, those at Mariemont City Schools are always looking to work smart, create experience and embrace growth, even throughout the summer months.
Congratulations to Audrey!
Child Find Policy
a documented deficit in one or more of the following areas: communication skills, hearing abilities, motor function, social-emotional behavior functioning or vision abilities. For school-aged students, a disability means a person having one or more conditions such as autism, developmental handicap, hearing handicap, multi-handicap, orthopedic and/or other handicap, emotional/behavioral handicap, specific learning disability, traumatic brain injury or visual handicap.
Rising sophomore Audrey Zelinski was one of two $1,000 scholarship winners from the annual Student Voices competition hosted by Cincinnati Public Radio. Audrey composed a passionate spoken-word poem discussing the myriad of ways sexism still prevails over the lives of women and girls.
Kersker served our district for 33 years, most recently as an administrative assistant at Mariemont Elementary School. Since her retirement in 2020, she has spent time filling in for front offices across the district, including the Central Office where she has continued to learn new tasks and roles. Even in retirement, she is finding ways to work smart and embrace growth in true Mariemont fashion.
We are proud of Peggy for earning this honor and are so thankful for the dedication she continues to show Mariemont City Schools!
It was the fourth year for the Student Voices contest sponsored by the Charles H. Dater Foundation. Audrey won the top prize in the Creative division and beat out over 100 entries of local 8th through 12th grade students. The prompt for this year’s competition was to confront a false narrative with their own lived experience.
Sophomore Wins WVXU Democracy & Me 2022 Student Voices Competition
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Mariemont City Schools’ Child Find policy requires that all children below twenty-two (22) years of age residing within the district who have a disability, regardless of the severity of their disability, and who are in need of special education and related services are identified, located and evaluated in accordance with all federal and state standards.
If you are aware of a child who you think may have a disability, please contact Linda Lee, Special Education Supervisor, at 513-272-7517.
For children birth through age two, a disability means that a child has a behavior, cognition, communication, physical development, sensory development and/or social or emotional development deficit. For children ages three through five years of age, a disability means that a child has
Beloved longtime Mariemont City Schools employee Peggy Kersker was named the district’s 2021-22 Substitute of the Year by the Hamilton County Educational Services Center Comprehensive Substitute Solution.
Peggy Kersker Named Substitute of the Year
After graduating from Mariemont, I went to The Ohio State University and got my degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. I got a job offer right out of school to be an aerospace engineer doing flight tests for the U.S. Navy.
Things change over the years and trends come and go, but if there is one constant you can count on, it’s the Mariemont Experience. At Mariemont City Schools, we work smart, create experience and embrace growth each day to ensure every student receives a learning experience tailored specifically to their goals, dreams and needs.
As for the future, I’m planning to move to Florida sometime soon with my family where I can continue to grow my career.
My time at Mariemont definitely influenced how I grew into myself as a young adult. I had amazing teachers who really cared about their students and took a huge interest in our future successes. The absolute best teachers of mine not only recognized my strengths, but also understood my weaknesses and pushed me to overcome them. Upon graduating from high school, I was confident in my abilities and my potential, which led to me pursuing a very difficult area of study. The environment of Mariemont City Schools helped me to develop into the hard-working and ambitious person I am today, while also giving me the freedom to still be a kid through those last few years of adolescence, and for that I am very grateful.
Aubrey Jewell, Class of 2013
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I currently live with my husband and son out in Patuxent River, Maryland, where I work on the naval air base. My job mostly consists of testing military aircraft with catapult and arresting gear equipment both here on base and out at sea. Just last year I spent six weeks out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean testing the F-35B on an Italian aircraft carrier. It was the most rewarding experience, and I doubt anything will be able to top that!
The ultimate goal of our Destination 2026 strategic plan is to set each student up for success in life after graduation. We are thrilled to spotlight some of our alumni who are testaments to the excellence of the Mariemont Experience.
During my career I have worked on political campaigns (including those for the President of the United States, then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and US Senate candidate Jaime Harrison) as well as music festivals and concerts (including the National Memorial Day Concert in Washington, D.C.) Currently, I am part of the Advance teams for Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, working on logistics ahead of their travel throughout the United States. I currently reside in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Emma Welch, Class of 2013 you have an alumni spotlight to share? We’d love to hear from you! Please head to our district website and click on District News - Alumni Spotlight to let us know what you or someone you know is up to!
After returning to the United States, I moved to New York City where I planned academic trips abroad for institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art. During my first years in NYC, I began planning large-scale events and working for various political campaigns. This led to a career of planning some of the world’s biggest events, including the largest marathon in the world, the New York City Marathon, and the inauguration of President Biden.
Since graduating Mariemont in 2013, I got my undergrad at Bennington College where I studied music and drama performance. I relocated to Brooklyn (where I have lived for the past five years) and pursued acting further with a two-year Meisner conservatory at Terry Knickerbocker Studio. I’ve done various independent theatre and film projects over my years in the city, but recently music has become forefront in my life. I’m currently living out my rockstar dreams as bassist for the band Sir Chloe. Over the last year, we’ve performed at Lollapalooza, Corona Capital in Mexico City, and as an opener for Alt-J and Portugal the Man (who I saw at Bogarts in 2012 with some dear friends from Mariemont, a beautiful full circle moment!) When not rocking out, I roast coffee beans at a mom and pop coffee shop and paint houses for my friend’s interior painting company. My life has been unpredictable and vibrant and I’m very grateful to have had so much support to pursue what I love!
I couldn’t have asked for a better high school experience than the one I received while at MHS. The integration of the school itself into the community is a rare token of success that can’t be spoken of throughout other public high schools. Because of this community investment, the size of the Village of Mariemont, and Mariemont High School itself, I was able to participate in things that otherwise would not have been available to me had I gone to a larger school or a school in another district. It was a real privilege to attend such a school that had the whole-hearted backing of the community, parents, and students.
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My time at Mariemont was chock full of so many classes and clubs and activities. There, I learned to value my schoolwork and passions equally; to be as playful and curious as I was hardworking. I’m so grateful to the encouragement and love I received from my teachers and peers. It’s helped me to build the strong sense of self I have today.
John Welsh, Class of 2009
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Since graduating from MHS in 2009, I received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from Miami University. After graduating from Miami, I moved to Denmark for two years where I helped teach architecture to students from around the world.
To get the latest updates, “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and UPCOMINGYouTube. DATES September 22 MHS Open House | 7:00 p.m. 23 ME Walk-A-Thon 30 MHS Distinguished Alumni Luncheon | 11:30 a.m. 30 MHS Homecoming Parade 5:30 p.m. 30 MHS Homecoming Football Game | 7:00 p.m. October 1 MHS Homecoming Dance 5 Elementary Bike/Walk to School Day 6 Parent/Teacher Conference Sign-Ups Open 8 1N5 Warrior Run | 5:00 p.m. 10 Board of Education Meeting 7:00 p.m. 13 Mariemont Athletic Boosters Golf Outing | 12:00 p.m. 17 No School for Staff or Students 18 Mariemont Academy, No School for Students 18 Parent/Teacher Conferences, All Buildings 19 MHS Fall Chorus Concert 7:00 p.m. 20 Fall Orchestra Concert (Gr. 7-12) | 7:00 p.m. 25 MJHS Fall Sports Awards 7:00 p.m. 26 MHS NHS Induction | 7:00 p.m. 27 ME 6th Grade Class Picture 27 MHS ConferencesParent/Teacher|4:00– 8:00 p.m. 28 End of First Quarter, Early Dismissal 28 TPE Pumpkinfest www.mariemontschools.org