Chester High School Principal Tim Keefe guest speaker at Rotary
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Chester Rotary Club met September 28, 2011, at the Ol' Farmhouse Café. Members joined in the Pledge of Allegiance and Pastor Ill offered a prayer. Danny James passed the schedule for the October 22 Pancake Breakfast, members signed up for shifts and received tickets to sell for the event. President Hayes announced the auction basket of Popeye items is ready to be sent to the Rotary District Conference.
Bill Rabe made a motion to accept Mike Frawley as a new member, Pastor Ill seconded and motion carried. Mike is the Administrator of the Chester Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. He and his wife Julie have three adult children and four grandchildren. Mike has been a Rotarian in Eureka and W. Plains, MO. Members welcomed Mike to the Chester Club.
Program Chair Donna Clendenin introduced guest speaker Tim Keefe. Mr. Keefe is the new principal at Chester High School. He grew up in Waterloo and received degrees from Illinois College and Lindenwood. He taught in Waterloo and held administrative positions at Waterloo and Anna-Jonesboro, IL. He and his wife Debbie have two children.
Principal Keefe shared his excitement about the direction of public education today. There is a positive shift with new Common Core Standards. These standards will measure students based on their growth year by year. He feels good schools start with good teachers who are enthusiastic, passionate about education, and always strive to improve. The Professional Learning Committees (PLC's) foster communication among the teachers in order to ensure they can continually learn and grow. He believes the school climate at CHS is more positive and he is encouraging the movement from "common practices" to "best practices". He is working hard to reduce student tardiness at CHS which has already shown improvement this year. Mr. Keefe stated that he enjoys his new position in Chester and feels he is surrounded by a fantastic team of professionals at CHS. He complimented the Chester community and thanked the members for the opportunity to address the Rotary Club. Members thanked Tim for his informative presentation, welcomed him to Chester, and wished him a successful career at Chester High School.
Sabrina Franklin announced that the Herald Tribune is challenging businesses to help "Paint the town Pink" in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Special pink ads are available during the month and a portion of newspaper sales will be donated to the local Breast Cancer organization.
There were 18 members and 1 guest present. Barb Brown is Program Chairman for October and she has several interesting speakers scheduled for the meetings.