Save the Date: Santa Party for Town Kids, Saturday, Dec 6., 3-5 p.m.
Our very popular traditional Santa Party for Copper Canyon kids is scheduled for the first Saturday in December at Town Hall from 3-5 p.m.
The Argyle Volunteer Fire District, under the supervision of Town resident Fire Chief Mac Hohenberger, will again be providing the Fire Engine for Santa’s arrival at Town Hall. And Copper Canyon’s longtime resident volunteer firefighters – Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Mangum, Denton County Sheriff Will Travis, and P&Z Member Brad Kokoron – will again be assisting helping the children and accompanying parents up the steep ladder to ride atop the fire engine!
There will be cookies and refreshments for all and art projects for the kids. Individual photos will be provided of all children with Copper Canyon’s warm and friendly Santa in his very authentic traditional velvet suit and snow white beard and mustache!
Copper Canyon Cookbooks are wonderful Christmas Presents!
Our last 25 Cookbooks are for sale now at Town Hall and any remaining ones will be sold at the Kids Santa Party. 18 Cookbooks with both the 2013 and 2014 Updates at $45; seven original Cookbooks with no Updates at $20; 13 sets of both the 2013 and 2014 Updates at $13; five small 2014 Updates for free. The extensive 2013 Update includes individual photos of the College Scholarship Winners and High School Senior Graduates for 2013. The very small 2014 Update includes photos for the CC Scholarship Winners and CC Seniors for 2014.
First Monday’s Bulk Pickup: Please do NOT set items out late!
If items are set out AFTER 7 a.m. on the First Monday of the month and miss the regularly scheduled removal pick-up, the Town must ask our waste remover Republic Services to bring one or more trucks back for an additional bulk pick up. Jeri Harwell, who has been Republic’s very accommodating Manager for Copper Canyon for years, has never refused our request for additional runs of the trucks. But, that is an imposition over and above our contractual agreement.
Please be thoughtful of our waste removal vendors. The Town would look very “unkempt” if we allowed those bulk items to remain on the side of the road until the next month’s First Monday pick up.
Sue Tejml NOT stranded in the Phillippines – I was “hacked”!
My sincere apologies to anyone who received the email that I was “stranded in the Phillippines” and please immediately send $2,450. Fortunately, only my personal email address was hacked and not my separate Mayor’s email address. I am so sorry for any inconvenience to anyone, and I do appreciate all the kind friends who recognized the scam and warned me of it.
Argyle Volunteer Fire District Ambulance Personnel advised to NOT use the ubiquitous long rigid Backboards
For years it has been standard procedure for ambulance personnel to strap injured individuals onto long rigid backboards prior to transporting them in an ambulance to a hospital. The theory was that this would stabilize any unconfirmed spinal injury.
But recent statistical data has revealed that this procedure is far more harmful than beneficial to the patient being transported. Penetration (i.e. knife) wounds, gunshot wounds, near drownings, heart attacks, strokes and other head injuries – do not usually involve spinal trauma. And actual spinal injuries are often made worse by strapping the patient to the rigid backboards.
Inflatable soft mattresses are now the preferred method of transportation of most all injured patients. C-Collars (cervical collars) are still used to stabilize any apparent or probable neck and/or spinal injuries.
Dr. Justin Northheim, DO is the Argyle Volunteer Fire District’s Emergency Medical Director and holds the same position with the Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine. He explained the new medical procedure of not using long backboards to our Fire District’s Board, with an extensive presentation of statistical studies supporting the rational of the new procedure.
Dr. Northeim is often at the forefront of cutting edge changes in emergency medical procedures and has been recognized as a “Best EMS Medical Director.”
AVFD Board Member Bob Swanbeck suggested that City Councils and Civic Organizations might appreciate a program on new emergency medical procedures presented by the highly-qualified Dr. Northeim.
Official Opening of LISD Marcus High School’s Incredible 9th Grade Campus!
The most incredible aspect of LISD Marcus High School’s 9th Grade Campus is the school’s architecture! For decades standard public school architecture has somewhat resembled a “prison,” consisting of almost solid brick exterior walls. Very few windows were included; and those few windows were very narrow with limited views of the surrounding out-of-doors.
The reason for the almost solid exterior walls of our public schools was understandable – to limit the cost of air conditioning and heating expense from radiant energy lost through window glass. But instead, the 9th Grade Campus Building has an abundance of spacious picture windows and natural light. The cafeteria is an unexpectedly awesome area with a beautiful exterior wall of glass probably 30 feet tall and an overlooking balcony in the space above.
On the “writable” walls are interesting projects. One wall in the cafeteria area says “Just Say No to Drugs!” – with over 100 individually signed student pledges attached. On another wall is posted “Tweet to others as you want to be tweeted!”
Natural Light as an encouraging medium for Learning!
LISD Superintendent Dr. Stephen Waddell encountered this experience with “natural light as a medium for enhancing learning” when he visited IBM’s headquarters in Palisades, New York.
And Dr. Waddell brought this “learning insight” home to our area schools here in Denton County. Thus his enthusiastic support of PVK architectural firm and its partner Irene Nigaglioni, principally responsible for the design of the Marcus 9th Grade campus, who so creatively incorporated natural light throughout the school.
Superintendent Waddell also specifically thanked the Charette Committee for the Marcus 9th Grade Campus. Charette Committees are established for each new LISD school construction project.
The committees consist of affected students, parents, teachers, coaches, principals and staff for that specific school. They discuss and advise on “how to most effectively and economically use the spaces” in the proposed new school campus. “Flexibility” in academic areas is a primary requirement.
Classrooms: Each 9th Grade classroom has a huge exterior window with a panoramic view of the out-of-doors and admitting natural light. Some classrooms also have retractable side walls, which allow the room size to expand as needed. LISD’s Communication Specialist Liz Haas emphasized how this flexible classroom space allows adjacent teachers to collaborate and share valuable learning materials and experiences.
Each classroom is
also not isolated from its adjoining hall. The classroom wall adjacent to the hall consists of opaque class in the top two-thirds, which admits light into the classroom. And each classroom’s hall wall is composed of sliding glass entrance doors that, when open, allow at least an 8-foot opening expanse to expedite student ingress and egress from and to the adjacent hall. The result is classrooms that are not isolated box enclosures – but open to the spacious adjacent halls.
Each classroom also has a wall mounted 4’ x 6’ television screen for learning videos. Student presentations, created on their individual iPads, can easily be posted on the television screen for all students in class to view and critique. 4’ x 8’ white boards are adjacent to the TV screen for class comments and calculations, which can easily be erased and the white boards reused.
Science Labs: In labs, group experiment tables for 4-6 students also have erasable white boards as table tops. Students can put their notes on the table during the lecture or experiment, and then transfer them to their iPads or computer afterwards. Teachers can also write temporary instructions or warnings on the whiteboard table tops concerning the use of lab equipment currently installed on the table.
Halls: Halls are broad, high ceilinged and well lit with natural light. And, they curve, rather than be endless tunnel-like, narrow stretches, a street block long flanked with adjacent banks of metal lockers. The hall’s sides also have small open alcoves with comfortable arm chairs to accommodate 2-4 students studying. And, each chair has an outlet for a student to plug in their iPad or computer. The halls are not just for transporting students to and from classes – and then useless in the interim. They are spaces where students can actually study or just visit with each other in a small scale personal setting, between the hordes passing between classes. What a creative use of the extensive square footage that must be dedicated to school hallways!
Separate 9th Grade Campus: The 2008 school bond voters expressed a definite preference for separate 9th grade campuses. LISD School Board President Trisha Sheffield said a 9th grade campus provides a “warm, comfortable, non-threatening” social and academic atmosphere for entering freshmen. A place that is uniquely their own space. But at the same time, the adjacent 9th grade campus also provides a “seamless integration into high school culture.”
Campus Leaders: 9th Grade Campus principal Chantell Upshaw has multiple and varied responsibilities. She is both the enthusiastic academic inspirer and role-model example – and a compassionate shepherd, quiet listener and ultimate disciplinarian of 835 brand new freshmen. She assured all present at the Ribbon Cutting ceremony, “Excellence starts here!”
Freshman Class President Jenna Haney and Vice President Riley Mattingly expressed their sincere appreciation for the incredible campus entrusted to them and their fellow students for their initial introduction to four years of high school learning.
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