Weekly Update: April 5, 2019
Weekly Update April 5, 2019
Dear Grinnell-Newburg Board of Education, Staff, Families and Friends:
Happy Friday! Spring is trying to emerge with warmer weather! This weekend looks somewhat promising. I hope everyone had an enjoyable week. This week, I attended the Central Rivers Superintendent Leadership Retreat on Thursday and Friday. These valuable two days of professional development assist me to develop my craft and provide an opportunity to learn from colleagues from our region.
Other news this week includes preparing for our Board meeting next week in which we will honor all of our student State qualifiers who have participated in activities such as wrestling, speech, girls basketball, FFA, FCS, and more through April 1 during the 2018-19 school year. Parents and students of those being recognized on April 10th will be notified via email. The Board meeting will be held in the auditorium.
We opened the construction bids this week for identified projects at each of our schools and are interviewing the low bid applicants to ensure that they understand the scope of all projects. It is anticipated that the bids will be approved next week.
Staff Prepare for ISASP beginning next week:
Just a reminder that ISASP State Testing will begin next week. Please be sure that students get plenty of rest, eat a healthy breakfast, drink plenty of water, and encourage them to do their best. We are hopeful that this will run smoothly.
Tech Team Place 6th: Congratulations!
Grinnell High School’s robotics team, the TechTigers, competed as Team 5935 in the Iowa Regional of the First Robotics Competition in Cedar Falls on the University of Northern Iowa campus from March 20-23. They finished in an impressive 6th place out of 48 teams.
Staff Present at Institute:
We have many amazing and dedicated staff members working with a growth mindset in a willingness to learn! Thank you to one of our staff members at GHS, Kent Mick, for taking a risk to learn something new to use in his classroom, and then sharing it with an outside audience by presenting at the Iowa 1:1 Institute in Des Moines. Thank you Bill Gruman and Chellie Wilkins for the support to Kent in a conference presentation called "Creating an animated short film" that he used in his high school social studies classroom. Students met their learning targets in a creative way using the applications Keynote and iMovie.
Kiss the Duck? Not the Pig?
FFA once again challenged students and staff to donate to PALS and the winner with the most change donations in his jar was Travis Smith! Travis did not have to kiss a pig, but a duck! Thank goodness the duck was nice and didn’t kiss back!
ADHOC Facilities Committee:
The ADHOC Facilities Committee met this week to discuss costs and possible options regarding our school facilities related to those costs. At this time, our architects will be exploring two options and will provide further details at our next meeting on May 7, 2019. In the meantime, we will be scheduling out of the district site visits to tour school buildings for the committee members. We will also be hosting a couple of informational meetings in the upcoming weeks for the public to share our progress. Watch for upcoming dates for these meetings that will occur in the next few weeks.
Congratulations to the GMS and GHS treble clef singers:
What a wonderful concert this week with the Drake University Women's Chorale!
Sentence Surgeons at Fairview:
In WIN this week students were working on fixing up sentences just like surgeons fix up patients. To get the students engaged and hooked on the activity, they are acting like sentence surgeons and making sure they all make sense and follow the laws. It's normal to use glue in a classroom, so to be more like doctors they are hooking the sentences together with bandaids.
It was ParaProfessional Appreciation week! We appreciate our dedicated staff!
Here are a few of our amazing Para’s! Thanks to all of the District Para’s for what you do to support our students and staff! You all are simply amazing!
Take the survey for the Community Internet Option if you live in Grinnell: The survey can be accessed here: mahaska.org/grinnell.
The Grinnell Chamber of Commerce & City of Grinnell were recently approached by Mahaska Communications Group (MCG), a division of Musco Lighting in Oskaloosa, to explore the possibility of running fiber to the Grinnell community. After several initial conversations to further explore this option, this survey is being distributed to better understand the community need for the service. The Chamber has asked the District for help in reaching this survey to as many community members as possible. Thanks for your help!
Please remember to check out the virtual backpack found here: virtual backpack
There are events at the Stew, girls scout information, lifeguard, gymnastics and so much more for students to enjoy!
Upcoming Events:
Friday, April 5
4:00 JV/V Boy Golf @ Benton
Saturday, April 6
9:30 JV/V Boys & Girls Track & Field Meet @ Lacey Sports Complex
Monday, April 8
4:30 JV/V Boys & Girls Track & Field Meet @ Norwalk
5:30 Varsity Girls Soccer @Clear Creek Amana
Tuesday, April 9
4:15 JV/V Girls Golf Triangular @ Warrior Run Golf Course
4:15 JV/V Boys Golf Triangular @ Beaver Creek Golf Course
4:15 Girls Varsity Tennis @ Newton
4:15 Boys Varsity Tennis @ Home
4:30 JV/V Boys Soccer @ Newton
4:30 Middle School Boys Track Meet @ South Tama
6:00 3rd Grade Concert @ GHS Auditorium
6:00 Girls Varsity Soccer @ Newton
7:00 4th Grade Concert @ GHS Auditorium
Wednesday, April 10
8:30 LHC Math Contest @ Central College
5:00 SIAC Committee Meeting @ GHS Media Center
6:00 Board Meeting @ GHS Board Room
Thursday, April 11
4:00 JV/V Girls Track Meet @ Waukee
4:00 Varsity Girls Tennis @ Dike New Hartford
4:15 Varsity Boys Tennis @ Home
4:30 Middle School Boys Track Meet @ Home
7:00 Bailey Park Concert
Have an amazing weekend!
Janet