Superintendent's Update: February 23, 2024
Weekly What’s Going Well:
So many great things happening across the district this week! Learn more below and take a listen to the video with guest Liz Hansen chatting about AmeriCorps and some great summer opportunities for Grinnell.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) strong for our district!
Parents gave permission for their students to take a SEL survey earlier this year to gauge the overall mental health across our district. This was a self reported survey for students to share where they felt they were on the following five characteristics: Social Awareness, Self-Management, Learning Strategies, Emotion Regulation, and Supportive Relationships. At the Middle School, 58% of students took the survey and 81% of those surveyed ranked themselves as good or excellent across those areas. At Davis, 78% of students took the survey and 85% of them ranked themselves as good or excellent. This is a great testament to the SEL steps we have taken across the district to ensure students feel properly supported to handle their emotional health. We will continue to focus on these areas to set students up for success with strategies to keep their mental health strong as they continue to grow and experience the world. Look for the SEL permission form in the upcoming registration packet online to allow your student to continue in the survey next year.
Critic’s Choice at All State Speech Contest!
“The Spider-Woman” won the honor of the Critic’s Choice award for Group Mime. This is the third year in a row that Grinnell has earned this award! Bravo to our hardworking Thespians!
Grinnell Boys Basketball moves one step closer to the State Tournament!
Congratulations on a great game last night to our Boys Basketball team. They defeated Nevada with a score of 62-55 in the Class 3A Substate 6 Semifinal game. Up next…. Grinnell will take on the Go-Hawks from Waverly Shell Rock at 7pm on Monday February 26th at the Marshalltown High School in the Substate Final! Go Tigers!
Congratulations to Boys Wrestlers!
Congratulations to Logan McDonald (132 lbs) and Max Mintle (157 lbs) on each earning 8th place at the State Wrestling meet! Your hard work and tenacity is inspiring to us all!
Congratulations to Ashley Wolfe!
Ms Wolfe is a finalist for the Iowa FFA Foundation 2024 Iowa Golden Owl Award for outstanding Iowa Educators! She is one of 7 finalists selected from 468 nominations of over 100 AG teachers. She received a $500 check funded by Nationwide for her efforts. Check out the video of the assembly posted on the Grinnell High School Facebook page for the full details. We are so thankful for your hard work and dedication to our students Ms Wolfe!
Tiger Paw Show Tonight!
Don’t miss the final Tiger Paw performance of the year tonight at 7pm in the HS gym. The show will include a showcase of youth dancers that attended a camp earlier this week.
Elementary Heart Challenge underway
Numerous families have taken the Kids Heart Challenge to learn hands-only CPR through "Finn’s Mission" with the American Heart Association. (Finn is a third-grader who’s had 18 heart procedures and he’s asking you to join his mission to learn hands-only CPR, the warning signs of stroke, and much more!) In just 23 days, 20 students at Fairview have raised over $1800 towards our goal! Thank you for helping us learn about taking care of our hearts and brains, save lives, and have fun! It’s not too late to join our Heart Hero team: (Our final day is Feb 29) http://www2.heart.org/goto/FairviewGrinnell.
March Legislative Coffee
It is almost time for the League of Women Voters March Legislative Coffee. It will be held on March 9, 2024 at 10:00 AM at the Drake Community Library in Grinnell. Unfortunately, Representative Dean Fisher has declined our offer to participate, and Senator Annette Sweeney will not be able to attend this month due to a prior engagement. Senator Sweeney will be attending our April 6th Legislative Coffee. Due to these circumstances, we will be viewing and then practicing how to follow bills on the legislative website using the video “Navigating the Iowa State Legislative Website” produced by the Johnson County LWV. We will also discuss bills currently in play at the legislature and how to contact legislators regarding the bills important to you. We invite everyone to bring their own laptop if they would like to participate “hands on” during this Coffee. Please join us for this informative Coffee.
Missing Something?
Our outbound email address recently changed due to an update. If you think you may be missing information from school, please add GrinnellNoReply@grinnell-k12.org to your contacts list to avoid items being sent to your SPAM folder. Also consider following all the schools in the district on Facebook to keep up with more of the happenings throughout each week.
The Virtual Backpack can be found here:
The Activities Calendar can be found here:
Have a great weekend!
Steven H. Barber