Winter Weather, Foreign Exchange Students, Staff Member

Winter Weather

It's hard to believe we are at the end of the first semester.  It's hard to believe we've gotten this far with no flood days, late starts, early outs or snow days.  I'm writing this on Thursday night, so I hope I don't jinx us in the morning.  No worry, we live in Northern Iowa so I'm sure we will have some opportunities after the holiday break.  With that in mind, I wanted to remind everyone about our procedures for no school, late start, and early dismissal announcements.  

When the weather requires us to change the schedule for school with either a late start, early out or to cancel school altogether, we use several methods to get the word out.  First, we notify all the major media outlets to get it broadcast on radio and television.  We will also post it on the district's Facebook page and the district's website.  In addition, we participate in the state of Iowa's messaging system, Iowa School Alerts.  Using this system, you can receive a text message or email when there is a change in the school schedule.  This is also used if activities are canceled or have different start times.  Of course, we will also post on our other social media sites and the school webpage.  Click here to sign up for Iowa School Alerts.  Hopefully, we will have a mild winter and not have to worry about it too much.  

Foreign Exchange Students

I had the privilege of accompanying our foreign exchange students to the Rotary Club meeting today.  They shared information on their home countries, their thoughts about coming to America, and of course about our school and community with the Rotarians.  We are fortunate to have Exchange students and I have to say we have four top-notch students this year.  Ann-Sophie and Charley are from Germany, Nick is from Switzerland, and Ciara is from Italy.  

Foreign Exchange students come to experience our culture, learn about our country, and improve their English skills, but they also have much to offer our students and community.  As outsiders to our community, they recognize many great things we have going on in our school and community that we take for granted or see it so often we forget how great it is.  If you see them around, be sure to say hi.  They're a great group of students.  

Staff Member

Last week our school community lost a valued staff member.  Mary Frese lost her courageous battle with cancer.  Our thoughts are with her husband and children as they deal with their loss.  Mary started in our district back in 1979 and first taught kindergarten for a couple of years.  She then taught Title I reading for a number of years before getting into her recent role as District Technology Coordinator.  She always worked hard to provide the best opportunities she could for her students, who she always referred to as her kids.  She brought VREP (Virtual Reality Education Pathfinders) for our high school students.  She brought basic robotics, coding, Minecraft, and 3D printing for our 7th and 8th-grade students.  She was always looking for new things that would capture their interest and expose them to important STEM skills.  She also acted as a mentor to many students helping to guide them as they matured into adulthood.  She touched many lives and will be remembered for the many things she did.  

Finally, I would like to wish each of you a joyous Holiday Season.  

NHHS Winter Concert/K-12 Art Show/LEAD projects

NHHS Winter Concert

The New Hampton NuHi Chorale, Chamber Choir, Concert Band and Jazz Band welcomed winter break to begin the last week of classes for the semester.  All 4 groups blew away the audience with themes of peace and the creative use of standard themes.  The jazz band introduced a vocal addition to their line up, as did the concert band with an unpublished addition of a tribute piece to Mary Frese.

The choirs chose a theme of peace for their literature which ranged from acappella works to some surprising solos for a variety of students, and even the use of percussion. The choirs also marched in together, highlighting the pieces from the community church choir tours in December.

K-12 Art Show

The first annual K-12 art show was held last Friday at the New Hampton Community Center.  The previous art shows were 9th-12th grade, but the addition of a variety of materials from Transition Kindergarten through 8th grade helped illustrate the progression our students make as they use a variety of mediums to create and own art and the process of creativity.

LEAD Projects

Leading Edge Academy Day (LEAD) students continue to work on improving the community around them.  This week, they worked early in the morning with middle school students as they establish their own leadership group.  High school LEAD students spent time describing how their leadership skills have evolved and changed as well as the advice they had for middle school students.

In addition, a group of LEAD students has spearheaded an upcoming winter clothing drive which runs from January 3-17. Students will be working over winter break to advertise and organize the drive for new and slightly used winter wear including coats, mittens, hats and warm weather clothing to donate to local families and organizations.

From the Middle: Week of January 2

L.E.A.D. in the Middle School:

L.E.A.D., Leading Edge Academy Day, which is a program built to engage, develop, and strengthen young leaders. This program benefits young leaders who are seen by their peers, teachers, coaches, and community members as capable leaders, solid teammates, model students, great family members, and proud Chickasaws.  LEAD is an opportunity for those young leaders to congregate, build skills and relationships, and find ways to become better leaders for their peers, school, family, and community.

This is an awesome opportunity for students to learn about leadership and make connections with other students. All students in the middle school are invited to join this group and your student chose to be part of something much larger.  Our high school began a leadership group last year with the help of Mr. Ryan Rausch.  Our goal of this program is to continue to build the culture of our school and provide opportunities for our students for self improvement.  

Spotlight of the Week- Mrs. Scott:

Mrs. Scott is an eighth grade math teacher at NHMS.  She tries to find ways to make learning about math more fun and interesting for students.  She is a learner just like students that will step out of her comfort zone.  Last year during Midmester, she created a class to share books around the community with the Free Little Library program.  You can see many of the book boxes around the community.  This past week, Mrs. Scott wanted to bring volume to life in her classroom, so she used objects found around the building to learn about what was learned in the classroom.  She will conclude the lesson with a tasty donut activity!

Elementary

Spotlight on Ms. Konecne/FFA Soup Supper/Resource for Last Minute Finals Prep

Spotlight on Ms. Konecne
Ms. Konecne is new to NHHS this year in the English department. She teaches junior writing and literature as well as college prep and 11th grade English.  Ms. Konecne has volunteered much in her 1st semester at NHHS from helping with the musical and supervising dances to playing clarinet with the band during her planning time.  We are excited to have her on campus and see what else she can stir up!

FFA Soup Supper
On December 12, the New Hampton FFA Chapter held their annual soup supper during the New Hampton vs. Waverly faceoff.  With the leadership and service hours contributed by FFA members, we were able to raise over $650!  All of the proceeds will be donated to the Chickasaw County Food Bank.  This is one of the New Hampton FFA's biggest service projects which we take great pride in!  The community is always very supportive of our students and objectives so this is one of the ways we try and give back to the community.  I would like to thank every person who worked or ate at our soup supper in order to make this event possible.  We hope this event ignited your Christmas giving spirit!  We hope to see you all next year at the New Hampton FFA soup supper!  Happy Holidays!

Resource for Last Minute Finals Prep
As our students burn the candle on both ends to prepare for finals next week, please check out the suggestion on the site below:
https://www.fastweb.com/student-life/articles/the-20-study-tips-for-finals

From the Middle: Week of Dec. 18

Midmester Signup:

Midmester is coming back to the Middle School on March 26, April 3-6, April 10-13.  Students are getting excited to see the new courses offered this year as well as join in some of the past courses.  All students saw to the course offering book and began to choose classes they were interested in last week.  Teachers continue to use professional development to get courses ready and make them enjoyable for the students.  PBL uses a driving question to spark student interest and then asks the students to come up with a way to solve the real-world problem in a new manner.  It is fun to watch and our students are getting better at demonstrating creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.  Below are links to the Midmester video from last year and the course offering book for this year.

Midmester 2017-2018 Handbook:

Spotlight of the Week- Mrs. Remmen:

Ms. Remmen is an Instructional Strategist teacher at New Hampton Middle School.  She helps students with varying academic and social needs.  She is a very energetic and passionate teacher that is always trying new things to help her students see success.  This past week, Ms. Remmen had her intervention students visit Ms. Rosonke's classroom and read to students.  During Ms. Remmen's intervention students have been focusing on reading with expression and purpose.  Students have been building confidence and working hard at implementing the strategies learned during intervention.  All students enjoyed the outcome as you can see below.

Elementary

School Delays and Winter Activities

School Delays

The weather has switched and the temperature has dropped.  It's made for some crisp nights at Mikkelson Park for the lights, but it's definitely feeling more and more like the holidays.  With the changing weather comes the concerns with school delays and no school because of the weather.  I'm generally up around 5 to let my dog out and check the weather conditions for the day.  If things look questionable, I head out to see how the roads are throughout the districts.  My goal is to always make a decision by 6 a.m.  I don't always make it, but I try to give as much notice as possible. 

As soon as we know we know we are delaying or cancelling school, I notify the building principals who begin putting it on the various area radio and television stations.  In addition, we will post it on the district's Facebook page and website.  We also use the state's school alert system where you can sign up for emails and/or text messages when we delay.  You can sign up for that service here. 

If you have any questions on this, please contact your child's school office or the superintendent's office. 

Winter Activities

With the change in weather, comes the beginning of winter concerts, activities, and athletics.  If school is dismissed early because of inclement weather after school and evening activities will be cancelled.  If we don't have school for the day, we will decide by 1 if we will have evening activities.  The difference is simple, there are a few times where the weather is bad in the morning but clears off by early afternoon.  This sometimes gives time for the roads to be cleared and activities can go on as planned.  It doesn't happen often, but it could happen.  

I also want to take a few moments to discuss sportsmanship at school events.  We generally do a good job with this, but I felt it was good to share a few reminders.  The Iowa High School Athletic Association has a variety of positive guidelines for attending high school events.  One of the most meaningful to me is "Cheer for your team, not against the other team."  We're all there to support our athletes, so we want to be as loud as we can in support of them.  Let's show everyone that Chickasaws have class by being as loud and proud of our team even when the other team's fans may not be showing their best.  Please take a moment to discuss this with your child.  I know many people attend college and professional games and feel we can do here what they do at those games, but please remember in the case of professionals they are paid millions to be on the floor.  At the college level it is often thousands of dollars to be on the floor.  In high school, the only benefit is the privilege to wear your school's uniform.  It's not the same and we shouldn't be acting like it is.  

I want to take a few moments to discuss officials.  I have been an official and I've visited with a lot of officials over the years.  I can confidently say each one I've ever interacted with wants to and tries to do a great job.  However, we still hire officials who are human and sometimes mistakes do happen.  They didn't intend for them to happen, but they just did.  When this happens, sometimes the fans start yelling at the officials.  I get it in the heat of the moment something may come out, but when it goes on and on often one or two things happens.  First, the person may become flustered and make a second mistake which isn't good for anyone.  Second, when one team's fans are constantly yelling at the official, it's unlikely any breaks are going to be given to any team and most likely not our team.  Not that officials intentionally do that, but they may become aware of the yelling and become overly cautious or overly aggressive in calling penalties or fouls.  Again, neither is good for us.  Most times the officials call exactly what they see during the game.  We don't always like it, but they were much closer than any of us who try to make the call from across the gym.  In the end, if a mistake is made, the official knows it.  Yelling at them doesn't make it go away or help the situation.  Instead of dwelling on it, I would encourage you to yell something positive to our players as we need them to stay focused on the game.  

Finally, as a state we are experiencing a shortage of officials that is becoming very critical.  We don't pay them a lot to do this and if we continue to lose them because of our fan behaviors, we will be impacting our programs and our kids.  Please come to our games, cheer loud, cheer for our team, and support the refs with everything they do.  Go Chickasaws!  

Spotlight on Ms. Kipp/Preparing for Finals

Spotlight on Ms. Kipp

Michelle Kipp serves at the high school guidance counselor at NHHS.  She is task with brief counseling, college and career counseling, delivery of the guidance curriculum, and everything else that she manages to juggle. You will often see Ms. Kipp working with groups of students and individuals in her office as well as working in classrooms on career and college prep, including scholarship assistance.

Preparing for Finals

Final semester testing is fast approaching and students are beginning to prepare.  As in the past, students may opt of out some testing for rewards of good grades and good attendance as well as if they met Iowa assessment goals set last spring. However, there have been some changes to the number of tests each student can opt not to take. A student must have 90% in the class, have less than 3 absences and/or tardies, and have less than 5 MIRs to be eligible.  The change is that students may only opt out of 2 exams-- so students have to make the choice. 

In addition, if a student met his/her Iowa assessment goals last spring, they may choose one test to opt out from--- and the rest of the requirements do not apply to this reward.  Students will receive this information during an assembly on Friday as well as being informed of it at the opening day assembly.  All attendance concerns must be cleared by December 12.

There is also a different schedule and open campus privileges are in effect during finals.  Below is the finals schedule:

December 21:

pd 1- 8:15-9:15

pd 2- 9:30-10:30

pd 3-  10:45-11:45

Lunch 11:45-12:45

pd 4- 1:00-2:00

pd 5- 2:15-3:15

December 22:

pd 6- 8:15-9:15

pd 7 9:30- 10:30

pd 8 10:45-11:45

lunch 11:45-12:45

Make ups 1:00-2:00

Any weather related changes will be posted on Facebook, twitter, and the school webpage.

From the Middle: Week of Dec 11

Positive Messages to Students:

The fifth grade students have been reading the book Wonder as part of the ELA program at NHMS.  As many of you have seen, it is now a newly released movie.  The message of the book features  Auggie, a fifth-grade boy born with a facial deformity, focusing on the importance of kindness, tolerance, and acceptance.  Students then took the message from this book and wrote 5 positive comments for other classmates and placed them on each other's lockers.  This was a very positive activity for our students and gave them a chance to practice the message of the movie.

Spotlight of the Week- Mrs. Gilbert:

Mrs. Gilbert is a special education teacher at the middle school.  She helps to support a variety of students and builds skills for them to be successful.  Each year, staff work on professional goals to become better at the art of teaching.  This year, Ms. Gilbert has been focusing on reflection of practices within her classroom and networking with other teachers to build a professional network.  Many times in education, teachers can become very specialized and it is hard to share ideas with each other within a building or district because there are few people in a similar position.  Ms. Gilbert has began a blog that she is sharing with other educators and families about what is happening in her classroom.  Check out all the great things Ms. Gilbert is doing for our students!

https://msjgilb.blogspot.com/

Elementary

Building Project, Bids, and Progress

Building Project

On Tuesday, November 21st the district opened bids for the building project.  They came in extremely favorable to the district.  This past Tuesday, the school board held a special meeting to award bids to the low bidder.  The contracts are being drawn up and after they are approved by the district's attorney will be sent to the bidders and the construction process starts.  We won't see much over the winter as materials will be ordered and plans and schedules will be finalized so that as soon as spring arrives, construction can start.  At this time, we have a projected completion date of March 29, 2019.  It's unlikely we would move in the middle of the year, but this gives both the contractor and us time for the move and also if there are any weather delays we have plenty of time to address them.  We expect to fully be in the building for the fall of 2019.

Bids

First, I want to thank all of the contractors who participated in the bidding process.  We had six general contractors bid with the winning bid going to Cresco Building Services out of Cresco.  I'm told this is the same company that built the Chickasaw Wellness Complex.  Other companies that bid on the project were Cardinal Construction, Henkel Construction, Jooseph Company, Larson Construction, and Rochon Corporation.

Our consultant recommended we bid this in two ways to see how we would receive the best bids.  The first way is the general bids as the overall manager of the project but we would have separate bidders for the mechanical and electrical components of the bid.  The other way is the general bids would be for everything in the project including the mechanical and electrical work.  We chose to accept bids the first way as this has resulted in significant savings to the district.  Because of this, we also awarded bids for our plumbing/mechanical contractor, electrical contractor, bleachers, gym floor, and food service equipment.  Young Plumbing and Heating was the low bidder for the mechanical work and Schammel Electric was the low bidder for the electric work.  The other areas were also awarded.

Because the bids came in so favorable to the district, we were able to select some alternates.  The big one was increasing the size of the competition gym.  This is something we had wanted to do and the bidding allows us to make this happen.  The cost of increasing the gym size will be $116,183.  The district chose a few other alternatives including:  Adding a door and stairway to room 436.  This is the current alternative school and will need a door put back in going up to the new hallway.  We also decided to add additional parking to the North side of the high school.  Parking is always an issue and with the additional staff that will come with the new building, we knew additional space would be needed so included this.  We also decided to take the runoff from the building area near the new ag/industrial tech building underground instead of continuing to let it run onto the parking lot.  This should help with water puddling on the asphalt which is a problem whenever it rains.  Finally, we will include a new water softener for the new part of the building.  We have one for the high school, but with the added locker room space and the new equipment in the kitchen we thought it would be prudent to make sure we had adequate capacity for all of this.

The only major things that are still outstanding are bids for carpet and the casework/cabinetry bids.  They will be taking place in the next couple of months.  In addition, we are looking at some alternates in the area of flooring for our building.  As bid, most floors are vinyl tile or carpet.  We are looking at upgrading some areas, like the cafeteria and commons areas to enhance what we have.  Those will also be decided at some point in the near future.  The last thing that is on our radar is a wrestling room.  The board decided to do the necessary sitework for a wrestling room when the pre-construction dirt work was completed.  However, it was not included in the bids so we could see what we may have available for this.  We do have funds available that may be able to do this, but we will likely see how progress goes so that some unforeseen item doesn't come up.  We don't believe this will happen, but it's always better to be prepared for the unexpected. 

Progress

We have a lot of things going on in the school with winter sports starting, Christmas Concerts, Speech activities, and the winding down of the first semester.  The high school staff has been working hard preparing for their first J-Term Project Based Learning Time.  I also want to send out a big thanks to the many businesses that have been working with district staff in providing learning opportunities for our students.  We have students working for pay in businesses as part of our Multi-Occupations Career Program, we also have students doing internships, job shadows, and business tours.  We also had many businesses assist with our Middle School Career Week and of course all of the businesses that are partnering with our Iowa BIG North Program.  We are so fortunate to be a part of such a supportive business community.  Actually, we are fortunate to have so much caring and support from everyone in our community.  

It's a great time to be a part of the New Hampton Community.  Everywhere you look things are happening.  People are working hard to make this a better place for all of us and I truly appreciate all of the efforts that are being made.  Look around at the progress being made on the Tribe Trail, the swimming pool, new houses being planned and built, empty storefronts on main street, This Little Light of Mine in Mikkelson Park, and of course the school project.  If you want to be a part of some of these good things, please let me or someone who can help know.  

NHDT/Foods 1 Serves Staff/Happy Holidays

NHDT Update

If you were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, you may have caught sight of several students representing the New Hampton Dance Team!  Kaycee Howe, Kayla Walter and Brittney Bluhm were chosen at a summer camp to perform in the parade and spend a week in New York City.  What a great experience- we are so proud!  Several dancers will also be performing at the Citrus Bowl on New Year's Day in Orlando.

On Thursday, the NHDT competed in State Dance Competition at Wells Fargo and HyVee Hall in Des Moines.  The dancers were a part of the Pom and Hip Hop competitions.  The team was also able to attend the second day of competition to watch large schools and colleges compete as well as talk to post-secondary recruitment counselors and coaches about opportunities to dance past high school.  Great job, ladies!

Foods 1 Classes Serve Staff

Immediately before Thanksgiving Break, Foods 1 classes planned and created a Thanksgiving meal and invited staff members to attend.  Each cooking group was allowed to invite one staff member and the staff were served a full meal during the class time. Mrs. Schmitt has organized the classes to also include etiquette, which was evident in the place setting and manners displayed by students.  Staff certainly hopes to continue to be invited to be taste-testers!

Happy Holidays!

As we move through the holiday season, students at the high school are juggling many balls.  Please be aware as you and you families gather and celebrate that students may be focusing on:

1. Upcoming finals
2. Opening Winter sport seasons
3. End of grading period
4. Beginning second semester

Holidays are wonderful but also carry much stress.  It is ok to talk to your students about any stress they may be carrying and look for further assistance if needed.  Please do not hesitate to call the office to speak to support staff about any concerns you have about your student(s) and time of the year.

As we move quickly through the next month, may you be able to spend time with your families and have some much needed down time.

Happiest of holidays from my family to yours-- we are already working on the traditions we celebrate.

From the Middle: Week of December 4

PBL in the Middle School:

Many teachers in the Middle School have begun to implement PBL into classes.  This past week, Mr. Rude has finished up his career week presentations and oratory project comparing past jobs to current jobs.  Students worked with Ford's Theater to understand the Rhetorical Triangle and how to use it to elicit feeling during a speech.

Mrs. Sinnwell invited the third grade up to her class to learn about Mesopotamia.  Each group of students had to prepare an activity and learn about their topic.  Students chose the direction they wanted to go knowing that they would be presenting on November 21st.  Some students chose to write a song, create a puppet show, make games, or make models to demonstrate the topic.  Students learned how to work together, communicate with each other, set goals and deadlines, solve problems, and be creative during this unit.

Spotlight of the Week- Mrs. Geerts:

Mrs. Geerts is a 5th grade math teacher at NHMS.  She is always looking to try new activities with students to bring the real-world into the classroom.  During the week of Thanksgiving, students were working on estimating and she created a hands-on activity for students to be smart shoppers and practice those skills.  Students had four different scenarios to solve involving four different grocery stores.  Students had to estimate how much money they would have to spend to provide a snack and a drink to 86 people.  They also had to plan a meal for a family of 5 with a fixed budget.  Many of these tasks will be similar to budgeting and financial literacy they will need to do in the future.  This activity includes student choice and decision making that are tenants of PBL.  

Elementary