Wellness Fair/College Visits

Wellness Fair

The 2nd Annual NHCSD Wellness Fair was held last Saturday at the elementary/middle school gym.

Community agencies including Mercy Medical Center, Department of Natural Resources, Chickasaw County Extension, Chickasaw Ambulance Service, and others were set up to give information, present and run games, and educate the public as to healthy choices in Chickasaw County.

A big thanks to Jolene Rosonke and the New Hampton Wellness Committee for planning the Wellness Fair this year!  It was a family event that will continue to help educate and serve our community.

College Visits

Groups of students including the 9th grade class made campus visits this week to NICC and Kirkwood.  During these visits, students learned about programming available at each community college and support available to al students.

Students returned to school both days excited about the programming, certificates and general education requirements community college could offer them as they transition from high school into careers. Any students or parents interested in learning more should contact Michelle Kipp at 641-394-2144 or m_kipp@new-hampton.k12.ia.us

From the Middle: Week of April 30th

Spring is Finally Here!

We have had a busy past week at the middle school.  Our 8th grade students that went on the DC trip have now returned. Students had a great time this year after stops in Chicago and then several stops in the DC area.  This trip continues to be a great opportunity for the students to see history in action and learn about our nations history.  Thanks to the Lions club and Mr. Rude for helping to make this happen again this year.

Midmester Feedback!

Midmester was a success again this year and the students loved it.  We are always looking to find better ways to engage our students and show them the connection of subject manner to the real world.  As a school we are continuing to move forward with more Project Based Learning in the classroom.  Students love the hands on approach.  As you can see below, most students ranked Midmester with high marks! Students showed that they learned a lot during Midmester.  They also picked classes that they were interested in and not just because friends were in the class.

Elementary

Snow Days and Other Thoughts

Snow Days

We had to have one last snow day on Wednesday.  Hopefully, that is the last one for this year.  I've had several people ask how that day will be made up.  The board will be discussing it at a special meeting on Monday, April 30th.  I plan to recommend to them that we go until 2:15 on Friday, May 25th and then not make up the student day on Tuesday.  The staff will still meet on Tuesday, May 29th to finalize grades, clean their rooms, and make sure everything is put away for summer.  These are things that are normally done after the students leave at 11:15 on the last day.  We were scheduled to dismiss at 11:15 anyway, so we would only be missing four hours of instruction.  Three from the last day and one from dismissing an hour early on Friday.  With our weather related early outs, late starts, and this last day, we will have missed 18 hours of instruction that will not be made up.  Fortunately, we have enough extra hours built into our calendar to address this. 

The state requires us to attend 180 days of school or have 1,080 hours of instruction.  We go with hours of instruction and regularly create a calendar with additional hours above the 1,080.  This gives us the flexibility to adjust the calendar in this way.  I've had people ask why we go above the 1,080 and this year that answer becomes clear.  Look for the official announcement after the April 30th Special Board meeting, but I expect the last student day will be Friday, May 25th with a 2:15 dismissal.  

Other Thoughts

The contractor's pouring 47 yards of contract for the Northeast corner of the new addition today.  Fortunately, they had the forms up prior to the snow.  Hopefully, the weather will straighten up so they can keep moving on the project.  Of course, nice weather will help the other projects that are happening around town as well.  It truly is a great time to be in New Hampton.

We did get the quote for the change order on expanding the Ag/Industrial Technology space in the new building.  It came in at $282,000.  As you may recall, the board voted earlier to hold off spending any district funds until after the project was complete so we are sure on the amount of money that will be available.  However, we've had some community members working with our staff to look into raising these funds privately.  The board approved allowing them to look into that, but did not commit any district funds to the project.  Some people are wondering what this extra space would be used for and why wasn't it included in the original project.  It wasn't in the original project as we were building a project as large as we thought we could afford.  The original bids included a smaller gymnasium with an option to make it larger if bids came in low enough.  If the AG/IT addition had been planned to be larger, the gym possibly may have ended up smaller as the bids would have been higher and the available funds may not have been there.  The AG/IT space was certainly large enough to meet our needs and will be no matter what the outcome will be.  However, I think our staff sees some ways to expand opportunities for our students as we increase our partnerships with local industries, work more with NICC, and move toward a Chickasaw Manufacturing Model.

The year is quickly winding down.  We've missed a lot of track and golf meets so far.  I hope the weather stays nice so our athletes can finish with a strong season.  The lack of events creates a number of issues.  One is with the Drake relays that are scheduled for next week.  Normally, our track athletes would have a number of opportunities to qualify by running in a number of events by yesterday, the last day to qualify.  With all of the cancellations, the number of opportunities has been reduced so I suspect we and most Northern Iowa schools will see less participants this year then in the past.  It's no one's fault, just a part of Iowa's weather.  Hopefully, the golf, track, and trapshooters have clear weather from here on out and can finish their seasons strong.

Using intervention/FFA banquet

Using Intervention

Every Tuesday and Thursday at NHHS allows for students to participate fully in an intervention period from 11:15 to 11:45 am. This time is fully devoted to re-teaching, getting assistance from teachers and attending meetings and groups that do not fit outside the school day.  During this time, teachers work together to get students from homerooms to classrooms where they can get assistance.  The time devoted to intervention helps students learn how to manage time and collaborate with teachers outside of class time. In addition to working with teachers, students also find the collaboration time is helpful with peers and fits into the 4 Cs of creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration.

FFA Banquet

After being delayed and rescheduled due to weather over the weekend, the NH FFA chapter dodged another storm with their rescheduled banquet on Tuesday. Over 200 people were in attendance and over $6000 was raised to help fund FFA activities and dress. What is most amazing about this event is the work and presentations the students do.  FFA is not just farming-- it is based on leadership and the change you can enact in the world.  This was New Hampton's 78th banquet and the chapter is a shining example of what FFA and leadership can do for ALL students.  Great job!

From The Middle: Week of March 23

A Successful Midmester Showcase Night:

We want to than the students, families, community and teachers for making Midmester a success.  It was awesome to see all of the cool projects and learnings that took place this year during Midmester.  We will have many projects visible within the community for many years to come.  As a community, we can be proud of all of the experiences we have given the students and the opportunity to solve real world problems.  Below are a few pictures from April 13th!

Iowa Assessments Are Back!

Iowa Assessments have returned and will be sent out to parents soon.  Our students have shown a lot of growth this year in many areas.  As a school we report out about Reading, Math, and Science.  Many students showed over a year's growth while some others may have not grown as much.  Like all standardized tests,  they offer us a snap shot of a students academic performance on one given day. Many factors can effect a students score such as being sick, not getting enough sleep, trouble at home before coming to school, not trying, ect.  These results help teachers see areas of strength and areas of improvement for each student as well as assess our educational program.  This year as as a middle school we increased 3% in Reading, 2.7% in Math, and fell .5% in Science.  As we continue to align to the Core Curriculum and the the Iowa Assessment is more aligned to what we are teaching, scores will continue to rise.  This data shows that our intervention program is working, but we need to continue to focus on student needs and getting better each and everyday.

Elementary

It Begins...

Building Project

The construction company was finally able to start work this week.  They've started pouring footings and setting up forms in preparation for pouring the concrete walls.  Of course, the weather looks like it will stop things for a few days with some rain and even snow.  I've uploaded a few pictures for you.  I'm using a new quadcopter, so I'm still getting used to how it takes pictures.  I will post pictures on the district's Facebook page throughout the project.  

It's great to finally see progress being made.  Of course, you've probably noticed that because of the project going on, we do have some parking issues.  Thanks for your patience as the project goes on and parking continues to be an issue.  Fortunately, it will be summer when things really get going.  

You've probably seen the news on the district's decision on the potential extra funds related to the project.  I did want to share a few things on this.  First, the FFA Alumni group asked and was given permission to start a fundraising campaign for their addition.  The district did ask the contractor to send us an estimate on the cost of doing the addition as proposed so the FFA Alumni know how much they need to raise.  Second, we are waiting until the project is done to make a decision on the wrestling room addition.  Then we will know exactly how much we will have left.  A couple of things to note.  We do have a multi-purpose room planned for the middle school wrestling program so they will not have to roll out the mats each night like they do now.  During wrestling season, the mats will be put down and stay down throughout the season for their use to practice on.  This is a good problem to have and the board is taking a responsible approach to make sure they're not spending money before they know how much they have.  

Keep checking our progress.  Go Chickasaws!  

Prep for J-term 2019/PBL work

Prep for J-term 2019

On Monday, NHHS teachers had their last full professional development day of the year.  Project based learning continues to be our main focus and we have begun preparing for J-term 2019 which will be January 3-16, 2019.

As part of our planning, we are working to address needs and wants of students as gathered in student survey.  We also are researching how to pour content credit into J-term to include specific credit for both core and elective courses as well as offering courses that students throughout Iowa would have a hard time find anywhere else.

PBL Work

Project Based Learning work continues in full forces at the high school.  On Tuesday, we were invited to attend a Deeper Learning Day at Indian Hills Junior High in West Des Moines.  During this day, we learned about the journey West Des Moines has taken from elementary through high school to provide PBL all day to a cohort of students.  In the afternoon, we also were able to experience what a full project and group work could look like under the New Tech Network philosophy.  We have been following the Buck Institute works at NHHS and learned much about what is the same but came back with some insight on how to continue to make our PBL better.

From the Middle: Week of April 16th (End of Midmester)

Midmester Showcase Night:

We are finishing Midmester 2018 and have a Showcase night tonight, April 13th, at the Middles School from 4-6 pm.!   Students will be sharing all of the activities they have done and everything they have learned.  We will also be having a concession stand for people to purchase goodies!

Director of Education Visits Midmester:

On April 10th, Ryan Wise, the Iowa Director of Education came to New Hampton to learn about Midmester and the New Hampton Community district.  He came and learned with the kids as they were excited to share projects with him.  He was very impressed with our students and our focus to make learning fun and breaking the barriers of the traditional classroom setting.

Midmester this week:

Here are a few pictures from this week of Midmester!

Elementary

Variety Show/Dealing with the Weather

Variety Show

The NHHS variety show was Thursday with a great crowd and amazing talent.  We were able to share in the talent of singers, the jazz band, dancers, comedians, speech students, and even had a full magic show.  Students prepared with the help of Ms. Konecne and Mr. Adam.  The finale of Jeffrey Reicks's magic show grew to a group of magicians for a crowd involved trick of mind and hands.  The variety show continues to get better every year and is a great reminder of what talented students we have!

Dealing with the Weather

Mother Nature has not been kind to us the last couple of weeks-- who thought we would be looking out the window at snow in April?  Clearly this has deterred some of our Spring activities, specifically track, golf and trapshooting.  In Chickasaw fashion, however, our students have dealt with the weather as playfully as possible.  As I looked out my window last week, I was greeted by a field of snowmen created by the girls' track team who took advantage of the snow to do some team building and brighten the day of all of at NHHS.

These young ladies may not have been able to run our our track, but they got a great workout in the snow and you can see by the smiles they wear, they had a great time.  If you are able to see them before the snow melts, I guarantee it will make your day! A big thanks goes to coaches Cindy Moore and Jeanette Laures for encouraging such a fun activity!