October 14, 2022

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Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. With both nights of parent/teacher conferences behind us, we now have the end of the 1st quarter coming up. With the quarter ending on the 19th, grades will be be due on the 21st at 8:00 am. Amy will run report cards that day to be mailed home. 

On Monday, the board did approve our building professional development goals and plan. I want to remind everyone of our goals. 

  • In the spring of 2023, 77% of students in grades 9-11 will be at or above proficiency on the Reading portion of the ISASP.
  • In the spring of 2023, 76.8% of students in grades 9-11 will be at or above proficiency on the Math portion of the ISASP.
  • In the spring of 2023, 75.3% of students in grade 10 will be at or above proficiency on the Science portion of the ISASP.

I have never been one to stress the state assessment. I do believe that if we take care of the small details, we will meet our goals. With that in mind, it is important that the students are making progress on your essential learnings. For those who are not making progress, interventions need to be set up.

Last year our goals were:

  • In the spring of 2022, 75.5% of students in grades 9-11 will be at or above proficiency on the Reading portion of the ISASP.
  • In the spring of 2022, 75.2% of students in grades 9-11 will be at or above proficiency on the Math portion of the ISASP.
  • In the spring of 2023, 73% of students in grade 10 will be at or above proficiency on the Science portion of the ISASP.
We scored: Reading - 72.19%, Math - 64%, and Science - 69%. So, we do have our work cut out for use to reach our goals set for this year. We know some students didn't try and didn't provide us with reliable data, but we still need to push our students and work towards our goals. Like I said, if we take care of the small details, we have a better chance of reaching our goals. Students need to understand the importance of doing their best on these tests. We do use the scores to qualify for concurrent enrollment classes, qualify seniors of opens, and placement into some courses. So if a student doesn't try, he/she may be limiting the courses available to take.

Yesterday, 5 South Dakota high schools were SWATTED. SWATTED happens when someone calls the 911 dispatch center to report an emergency at the high school in order to get a large police presence to show up. These 5 schools were having a normal day and no emergency was taking place when police showed up. Dr. Webner, Officer Vickery, and I have discussed what we will do in this situation. I will give instructions over the intercom. For the T and I and Ag building we will call over there to give you instructions. We will not be evacuating if there is no emergency in our building or the middle school. Hopefully by having a plan, we can avoid being SWATTED. This is a link to the Mitchell, SD paper, as they were one of the schools. https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/local/prank-phone-call-sends-emergency-crews-to-mitchell-high-school-for-shooting
Have a great weekend! 

Mark


Assistant Principal's Happenings

I just have a few updates for this week: First, I wrote this last week but unfortunately, we are still seeing an increase in bathroom vandalism.  If you are able please place yourself close to the restrooms and check them out during passing times.  Also, keep track of people leaving your room with a checkout sheet.  We can use those and camera's to narrow down the time when the vandalism occurred.  Please encourage students to share if they are noticing vandalism in the restrooms so we can figure out when it happened and start talking to individuals that enter using the cameras and check-out sheets.  

Second- I sent an email to Seniors to remind them they will lose opens if they are putting themselves in a position where they may not graduate.  Dr. Iverson has already met with many of them and we will continue discussing the expectation with these students.  

Third- all students must be passing 4 semester-long classes at the quarter to remain eligible for extracurricular activities.  You should be talking to all students that are failing and reaching out to parents by setting up Pass Plans so they know the consequences of failing.  I know Pass Plans can become negative but please focus on helping the student complete the work they need to finish so they can be successful.

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Upcoming Activities

Friday, October 14
Music Boosters Soup and Pie Supper
4:15 pm Freshmen Football vs. Spencer
7:00 pm Varsity Football vs. Spencer

Saturday, October 15
8:30 am Freshmen Volleyball Tournament @ LCHS
9:00 am Varsity Volleyball Tournament @ Heelan

Monday, October 17
6:00 pm JV Football @ Spencer

Tuesday, October 18
TBD - Varsity Volleyball Regional
7:30 pm High School Vocal Concert

Wednesday, October 19
TBD - Cross Country State Qualifying

Thursday, October 20
TBD Varsity Regional Volleyball Finals

Friday, October 21
4:15 pm Freshmen Football @ Fort Dodge
7:00 pm Varsity Football @ Fort Dodge

Saturday, October 22
All-State Music Auditions @ LCHS

Tuesday, October 25
5:00 pm Speech Kickoff Ice Cream Social
7:30 pm MS/HS Orchestra Concert

Thursday, October 27
7:30 pm Indoor Marching Band Concert

Friday, October 28
TBD Varsity Football Playoffs

Saturday, November 5
NWI HS Honor Band Auditions - Sioux Center

Tuesday, November 8
Picture Retakes

Thursday, November 10
7:00 pm HS Musical - MS Auditorium

Friday, November 11
7:00 pm HS Musical - MS Auditorium

Saturday, November 12
2:00 pm HS Musical - MS Auditorium

Wednesday, November 16
Opus Honor Choir - Ames

Thursday, November 17
All State Music Festival - Ames
TBD - Girl Wrestling Tournament @ Sioux City North
4:30 pm Girl JV Basketball vs. Sheldon - Scrimmage
6:00 pm Girl Varsity Basketball vs. Sheldon - Scrimmage

Friday, November 18
All State Music Festival - Ames

Saturday, November 19
All State Music Festival - Ames
10:00 am Girl Wrestling Tournament @ Ridge View

Tuesday, November 22
5:30 pm Girl JV Basketball vs. Spencer
7:00 pm Girl Varsity Basketball vs. Spencer

Monday, November 28
3:30 pm JV/V Bowling vs. Sioux City North
6:00 pm Girl Freshmen Basketball vs. Sioux Center
6:00 pm Boy Freshmen Basketball vs. Sioux Center
6:00 pm Girl Wrestling @ Humboldt

Tuesday, November 29
3:45 pm Girl JV Basketball @ Unity Christian HS
5:00 pm Boy JV Basketball @ Unity Christian HS
6:00 pm Girl Varsity Basketball @ Unity Christian HS
7:30 pm Boy Varsity Basketball @ Unity Christian HS


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