FROM THE DESK OF THE SUPERINTENDENT...
August 19, 2014
SEPTEMBER 2014 DISTRICT DISPATCH
The 2014-15 school year is off to a great start with several new employees already hard at work. New faculty and staff members include the following people: Brad Anderlik (High School World History and U.S. History Teacher, Junior High Football Coach, Junior High Boys’ Track Coach, and Junior Class Sponsor), Tina Conn (High School Football Cheerleading Sponsor), Jeremy Henry (Middle School Special Education Teacher, Assistant High School Girls’ Basketball Coach, and Junior High Football Coach), Mick Hough (School Bus Driver), Brianne Huffman (Assistant High School Volleyball Coach), Sonya Schiphoff (Elementary Music Teacher), Kevin Sparks (6-12 Instrumental Music Teacher), and Jolene Whitmore (6-12 Special Education Teacher). When the opportunity presents itself, please join me in welcoming these people into our school community. In addition, as I write this article, we are in the process of adding an additional elementary teacher to accommodate one more section of fourth grade this fall. We experienced a significant increase in enrollment at registration on August 4, 2014. I will share more information about who the new teacher is in my October District Dispatch article.
The summer of 2014 was another busy time in terms of buildings and grounds maintenance improvement projects and wrapping up our high school addition project. I want to extend a special “thank you” to our director of buildings and grounds, Jim Ettleman, and staff members Harry Cowgill, Ron Reed, Donna Reed, Byron Bentzen, DeLon Naig, and Tom Shipp. They, along with our seasonal staff members, did a great job working around and dealing with summer project inconveniences and also providing people access to buildings for various events. Many school districts simply close their doors during the summer and have people turn in their keys in order to eliminate access to buildings. As a school community, I believe we should all be appreciative of the extra effort our buildings and grounds staff members go to in order to allow people to use our facilities during the summer months. Important maintenance tasks that were completed over the summer include the following: (1) installation of a new baseball scoreboard donated by Jack Links; (2) installation a new roof, roof vent, and gutters on the baseball press box; (3) seeding of areas disturbed by high school addition construction activities; (4) installation of ceiling grid, ceiling tile, and new lighting in nine elementary classrooms; (5) repairing, seal coating, and re-striping parking lots throughout the school district; (6) white board and bulletin board installation throughout the school district; (7) installation of exterior wi-fi and security cameras at the high school; (8) installation of a new entry system at the high school in order to accommodate community access to the fitness room; (9) completion of concrete repair work throughout the school district; (10) cleaning and reassembling the heat exchanger and cooling tower for the elementary/middle school HVAC system; (11) repairing damage to the football field sprinkler system; and (12) tearing down boilers for their annual inspections.
This fall is shaping up to be a busy time with all of our school activities. I hope to see you at some of our exciting athletic and music events. Come out and cheer for the Eagles!
