Superintendent's Ramblings

On 31 January the Lyons High School JROTC cadets traveled to Dodge City High School to meet with the JROTC cadets there. The Dodge City cadets demonstrated their Drill, Unarmed and Armed competition routines. They then helped the Lyons cadets work on their drill and color guard skills. The Lyons JROTC also brought some of their drones, and were able to instruct some of the Dodge City cadets on how to fly them. The Dodge City JROTC plans to visit Lyons High School later this semester to learn more about the drones and about the Lyon marksmanship program.

Central Elementary School held its annual spelling bee on January 31 in conjunction with the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The building winners will compete against the other Rice County elementary and middle school champions for a chance the represent Rice County at the State of Kansas Spelling Bee. This year's winners from Central include in order of their finish in the spelling bee: Adriel Rivera, Luis Peña, Lexi Leiker, Landon Williams, and Harper Bieberle.

Social media viral superstar Gerry Brooks, the Kentucky elementary school principal with over a million followers on his various social media platforms will be speaking at Lyons High School on February 19th. In anticipation of his visit, USD 405 is awarding several lucky employees gifts from Gerry's website. The first four winners are shown here.

Each month, El Potrillo awards a $25 gift certificate to a staff member who does something outside of their normal job requirements to make life better for someone else. Each month, there are numerous worthy individuals recognized. In January two of these Rock Star employees were recognized with the Above & Beyond award. Congratulations to Student Data Coordinator Greg Konda and IT Systems Technician Susan Tobias.

The Lyons Rotary Club matched a District Rotary Foundation grant of $650 to provide a $1,300 donation to Central Elementary to purchase new headphones for the student computers. Students take various assessments with listening components on their laptops with headphones, and Central's old headphones were getting old and needed to be replaced. Shown below are the Central Elementary School Ambassadors receiving the donation from several Lyons Rotary Club members. Pictured below are Rotarians Matt Stafford, David Serrault, John Sayler, Larry Dumler, and Bill Day with Central Student Ambassadors Zoey Ramsey, Taverli Timberlake, Arianny Espino, Alayna McLain, Ona Paz-Puig, and Jaydon Mehl.

Lyons High School senior girls wrestling standout Alexa Guzman made the cover of Vype Sports Magazine that covers the North-Central part of the state. Alexa has signed to wrestle next year with Friends University. Congrats for the well-deserved recognition.

Lyons High School had three girls wrestlers place first in their weight class at the Central Kansas League tournament. CKL champions include Kyrsten Young, Kennedy Grizzle, and Isabel Gonzalez. Nicole Becerea placed second in her class. Congrats and continued success to the team at Regionals.