About this time of year each year I write a thankful Cobra Strike and highlight teaching staff. While I am absolutely still thankful for the teaching staff in this building, There is another group that deserves some spotlight this year. Just as Chief Tecumseh was thankful for food in your life and light, so too am I. While the teachers do spend hours working directly with the students during the day, and the coaches sweat with the teams in the afternoons, it is the support staff that make the building run. I wanted to spend this special double week Cobra Strike to thank all of the Support Staff that works in the High School. It was quite the challenge to get their pictures this week and of course they were happy comfortable with me running around snapping pictures of them in the first place. i made a point of not letting them pose and kind of just yelled their names and took a picture. It was probably weird, but I got great pictures of how they are in their natural habitat. I was like David Attenborough.

I greatly enjoy the crew that keeps this place going as they each bring something different to the table. I am so very thankful for them as they absolutely are why we are able to do everything else that is much more visible.

In case anyone thinks that I forgot someone, I was focusing on staff that work in the building on a daily basis for this one. Others will have to wait for a future strike that I have planned.

"Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind" The Doctor

From the first day to the last day, It's a great day to be a COBRA!

Derek E. Smith

Since coming over to the high school this year, she has been an absolute delight to have in the office. Micah is always there with a smile and a kind voice to greet the students in whatever they may need. We have slowly been working on the student body to start with a greeting instead of, "I need this..." but we will get there. She has been great for so many reasons, she keeps me on task for one. She does an incredible job of maintaining the chaos that is always surrounding the office. One thing that has amazed me is that there has never been a need to remind her. Once you show her the first time, it just gets done and it is incredible. She is a great yin to my yang when it comes to students coming into the office. Where I will gladly offer to amputate whatever is ailing students as they come in asking for pain medicine, Micah then kindly helps the students out.

Far more important for me is that she has been a sound voice of reason when I need it this year. I am open in admitting that I need someone to vet my crazy ideas through and I am so happy that it is her. We have only been working closely together for this semester, but already she tends to know what my answer to things is gong to be before she even asks it. Thank you for your continued support and dedication to this school Miss Micah.

I couldn't do this and separate Carrie and Liz. Carrie joined the team early my first year here and Liz later that year and the two of them have been synonymous with the kitchen and Jackson Heights ever since. Not only are the two of them in the kitchen from zero dark thirty making food for our students but they also baked treats for our bus drivers for their monthly meetings, they make meals for the staff in services as well as the love and care behind the "Pies of Honor" Thanksgiving pie sales which just wrapped up its third year of sales as well as the "Rolling Honor" Cinnamon roll sales that typically happen before Christmas break, but this year we will be moving this back so you can can these amazing rolls for Easter Sunday.

More than anything else, these two are always there to make me smile as they keep me on my toes at all times. You never know what craziness is going on with these two and I love them for it.

I don't know if they are aware that I call them that, but this year, we added part time daily help of a rotation of gals that come in during the lunch shift to help out during the rush. i envision how the conversation went one afternoon after church of these Grannys sitting around saying they could help out but didn't think they had the energy to do it every day so they decided to rotate throughout the week. However, it was decided Sue, Becky, and Darlene have been an absolute blessing in the kitchen. They are a lot of fun when they are in there and I greatly enjoy the positive energy they do bring to the table. I appreciate having them.

He came on staff halfway through my first year to help out during the lunch shift and now i can't imagine lunch without him. He helps keep the troops in line and assists to keep things clean after they leave. He is also the man under the mask of the Michael Meyers Mask on the haunted trail if you hadn't already guessed it. He does a great job working with the students and the staff enjoy having him around too.

My son came home one day and said that a bunch of his classmates have an elf on the shelf and wanted to know why we don't have one (For the record, I despise the elf on the shelf trend). I told him that i didn't need one because I already worked with Santa Monday through Thursday anyway. He is a sprightly little fellow that works in a little nook in the back of the IT department and makes broken things work. In addition to taking the time to be Santa on Friday December 13th at the home basketball game, he also somehow has time to do this work for us Monday through Thursday to help keep out tech going. Here you will see him in a rare moment of confuddlement as he is setting up Micah's new fax machine. I did get a personal amount of joy in witnessing him and Mr. Andrews suffer through this evil contraption that has been a source of consternation to my existence for the past three years. However, they did get it running. Thank you Santa for taking time away from the north pole to fix the things my students, staff, and I break on such a frequent basis. (I can't use his real name as Hiccup can read now, but we all know who I'm talking about)

I can't go into It without mentioning Mr. Andrews and his 35 years of service to this school. He has been a math teacher, computer teacher, yearbook, he has become my unofficial tour guide to the high school when I need the dime tour, poster maker, game changer, the list is endless. He is the reason we even started e-sports here. He donates most of his off duty time to the science center and charitable work through his shaved ice and popcorn truck in the summer. This is the first year that he is not teaching any classes at all. He is full on support staff. IT mode activate! Oh and he also drives a bus route. He is sort of the Swiss army educator.

More important, is that he is my absolute confidant in all things. I trust him with the utmost confidence in all things especially when it comes to values and doing what is right. He is the embodiment of integrity to me and I appreciate him for it.

They do it because Chad makes it happen. When Chad got here, the argument could easily be had that our fleet of vehicle was woefully maintained. In one semester, he has turned around the whole fleet into the premiere fleet of vehicles to be modeled from. His work ethic is impeccable and the way he is humble about what he does is something I wish more people could embody. He acts like what he does is no big deal. However, in just the past week he saved one staff member around $500 from his advice and them buying a part and replacing it opposed to taking it to a garage. This along with the thousands he has saved the district by his ethical practices in working on the vehicle fleet in a similar way. Not to mention, he is just a good guy. He works the chain gang for football games, and he too is another alumnus that cares a great deal about this school.

Have you met the librarian? Let me tell you how I met her. Shortly after I was offered the position at JH, I wanted to come up and see the school a bit more than just the initial walkthrough interview. I took a couple of days off and came up to the school. During lunch I saw this woman volunteering her time during lunch shifts at the high school sitting in the commons with a cart of books. At the time, the "library" was fully occupied by the IRC space (later walled off prior to my full time arrival into two separate spaces). She would spend every lunch shift sitting there hoping students would come over to check out books off of her cart. Fast forward three years and she is now a full time librarian and the library is actually a real space dedicated to being a library. Is it perfect, no, but Ange has done an amazing job of working with what she has to make it into a very inviting space that is being utilized very well. She has done an incredible job of working with this space to make it something more than its own potential. Aside from her work on the library, she cares....about everything. There are few other people who care about people, and this school quite like Ange does. I am thankful we have her.

In addition to hiring the librarian, we hired a library Aide! Barb is awesome! She and Ange have a rotation between the two buildings that allows for the high school library to be occupied by library staff all day and that is greatly appreciated by the high school staff I know that.

In addition to being great for the students. It is great to belly up to the library counter with my coffee in hand and just catch up with Barb. She is a great personality that I enjoy having around.

You can try if you like, but you will never find a kinder, more caring person than the Awesome Opossum Nurse Terri Oswald. She may be the only person I have ever known that I have no single negative thing to say about. When you take time to get to know her beyond just being this juggernaut of positive energy, you also find a person who has had many adventures in life. There is nothing tame about the life that Terri has lived. However, some of her stories would make you think it would jade her personality. Quite the contrary in fact. She counts blessings of every day and I would say might be the only person who loves working at Jackson Heights more than I do. Actually I might win just because I get the blessing to work with her and she has the burden of working with me.

Payton joined us last year as a nurses assistant to support nurse Terri. She splits her time between the two buildings as needed and when she comes over it is always a great joy to have her around. One thing in particular that I want to say about her is how excited I am for her that she just got accepted into nursing school. Yay! Go Payton.

What else can I say about Troy that I haven't already said? He is the reason the football field looked as good as it did in late November. He has to implement all of my crazy hair brained ideas like remodeling the kitchen over the summer. He has to hang up the new league banners in the very narrow window that we have the lift. Right now he has been moving into winter mode, which is fixing everything that tends to break over the course of the winter months. While you are sitting in you classroom, that has lights that work, and feels warm, or cool depending on how the teacher sets the thermostat (I know Mrs. Sheldon that you part isn't here yet, but it will be soon) remember that these things happen because of the diligent service provided by Troy. And when you witness the crazy projects that happen around here, again thank Troy for not strangling me the next time I tell him, "I have an idea"

Jan joined us midway through last year and has been a great asset to the school ever since. She is the big sister to Shiela and the two of them working together as siblings is often displayed in the evenings as they talk like siblings. Jan takes care of the front part of the building that encompasses the the High School office. Frequently she comes through the office in the afternoons to chastise me for working too long of hours and is probably the reason I go home when I do as she goes into mom mode and kicks me out. She has been another sage source of wisdom to me and now that my sons go here, she is also another pseudo grammy to them when they come over. She and her sister are always pampering the boys whenever they get the chance.

Shiela Nissen. Need I say more?

She is one of the first people I started working with frequently as she was working over the summer and she and I worked together to purge my office of old items that first summer. I would also argue that there is no one I would rather chaperone a dance with than her. She is the most versatile person I have every known. She is ever helpful in the mission to continue to improve this school. She works with the Freshmen to supervise the concession stand as well as most other things. My boys frequently can't leave in the afternoon without first finding Shiela to give her a hug. I also think that is because she also joins in the pampering of my sons and they often come back with bubble gum or whatever candy she brought from home planning my demise. I love her dearly as her contributions to this school are beyond precious, they (and she) is priceless.

Nov 25-30

Monday:

• MS Girls Basketball Vs. JCN @ Home 4:30

• NA

Thursday: HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Friday: No School

Dec 2-7

Monday:

• MS Girls Basketball Vs. McLouth @ Home 4:30

• HS Basketball Jamboree @ Nemaha Central 4:30

• NA

Thursday:

• MS Girls Basketball @ Pleasant Ridge @ 4:30

Friday:

• HS Basketball @ RV 4:30

Speaking of Honor Flight, we have been ramping up on next years honor flight. i have sent out the guardian applications to students. HF11 will go to DC November 10/11 2025 and we have already started our first big fundraiser. The cooks have started the Pies of Honor for this year. You can fill out the attached google form to order your pie.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeo3XyfRVRozFgMJnIGKSyPCtDlB82estF088A0W8PgXa0mPg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Or if you just would like to donate to the cause. you can send a check to the high school to the jackson heights honor flight.

or those of you that are tech savy. you can venmo to @Jackson-Heights-Honor-Flight

This past month we had a bulletin board competition among the houses where they posted different examples of kindness they have witnessed in the school. They then received points for their posts.

Additionally, there has been a house food drive over the past few weeks that will culminate this upcoming week.

We are pretty excited for the upcoming events of December for the house games. Instead of pulling time away from school, we will be doing passing period competitions to build camaraderie among students so we will be labeling December games, the "Reindeer Games"

Some spotlight students in each house this week were:

House Corn Fed Cobras: Frank Freeland For volunteering his time to help work the gate during the past football game.

House Gold Rush: Destiny Hidalgo for bringing in an incredible amount of food items for the food drive.

House Snake Kingz: Elie White For always being a positive energy in the school.

House Triple G: EttaJo Bourdon For being very helpful with other students in class.

Of course I can't go without thanking my personal support staff. Now that these two rascals go to school here, my drives to work are filled with all sorts of science lectures and answering all of the questions from the two boys and my rides home are filled with listening to Hank reading his book this week, and Hiccup recounting the entirety of the day to me as well as doing his spelling words. At home they keep me energized to keep going. Even through writing this weeks Strike I have been interrupted by several games of floor is lava and have to explain gravity.

It's a great day to be a Cobra!!

Email: derek.smith@jhcobras.net

Website: jhcobras.net
Location: 12692 266th Rd Holton, KS 66436
Phone: (785)248-4386
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jackson.Heights.USD335

https://www.citylinktv.com/channel/cobra

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a0QJd_3uUnHcCppNy4KIttr-i_TO_Q1QcxSKC8PZaHo/edit