PANTHER PRESS
January 3, 2020
WEST ELEMENTARY
Kindergarten News
Being in kindergarten in December is the BEST! The kids are full of excitement, and still ready to learn so many new things! We were excited to take part in the Hour of Code this year, using our awesome new iPads! It was so much fun! We are really good “coders” already in kindergarten! The month was full of holiday-themed activities, and we had the best time sharing the fun with our classroom families. On Wednesday, December 18th, we had our annual Polar Express day! Mr. Klein was our conductor, and punched our tickets at the door so we could go watch the movie. Finally, we want to send a BIG thank-you to our PTO for organizing the giving tree, and an even BIGGER thank-you to all of the families and businesses who donated to our classrooms! We are overwhelmed by the generosity that we were shown, and are so excited to use all of our new supplies in the new year! We also want to thank Dr. Kingrey for all of his work this year, and welcome back Mrs. VanderLinden! Bring on 2020!
During the month of December the third, fourth, and fifth grade students in my class have attempted to write novels. This project is called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). They were first introduced to different parts of the story, got a chance to make a plot diagram to organize their story, and then were given time during class to write. We also got together on Wednesdays after school for an hour to write, brainstorm, and be creative.
After Christmas break we are going to hopefully proofread, correct, and share our stories. This has been a great experience with most students writing well over 1000 words as they tap into their creative side.
Picture above is of one of our after school writing sessions held in the library with about 35 kids.
8th Grade Language Arts
Driver Education Session Begins March 2
Driver Education will be offered at Knoxville High School through Triple ‘R’ Driving School again this spring, beginning on March 2, 2020.
- Mr. Tom Grimm and Ms. Paige Bolton will be the instructors for this session. Classes will run for three hours each class day. The dates and times are listed on this information and registration form.
- Knoxville students enrolling can mail registration forms to the address listed OR drop off registration form and deposit to the KHS office.
If you have any questions concerning the driver education program at Knoxville High School, please contact Ryan Rump at 319-470-6975, or e-mail triplerdrivingschool@gmail.com.
Activities Minute
Upcoming home events -
* Fri, Jan. 3: JV1/V GBB/V BBB v. Bondurant-Farrar - 500 PM (@KHS)
* Fri, Jan. 3: JV2/JV1/JV2 G/BBB v. Bondurant-Farrar - 500 PM (@KMS)
* Tue, Jan. 7: B SW v. Southeast Polk - 530 PM (@Indianola YMCA)
* Tue, Jan. 7: JV/V WR v. Ballard - 600 PM
* Thu, Jan. 9: MS Band Concert - 700 PM
* Fri, Jan. 10: JV1/V GBB/V BBB v. Albia - 500 PM (@KHS)
* Fri, Jan. 10: JV2/JV1/JV2 G/BBB v. Albia - 500 PM (@KMS)
Varsity Basketball at The Well!
Our Varsity girls and boys basketball teams will again play regular season games at Wells Fargo Arena this season! We will play Newton on Saturday, January 4, 2020 - girls at 200 PM, boys at 330 PM. Purchasing a ticket gets one into our games and also the Iowa Wolves game that evening. Tickets can be purchased HERE!
Great Starts for Basketball Teams!
Our girls and boys basketball teams have finished the 2019 portion of their schedules and both teams are off to outstanding starts! Our girls team is currently ranked 14th in Class 4A of the IGHSAU rankings. They are 7-0 overall, 4-0 in the conference. Our boys team is 5-1 overall, 4-0 in the conference.
The ‘you shouldn’t life on game day’ Myth
A common belief by many in the sports world is that an athlete “shouldn’t lift on game day” for a variety of reasons. An article from Stack magazine does a nice job of explaining why this is a myth and research shows that lifting on game day can actually help performance in that day’s game. That article can be found here.
Logo Committee Update!
Our Logo Committee had our second meeting with Letterman Creative on Wednesday, December 18 where they presented to us two options for our new logo system! Both options were awesome and high quality; done with an exceptional level of professionalism. The artist took our input and will now make a few final revisions before coming back to us in a few weeks the the final product! Our group was very excited about what we were presented with and can’t wait to unveil this to the public!!
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- All home events in the Knoxville High School gym and all school concerts in KPAC will be streamed LIVE on the NFHS Network! Go to www.nfhsnetwork.com for more details!
- Get schedules for all extra-curricular middle school and high school activities by going to www.knoxville.k12.ia.us and then clicking on "Activity Calendar". You can even sign-up for email notifications so whenever we make a change to a schedule - you can be notified immediately.
- Follow the Knoxville Activities Department on Instagram! @knoxvilleactivities
[All orders are online this year.]
Estimated property tax impact to fund key projects less than originally expected
The Knoxville Community School District Board of Education has approved a general bond referendum question that will appear on a special election ballot Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
The question will ask voters to approve the first phase of the district's facilities improvement plan, at a total cost of $26.25 million. If approved, the 20-year bond would have a net property tax impact of $8.79 per month on a $100,000 home, $18.53 per month on a $200,000 home and $28.08 per month on a $300,000 home.
These tax impact numbers are lower than the district and board previously expected. An approved bond would place KCSD's levy rates in the middle of comparable districts in the area—and still less than Carlisle, Melcher-Dallas, Pleasantville and Indianola.
"We are very pleased that we have found a potential solution to our facilities needs that will limit the property tax impact on our community members," said Cassi Pearson, KCSD Superintendent. "We look forward to continuing an open and transparent process that began with 20 community members on a taskforce that created the proposal to address the needs. Over 430 residents have signed the petition to call for the March 3 Referendum that could fund the necessary projects."
Phase I of the plan would include a new Knoxville Middle School building, along with air conditioning for Northstar Elementary and an HVAC system upgrade at Knoxville High School. Construction on these projects would take place between 2020 and 2022.
Phase II would be funded through the use of the one-penny sales tax (known as SAVE). It would
include an extensive renovation to Northstar Elementary and athletic facility improvements throughout the district. Construction on these projects would be scheduled for 2022 to 2024.
To learn more about KCSD's facility needs, five-year plan, and the March 3 bond referendum, please visit the Knoxville School’s website at www.knoxville.k12.ia.us.
Subscribe or Update Your Notifications for Weather Alerts
Knoxville Schools utilizes GovDelivery to communicate weather cancellations, delays and/or changes to district activities. We recommend all parents/guardians sign up to receive email and/or text notifications. Anyone is welcome to subscribe, including community members interested in schedule changes for activities purposes.
If you signed up in the past for this service, you do not need to sign up again but you will want to adjust notifications if your child changed to a different school building this year.
Screenshots are pictured below of the subscription process.
If you need assistance, please contact: Lisa.Willis@kcsd.k12.ia.usor 641-842-6551 opt 1.
KCSD VACANCIES
Please click the following link to apply for any of the following positions: http://www.knoxville.k12.ia.us/district/vacancies/
- FT Associate (Northstar Elementary)
- Special Education Teacher (West Elementary)
- Substitutes (Teachers, Associates, Child Nutrition, Bus Drivers, Custodians)
- HS Boys Tennis Coach (2019-20 school year)
- MS Baseball Coach (2019-20 school year)
- MS Softball Asst. Coach (2019-20 school year)
- 8th Grade Volleyball Assistant Coach (2020-21 school year)
- 9th Grade Football Coach (2020-21 school year)
Calendar Approved for Next School Year
2020-2021 KNOXVILLE CSD CALENDAR
The KCSD school board recently approved the academic calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. Please see below for your planning needs.
Knoxville CSD Board Information
The Knoxville CSD Board of Directors is committed to Ensuring a Culture of Excellence for Every Student. Community members and visitors are welcome to attend our meetings on the second and fourth Monday each month at 5:30 p.m.
The primary purpose of our board meetings is to conduct business. An official meeting is the only means by which we, as a board can carry out our legal duties or exercise our legal powers. These meetings provide an opportunity for decision-making and offer an opportunity for the public and school district staff to establish a formal dialogue with us. Postings of these meetings are placed on the district website, www.knoxville.k12.ia.us. Please visit often to be informed.
Marion County Food Coalition Calendar & Information
Marion County General Assistance M-F 8-4:30pm, Located in the Marion County Courthouse
IMPACT Community Action - Food Cards to Fareway/HyVee to be used every 6 months. *indicates food distribution day
Food Share Mobile Food Pantry: 3rd Wednesday of the month
Attica Mobile Pantry 10-10:30
Harvey 10-10:25
End of the Month Meals: New Covenant Church 315 E. Main St. Knoxville 5-545pm: Jan. 20-24; Feb. 17-21
March 2020- 23rd-27th 641-842-3176- Delivered Meals
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Celebrate Community Church
P: 641-828-7603
Email: bruce@celebratechurch.com
Marion County General Assistance/
Veteran's Affairs
P: 641-828-2201
Email: mkuhn@co.marion.ia.us
Helping Hands
P: 641-842-6933
Email: finanhollinrake@yahoo.com
Marion County Senior Nutrition (MCSN)
P: 641-205-3811
Email: jiworthington@marionph.org
Knoxville Food Youth Initiative (KFYI)
Email: robemai@mchsi.com
Email: vgoodykvikesfan@gmail.com
Email: knoxvillelibr@yahoo.com
End of the Month Meals
The End of the Month Meal program or E.O.M.M. was started in 2002 and is a not-for-profit organization and can only continue as long as generous people are willing to donate their money, time, can food items, or grocery gift cards. Any of these donations may be dropped off at New Covenant Church at 1510 West Madison Knoxville, Iowa. If you send a check please make it out to New Covenant Church and put “E.O.M.M. program” in the memo section.
We send out our deliveries from New Covenant Church 1510 West Madison. If people would like to have their meals delivered to them please call the church office at 641-842-3176 preferably the week before we start serving meals so that we can have an idea of how much food we need to prepare. The only information we need to have is your name, address, a phone number where we can reach you, and the number of meals you would like to have.
If you prefer to dine out you are more than welcome to go to the Jenkins Center on Main Street. We provide the casserole and vegetable or salad, whichever is on the meal plan and the people from Living Word Fellowship provides the dessert, coffee, and excellent service. No questions asked.
Our meals typically consist of a casserole for the entrée, a dinner roll, a hot vegetable, or a cold “salad” (these are flip-flopped each meal) , and a dessert. I also like to have a sandwich meal at least twice during the season. This would consist of a Manwich burger, scalloped corn, cole slaw, and a dessert. Our meals are “comfort food” and are good sized portions because nobody should go hungry.
These are the dates for the 2019-2020 season:
- January: 20th-24th
- February: 17th-21st
- March: 23rd-27th
If anyone has questions or would like to have someone talk about our program please E-mail shiloh1971@hotmail.com.
Neighbor Helping Neighbor
KCSD ADMIN. OFFICE
The Panther Press is a weekly collective newsletter for parents & community members. If you have an article or flyer to share, please submit to Lisa.Willis@kcsd.k12.ia.us for consideration.
Stay connected by frequenting our website or following us on social media!
- High School: www.facebook.com/KHSPanthers/ & twitter.com/KHS_Panthers
- Middle School: www.facebook.com/PanthersKMS/ & twitter.com/Panthers_KMS
- Northstar: www.facebook.com/NorthstarElementary/ & twitter.com/MrKeitges
- West: www.facebook.com/knoxvillewestelementary/ & twitter.com/pantherswest
Rate us on greatschools.org!
Email: lisa.willis@kcsd.k12.ia.us
Website: www.knoxville.k12.ia.us
Location: 309 W Main St, Knoxville, IA, United States
Phone: 641-842-6551