Bobcats Making Headlines

Pictured is the Marshalltown High School robotics team at the Nevada meet on January 19. Pictured in front row from left, are Yan Qiu (coach/mentor) and Morgan Johnson
            Back Row, Dori Pinkerton (coach/teacher), Zach Geil, Jacob Swartz, Marek Jablonski, Jordan May, Lucas Wymore and Jesse Serrano (mentor).
Other team members not pictured: Alex Stansberry, Heather Junk, Andrew Kodis, Jose Palmerin Andrade, Ana Palmerin Andrade, Bill Peden (mentor), Susan Fritzell (coach/teacher) and Mike Lazere (coach)

The Marshalltown High School robotics team, also known as the Botcats, competed in the First Tech Challenge League tournament held on January 19 at Nevada High School.

The team advanced to the super qualifier (state qualifier) which will be held on Feb. 2 in Johnston. The MHS team won the Connect Award, which is given to the team that most connects with their local science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) community.

Students design and build a robot which performs tasks as part of these competitions. A total of 16 teams competed in Nevada with eight moving onto the super qualifier event.

MHS sophomores Marek Jablonski and Morgan Johnson were semifinalists for the FTC Dean’s List Award.

The Marshalltown High School math team placed third at the Greater Plains Math League meet held at Johnston on January 12. Pictured from left are MHS junior Trevor Ketcham, Coach Rob Griffin and MHS junior Zach Swartz.

The Marshalltown High School math team placed third at the Greater Plains Math League meet held at Johnston High School on January 12.

MHS junior Zach Swartz placed first in the sprint round and target round among all juniors competing and his combined score placed him second overall among all competitors. MHS junior Trevor Ketcham placed second in the target round and third in the sprint round.

The team is coached by Rob Griffin from MHS. The team’s next meet will be held on February 16 at Waverly-Shell Rock High School.

Marshalltown High School cheerleading and band alumni are welcome to the home basketball games on Friday, January 25 vs. West Des Moines Valley to take part in the festivities at the Roundhouse, and play some music and cheer. The girls varsity game begins at 6:15 p.m. with the boys varsity game having a 7:45 p.m. start.

Cheerleading alumni
We will be in our own reserved section and perform the Bobcat fight song during halftime of the boys game alongside the band. We encourage you to wear red, white and blue clothing or your favorite Bobcat attire.

Band alumni
Bring your instrument and jersey or Bobcat apparel to play with current band students. Rehearsal starts at 5:15 p.m. in the main band room and the first song for the crowd is at 6 p.m. Come when you can and have some fun.

The Marshalltown High School boys swim team donated $600 each to three Marshalltown elementary schools to help families affected by the tornado. Pictured from left are Ryne Downey donating to Nicki Boliver and Susan Eggleston representing Rogers Elementary School, Samantha Slocum representing Franklin Elementary School accepting the donation from Caleb Summers and Heidi Williams of Woodbury Elementary School accepting the donation from David Wahl.

Three elementary schools receive $600 each

The Marshalltown High School boys swim team donated a total of $1,800 to three Marshalltown elementary schools to help families affected by the July 19 tornado.

Swimmers donated $600 each to  Franklin, Rogers and Woodbury elementary schools, which had many families in the area affected by the storm.

Coach Mike Loupee said this was a service project led by the team this year as they raised money by placing a “Marshalltown Strong” phrase on the sleeve of the team shirts for an additional donation, collected change in the annual Change for Charity effort and worked a team fundraising evening at Pizza Ranch.

This was separate from a recent team fundraiser for pool deck chairs and deck coats for the team.

Marshalltown High School seniors Emily Miller, left, and Jane Ragland were selected as Know Your Constitution finalists.

Marshalltown High School seniors Emily Miller and Jane Ragland were among 100 finalists in the state of Iowa to be honored in the Iowa State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division Know Your Constitution contest.

The two were selected out of more than 1,000 students in the state after their performance on a  quiz and were honored at a luncheon in West Des Moines on January 11. They were able to meet the Honorable Justice Susan Christensen of the Iowa Supreme Court at the event.

The Know Your Constitution Project is designed to enrich students’ understanding and appreciation of the Constitution.  The students participating in the project were required to familiarize themselves with Constitution related issues. A quiz was completed by each participating student.  An essay question accompanied the quiz in case of a tie. This year’s essay topic involved Constitutional questions centered on Presidential Pardon power and protection of Special Counsel investigations.

The three Employee of the Quarter winners for the second quarter from Marshalltown Schools include, from left, Gary Mertens from Marshalltown High School, Bruce Lawrence from Lenihan Intermediate School and Heidi Williams from Woodbury Elementary School.

Three employees of the Marshalltown Community School District received Employee of the Quarter awards for the second quarter of the school year recently.

Bruce Lawrence

Recipient Bruce Lawrence is the teacher librarian at Lenihan Intermediate School.“Bruce continually communicates with staff regarding technology updates and best practices,” said Lenihan teacher Joan Furjanic, who nominated Lawrence for the award as did fellow teacher Deb Moore. “Whether he is assisting a student with a Chromebook issue or helping find an interesting book, Bruce is always available and approachable to students.”

Gary Mertens

Recipient Gary Mertens works in the Academic Support Center at MHS and was nominated for the award by Eric Weeden.
“Gary always has the best interest of the students he works with,” Weeden said. “Gary has exceptional passion for his position and has worked with many challenging students that have had success because of his commitment.”

Heidi Williams

Recipient Heidi Williams is counselor at Woodbury Elementary School. She is extremely dedicated to her students and was nominated for the award by teacher Katie Hilby.
“Heidi puts students’ needs at the forefront of every single thing that she does,” Hilby said. “She has a great way of turning almost any situation into something positive, which has a huge impact on the culture of our school.”