Bobcats Making Headlines

Woodbury Elementary School Principal Anel Garza, center, holding award, received the University of Northern Iowa Educational Leadership Legacy Award on May 17. She is pictured with Woodbury staff members.

Woodbury Elementary School Principal Anel Garza was awarded the University of Northern Iowa Educational Leadership Legacy Award on May 17 at the school. Woodbury staff, district leaders and UNI Educational Leadership Department representatives attended the event.

The Legacy Award is awarded annually to an alum of the UNI Principalship, Superintendency or Doctoral Programs who has demonstrated exemplary educational leadership as a leader of learning, service and change.

Garza, who is a former teacher at Woodbury, is in her fourth year as principal of the school. She said the award is not just a recognition for her, but a reflection of the work done by the entire staff at Woodbury.

“Anel is just the epitome of a phenomenal educational leader,” said Sue Alborn-Yilek, coordinator of the principal preparation program at the UNI. “We could not be more proud to give her this award.”

For a video of the event, click here.

Anel Garza with award presented by Dr. Nick Pace of the University of Northern Iowa.

Anel Garza with Marshalltown Schools leadership and University of Northern Iowa Educational Leadership Department staff.

Jean Wilkens, left, and Tobi Greene are pictured in front of the Athletic Wall of Honor in the Marshalltown High School Roundhouse. The two spent many hours putting together the old photos of the all-state Bobcats, which have returned to the renovated Roundhouse.

MHS Athletic Wall of Honor

Finishing touches to the Athletic Wall of Honor in the Marshalltown High School Roundhouse have been made and a project months in the making has concluded.

That project was led by Jean Wilkens, concessions manager, with the help of concessions worker Tobi Greene.

Wilkens gathered the old photos of the all-state Bobcats in the past, sent the damaged ones to Stalzer Photography, put on new labels and was able to mix new photos with old on the new and improved Wall of Honor.

“It was a project that needed to be done,” said Wilkens. “ I think it looks nice.”

So too does MHS Activities Director Rollie Ackerman. Due to the Roundhouse renovation, the all-state pictures went away for a time.

“People were hoping to see the pictures back up and when they went back up it brought back a lot of memories,” Ackerman said. “There’s that tradition of those photos being in the Roundhouse.”

Ackerman said it was a very daunting task to take the stacks of old photos, many in broken frames, and make sense of the project moving forward.

“Jean and Tobi’s efforts were invaluable,” Ackerman said. “It wouldn’t have happened this quickly without them.”

Jean would also like to thank John Stalzer and Mackenzie Duncan from Stalzer Photography for donating their time to the project to help brush up and print out the photos that were damaged.

“They were awesome,” Wilkens said.

Two more graphics were added to the project on May 17 by a sports graphics company to wrap up the project including a photo of the first-ever basketball game in the Roundhouse from February 12, 1966 and a graphic with the title “Marshalltown High School Athletic Wall of Honor.”

A photo of the first ever basketball game played in the Roundhouse from 1966 was one of the final additions to the new and improved Wall of Honor.

The Marshalltown High School students pictured performed for the Starpha women’s group at the Orpheum Theater on May 16. Pictured from left, are Ma Tway, Isabella Pedersen, Nick Cooper and Phoebe Osgood.

Four Marshalltown High School students visited a local women’s group luncheon and provided entertainment during a meeting held on May 16 at the Orpheum’s Black Box Theater.

Students Ma Tway, Isabella Pedersen, Nick Cooper and Phoebe Osgood performed for the Starpha group with the assistance of MHS teachers Jocelyn Frohwein and Amy Ose. The students recited poetry, performed speech competition examples and sang as part of the quick variety show.

Their performance was met with applause from the women’s social group.

For some video highlights of the performances, click here.

Marshalltown High School junior ShayeLyn Pickett has an interest in graphic design. She has been selected for a three-week summer program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Marshalltown High School junior ShayeLyn Pickett has been selected to attend a pre-college summer program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in July. The three-week program will include studio classes as well as a trip around Minneapolis.

Pickett was selected for the program after submitting an application, portfolio of her art and letters of reference. Pickett has an interest in graphic design and is taught the subject at MHS by Kirk Niehouse.

“I like the concept of brainstorming graphic design ideas and how companies come up with ads or a logo,” Pickett said.

Niehouse said a representative of Minneapolis College of Art and Design visited MHS recently as part of an increased effort on the part of MHS art staff to invite more colleges to speak. Niehouse believes ShayeLyn’s future is bright in the field of graphic design, if she chooses to pursue that field.

“She has a nice feeling for what a good design is,” Niehouse said.

Pickett had her poster design selected as the promotional poster for the MHS musical “Mary Poppins” last year and her poster on Career and Technical Education offerings received a youth art month award from the district.

ShayeLyn has started a Go Fund Me page to help pay for the summer program (www.gofundme.com/shayelyncollegefunds).

Play poster designed by MHS student ShayeLyn Pickett

Poster designed by MHS student ShayeLyn Pickett

Lenihan Intermediate School students presented their mock businesses as part of Project Based Learning at the school on May 12. Pictured presenting to Barb Hagstrand are students, from left, Ashten Finders, Jason Strand and Mang Sang.

Lenihan Intermediate School sixth graders in the Extended Learning Program presented long-term projects they did as part of Project Based Learning.

The group spent all year working with a $5,000 mock budget to create a business in Marshalltown. They toured Main Street at the beginning of the year to look at places for rent. Students used technology throughout the project from creating a Google Form (survey) to analyze what sort of business students and staff would be interested in, to creating their own advertisements on apps like Voice Thread.

Students had the choice to create a restaurant or another small business complete with a budget/inventory, a layout of their space as well as a final product. The students presented their work to Kim and Jerry Gratopp of Smokin’ G’s restaurant as well as Barb Hagstrand, who helped the group previously with a Main Street tour.

Students learned valuable skills in organization, managing a budget, marketing and technology, as well as perseverance.

“I hope that this project opened my students’ eyes to all the wonderful possibilities Marshalltown has to offer,” said Lenihan XLP teacher Vanessa Engel.

Lenihan Intermediate School students planted two trees at the school on May 9 as part of the Teen Outreach Program.

The Teen Outreach Program (TOP) group at Lenihan Intermediate School planted two trees outside of the school on May 9. They chose to plant the trees to help give shelter to wildlife, provide shade for activities held on the lawn and make the space look nice and beautiful.

Emily Herring, the naturalist with the Marshall County Conservation Board, visited the group at an earlier date and gave a presentation to the students about what types of trees there are, what they do for people and animals and what types of trees would be good to plant on the school grounds.

TOP meets weekly at the school and teaches skill building, community service learning, self esteem building and other qualities to the students.

Marshalltown Community School District behavior strategists Nicole Gaughan, left, and Launa Snyder received certificates of achievement for advanced training at the Learning Supports Conference in Des Moines on May 10. Also pictured is Dr. Sean Casey from the Iowa Department of Education.

Nicole Gaughan and Launa Snyder, behavior strategists with the Marshalltown Community School District, received certificates of achievement at the Learning Supports Conference in Des Moines on May 10.

The certificates were in recognition of completion of Advanced Level Training in Functional Behavioral Assessment for challenging behavior from the Center for Disabilities and Development and the Iowa Department of Education. This was a three-year intense apprenticeship with Dr. Sean Casey from the Iowa Department of Education.

The two also presented at the conference along with Julie Hammond from Lenihan Intermediate School on May 9.

In their role with the district, Gaughan and Snyder assist school teams with student behavior challenges.

Miller Middle School students, from left, Jacob Van Pelt, Tiffany Gonzalez and Jesse Parra present sleep mats for homeless veterans to Major Ben Stillwell of The Salvation Army. Students made plastic yarn out of shopping bags to help with the sleep mat project.

Miller Middle School students helped make sleep mats for homeless veterans after starting with plastic shopping bags.

The students made plastic yarn (plarn) out of the bags then sent them to Cedar Valley Sleep Mats for Homeless Veterans, which finished the mats by crocheting them. On May 11, students presented the mats to Major Ben Stillwell of The Salvation Army.

“The kids worked really hard on it and it’s really rewarding for them to finally see the project,” said Miller teacher Anna Miller.

For a video about the project, click here.

Miller students, from left, Maddie Schumacker, Carson Williams and Lily Victor cut plastic bags as part of the project to make sleep mats for homeless veterans.

More than 1,200 community members, parents, staff and students have offered feedback to the Marshalltown Community School District over the course of two surveys this past school year.

Now, themes from that feedback are available for anyone to view on websites created by our survey partners Thought Exchange. The results indicate what the public feels are our greatest strengths, challenges, opportunities and other common theme ideas.

Thank you to the public for providing this valuable feedback. We will utilize this information as we move forward with creating the next strategic plan to guide us into the future.

Here are some brief themes revealed in the surveys:

Our Greatest Strengths
– Teachers and staff
– Diversity and inclusion
– Dual credit and college credit program
– Academic support and engagement
– Instruction and program delivery

Our Greatest Challenges
– Student behavior and discipline
– Parent involvement
– Internal communication and staff input
– Diversity and inclusion
– Number of district initiatives

Below are the links to the survey results sites:

English site
http://marshalltown.k12.ia.thoughtexchange.com/card-welcome/welcome/

Spanish site
http://marshalltown.k12.ia.thoughtexchange.com/card-welcome/bienvenido/

The links are also available on the Marshalltown Schools website at www.marshalltown.k12.ia.us.

Marshalltown High School junior Jacqueline Wahl has been named a national qualifier in National History Day. She presented the exhibit pictured at the state championships of National History Day on May 8 in Des Moines.

Marshalltown High School junior Jacqueline Wahl was named a national qualifier after competing at the National History Day state championship at Iowa Events Center in Des Moines on May 8.

Wahl presented her project titled “Korematsu v. United States: Standing up for Japanese American Rights in WWII.”

Wahl will represent Iowa at the National History Day national contest in College Park, Maryland June 11 through 15. This will be the second appearance at that national contest for Jacqueline, who also qualified with Victoria Johnson in 2014 as a Miller Middle School student.

Also competing for MHS at the state championships this week were Molly Sickles and Kaylee Foth with their exhibit titled “Griffin vs. Katz: Taking a Stand Against Segregation in Des Moines.”