FEBRUARY | 2025

Contact a school building if you have questions on upcoming Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences on March 4 and 6! Sign up for a time below!

Elementary students- https://www.myconferencetime.com/forestcityelem

Middle School students- https://www.myconferencetime.com/forestcityms

High School students- https://www.myconferencetime.com/forestcityhs

We are excited to announce that our Portrait of a Forest City Learner work is now complete! This year-long collaborative effort with a team of school staff, parents, and community members has resulted in a clear vision of the skills, knowledge, and dispositions for all K-12 students to be future-ready. We're excited to update you with the details of this important work, including the specific skills and dispositions at our upcoming parent-student-teacher conferences on March 4 & 6.

We will kickoff the Portrait of a Forest City Learner initiative at the start of the 2025-26 school year. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting initiative!

We want to inform you about the upcoming Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP), which will be administered to students in grades 3-11. This assessment provides valuable insights into each student's academic growth over the past year.

Here are the key dates and details:

• Science: Week of March 31 (Grades 5, 8, and 10)
• Math: Week of April 7 (Grades 3-11)
• Reading and Writing: Week of April 14 (Grades 3-11)

We will be sharing additional information about the ISASP in our March newsletter, so please be on the lookout for more details.

National School Counseling Week was February 3-7! We appreciate everything they do to help guide, support, and inspire our students every day!

ACHIEVE Family Portal - Coming Soon!

Winterfest was held in early February with coronation, a dance and pep rally!

Those selected for the Winterfest Court include: Bethany Warren, Peyton Klein, Natalie Holland, Carsen Hall, Liberty Langenbau, Hayden Reynolds, Olivia Zeman and Triston Brandsoy (not pictured).

Congratulations to Winterfest King Hayden Reynolds and Queen Natalie Holland!

Motivational speaker, Cory Greenwood, recently visited FCMS and spoke with our middle school students. His program included a full band, high energy, and a positive message about valuing yourself, valuing others, treating others with respect, and being a person of character.

Elementary students recently had a PBIS Winter Olympics celebration with bobsledding, winter bingo, skiing, and a snowball fight!

Kindergarten students celebrated 100 Days of School by counting 100 cheerios and making necklaces with them!

A group of FFA students took a trip to the Iowa State Capitol and spoke with Iowa's legislature. This was a great opportunity to learn more about our State government and talk with our district representative, Henry Stone, about his duties and life while serving our State.

Pictured: Representative Henry Stone, Max Aitchison, Allison Wirtjes, Aubrey Schnebly, Dru Seglem, Aleah Hoffman, Eva Paul, and FFA Advisor Ryan Faught

Congratulations to our Large Group Speech participants who competed at State on February 8! The group brought home two Division I ratings and four Division II ratings.

The following events competed at State:

TV: Youth Innovators

(Aubrey Kluver, Tyler Niess, Ezra Thompson, Hayden Reynolds)

Readers Theatre: Alice in Wonderland

(Gray Thompson, Dawson Sharp, Laney White, Gabby Branstad, Grace Ostercamp, Miah Ochoa, Cora Vogt, Faith Gambell)

Short Film: The Heist

(Isaiah Mikes, Hayden Reynolds, Ezra Thompson, Dirk Zeman, Cooper Blaser, Tyler Niess)

Ensemble: Death Takes The Train

(Shaylee Ostercamp, Laney White, Gabby Branstad)

Choral: What's in a Name?

(Shaylee Ostercamp, Miah Ochoa, Melita Hare, Dawson Sharp, Shyla Blaze, Mason Brakel, Grace Ostercamp, Cora Vogt)

Improv: Barkema & Pedelty

(Isaiah Mikes, Faith Gambell, Dirk Zeman, Marcus Pedelty, Jayden Barkema)

Congratulations to our group of students who participated in the Special Olympics Basketball Skills! We had three first-place finishers who will advance to the State Basketball Skills event in Iowa City in March! Way to go!

Participants include: Alex Eggers, Gracie Conrad, Zacc Cox, Eli Dyslin, Jose Arroyo, Cooper Behrens, Spencer Olson, Michael Christ, and Alivia Pedelty (not pictured).

Congratulations to Arabella Karalius Dirk Zeman, and Lindsay Clouse (not pictured) who were AFS Global Prep Scholarship essay winners! They are all headed overseas this summer for a month-long opportunity funded by our local AFS chapter! Arabella will be going to France, Dirk will be going to Denmark and Lindsay is headed to Kenya!