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Mason City Community School District |
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Dear Mason City Community Students, Staff, and Families,
As we approach the holiday season, it's an opportune moment to reflect on the first five months of the school year. From August to December, our classrooms have been filled with the energy of students learning.
Observing our students in action reminds us of education's impact on their lives and our broader community. It also underscores the efforts of our dedicated staff, who go above and beyond academics to guide students through social and emotional challenges, providing mentorship, counseling, and personalized attention.
A thank you to our educators and support staff for your dedication. Your efforts do not go unnoticed, and our community acknowledges the positive influence you bring to our school system.
To our students, I applaud your hard work and enthusiasm for learning. Your perspectives and talents enrich our school community, and I look forward to your achievements in the upcoming year.
To our families, my sincere thanks for the continued support of your child and their teachers. Your role in nurturing your child's growth is invaluable, and we recognize the importance of a partnership between parents and teachers in ensuring a student's success at school.
As we approach the upcoming break, a time to recharge and share moments with family and friends, let's seize the opportunity to regroup and prepare for an outstanding finish to the school year. I look forward to the Mason City Community Schools, students, staff and families continuing our educational journey this year. With collaborative effort, we can provide each student with a high-quality education and a gratifying experience in our schools.
Wishing you all a restful and joyful holiday season!
Sincerely,
Pat Hamilton
Superintendent of Schools
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All Mason City Community School District offices and buildings will be closed
Monday, December 25, 2023 through Tuesday, January 2, 2024.
Classes will resume Wednesday, January 3, 2024.
MCCSD would like to wish all our staff, students, and families a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season!
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Riverhawks Flying High Feature | |
The Mason City Dance Team recently competed at the Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Association State Championships in Des Moines. The team competed in three categories including Hip Hop, Pom, and Prop. Due to their endless hours of practice and hard work, the MCDT took 1st place in Hip Hop and Prop anf 5th place in Pom! | |
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The MCDT team members include:
Seniors - Emma Bocanegra, Ava Clausen, Paris Florian, Ellea Lewerke
Juniors - Greta Lewere, Abby Pippert, Macy Schlitter, Amiyah Whaley
Sophomores - Brittlyn Arthur, Ady Hanson, Addi Menke
Freshman - Berlin Iles
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In addition to earning awards for their dancing talents, the MCDT was also recognized for their efforts in the classroom and the community. The team was awarded the Distinguished Academic Award for having a cumulative GPA between 3.5-4.0. They were also awarded the Lois Turnage Outstanding Community Service award for their hours of volunteering that is required to be a member of the team. | |
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The coaches for the MCDT are Brenda Zimmerman, Jennifer Schlitter,
and Nicole Ogrodnik.
Congratulations on all the hard work put in by the athletes and coaches!
We are so proud of your accomplishments!
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Kiwanis K-kids is all about helping students build leadership skills through service lead projects. What does that mean? It just means helping students understand how good it feels to help others. Sometimes it's a big help like buying presents for seniors in need or having a lemonade stand to raise money for a family in need, and sometimes it just means helping a friend feel better!
Harding Elementary has 30 students involved in the club this year. It has been so much fun watching them grow from their time together. We have so many kind, caring students who really shine when it comes to helping others in the community, or right here walking the halls and on the playgound at Harding.
Recently, the Harding K-kids adopted seniors to buy holiday gifts for and did they ever deliver! The students shopped online for the adults, wrapped the gifts once they arrived, and then made cards to wish them a wonderful holiday season! They loved every minute of it and showed such wonderful empathy through this season of giving. These students are learning to think beyond themselves. What great leaders!
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Jefferson Elementary implemented a new intervention program this year. We noticed more and more students who needed help getting ready to be readers! We met as a team and determined the SMART curriculum was a perfect way to help get the students' brains and bodies ready for school. SMART stands for Stimulating Maturity through Accelerated Readiness Training. Every day Mr. Childress teaches a SMART group to students who were nominated by K-2 classroom teachers. SMART is a brain stimultion movement program to enhance physiological readiness skills in children. Students do large and fine motor activities, balance and coordination, visual efficiency, eye-hand coordination, attention, and more. We are all working together to make students successful, life-long learners and students LOVE it!
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John Adams Middle School 7th graders from Mrs. Southgate's and Mrs. Twigg's classes are learning about kinetic energy and potential energy through roller coaster science. This intro lab will culminate in a month-long roller coaster engineering project in January. | |
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Lincoln Intermediate
Our Lincoln Leaders planned a canned food drive. All donations went to the Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank. Lincoln was able to donate 1525 items. The classrooms that won the competition for donating the most items were Grafton and Seehusen for 5th grade with 181 items collected. The 6th grade winners were Hugi and Wiemann with 541 items.
Great work Lincoln!
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Lincoln is so thankful for our substitute teachers. They have shown up and been such an instrumental piece to our Lincoln family. One of our substitute teachers even shares his hidden talent of drawing students quickly and accurately. The kids love it! | |
Mason City Alternative School | |
Congratulations to Will Mora for participating in the YIELD program! YIELD is modeled after the Leadership North Iowa program. It stands for Youth Investigating Energy in Leadership Development. The class is a collaboration of youth and the business community. Chamber members share their knowledge and resources with the members of the YIELD class. Each class also completes a Community Impact Project. We are very proud of Will! | |
Students have been busy creating mosaic stepping stones in art class this week. | |
MCHS students in the 11th and 12th grade iJAG program organized and held Project Stocking. They collected donations such as mittens, gripper socks, word search books, and travel size toiletries to fill stockings for residents at Good Shepherd Care Center. The students delivered the stockings to the residents on December 21. They also spent time visiting with the residents and enjoyed some holiday snacks, music, and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus! The room was filled with laughter, smiles, and holiday spirit! | |
Every year before winter break, Pinecrest Center opens a holiday store for students. These items are bought through school funds, staff donations, and this year included donations from the DaaBin Store. Students have the opportunity to "purchase" up to five gifts using points they have earned for important people in their lives. Students then get to wrap the gifts at school before taking them home. | |
Roosevelt Elementary students have been getting into the holiday spirit. Some lucky students had the opportunity to help decorate at the Mason City Community School Administrative Center. These students helped make ornaments and worked with different staff members to place in the perfect spot. | |
Keeping with the holiday spirit, Mrs. Lawler's kindergarten class participated in a gingerbreatd hunt. This is a fun tradition that has been taking place for 36 years! Kindergarteners use clues to find the gingerbread man. In the end, he was hiding in Mr. Peterson's office. Roosevelt Elementary students and staff would like to wish everyone happy holidays! | |
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Administrative Center
Bev Horner is in her 6th year working for MCCSD as a bus monitor. She is an MCHS alunmi. Bev did in-home daycare for 55 years and missed working with kids when she retired. Being a bus monitor gives her that opportunity again. Bev loves MC Schools because she is a graduate and so are her children. She enjoys the people she works, but the best part is the kids. Bev enjoys biking and attending sporting events. She espcially loves cheering on her grandkids and those who she took care of in her daycare.
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Harding Elementary
Sarah Green is a paraprofessional at Harding Elementary and in her 7th year with MCCSD. She is an MCHS alumni. Sarah loves MC Schools because she has met so many wonderful people in so many different departments. She has seen staff go above and beyond for their students. It is a comfort knowing how much staff care. She is confident in sending her kids to Mason City Schools because she knows they are in good hands. A fun fact about Sarah is her love for Jim Henson's Muppets. She loves anything to do with Muppets. Her all time favorite Muppet is Sweetums.
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Hoover Elementary
Shandra Goosen is in her first year with MCCSD as a transitional kindergarten teacher at Hoover. She attended South O'Brien High School in Northwest Iowa and attended college at Wayne State University before transferring to the University of Northern Iowa to finish her degree. Shandra loves that MC Schools provide such a warm, welcoming feeling as a new staff and provides so many opportunities for students in the area. Along with being a first year teacher, Shandra will also be a first time mom in March!
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Jefferson Elementary
Jolene Schweitzer serves as the school nurse at Jefferson and Hoover Elementary. She started with MCCSD in 2013. She is a graduate of Carlton High School, Riverland Community College (RN), Chamberlain College of Nursing (BSN), and Columbia Southern Univeristy (MPH). Jolene loves MC Schools because she loves working with the kids and seeing how as a nurse she can help them be successful despite their illness or disability they might have. A child cannot effectively learn unless they are healthy. An interesting fact about Jolene is that she was born and raised in Northern MN.
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John Adams Middle School
Brenda Schmidtke is one of the secretaries at John Adams Middle School. She has been with MCCSD for 18 years. Brenda is an MCHS alumni and attended NIACC. She loves MC Schools because she grew up here and Mason City has always had great schools. She feels the teachers and staff truly care about studuents' education. A fun fact about Brenda is that she loves to travel to beautiful waterfalls.
Marques Huesman is also a secretary at JAMS and this is his 3rd year with MCCSD. He is also an MCHS alumni and graduate of Buena Vista University. Marques loves MC Schools because he graduated from here. He enjoyed school growing up so being employed here is a great opportunity. A fun fact about Marques is that he was on the tennis team in high school and now he is the assistant coach for the boys tennis team.
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Lincoln Intermediate
Stacy Schisel is an instructional coach at Lincoln. This is her 24th year with MCCSD. After graduating from Garner-Hayfield High School, Stacy attended the University of Northern Iowa where she received her Bachelors' in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education. She received her Master's in Teacher Leadership from American College of Education. Stacy loves MC Schools because we believe in the power of collaboration and understand that student success is met when community as a whole comes together to support student learning. The best thing about Lincoln is that they strive to build the whole student by meeting student needs where they are at and cultivating students who care about learning as well as seek opportunities to grow their passions. Some fun facts about Stacy are that she has spent her entire teaching career at MCCSD and she was a UNI cheerleader.
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Mason City High School
Stephanie Hargis is an administrative assistant and the registrar at Mason City High School. This is her 6th year in the district. After graduating from Dows Community High School, Stephanie continued her education at NIACC and Wartburg. She loves MC Schools because she loves and appreciates the awesome people she works with. Stephanie enjoys fall hikes in Iowa's state parks and says when she was younger and in much better shape, she walked around Clear Lake on three separate occasions.
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Roosevelt Elementary
Julie Lawler teaches kindergarten at Roosevelt Elementary. After graduating from Central College, she began her teaching career at MCCSD. She has been with the district for 36 years! Julie loves kids and the way their minds work and think. She loves MC Schools because of the students, families, and staff. Some fun facts about Julie are that she likes to run marathons and has two pilots in her family. Another interesting fact is that Julie has taught kindergarten in the same building for her whole teaching career!
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MCHS Sophomore Addi Menke has been dancing for 11 years. She trains at Dancin' with Roxie studio and is a member of the Mason City Dance Team. Addi not only competed at the ISDTA State Championships as a member of the MCDT, she also competed as a soloist. Addi peformed at the ISDTA State Solo Qualifying competition on October 28. She finished in the top 10 after competing against over 75 dancers in her division. This qualified her to compete at the State competition. | |
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Addi placed 6th at the ISDTA State Competition.
What an amazing accomplishment for this young dancer!
We look forwawrd to seeing your future performances and successes, Addi!
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MCCSD Virtual Backpack
Make sure to check out the Virtual Backpack website! Here you will find events, camps, and opportunities for students and their families from district and community organizations.
Click HERE to check it out!
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Mason City CSD Employees-
Mason City Community School District has partnered with Buena Vista University to offer you and your family affordable education opportunities!
- The Board entered into this agreement with BVU at their meeting on November 20
- The savings offered through the partnership is available for spring semester which begins January 8, 2024.
- Benefits offered through the partnership are available to current BVU students enrolled in eligible programs.
Click HERE for more details!
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Girls Wrestling
*Varsity Girls Wrestling Team defeated Marshalltown
Boys Wrestling
*Emmetsburg Varsity Boys Tournament
1st Place - Reed Kruger
4th Place - Aidin Askildson, Hale Rhodes
Boys Basketball
*Varsity and 10th Grade Boys defeated Des Moines Hoover
Girls Basketball
*JV & Varsity defeated Waterloo East
*JV & Varsity defeated Decorah
*JV & Varsity defeated Des Moines Hoover
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Riverhawk Senior Reggi Spotts is the eighth player in Mason City girls basketball history to score 1,000 career points. Reggi reached this milestone in the game against Des Moines Hoover on Thursday, December 14, 2023.
Congratulations to you Reggi!
We are so proud of your hard work and determination!!
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Congratulations on your successes and achievements! #WingsUp | | | | |
