Mason City Community School District |
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Unlocking Success Through Regular School Attendance
Every year, a growing body of evidence underscores the role of regular school attendance in shaping the future success of students. Chronic absentism, encompassing excused, unexcused, and suspension-related absences, is defined as a student missing 10% of school days in a year. For Mason City Schools students, this translates to 17 missed school days annually, equating to 4.25 days per quarter.
In 2019, 11.9% of students were chronically absent nationwide, a figure that surged to 29% by 2022. Notably, kindergartners and high schoolers make up the largest groups affected by chronic absenteeism. In Iowa, as of May 2023, chronic absence rates stood at 19% for all students and 28% for students with disabilities.
The repercussions of students missing school are profound:
- Students chronically absent for fours years during their school career face a dropout rate over 50% higher than their peers.
- Kindergarten students with chronic absenteeism score 20% lower in reading and math in later grades, with the performance gap widening over time.
- Chronically absent students are twice as likely to be retained in a grade.
- Students with chronic absenteeism are twice as likely to face suspension by the end of 7th grade.
- Chronically absent students represent a significant portion of those who eventually drop out of high school.
Why does this matter? Schools in Iowa are evaluated based on student attendance, but compelling students and their families to prioritize attendance isn't within the school's sole power. While legal actions exist, they are often lengthy and may not always yield the desired outcome. We ask our parents and community members to work with our school system to help improve student attendance. If you're struggling to get your child to school, reach out to your building principal, teacher, school counselor, school social worker, or any trusted adult for assistance.
This challenge extends beyond Mason City; it's a nationwide concern. To reverse these trends, collaboration is key. Parents, community members, and the school system must work together to ensure all our students attend school regularly.
Remember, School Attendance is a Life-Changing Event!
Sincerely,
Pat Hamilton
Superintendent of Schools
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Payton Reams - John Adams
Miss Reams works so well with my son and he always talks about what a great teacher she is. She has an understanding of what middle school boys are like and connects with them in a way that makes them want to do well for her. He says she is patient, kind, and makes learning fun. Thank you Miss Reams for all you do!
-Submitted by
Jill Wurth
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Brenna Bothwell - Roosevelt
Mrs. Bothwell is extremely supportive of my daughter. She is really caring and kind. She goes above and beyond for my daughter. She is an extraordinary person and my daughter is extremely lucky to have her as her teacher.
-Submitted by Macey Mingo
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Margo Rozen -Lincoln
Ms. Rozen has been a great asset to the education and life of my student. She takes time to address his individual needs with him and us. She treats him with respect and kindness. She checks in with him and makes him feel valued and seen in the school setting. She is an example of a great teacher that sees and hears all students.
-Submitted by
Tori Redfern
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These three reading interventionists continue to go above and beyond for our Hoover student day in and day out. They are the faces that greet them with a smile and hug each morning at breakfast, starting their day off on the right foot. These three meet our students where they are, find their strength and build their reading skills and confidence. Thank you to Mrs. Kraft, Mrs. Colvin, and Mrs. Martin for your hard work, collaboration and connection with our Hoover students!
We are so lucky you are a part of Hoover!
-Submitted by Casey Wood
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Do you have a Riverhawk staff member who you want to RAVE about?
Please click HERE to complete the survey and submit your Riverhawk Rave so that we can share the amazing things our Riverhawk staff are doing with the community!
Riverhawk Raves will be shared in upcoming MC Proud newsletters.
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Riverhawks Flying High Feature | |
Mariam Ebrahim Salman is a junior at Mason City High School. She is here is a World Link foreign exchange student from Bahrain, an island country in West Asia. World Link students go through a three phase merit-based selection process in order to represent the various ethnic, social, religious, and economic groups in their countries. The mission of the exchange program is for these young leaders to come to the United States and share their culture with Americans while learning about the real America that they will share with their fellow citizens when they return home. Mariam has definitely embraced this mission and has risen to the challenge. In fact, Mariam was chosen as the World Link Student of the Month for January because of her involvement, passion, and for attaining nearly 100 service hours already.
Among some of the accomplishments Mariam has received are being selected as the MCHS Student of the Month for PE, winning multiple competitions with her Robotics team, raising $500 for Student Senate activities with her idea for a hot chocolate fundraiser, and being the MVP (Most Valuable Person) for the MVP (Mentors in Violence Prevention) program at MCHS.
Mariam meets with freshmen daily to mentor and tutor them through the MVP program. She offers them guidance and advice with topics that high school students encounter. Mariam also has spent a lot of time tutoring students in math. Mariam was also chosen to present to the Mason City Schools Board of Directors regarding the MVP program.
Mariam has also been very active in volunteering her time and culture outside of school. She sold baked goods at the Farmer's Market, which raised $100 to support homeless teens in Iowa. She also participated in a Halloween Trunk-or-Treat event and made cookies for teachers and peers as part of World Link's Kindness Cookies Project.
Mariam is very passionate about sharing her culture and has done so at church where she volunteers to do childcare. She also made a Bahraini dish which she shared at the Celebration of Black Joy and Multicultural Festival. Another way she shared her culture is by teaching Arabic during International Education Week.
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Mariam has such a positive attitude and brings so much joy to the people who are fortunate enough to spend time with her. She has touched so many lives in her time here so far including students and staff at MCHS, teammates on the girls basketball team, community members and her host family. We are so grateful to have Mariam as a Riverhawk this year and thank her for her time, knowledge, motivation, and kindness.
Way to go, Mariam!
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Harding K-4 students recently participated in fitness stations to learn about exercises to strengthen their biceps, triceps, and quadriceps in PE. Stations included an agility ladder, resistance bands, hand weights, medicine balls, and weighted bars. They also learned about kettle bells and practiced their jump rope skills. Students finished by flexing to show how hard they hard and how big their new muscles were. | |
Hoover Elementary 1st graders read the book Stranger in the Woods by Carol Sam and Jean Stoick. Students then created bird feeders out of pinecones, peanut butter, and birdseed. The students will take their bird feeders home and hang them outdoors to enjoy! | |
PBIS - At Jefferson Elementary we continue to encourage CARS (Caring, Appropriate, Ready, Safe) behavior. We do monthly certificates for students who have zero incident reports. These students are celebrated at lunch with music and high fives from our amazing PTO volunteers. They get their certificate hung on Victory Lane for the whole month. We also do monthly token challenges to keep classrooms motivated to keep doing their best work every day. | |
John Adams Middle School students recently had an academic incentive day. Some students signed up to play in a basketball tournament. The winners of the tournament would take on members of the JAMS staff in a game.
That showdown took place last Friday. Both teams brought their best effort and it was a hard fought battle, but the JAMS staff prevailed!
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Lincoln Intermediate
The students in Ms. Kuchenbecker's class finished a social studies unit where they had to answer the question, "How can we use the human story to improve how we live together?"
The classes decided that ancient civilizations were more social and interacted with each other more than we do today. They wanted to reach out to a class at Roosevelt Elementary as a "buddy class". The hope is they can share about Lincoln Intermediate and make connections that may help them when they get older. They also wanted to make this something they could do again later in the year.
Students in Block One had a game day with students in Mr. Ausborn's 4th grade class, while students in Block Two went to lunch and recess with the kindergarten classes at Roosevelt. All the students had a great time. They are excited to try to make it happen again later in the year.
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Mason City Alternative School | |
The Mason City Alternative School held its second quarter awards ceremony on Wednesday, January 24. This ceremony is to celebrate all the great work our students have done. | |
While walking through the halls of MCHS, you may come across students working on a project or lesson. Recently, these physics students were seen and junior Justin Nkazi explained what they were working on.
"In physics class we are learning about vectors. A vector has magnitude and direction. It also has x-components and y-components. Our task today was to record our x and y components choosing various points of origins. For example, if we walked backwards from our point of origin it would be -3y or if we walked towards the left from our point of origin it would be -3x. At the end, we could use pythagoras theorem to find the magnitude and inverse of tangent to find our direction."
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Four MCHS English students recently learned the poems they submitted to the Appelley Publishing National Student Poetry Contest will be published in the book Appelley Publishing 2024 Rising Stars Collection.
Among the poems published were:
"Ivy" by sophomore Kate Kotta
"Survive" by freshman Acacia Allen
"Them" by sophomore Ace Mussman
"I Have No Care for Others Opinions" by freshman Mackenzie Vorland.
Congratulations to these talented and hardworking writers!
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Congratulations to the Mason City Academic Decathlon Team who recently competed in the Grundy Center Regional. The team won 1st place in the Large School Division, and placed 2nd overall! The team took home 26 Gold Honors, 23 Silver Honors, and 9 Bronze Honors. Top scorers for the team include Kaitlyn Thangaraj, Sofia Ahari, and Maya Sajadian in an Honors Division sweep, Alfonso Villarreal in the Scholastic Division, and Brooklyn Van Hauen and Damon Temple swept the Varsity Division. Way to go Decathletes! | |
(L to R): Ryleigh Penn, Justin Nkazi, Reid Carolus, Karson Willier, Alfonso Villarreal, Brooklyn Van Hauen, Damon Temple, Maya Sajadian, Sofia Ahari, and Kaitlyn Thangaraj.
The team is coached by Allia Yarrow and Jeff Hines.
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The 5-6 Music class at Pinecrest has been working to make a musical board game to show off their learning. They made the game Chutes and Ladders that practiced note values. Students chose the board design, created the board and spinner, and made their game pieces. At the end of the unit the student got to play the game as a class. | |
Every grade level at Roosevelt Elementary shares a positive message for the community on the fence outside the Roosevelt playground throughout the year. The students at Roosevelt are hoping to uplift and encourage community members through these positive fence messages. The messages started in 2020 and the tradition has continued on. The messages so far this year have been: Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Thankful, and Be Joyful.
More messages are yet to come so keep a lookout as you drive by Roosevelt Elementary!
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Miss Heather from Lime Creek Nature Center recently visited the kindergarten classes at Roosevelt. We learned about what animals do during the winter. We discussed where they sleep, what they eat, and how what they wear can change in the winter - much like it does for us! If animals can't find food here they migrate. We had a chance to feel how strong the feathers are for traveling south! Did you know that some dragonflies, with their delicate wings, fly even farther than geese?!?! Some animals, like frogs and groundhogs, spend the winter cuddling (hibernating) right in the mud or in their burrow so they can stay warm. Still, other animals DO need to have a winter coat, like rabbits and foxes, so they adapt and can stay and play all winter, like we do!
We wondered what it would be like to be a hibernator, a migrator, or an animal that gets to stay and play!
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Administrative Center
Alan Steckman is a Mason City Community School District Board of Education member. He has been a director for 6 years. After graduating from Frank W. Ballou High School, Alan received his BA from the University of Maryland and his MBA from Drake University. Alan loves MC Schools because of the people, administration, teachers, staff, and his fellow board directors; smart and hard working staff and students. An interesting fact about Alan is that he has lived in seven major cities including 18 years in Washington D.C. and 35 years in Mason City.
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Harding Elementary
Alyson Clausen is a 4-year old preschool and early childhood special education teacher at Harding Elementary. This is her fourth year with MCCSD. Alyson attended high school at Sheffield-Chapin-Meservey-Thornton and received her degree from Buena Vista University. Alyson loves MC Schools because she works with children who are an absolute blast to be around and supportive colleagues who inspire her on a daily basis. Something interesting about Alyson is she loves gardening and everything plants!
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Hoover Elementary
Lisa (Maria) Koenig is the kitchen manager at Hoover Elementary and has been with MCCSD for 9 years. Lisa attended MCCSD growing up and graduated from MCHS. She loves working for the district that she attended school at. Besides the amazing crew that works with her, Lisa loves seeing all the kids every day, getting to know them, and making their day when they see the kitchen crew serving them lunch and breakfast. In her free time, Lisa enjoys camping with her husband, family and wonderful friends they have met along the way. Her main love is getting to spend time with her grandkids!
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Jefferson Elementary
Melissa Borchardt is a paraprofessional at Jefferson Elementary and has been with MCCSD since 2016. She is a graduate of MCHS and received her BS from Iowa State University. What Melissa loves about MC Schools is that our school system has so many awesome people who work so hard daily to make a difference for our students. As an employee, it is great to feel valued and appreciated by coworkers. Melissa grew up a Mohawk and played Mohawk sports. Her daughter was in the first class of Riverhawks to graduate. She also loves watching her kids play Riverhawk sports. An interesting fact about Melissa is that she married a Marine, so she lived in 10 different homes in their first 10 years of marriage. They lived in California and her favorite place is the beach!
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John Adams Middle School
Aaron Anderson is the 7th & 8th grade band director and associate director of the MCHS bands. This is his 19th year teaching at MCCSD. Aaron attended Urbandale High School, earned a Bachelor of Music Education from Northern Michigan University, and a Master of Arts Education from Morningside College. Aaron loves teaching at MC Schools because of the rich and storied tradition of music education in Mason City. An interesting fact about Aaron is that his parents named him after Aaron Copland, which is apropo considering what he has dedicated his life to.
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Lincoln Intermediate
Valerie Siefken is the school nurse at Lincoln Intermediate and is in her third year with the district. She attended Northwood-Kensett High School and NIACC, and received her BSN from Mount Mercy College. Valerie loves MC Schools because of the relationships she gets to build with students, staff, and families and watching students mature and grow. Her favorite thing about Lincoln is all the opportunities that students have such as intramurals, clubs, and building-wide events. Something unique about Valerie is that it was a difficult decision for her to go to school to be a teacher or to be a nurse. While growing up, her school district didn't have a nurse and neither did her daughter's, so school nursing was all new to her!
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Mason City High School
Liz Kline is a special education teacher at MCHS. This is her 11th year in the district, but she has been teaching for 22 years. Liz is a graduate of MCHS, NIACC, the University of Northern Iowa, and Morningside. She loves MC Schools because she was a student and her daughter is a student here. She also loves all of the amazing people she works with and all the opportunities the district gives students. A fun fact about Liz is that she has three
shih-tzus names Lulu, Gidget, and Winnie and a cat named Sherlock that go on walks with her family. She also enjoys traveling with her husband and daughter. Her daughter is the fourth generation in Liz's family to graduate from Mason City Schools.
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Roosevelt Elementary
Terri Corsello teaches 2nd grade at Roosevelt Elementary. She has been with MCCSD for 7 years. She is a graduate of Belmond High School and Buena Vista University. Terri loves MC Schools because the staff have a passion for helping students and families succeed. Some fun facts about Terri are that she is a former EMT and has a motorcycle license.
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The Coaches vs. Cancer basketball game and events is a great way for MCCSD to contribute to the fight against cancer. Coach Tom Kirby and his team spend endless hours preparing for this effort every year. This year, a group of Lincoln Intermediate 5th graders decided they wanted to help out too. | |
Alayne Freie, Campbell Kincade, Rilynn Sprecher, and Brooklyn Kincade made bracelets to sell at the Coaches vs. Cancer event that took place January 19. Their efforts raised $115 which was all donated to the American Cancer Society. | |
Way to go girls! Your hard work and willingness to support this fight is motivating and heartfelt! We are so proud of you all! Thanks for being such great Riverhawk role models!! | |
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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Girls Wrestling
* 1st place finishers at Denver Invitational: Kallie Gibbons, Kyleigh James, Layla Phillips
*Defeated Waterloo East
*Defeated Clear Lake and secured the traveling trophy "Battle of Cerro Gordo County"
Boys Wrestling
*Team defeated Des Moines Lincoln
Girls Basketball
*Varsity defeated Ottumwa
*Varsity, JV, and JV2 defeated Fort Dodge
*JV & Varsity defeated Northwood-Kensett
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Congratulations on your successes and achievements! #WingsUp | | | | |