Warriors,

We have had a great start to this school year with a lot of exciting developments in our district. We have opened the Norwalk Physical Education and Competition Center and classroom additions! Our students continue to make academic progress as we move farther away from the COVID pandemic. As our mission statement states, we are “Growing Learners and Leaders” every day in the Norwalk Community School District.

This time of the year is when we start to transition between our student school Board Representatives. Thank you to NHS senior, Claire Boswell, for serving on the Board during 2022 and welcome to NHS junior, Aidan Harder, who has been selected as the 2023 Student Board Representative. 

Congratulations to our new Unified Sports teams on competing in their first competition this fall! Norwalk High School officially became a Unified Champion School during the 2021-2022 school year and will now be participating in Unified Bowling, Unified Basketball and Unified Track and Field!

Our first official Norwalk Girls Wrestling season has started and we are so proud of our lady Warriors who are part of this historic moment! We look forward to cheering you on!

I hope that you will get to spend more valuable time with your families and friends this year and on behalf of the NCSD, I wish you a holiday season full of health and joy!

We are hiring! Our district’s best recruiters are staff members, families, and community members. If you know someone who is interested in becoming an NCSD paraprofessional, substitute, maintenance worker, nutrition worker, bus driver or van driver, please encourage them to apply online at: https://www.applitrack.com/norwalkcsd/onlineapp/_application.aspx?starting=true

Yours in service,

D.T. Magee

Listen -  Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Above: 2022 Student Board Representative, Claire Boswell on the left and 2023 Student Board Representative, Aidan Harder on the right.

Below: Norwalk Unified Sports competes in their first bowling competition.

Above: NHS Girls Wrestling after their first meet.

Community Open House in Honor of Kate Baldwin

The Norwalk Community School District will be honoring Kate Baldwin, NCSD Executive Director of Administrative Services, for her 20 years of service. Kate is retiring at the end of December after a distinguished career in school finance and leadership. The Norwalk community is invited to an open house to honor Kate on Thursday, December 8th, 2022 from 4-6 PM at the Norwalk High School Multipurpose room (please enter through the NPECC entrance and follow the signs).

2022 Norwalk High School Debate Team

by Jenipher Sutherland

The Norwalk High School Debate team wrapped up the 2022 Central Iowa Debate League season coming in 2nd place behind Grinnell High School. So far this year they have been researching and debating topics about the United States' strategy for the Great Power Competition and whether or not the US government should invest in a High-Speed Rail system. Two of our debaters received CIDL All-Conference awards for the season, senior Susanna Kritzler for Varsity, and freshman Carson Guzman for JV. 

English Language Learners (ELL)

by Dawn Schiro, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning

As anticipated, the number of English Learners (EL) students continues to grow in the district. We have reached our highest number of EL students being served or monitored at any time. Ms. Penquite and Ms. Everhart are our full-time teachers this year. Ms. Everhart supports students at Oviatt and Lakewood while Ms.Penquite serves students at Orchard Hills, Middle School, and High School. They both provide instructional services to help our EL students become more proficient in their English speaking, listening, reading and writing skills.

Currently, there are 56 students being served directly. There are ten different languages represented within this group of students, with Spanish and Somali representing the largest percentage of students. The ongoing challenge with serving our population is not knowing how many EL students will be moving into the district at any given time and knowing how intensive their needs may be. Obviously students moving in with little to no English language abilities require more support. 

In addition to the obvious instructional support that our teachers provide, they have established great relationships with our EL students and their families. Other outside entities have also provided support to our students, e.g  ArtForce (Des Moines), AMOS (Norwalk Christian Church). We are very appreciative for these outside volunteers as our students and families acclimate into our community.



Winter activities are heating up with the Warriors hosting wrestling and basketball in our new NPECC!

On Friday, December 2nd Norwalk will host a mega basketball event where both our boys and girls basketball teams will face Pella on our home court. Reminder to fans that tickets must be bought online in advance. Girls basketball will begin at 6:15 with the boys team beginning at 7:45. Toys for Tots new and unwrapped toys or monetary donations will be collected all week and at Friday night's event. The Norwalk Athletic Booster Club will also be present to give out the first game balls of the season! It should be a great night for some Warrior basketball!

All tickets for middle school and high school events must be purchased online using the link below. https://www.vancoevents.com/us/eventlist/eventListingURL?aid=173

Admission Prices:

HS Basketball/Wrestling: $5 K-Adult

MS Basketball/Wrestling: $4 K-Adult

*Activity Passes are accepted at all home events except for tournament games.

Need to purchase an activity pass? Use this link: https://norwalk.revtrak.net/activity-passes/

Historic Year: Norwalk Girls Wrestling Program Has Begun

by Alanah Vetterick

This 2022-2023 wrestling season proves to be a historic moment for Norwalk as the Warriors launch their first girls wrestling team season. Norwalk wrestling kicked off on October 31st and has a total of 24 girls between our high school and middle school groups. The Lady Warriors have had a total of five high school competitions and three middle school competitions. Our middle school season will wrap up at the end of December and the high school team will have their super regional qualifier January 27th, 2023. 

The overall goal for our first historic season is to win a dual and qualify girls for the state tournament. Come February, I believe that we will have some lady warriors at the first ever sanctioned Iowa Girls State Wrestling Tournament! Keep up the great work ladies! Go Warriors!

Posters and Photos by Andy Kreider Photography

Join Our Team! 

Join our amazing team in the Norwalk Community School District! We have full-time and part-time open positions for custodians, maintenance, bus drivers and nutrition! Apply Online at https://www.norwalkschools.org/.../human.../jobpostings/

Lending A Hand: The Industrial Technology classes at NHS joined Orchard Hills Elementary students to build and install a raised planter bed. The planter was built in the Construction Technology Class taught by Mr. Terry Voss, then transported to Orchard Hills where leadership students and Mrs. Kessler assembled the planter box. The goal of the project was to promote collaboration between Orchard Hills Elementary and Norwalk High School students. It was fun to see high school students serving as role models for younger kids in the district.

High School students participating were Imran Sulaimankhil, Josh Pins, Gabe Johnson and instructor Mr. Terry Voss.

Upcoming Important Dates:

Dec. 22: No School K-12 (Teacher Trade-A-Day)

Dec. 23 - Jan. 3: No School K-12 (Winter Break)

Jan. 4: First Day of School for 2023

Join the Norwalk Dance Team on December 10 from 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. at Norwalk High School for a Grinchmas Holiday Party! This is a perfect time for parents to go holiday shopping or even have a date night while the dance team entertains students ages 5 - 13 years old. Siblings close in age to 5 who are potty trained are welcome as well. 

The event will feature the 2018 version of The Grinch, crafts, legos, games and pizza for everyone! Join us to celebrate the holidays in your favorite holiday pajamas or sweater. See you there! Buy tickets today - https://bit.ly/3UVpFdD