Proud to be EV... Week of February 16-22, 2014

The week seemed to fly by at English Valleys~

On Monday there was no school due to inclement weather.

On Tuesday, we had a late start. Our junior high boys basketball had their last game of the season at home. The varsity basketball girls played their first regional basketball game at home. They played very well and defeated HLV.

On Wednesday our varsity basketball boys played their first regional game at Tri-County. Their season ended due to Tri-County winning that game. Our EV boys have improved throughout the season; I am looking forward to watching them again next year~

We sent three wrestlers to state this year: Zach Axmear, Sheldon Ealy, and Brennen Grimm. We held a pep rally at the end of the day Wednesday followed by a "send-off" in which the police and firemen led a caravan out of town. Zach placed 5th at state!

On Thursday, the FFA held a breakfast at 7:15 a.m. It was delicious! I am thankful to Mrs. Flander and her FFA group providing this~

On Friday, we ran on a 1 hour early out schedule in the afternoon so that the FFA could host "Ag Olympics". This was originally supposed to take place Thursday, but was pushed back to Friday due to the Kids Against Hunger Group postponing the meal packaging due to inclement weather. The FFA group did an excellent job with the olympics- everybody had a good time!

On Friday night our girls basketball team played their regional game #2. They defeated North Mahaska to advance on!

They will be playing Lynnville-Sully at Pella Christian at 7:00 p.m. on Monday night. The school will be sponsoring a student and a citizen pep bus for this event, free of charge. You will need to bring money for admission. Those interested in riding will need to call the school between the hours of 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. on Monday. If interested, you can also email me at hlightfoot@english-valleys.k12.ia.us

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week of February 9-15, 2014

On Monday, Mr. Ling invited a Forrest Gibson of English Valley TaeKwonDo in North English to his PE classes~ he introduced students to the basics of TaeKwonDo.

 (photo courtesy of Mr. Ling)

Mr. Fritz's Construction class is currently working on two building additions. I stopped by one of the homes and took pictures of their progress on Wednesday. Mr. Fritz does a wonderful job working with and mentoring his construction students. The work that they do is immaculate. I am very proud of them.

On Thursday night I had the pleasure of giving a tour of the new gym, fitness and stage area to the Fortnightly group. This is a wonderful group of women in our community and it was my pleasure to show them how appreciative and proud we are of the new construction.

On Friday our new scorer's table arrived!

(photo courtesy of Mr. Ling)

This was National FCCLA Week. Mrs. Roberts and her FCCLA group have been holding a shoe drive for the past several months. Their goal is to collect 1,000 pairs of shoes to donate to Soles for Souls.
The Friday Spirit Assembly was hosted by the FCCLA.They had a Grammy-type award activity in which they gave out various awards to staff and students. They also had trivia questions about FCCLA.

On Saturday, our varsity wrestling boys wrestled at districts! Congratulations to Sheldon Ealy, Zach Axmear, and Brennen Grimm! They will move on to state wrestling next weekend!

This upcoming week are regional games for basketball. I wish these athletes the best of luck and I am very proud of them and all that they have accomplished this season.

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week of January 26-February 1, 2014

School was cancelled on Monday due to inclement weather. The evening events were also cancelled.  Mr. Ling worked on hanging up the new SICL banners that day. They turned out great!

This week was "Gnimocemoh", or  Winter Homecoming. The student council sponsored the dress up days below, a pep rally on Spirit Assembly Friday.

Monday: Come as you are Pajama day (School was cancelled)
Tuesday: Inside out Backwards day
Wednesday: Sports Day
Thursday: Hashtag Swag Day
Friday: Bearica Blue and Gold Day

On Tuesday we had a late start due to inclement weather.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Roberts took students to District Star events for FCCLA. Two of our students, Katie Kinzler and Amelia Koehn will advance to state competition next month! 

The dance was postponed Friday night due to the winter weather warning. 

The Student Council sponsored the Spirit Friday Assembly.

Brock Moore, the Varsity Wrestling coach, introduced his team...

After this it was time for some hockey in the class competitions!

Another wonderful end to another wonderful week at English Valleys...


Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV.... Week of January 19-25, 2014

What a busy week for English Valleys Junior/Senior High School!

On Monday, there was not school for our students. This was a planned Professional Development day for staff. We hosted the Iowa Valley staff for combined professional development activities. This was also the day for the gym punch list.

Thursday was a very busy day. Push-Pedal-Pull delivered the fitness equipment to be placed in our new community fitness center. The construction crew worked quickly and efficiently to put the finishing touches on our gym and fitness center in preparation for us to host our first event, varsity wrestling. Ralph Rowe did a wonderful job working drilling in letters and frames for the English Valleys Athletic Wall of Fame in the main area of the new gym, above the concession stand. The new gym was filled with many wrestling fans! At the same time, we hosted JV basketball games in our old gym. We also hosted a home junior high basketball game in our elementary. It was a busy night for EV fans!

On Friday we held our weekly Spirit Assembly. This week the assembly was hosted by the Drama & Speech group. They created an obstacle course that students were selected to take part in. This was a lot of fun to watch!

Also on Friday, we hosted our first varsity basketball games in the new gym against Iowa Valley. This was another night in which our gym held a significant amount of fans from both schools.

On Saturday, Mrs. Colbert hosted the Jingle Bell Run. There was a group of runners/walkers that braved the cold to help raise money for the track program.

On Saturday we held our Open House for the new gym and fitness center. This was also the anniversary of the 2003-04 Varsity Girls Basketball team that was the runner-up for state.
The area newspapers were present to cover our events.

KCRG- Channel 9 showed up to conduct interviews and do a segment on our grand opening. You can view this by clicking on the following link:
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/English-Valleys-Schools-Celebrate-Opening-of-New-Gym-242000081.html

Other pictures and videos of the events can be found on the English Valleys Bears Fan Page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/evfanpage/
Those who oversee this page, as well as its members, have done a wonderful job with posting information here~

Reminder: According to Mr. Nachtman, next week the Student Council has planned "Gnimocemoh", or Winter Homecoming. The student council is sponsoring the dress up days below, a pep rally, and the Winter Formal dance on Friday (for high school students).

Monday: Come as you are Pajama day

Tuesday: Inside out Backwards day

Wednesday: Sports Day

Thursday: Hashtag Swag Day

Friday: Bearica Blue and Gold Day

*A JH formal is Feb 8, sponsored by FCCLA


This entire week was absolutely amazing. I am so thankful for all of the flexibility and understanding of students, parents, staff, and community members through this process. I am excited about the future of English Valleys and the amazing things that we will do~

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week of January 12-18, 2014

Construction continued on our new gym and fitness facility...

Big events for the gym are in store for the week of January 19-25, 2014 at English Valleys!

I was very fortunate to be hired prior to the beginning of construction of the new gym. I have been able to witness this creation from the ground up and I am amazed at the opportunities this presents. The fitness center will be a 24/7 facility. Those who reside in the English Valleys CSD, or open enroll their children into the district, are able to sign up to use the fitness center and walking track in the gym. I think that this is a wonderful opportunity for our community. I am looking forward to the athletic events that we will be hosting, as well as other opportunities for events in a venue of this size.

At Friday's Spirit Assembly, the FFA sponsored a "Pie in the Face" event. If a person bought a box of food for Meals from the Heartland, he or she was given the opportunity to throw a pie in the face of a staff member. There were many pies thrown, which for the FFA, was a good sign on moving forward on their goal to purchase meals for packaging on February 17 at our junior/senior high school.

Looking forward to the upcoming week!

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week of January 5-11, 2014

On Monday and Tuesday school was cancelled due to inclement weather.

Students returned to school on Wednesday.

On Friday, we held the the 2nd quarter/1st Semester Achievement Assembly. We ran on a 1 hour early out schedule in the afternoon due to the large amount of awards to give out. I am so very proud of every single one of our students. Every one of them has something unique to offer to our district. The Achievement Assembly focused on honor roll recipients, academic letter recipients, and Golden Grizzly recipients.

Here is a list of the awards and recipients:

2^nd Quarter

B Honor Roll- 7-12th grades

7th- Mason Allie, Derek Dulaney, Lance Gott, Samuel Kingland, Clayton Moore, Tianna Seaton, Leah Shannahan, Emma Van Voltenburg

8th- Kathryn Clabaugh, Keely Driscoll, Tori Harper, Autumn Higdon, Jaden Pfannebecker, Chloe Tapken

9th- Gabriel Anthony, Kristen Cox, Michelle Ealy, Katherine Miller, Clayton Morrison, Wyatt Olson, Joshua Stanley, William Tapken, Emyle Thompson, Emily Westhoff

10th- Skyler Beal, Casey Blaylock, Dorothy Cook, Elleh Driscoll, Kate Duello, Dakota Gesling, Molly Irmen, Leah Kerr, Lexie Moore, Rebecca Phillips, Samantha Stewart, Anna Townsend, Gabriel Trimpe, Alexis Walden, Brandon Zimmerman

11th- Darian Blaylock, Taylor Harriman, Tanner Icenbice, Adam Kerkove, Marissa Lang, Anna Ross, Nikole Toubekis, William Townsend

12th- Kyle Allie, Benjamin Duello, Amelia Koehn, Allison Voss, Zoey Wiseman

A Honor Roll- 7-12th grades

7th- Maleah Ackerman, Cooper Andreassen, Loni Anthony, Jessi Armstrong, Gabrielle Ayers, Ella Coffman, Jacob Glandon, Katryna Jaennette, Maddeline Shaw, Lexi Stanerson, Kameryn Tippie, Alyson Warwick

8th- Christina Berrier, Payton Gerard, Audrey Grove, Mallory Hester, Sydney Olson, Maria Van Dee

9th- Zachary Axmear, Jacquelyn Barney, Alexis Berstler, Matthew Burlage, Grace Conrad, Adrienna Ealy, Andrew Fisher, Thomas Glandon, Hannah Greene, Alexa Grimm, Nathan Jackson, Madelyne Jordan, Jasmine Lawson, Jeffery Montgomery, Holley Stewart

10th- Grace Andreassen, Connor Armstrong, Anne Axmear, Aaron Gent, Kellan Horras-Coppinger, Andrew Kerkove, Claire Kingland, Kaitlynn Kinzler

11th- Luke Ackerman, Davis Axmear, Audrey Fisher, Brennen Grimm, Adam Grove, Samuel Schauer, Sydnie Stephenson

12th- Amanda Fisher, Paige Hester, Allison Hewitt, Jack Lawrence, Brian Nachtman, Dakota Olson, Madison Parmenter, Jessica Polton, Jessica Riegel, Sadie Westfall, Mikala Yoss

Straight A honor roll

7th- Isabella Fisher, John Fisher, Jacob Jackson, Isabel Schneider

8th- Charles Axmear, Lexie Miller

9th- Morgan Bruns, Mary Cheney

10th- Taylor Gerard

11th- Lauren Miller, Rylee Voss

12th- Samantha Banes, Emma Hester, Tempest Montgomery, Shannon Steffen

1st semester

B Honor Roll- 7-12th grades

7th- Mason Allie, Ella Coffman, Derek Dulaney, Samuel Kingland, Clayton Moore, Tianna Seaton, Emma Van Voltenburg

8th- Kathryn Clabaugh, Kelly Driscoll, Braydon Fisher, Payton Gerard, Tori Harper, Autumn Higdon, Lyla Klett, Mileah Miller, Jaden Pfannebecker, Kaiden Ray

9th- Adrienna Ealy, Michelle Ealy, Katherine Miller, Wyatt Olson, Joshua Stanley, William Tapken, Emyle Thompson, Emily Westhoff

10th- Grace Andreassen, Skyler Beal, Casey Blaylock, Dorothy Cook, Matalynn Dillon, Elleh Driscoll, Kate Duello, Dakota Gesling, Molly Irmen, Leah Kerr, Claire Kingland, Lexie Moore, Samantha Stewart, Anna Townsend, Alexis Walden, Brandon Zimmerman

11th- Darian Blaylock, Adam Grove, Taylor Harriman, Tanner Icenbice, Adam Kerkove, Anna Ross

12th- Kyle Allie, Amanda Fisher, Trevor Frazier, Paige Hester, Shay-Lea Hudson, Amelia Koehn, Dylan Miller, Jessica Polton, Allison Voss, Zoey Wiseman

A Honor Roll- 7-12th grades

7th- Maleah Ackerman, Cooper Andreassen, Loni Anthony, Jessi Armstrong, Gabrielle Ayers, Isabella Fisher, John Fisher, Jacob Glandon, Lance Gott, Jacob Jackson, Katryna Jeannette, Maddeline Shaw, Lexi Stanerson, Kameryn Tippie, Alyson Warwick

8th- Christina Berrier, Audrey Grove, Mallory Hester, Sydney Olson, Chloe Tapken, Maria Van Dee

9th- Gabriel Anthony, Zachary Axmear, Jacquelyn Barney, Alexis Berstler, Morgan Bruns, Matthew Burlage, Grace Conrad, Kristen Cox, Andrew Fisher, Thomas Glandon, Hannah Greene, Alexa Grimm, Nathan Jackson, Madelyne Jordan, Jasmine Lawson, Jeffery Montgomery, Clayton Morrison, Holley Stewart

10th- Connor Armstrong, Anne Axmear, Aaron Gent, Kellan Horras-Coppinger, Andrew Kerkove, Kaitlynn Kinzler, Rebecca Phillips

11th- Luke Ackerman, Davis Axmear, Audrey Fisher, Brennen Grimm, Lauren Miller, Samuel Schauer, Sydnie Stephenson, William Townsend

12th- Samantha Banes, Allison Hewitt, Jack Lawrence, Tempest Montgomery, Brian Nachtman, Dakota Olson, Madison Parmenter, Jessica Riegel, Shannon Steffen, Sadie Westfall

Straight A honor roll

7th- Isabel Schneider

8th- Charles Axmear, Lexie Miller

9th- Mary Cheney

10th- Taylor Gerard

11th- Rylee Voss

12th- Emma Hester, Mikala Yoss

Academic letters- based on 2nd semester 2012-13/1st semester 2013-14

10th grade- Anne Axmear, Aaron Gent, Taylor Gerard

11th grade- Davis Axmear, Audrey Fisher, Lauren Miller, Samuel Schauer, Sydnie Stephenson, Rylee Voss

12th grade- Samantha Banes, Emma Hester, Paige Hester, Allison Hewett, Jack Lawrence, Tempest Montgomery, Dakota Olson, Madison Parmenter, Shannon Steffen

Golden Grizzly Awards- Quarter 2

Junior High:

Math- Maleah Ackerman

Science- Eric Rodby

Social Studies- Devlin Knoll

English- Isabella Fisher

High School:

Math- Tayler Gerard

Science- Mikala Yoss

Social Studies- Shannon Steffen

English- Morgan Bruns

CTE-Industrial Arts- Connor Armstrong

CTE- Business- Tayler Gerard

CTE- FCS- Amelia Koehn

CTE- Agriculture- Mary Cheney

Art- Allison Hewitt

Music- Tempest Montgomery

Spanish- Adam Kerkove

Congratulations~

I am looking forward to seeing a repeat of these names in the future and new names to add!

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week of December 20, 2013- January 4, 2014

On Thursday, students and staff returned to school after the Winter Break. This day marked the first day of 3rd quarter/2nd semester.

On Friday, due to inclement weather, there was a late start. This was also the rescheduled movie day due to winter break starting a day early due to inclement weather. At 1:00 the junior high and high school were released to go to the movie that they were signed up for. They were provided with free popcorn for this event.

The gym and fitness center are coming along beautifully. On January 25 we are planning a gym dedication and we will also honor the anniversary of the girls basketball team who went to state 10 years ago. On that night our JV and Varsity girls will be playing IMS. This event will be free to all who plan to attend. The open house will begin at 4:30. Please plan to attend and tour the junior/senior high school building as well as the new gym and fitness center, we would be honored to have you attend.

It feels great to be back in session again... a new year has begun and new beginnings for many... I am looking forward to all of the wonderful plans that are ahead!

Go EV Bears!