Education

Ambitious with clear academic and career goals in mind, a group of 25 recent high school graduates in northeast Iowa are members of the first cohort of Opportunity Scholarships recipients selected this year. These students are now enrolled at Northeast Iowa Community College and beginning their second semester.

The Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Opportunity Scholarship awards $1,000 to one nominated senior from 28 area high schools. Student recipients have a demonstrated passion and interest for a career and technical program, or transferable degree, at NICC. The students selected the College as the first place to begin their postsecondary education.

Garrett Garin, a 2018 Waukon High School graduate, is one Opportunity Scholar who found the perfect career match in the College’s Computer Technology program at the Calmar campus.

The Waukon Middle School will be performing its annual spring play this Friday, March 1 at 7 p.m. in the school auditorium, with doors opening at 6 p.m. This year’s play is “30 Horrible Catastrophes of Middle School” by Kamron Klitgaard/Brooklyn Publishers. Admission can be paid at the door the night of the performance. Thirty-plus Waukon Middle School students from sixth, seventh and eighth grades (some of whom are pictured above) have been working through all the winter weather obstacles to keep this year’s play scheduled. All are invited for a night of comedy.

Waukon Middle School students in the 10th hour afterschool program have been involved in a community service project this semester. The students have been constructing fleece blankets for distribution to the Allamakee County Public Safety Departments. Waukon Police Officer Paul Wagner is pictured above receiving blankets in mid-February from some of those Waukon Middle School students. These blankets will be distributed for use in sheriff, police and highway patrol vehicles. The officers will be able to use the blankets to provide comfort to any accident or injured victims. The students plan to construct more blankets to distribute to the fire department. The 10th hour afterschool program welcomes any recommendations for assisting any other community service program. Submitted photo.
 

by Susan Cantine-Maxson

The Eastern Allamakee Community School District (EACSD) Board of Directors meeting was held at the Kee High School Superintendent’s Office Monday, February 18 at 12 noon instead of its usual evening time due to Superintendent Dr. Dale Crozier not being available for an evening session. The meeting was called to order by Heather Schulte, Board President, and board members Kelli  Mudderman, Bruce Palmborg and Heather Schulte were present. Members Bobbie Goetzinger and Melanie Mauss were absent.

After the agenda was adopted, the public hearing for the 2019-2020 school year calendar was opened. Since there were no public comments, the board approved next year’s calendar later in the meeting.

by Brianne Eilers

The Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Board of Directors met for its regular monthly meeting Monday night, February 18. Board member Erik Helgerson was absent.

Items on the consent agenda were approved including the following personnel: staff for After School Programming; Emily Stone as a para professional; Amy Wasson, Mike Shupe, Greg Criswell, Daneshia Snitker and Bridget Dolan as girls track volunteer coaches; Morgan McMillan as girls golf volunteer coach; and the resignation of Katrina McCabe was accepted. Two students were approved for open enrollment.

Two Sunday requests for gym usage were approved. The 2019-2020 software budget was also approved, as was the cooperative swimming agreement between the ACSD and Decorah, Howard-Winneshiek, MFL/Mar-Mac, North Fayette Valley, Postville, South Winneshiek and Turkey Valley school districts.

The Waukon Middle School will be performing its annual spring play Friday, March 1 at 7 p.m. in the school auditorium, with doors opening at 6 p.m. This year’s play is “30 Horrible Catastrophes of Middle School” by Kamron Klitgaard/Brooklyn Publishers. Admission can be paid at the door the night of the performance.

Thirty-plus Waukon Middle School students from sixth, seventh and eighth grades have been working through all the winter weather obstacles to keep this year’s play scheduled. All are invited for a night of comedy, silliness and down right fun.

Dodgeball, flirting, selfies, the cool bench and body spray for men could all be included among the horrors of middle school. Also included are the usual victims, as the nerds, the jocks, the preps, the punkers and many others team up to demonstrate the “worst” catastrophes of their generation in this one-act comedy about fitting in and finding acceptance.

The Waukon High School Music Department will be hosting its ninth annual Pops Concert Saturday, February 23 at the Waukon Middle School gymnasium. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with concert time at 7:30 p.m. Musical groups include the Waukon Middle School and High School Jazz Bands, Middle School Choir, JV Choir, Concert Choir, Chamber Choir, a select group of sixth grade singers, as well as the Barbershop and Sweet Adeline Quartets. The Pops Concert is an annual fundraising event sponsored by the Allamakee Music Boosters. It replaced the Spaghetti Supper nine years ago and has proven to be a very popular change by all involved and all who attend the event.

This Improvisational Acting group of Kee High School seniors was selected for the All-State Large Group Speech Festival taking place this Saturday, February 16 at the Iowa State University campus in Ames. These three members of the Kee High School Speech Department have been working together since their freshman year and for the first time received a perfect score at the February 2 State competition at Waterloo West and will now be performing at this Saturday’s All-State Festival among 23 other Improvisational Acting teams from across the state of Iowa judged to be the best in their category. Pictured above, left to right, are Anthony Martin, Jacob Berns and Logan West. They will each receive an All-State medal and will perform in front of the critic judge, Nicole Vespa of the iO Theatre located in Chicago, IL. Submitted photo.
 

The Waukon High School Speech trio of (left to right in above photo) Teddy Holthaus, Emily Kolsrud and Steven Shogren were nominated for All-State Speech for their radio broadcast titled “Delta”. They were one of three Radio division acts to be selected out of 25 competing at the State competition held February 2 at Waterloo West High School to now compete at the All-State Festival this Saturday, February 16 on the Iowa State University campus in Ames. All-State nomination requires a recommendation for advancement from at least two of the three judges at the State competition, with one judge writing “brave choice” as a comment to the Waukon High School Radio group. The “Delta” performance is set in wartime and has a very chilling ending.

Scholarship funding should pass the $1 million mark this year

The 2018-2019 Allamakee Scholarship Fund, Inc. (formerly Allamakee Dollars for Scholars) phone-a-thon to be held in February is the major fundraiser for the organization and is conducted by the student applicants in conjunction with the Allamakee Scholarship Fund, Inc. Board of Directors. Students use phone banks at Waukon High School and at Waukon State Bank and Farmers and Merchants Savings Bank in Waukon to contact area residents in an effort to collect pledges of funding for scholarships. Phone-a-thon dates this year have been scheduled for Tuesday, February 12, Tuesday, February 19 and Thursday, February 21.