Education

by Susan Cantine-Maxson

The regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Allamakee Community School District (EACSD) was held at Kee High School in Lansing Wednesday, September 12 due to a scheduling conflict with its typical third Monday of the month meeting date of September 17. The meeting included both the board’s annual reorganizational meeting at the start of the new school year, as well as regular business.

The Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Waukon Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary. To celebrate, the center will hold an open house Friday, October 5 from 2:30-4:30 p.m., following the Waukon High School Homecoming parade.

At the open house, community members may tour the Waukon Center, meet with center staff, see the improved health lab and learn more about credit courses and programs available through NICC. Root beer floats will be served at the event for attendees. The Waukon Center is located at 1220 Third Avenue NW, Waukon.

Ruffin James White-Magner, 27-year-old son of Mary Jane White and James W. Magner of Waukon who attended St. Patrick School in Waukon from Kindergarten through seventh grade, is speaking about his robotics research in security at two international conferences in Madrid, Spain held between September 29 and October 5.

His first presentation, “Leveraging Data Distribution Service Security in Robot Operating System 2,” was at the Robot Operating System Convention (ROSCon), an international annual gathering where he has presented earlier research in Vancouver, Canada (2017), in Seoul, Korea (2016) and in Hamburg, Germany (2015).

Morgan Bjerke, County Youth Coordinator at the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Allamakee County office, brought five Allamakee 4-H County Council members, Taya Duehr, Allie Bieber, Faith Palmer, Diana Davison and Ashley Liddiard (left to right in back row) to visit the fourth graders at St. Patrick School in Waukon. The purpose of their visit was to educate the students about the benefits of being active in the 4-H program. Fourth grade is the first year that youth can fully participate in local 4-H programming as club members, so the County Council representatives shared which 4-H clubs they belonged to, and explained how students could join 4-H. Submitted photo.
 

Saturday Clover Kids met September 15 at the Waukon Wellness Center, hosted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Clover Kids is a fun 4-H program specifically designed for children in kindergarten through third grades. The overall purpose of the Iowa 4-H Clover Kids program is to foster the development of life skills that are essential for the cognitive, social, emotional and physical maturation of kindergarten through third graders by providing a unique, age-appropriate educational opportunity. A total of 25 youth (most of whom are pictured above) spent the morning investigating bubbles. They had the opportunity to make their own bubble blowers and learned that bubbles always take on a round shape after they break free of the wand. They also learned that bubbles would be perfect spheres only under ideal conditions of no gravity, no air movement and non-air resistance.

The Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Waukon Center will be offering a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Workshop Monday, October 8 from 4-7 p.m. The NICC Waukon Center is located at 1220 Third Avenue NW.

This event is open to the public and is designed to help students complete their FAFSA and answer any questions. Students and parents are encouraged to attend.

To make a 30-minute appointment or for more information about the workshop, contact DeKote’ Curtin at 563-538-6575 (call or text) or curtind@nicc.edu.

To prepare for the FAFSA workshop, visit https://studentaid.ed.gov/npas/index.htm to create a FSA ID for both parent and student; that will be needed to complete the application. Bring a copy of both the parents’ and student’s 2017 taxes, W-2s and FSA ID login information to any FAFSA appointment.
 

Northeast Iowa National Alliance on Mental Illness (NEIA NAMI) Family-to-Family is a free, 12-week course for family members of an older teen or adult living with mental illness. Family-to-Family not only provides critical information and strategies for taking care of a person’s loved one, but attendees will also find out that they are not alone. Recovery is a journey, and there is hope.

The group setting of NAMI Family-to-Family provides mutual support and shared positive impact - one can experience compassion and reinforcement from people who understand mental health situations. Attendees may also help others through sharing their own experience.
In the program, attendees will learn about:

by Brianne Eilers

The Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Board of Directors met for its regular monthly meeting Monday night, September 17. Under personnel matters, the board approved staff for the After School Program, Anne Wuebker was approved as the seventh grade girls basketball coach, Cortney Ryan was approved as a paraprofessional and Kirk Snitker was approved as a substitute bus driver.

During the Iowa State University Department of Architecture’s annual kick-off celebration, Architecture Premiere, held Friday, September 7 in Ames, a total of $120,000 in awards and scholarships were presented to students. Among those awardees was Elizabeth Mahr, a 2014 graduate of Waukon High School who received the James H. and M. Suanne Stange Architecture Award, a scholarship given to fourth-year students. Mahr is pictured at left in the above photo with Deborah Hauptmann, Chairperson of Iowa State University’s Department of Architecture and Design Administration. Submitted photo.
 

Learning disorders, also known as learning disabilities, affect a person’s ability to acquire and use academic skills, such as reading and calculating.

“Learning disorders aren’t the same as mental or physical disabilities and don’t reflect a child’s intelligence,” says Elizabeth Leschensky, family nurse practitioner at Mayo Clinic Health System - Franciscan Healthcare in Waukon. “They can affect a child’s ability to complete a task, use certain skills and can also affect a child’s self-esteem and motivation.”

A number of factors can influence the development of learning disorders including medical conditions, genetics and environmental exposure. Although identification can be difficult, a child may have a learning disorder if he or she: