Fall The Bluebird Post 2007 A USD 411 Newsletter

A Quarterly Publication from the Superintendent’s Office

Upcoming dates High School Music Department • Oct. 29 HS Choir Con- to Perform ‘! The Musical’ cert Goessel High School will ance/music reviews will Voth; ----Sierra • Oct. 30 Bi-District present Snoopy! The Mu- be given for Northridge Duerksen; ----Aspen Football at Pretty Prai- sical, Nov. 9 & 10, 7:00 Elementary School, New- Frey; -Kristin Unruh; rie p.m. ton and the Goessel Ele- Peggy Jean----Jessica Go- • Nov. 5 HOA Instru- Directed by Greg Bon- mentary School. Tickets ertzen; Shirley----Jessica mental Music Honors trager, Snoopy! The Musi- are $5 and may be pur- Jesse; Sophie----Shiane De- cal features the well- chased by calling the Freese • Nov. 9-10, HS Musi- loved, quirky characters Goessel High School Of- cal from "Peanuts," Charles fice – (620)367-2242 • Nov. 20 5th & JrHi Schultz's famous comic The cast include: Band/Choir Concert strip. Snoopy, Charlie Snoopy ---Travis - Duerksen; Brown, Linus, Lucy, Wood- -Ryan Go- • Nov. 21 Dismiss @ stock and the whole gang ertzen; --- 12:30 sing and dance their way Cameron Voth; Rerun Van through this winning and Pelt-Isaac Fast; Schroe- wonderfully witty look at der----Austin Unruh; Pigpen --- the ups and downs of life. Matt Johnston; Franklin- Snoopy! The Musical cap- David Wiens; Lucy Van Inside this issue: tures the charming spirit Pelt----Katie Flaming; Sally of Schultz's unique humor Brown----Amy Brubaker; Snoopy! The Musical 1 and positive everyday out- Peppermint ----Laura Kristin Unurh and Travis look. Two special perform- Unruh; ----Chrystiana Duerksen rehearse State Assessments and 1 Standards of Excellence Ag. Ed. Tractor Restora- 2 Goessel Garners 11 Standards of Excellence tion Results are now in from In reading, students in early spring each year. Book Fair 2 the state assessments grades 4, 5, 7,8, and 11 Both buildings qualified administered last spring. achieved the standard of for the building-wide stan- Sports Page 3 Out of a total of 14 as- excellence. In math, stu- dard of excellence. sessments administered dents in grades 3,4,5,7,8, These outstanding re- in reading and math, and 11 achieved the stan- Winter sports practice 4 sults are due to a tremen- Goessel students gar- dard of excellence. These begin dous staff, outstanding nered 11 standards of ex- assessments are adminis- students and parents who District information 4 cellence across the dis- tered to students in support achievement in trict! grades 3-8 and 11 in school. Page 2 The Bluebird Post

Tractor Restoration in Ag. Ed. means far more than just a coat of new paint

Menno Fast can still remember ics at a university. In time the trac- scratch when he was featured. the excitement on the day that tor was relegated to the back cor- Experienced farmers some- his father, Isaac Fast, brought ner of the barn. It was recently do- times wonder whether young home a brand new 1929 Model nated to the Mennonite Heritage men understand the passion ‘D’ John Deere Tractor. Now the Museum, no longer in running con- that can develop for farm work dirt could really fly with the capa- dition. At this point the Museum and the bond that can develop bility of pulling a 3 bottom plow! sought the skills of Kurtis Duerk- to machinery. But for anyone But times change, and lives sen. watching Kurtis work with his change. After many hours of rid- Kurtis is a senior in the Ag. Ed. machines, it is clear his pas- ing that tractor, Menno moved on program and has already restored sion for this work runs deep. to a different field, teaching phys- more tractors and farm machinery Kurtis is not only putting a new than many men do in a lifetime. sparkle on the old ‘D’, he is put- Kurtis is now restoring the tractor ting a sparkle in the eyes of for the museum. Jerry Toews, a Menno Fast! member of the Engine Club has wit- nessed the ability of Kurtis and notes his ability to stick to a project till it is done. “Much of his learning has been hands-on” according to Toews. “He has an innate ability to figure mechanical things out and find solutions.” Farm Journal Magazine has al- ready featured him. Kurtis was in 5th grade and making his own me- Mr. Graham advises on the restoration chanically working farm toys from work being done by Kurtis Duerkesn Kurtis Duerksen and Menno Fast Book Fair Contributes to Library

The annual elementary school to use in a variety of ways. The book fair was held from Friday, Oc- money goes toward books pulled tober 19 through Monday, October from the fair to keep in the library 22. Each year, the elementary li- as well as books purchased brary runs a Scholastic Book Fair through other companies that that corresponds with parent/ aren’t available through Scholastic. teacher conferences. The money also goes to purchase Over the past eight years, the additional Accelerated Reader ma- library has averaged a total col- terials. lected amount of $2500. After We would like to thank all of our paying a percentage of the profits students, teachers, and parents for to Scholastic, the elementary li- making the book fair a big success brary gets the rest of the earnings every year! Megan Duerksen selects books. Fall Page 3

Sports Page

Football

The Goessel High School Foot- Only 16 teams advance to the ball team is moving on to the state playoffs. The winner will state playoffs for the third advance to the Regional Champi- straight year. They lost a close onship on Nov. 3. game against Claflin for the Dis- We hope lots of people can trict championship, but will ad- come out and support the team vance to the playoffs with a 7-1 Tuesday night at Pretty Prairie. record, and hopefully 8-1 after Should they win they will play the Centre game on Oct. 25. again Saturday, Nov. 3 against an They will play at Pretty Prairie on opponent and site to be named. Tuesday Oct. 30 at 7:00 pm for We wish the Bluebirds success! the Bi-District Championship.

Volleyball

The Goessel Volleyball Team team beat Hope in Regional wrapped up it’s season with a semi-finals. Hope’s record was loss in the first round of sub- 30-3. state. Traveling to Olpe, the Blue- This year’s team was very well- birds took on Leroy-So. Coffey rounded. We had strong players County, and lost 22-25, 22-25. in each position. There is much The loss brings the teams overall to be excited about in the future, record to 18-20. as the Bluebirds will return 7 of Although disappointed in the the 9 varsity players. Given an early exit from post-season, there off-season to grow, not only as are many achievements to be athletes but also as leaders, this proud of throughout the season. group will be extremely fun to The highlight of the year came watch in the future. only a week previous when the

Cross Country On Saturday, Oct. 20, the boys and two girls will compete at Wa- and girls cross country team com- mego on Saturday, Oct. 27. peted at the Cessna Activity Cen- There are five seniors completing ter in Wichita. Two girls qualified their cross country season, Jake for competition at state, Kristen Schrag, Matt Johnston, Chris Hoffman and Lindsey Wedel. As a Johnston, Ryan Goertzen and team, the girls narrowly missed Travis Duerksen. qualifying by one point. The boys There will be five girls and five team took third, qualifying for boys returning next year. state competition. The seven boys

USD 411 Winter Sports Practices A Quarterly Publication from the Superintendent’s Office Junior High Basketball practice begins on Thursday,

Dr. John Fast, Superintendent Nov. 1. Parents have a meeting at 5:30. Their first P.O. Box 68 Goessel, KS game will be at home against Canton/Galva on Nov. 67053

Phone: 620-367-4601 15th.. High School Basketball practice begins on Fax: 620-367-4603 Email:[email protected] Monday, Nov. 12. The High School opens their sea-

son at home against Remington on the 30th.

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