Clarion-Goldfield and Dows Community School Districts Cowboy Chronicles May 2013 From the Desk of Superintendent Dr. Robert Olson Housing and Enrollment funding purposes the following year. The graph below The Clarion Goldfield Community School District and City shows enrollment generally declining the past eleven of Clarion are in the process of swapping land to make room for a housing project east of the high school. The school is years, with a high of 177.2 in FY04 to the current low transferring ownership of seven acres of land south of a line of 124.3 in FY14. These numbers include all resident extending Willow Drive for land on which the football field students grades K-12. This includes students tuitioned to and track are built. Although most may assume the football Clarion-Goldfield grades 6-12 (61.3) and students open field is on school property, it is actually City property. By enrolled to other districts (13). The remaining 52 student trading existing assets, the cost of lots in the proposed in grades K-5, are educated in the elementary school in housing project area are kept to a minimum. The Vocational Dows. Agriculture Department will continue to farm land north of the housing project. The lack of affordable housing in Clarion continues to be a problem. A lack of housing has limited growth in City population and student enrollment. Despite a growth of over 500 new jobs in the community in the last five to ten years, a lack of housing forced new employees to look for housing in surrounding towns. For example, Hagie Manufacturing reported that 60% of their employees do not live in Clarion. It is hoped that this housing project and plans of a senior condominium project will loosen the tight job market and The enrollment trends represented in the next graph, more families will move to town. It is anticipated that this reflects the years between FY2008 and FY2014. Two would help the City, local businesses and school. Reorganization Update sets of numbers are included in this graph, Certified and The next public meeting in Dows will be held in conjunction BEDS enrollment. Certified enrollment includes all with Open House, on Thursday, August 15. Open house is resident students, for which the district is responsible. scheduled between the hours of 6:00pm to 7:00pm. The The majority of these students attend school in Clarion- meeting will be held at 7:15 in the gymnasium. Goldfield but also includes students open enrolled or The next public meeting in Clarion-Goldfield will be held tuitioned to other districts. BEDS enrollment are all after its open house, scheduled to be held on Monday, students being educated in Clarion-Goldfield. This August 19 in the elementary/middle school gymnasium. includes open enrollment students and tuitioned students The meeting will also begin at 7:15. from other districts. The majority of the difference Between now and the time of these meetings, information between the two sets of enrollment figures are due to concerning the proposed reorganization will be shared in the students tuitioned from Dows to Clarion-Goldfield. district newsletter, official newspaper and mailings. Enrollment History This month, the history of enrollment in the Dows CSD and Clarion-Goldfield CSD is shared. It has been said that, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. It is hoped that graphs representing district enrollment will do the same. The first line graph represents certified enrollment from the fall of 2002 to the fall of 2012. The graph shows FY03 to FY14. This is due to enrollment counted the previous year, used for Elementary Enlightener Preschool By: Tricia Rosendahl Roundup It is hard to believe it is already May and we are in our final The Clarion-Goldfield month of school. Time sure flies when you are having fun. We Elementary School is proud have had a great year of school and hope your students feel the to announce Preschool same way. Thank you for sharing them with us this year. It has Reminder Round-Up for the 2013- been our pleasure to work with them and with you. It is when we 2014 school year. The date work TOGETHER that we all ACHIEVE more! has been set for Thursday, May 2nd at In May we will be hosting Preschool Round-Up. The date is 6 PM. The meeting will be held in the nd set for Thursday, May 2 . Preschool Round Up will be held from Multi-purpose room of the Elementary 6 – 7 PM. If your son or daughter will be age 3 or 4 by September building. ALL parents wanting their th 15 and you are interested in 3-year-old or 4-year-old preschool child to participate in 3-year old or please attend this night for more information. Remember, due to 4-year old preschool in the fall should attend this the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Grant our 4-year old program meeting. Plan to hear all about the different options will once again be free for families. Our 3-year old program will for preschool next year. Attendance at this meeting is have a small monthly fee. Join us on May 2nd to find out more very important and is for parents only; we hope to see about our Early Childhood programs. you there! Please call the school office if you I am pleased to announce that in our elementary we have have any questions or concerns. (532-2873) successfully achieved 100% conference attendance once again. We are glad each and every one of you took time to come in and visit with us to share about your child’s progress. We appreciate Answers to the instruments pictured on the last page: all your extra efforts to make it to school! #1 – Shekere As we get closer to summer please remember to take time to read #2 – Clatterpillar each day. Over the summer there are many great opportunities at #3 – Double Tone Blocks the public library for summer reading. 10 – 15 minutes a day will #4 – Guiro #5 – Cowbell help your child maintain their skills and will make the start of the #6 – Djembe Drum school even smoother for them in the fall. The family that reads together succeeds together. Have a Marvelous May everybody! Fifth Grade Propaganda Assignment By: Mrs. Cero Fifth grade students have been very busy in writing class creating new soft drinks, cereals and candies. They designed an advertisement, slogan EARTH DAY and symbol to market these new products. Last, APRIL 22, 2013 they had to write a sales presentation and “sell” their product to the class. We have some very creative marketers in our class! By Tanja Sanders, 5th grade science instructor This product was done in collaboration with The 5th grade students recently covered an environmental a NIACC sponsored program called E4D unit dealing with Earth Day and learned ways to become a more (Entrepreneur For A Day). This program teaches environmentally friendly citizen. We discussed how to become the fundamental principles of entrepreneurship more “green” and each student had an assignment to do an Earth Day project. Some chose recycling, some planted flowers, some and how to start a business. The fifth graders will cleaned up parks and ditches. They also had to take a tin can and be going on a field trip to NIACC where they will recycle and reuse it. learn how to be entrepreneurs, market designers, We also created posters for the hall to help alert others about production managers, quality control people, and Earth Day and what they can do. accountants. Dows Roundup Tuesday, May 7th Kindergarten at 6:00 & Preschool at 7:00 Keep Your Bodies Clean! was the lesson Nurse Children must be 5 or 3 Emily taught the Dows’ Kindergarten and First by September 15, 2013 Grade class recently. Following the lesson, the Please bring a copy of students had the opportunity to form their own the child’s birth soap sculptures. The students looked forward to taking the sculptures home and putting them certificate and to good use!! immunizations records Field Trip Fun with K/1 The Dows’ Kindergarten and First Grade class attended a puppet play about friendship and perseverance last week at MacNider Art Museum in Mason City. The top three favorites about the play included; 1) how the storyteller could change her voice 2) all the different sparkly props and 3) getting to sit in the front row!! They then moved on to the Rose Bowl to eat their sack lunches and practice their friendship skills. They also reviewed their addition facts to 10 as they kept score for each player on the overhead LCD screen. Everyone had quite a memorable day and more than a few of the students commented they would be asking their parents to take them bowling again!! Coming Soon to Dows Elementary USAgain is a green company committed to reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment through the collection of unwanted textiles in an effort to conserve resources, fight climate change and offer affordable clothing to people worldwide. You might be familar with recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans but textiles become garbage just like everything else when thrown away. In fact, discarded clothing is clogging up landfills at an alarming rate – it’s the second most wasted product in America. Fortunately, there is an environmentally friendly option for everyone to get rid of their un- wanted clothing and shoes – USAgain has saved millions of pounds of textiles from clogging landfills. Our school’s community can contribute and make a difference to protect the environment by dropping off unwanted clothes and shoes.