Liberty Newsletter Volume 36
September 15, 2019
Liberty High School
Email: kibby.scott@iowacityschools.org
Website: https://www.iowacityschools.org/LibertyHS
Location: 1400 South Dubuque Street, North Liberty, IA, United States
Phone: 319-688-1350
Twitter: @LibertyHS_Kibby
Liberty's Smore Newsletter
This newsletter is your opportunity to "stay in the loop" on all things Liberty. I run the newsletter on the 1st and 15th of each month during the school year.
Submission suggestions are always welcomed and I rely on staff members, coaches and directors to provide me with most of the outstanding photos. Thank you Liberty staff for your help in building this newslettter.
thank you
Scott
Scott Kibby
Principal
Liberty High School
Iowa City Community School District
Important Dates
Back to School Night: Wednesday, September 4 (6:30-8pm)
Conferences (4:15-7:45)
Tuesday, October 1
Wednesday, October 9
Wednesday, January 22
Wednesday, April 15
Dances
Homecoming: Saturday, September 28
Winter Dance: Saturday, February 15
Prom: Saturday, May 2
2020 Graduate dates
Cap and Gown Meeting: Thursday, October 24, 10:15am
Senior Awards Ceremony: Wednesday, May 13
Senior Scholarship evening: Monday, May 18
Graduation rehearsal: Thursday, May 21
Graduation: Sunday, May 24, 7pm at Carver-Hawkeye Arena
National Merit Scholar Semifinalists
On September 11, officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
I am pleased to share that Liberty High has its first Semifinalist Students being recognized in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program in school history. These four Liberty High School seniors are among the top one percent of students nationwide to be named National Merit Semifinalists.
The following 4 Liberty High seniors have been designated as Semifinalists:
Elizabeth Davis
Razan Karar
Sushma Santhana
Harrison Voigt
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 Merit Scholarship awards, worth $31 million, that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements and advance to the Finalist level of the competition.
For more information on the National Merit scholarship testing program see the link below on the PSAT
PSAT coming soon
Why take the PSAT?
- Practice test for the SAT
- Juniors only- entry step into scholarship program: National Merit Scholarship Program
The PSAT is an Optional test for 10th and 11th graders
When: Wednesday, October 16th.
Time: Students will check in at 7:45 am, and testing will start promptly at 8:00 am.
Where: Aux. Gym
Cost: Free
Deadline to sign up is September 18th in the counseling office.
Youth Salute
Congratulations to Kayli Baldwin, Grace Brusegaard, Elizabeth Chen, Elizabeth Davis, Scott Dill, Grace Ellis, Corissa Gavin, Ella Johnson, Razan Karar, Jasmine Miftahof, Camber Oldham, Kate Randle, Megan Ries, Sushma Santhana, Cora Saunders, Lauren Siems, Isabel Smith, Sierra Suiter, Harrison Voigt, Stella Warren and Kaleb Williams.
Additionally, Scott Dill, Camber Oldham and Harrison Voigt received scholarship money.
Thank you Seniors for representing yourself and Liberty so well!
The attached link is a press release from Hills Bank. https://www.hillsbank.com/youth-salute
Conferences are Coming
Career Exploration Opportunities (Job Shadows/Internships)
The Workplace Learning Connection through the Kirkwood Regional Center partners with Iowa City Schools to offer quality career exploration experiences through the job shadow and internship programs. The job shadow program offers students in grades 10, 11 and 12 an opportunity to explore, observe and converse with a local professionals to expand their career knowledge and understanding.
Job Shadows for 10th, 11th and 12th grades
Fall 2019:
The Portal is now open: Applications due no later than 3 pm on September 20, 2019
Go to www.workplace-learning.org click on Job Shadows and start exploring.
or you can Contact career development coordinator Rick Spear in room F31 or email him at
spear.rick@iowacityschools.org to learn more.
Music Auxilary Car Wash, September 21
The North Liberty location is Hills Bank, 590 Forever Green Road, North Liberty
Dine Out for Education
Hope you will plan on dining out for our schools on Thursday, September 26!
Plan on visiting one (or more) of the 42 Dine Out restaurant locations listed HERE! You can dine in or carry out all day long . . . breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Each of the restaurant partners listed will donate 10% of their daily sales back to benefit our schools and students!
If your group is planning to order in at school on Thursday, here is a link to onlinemenus. (For delivery and group orders, the restaurants appreciate several days’ notice for planning and staffing purposesJ).
Happy dining and thanks for your support!
#gethungryforeducation
Homecoming Dance September 28
The annual homecoming dance is Saturday, September 28 from 7:00PM until 10:00PM in the Liberty High School Commons.
Tickets will go on sale beginning Wednesday, September 25 in the Liberty Main Commons.
Tickets are $5 and must be purchased in advance. No tickets are sold at the dance.
Students must bring their ticket and student ID to the dance on Saturday night.
The dance ends promptly at 10:00PM.
ELP meeting
On Tuesday, September, 17 during Liberty Time, Mr. Bergmann will be presenting information to ELP (Extended Learning Program) identified Sophomores and Juniors in the Auditorium regarding college admissions testing.
An email invitation has been sent notifying students and a reminder will be sent out that day as well. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Bergmann at bergmann.troy@iowacityschools.org.
Senior Class Meeting is coming
Yearbook will share senior photo information.
Additionally, the counseling department has information regarding getting ready for graduation and post secondary information.
I know it seems early to be talking about graduation, but we do a lot of planning to make the end of the year go well. Please have your students attend. Thank you
Club Opportunities at Liberty
Liberty has a rich and diverse set of club options for students.
We ran a club fair during lunches last week for students to discover all that is offered.
here is a link to slides with more information regarding most of our clubs.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nOJRkXYGaWW34M9OgV8DtuhWnAZcqFtQ5purFC34pjk/edit?usp=sharing
Construction Phase 3
The project is still scheduled for completion in June 15, 2020 and should be fully functional for the 20-21 school year
1) The satellite bus depot is nearly complete and will be used as the home base for our contractor for the 19-20 school year. It will serve our community as a bus depot in the 20-21 school year.
2) 21-classroom addition has floors that are poured in the first floor classrooms.
3) A fully secure "hard-scaped" courtyard is taking shape
4) The additional activity parking lot on the far western portion of campus was used for the first home game
SFA News and our Food Pantry
Our food pantry is now open for the 2019-2020 school year! The pantry is stocked with many items including, cereals, pasta, cooking oils, snacks, hygiene products, and much more! If you are interested in accessing the food pantry, please contact our Student & Family Advocate, ShaNell Young at 319.688.154 ext.3019 or Young.Shanell@iowacityschools.org.
GO BOLTS!
Staff Spotlight-Heidi Gartelos
Heidi Gartelos is in a new position as a Special Education Social Worker serving both Liberty and North Central Junior High. In this position, she intends to increase mental health support options for Special Education teachers, students and families. IHeidi has a master’s degree in Social Work and licensed at the clinical (LISW) level. For the past few years, she worked as a Student and Family Advocate at NWJH and particularly love working at the Secondary level. She believes in the benefit of an inclusive learning environment and the importance of having a whole student approach when working with students and families.
Heidi grew up in Minnesota in a family that fostered a love of the outdoors. This later blossomed into employment as a Backcountry guide in Montana with court-appointment youth as well as hiking the Appalachian Trail. Later she worked as an International Adventure Travel Guide in Australia, Fiji and Costa Rica.
Heidi and her husband are raising two children Nikolai (10) and Anika (9) who are students at the new Hoover Elementary school in SE Iowa City. We also claim a crazy rat terrier dog named Banjo and a bearded dragon named Claire.
Heidi is excited to be at Liberty High School and looks forward to working with this amazing team!
Staff Spotlight-Chad Caudill
Chad Caudill is a school psychologist with Grant Wood AEA. He was born and raised in Iowa. His alma mater is the University of Iowa. Go Hawks! Currently, Chad serves Liberty and West High School. Chad has been at Liberty since it's creation and has enjoyed the wild ride that has been Liberty. Go Bolts! Primarily, He work with teachers and students within the department of special education. Chad serves on the PBIS team here at Liberty and has seen how it has grown and flourished with an amazing and dedicated team.
Previous to working with Grant Wood AEA, Chad worked in Chicago as a mental health counselor in an in-patient psychiatric pediatric to geriatric hospital, as well as, a school psychologist for Chicago Public Schools for five years. Over the course of his career, he has worked as part of an early childhood assessment team and pre-K through 12th grade. For the last handful of years, Chad has been working exclusively with secondary students. Every year of a young person's life is equal to so many changes and high school students are definitely unique!
Chad and his wife are raising two girls, Eleanor who is four and just started pre-school (there may have been a few tears) and Elowin, who is three years old. Elowin or Winnie as we call her, is very excited to start school next year. Chad loves working at Liberty with you'all and look forward to another fantastic year!
Counseling Office News
Liberty Counseling Scholarship site for 2019-2020 is active. Please click on here to see what scholarships are available.
The counseling office has their own smore and it's linked here https://www.smore.com/s4pux
Who's My Counselor? (by students last name)
A-G Troy Bergmann, bergmann.troy@iowacityschools.org
H-N Jenni Naughton, naughton.jennifer@iowacityschools.org
O-Z Mayra DeVries, devries.mayra@iowacityschools.org
Upcoming Post Secondary visitors
Army-September 18 at 11:15am
National Guard-September 18 at 1pm
Grandview College-September 19 at 1pm
Oberlin College-September 19 at 2pm
Simpson College-September 20 at 1pm
University of Northern Iowa-September 23 at 1:30pm
Air Force-September 24 at 12:3pm
Quincy University-September 24 at 1:30pm
PSTO
A Welcome from PSTO President Marissa Keeney: I want to thank Sandy DeSchinckel for her leadership last year!
Here are a list of our PSTO board members for 2019-2020:
· President: Marissa Keeney
· President Elect: Julie Schmidt
· Secretary: Deb Wagner
· Treasurer: Shawn Eyestone
· Volunteer Coordinator: Lyse Strnad and Azeez Butali
· DPO Rep: Jacki Marquardt
We plan to keep the meetings on the same schedule as last year - 4:45 on the third
Wednesday of the month in the Liberty Library.
September 18-Counselors are speaking on Ican and FAFSA forms for seniors applying for financial assistance
October 16-Rick Spear is our guest speaker with an emphasis on Job Shadows and Internships
November 20-Justin Colbert is our guest speaker and will be sharing our PBIS journey
December 18-Officer Scott Sammons of the North Liberty Police will be our speaker discussing teen issues in the community including, "vaping"
January 15-tba
February 19-District Directors Coreen Frank and Lora Daily are our guest discussing district systems of supports for students
April 15-Shanell Young is our guest speaker and will be discussing the role of the Student Family Advocate at the High School level
May 20-tba
(no March meeting due to Spring Break)
If dates or times change, we will send an email notification. Meetings are a great forum
for learning about what is happening at Liberty and to support the Liberty staff in the
mission to provide a great learning experience for the students. Everyone is welcome
and we would love to see you there!
The PSTO primarily uses Sign Up Genius to obtain volunteers for any school events or
donations needed throughout the year. We will communicate these via email. We
greatly appreciate the willingness of parents to help provide for the needs of staff and
students.
Thanks,
Marisa Keeney
Liberty PSTO President
Email: libertyhspsto@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LibertyPSTO/