PANTHER PRESS
October 25, 2019
National School Bus Safety Month
National School Bus Safety Month is declared by an unanimous resolution of the U.S. Senate. The purpose is for parents, students, teachers, motorists, and school bus drivers to promote the importance of school bus safety.
KCSD employs 20 full time and part time drivers who transport approximately 2,750 students to and from school in one week. Each driver averages 215 miles and uses 27 gallons of diesel per week.
Students are about 70 times more likely to get to school safely when taking a bus instead of traveling by car. That’s because school buses are the most regulated vehicles on the road; they’re designed to be safer than passenger vehicles in preventing crashes and injuries; and in every state, stop-arm laws protect children from other motorists.
Laws protect students who are getting off and on a school bus by making it illegal for drivers to pass a school bus while dropping off or picking up passengers, regardless of the direction of approach.
In the past two weeks Knoxville Officers have responded to 7 bus stop violations occurring with our Knoxville CSD buses. Citations have been issued and lessons have been learned the hard way. Please understand there are cameras on most busses now fixed under the stop arm, allowing officers/deputies to have evidence of who was driving when the violation occurred.
Bus Stop Safety
The greatest risk to your child is not riding the bus, but approaching or leaving one. Teach your child to follow these practices to make school bus transportation safer.
Your child should arrive at the bus stop at least five minutes before the bus is scheduled to arrive. Visit the bus stop and show your child where to wait for the bus: at least three giant steps (six feet) away from the curb. Remind your child that the bus stop is not a place to run or play.
When the school bus arrives, your child should wait until the bus comes to a complete stop, the door opens, and the driver says it’s okay before approaching the bus door. Your child should use the handrails to avoid falling.
Your child should never walk behind a school bus. If your child must cross the street in front of the bus, tell him/her to walk on a sidewalk or along the side of the street to a place at least five giant steps (10 feet) in front of the bus before crossing. Your child should also make eye contact with the bus driver before crossing to make sure the driver can see him/her. If your child drops something near the school bus, like a ball or book, the safest thing is for your child to tell the bus driver right away. Your child should not try to pick up the item, because the driver might not be able to see him/her.
Help keep our children safe and be sure to THANK a bus driver for safely transporting our students.
Donation for Miss Mary Strawberry's Program
Take a Peek Once a Week
Take a Peek Once a Week: Facts about Head Lice
Assume head lice is always a concern at school.
Check your child regularly (once a week), especially if they have an itchy scalp.
If you find lice and/or nits, treat head lice with an over the counter head lice shampoo following the instructions exactly; comb-comb-comb; wash, shampoo and comb-comb-comb every night in between head lice shampoo treatments.
Wash bedding, coats, sweatshirts, and clothing. Vacuum.
Check all family members. Treat if necessary.
Did you know?
Head lice do not fly or jump? They move by crawling and are spread by direct head-to-head contact with someone who has head lice.
Spread by clothing such as hats and personal care items like combs is uncommon?
Personal hygiene and cleanliness have nothing to do with who can or cannot get lice?
The school nurse will be happy to check your child? Just call and ask: 641-891-6016.
KCSD Food Pantry
A friendly reminder that our school has a food pantry open to ALL students and families in our district!
The food pantry is located at the high school and the schedule is noted on the flier to the right. Angela Nelson and I can also help families with the pantry during other times; we have also shopped for families and taken the food to the kids at different buildings.
Please let me know if you have any questions or have students you know are in need.
Knoxville School Nurse
West Elementary: 641-842-2185
Northstar Elementary: 641-842-6527
Knoxville Middle School: 641-842-3315
Knoxville High School: 641-842-2173
Cell: 641-891-6016
Upcoming Book Fairs
The book fair is coming! Please support the Knoxville K-8 libraries by visiting the book fair during school and hours and conferences, November 1st-7th.
- Link for West Book fair
- Link for Northstar Book fair
FFA Pals Teach About Pumpkins
Our FFA pals came over and taught second graders about pumpkins. After the lesson, we were able to paint them. A special thanks to Pierce's Pumpkin Patch and the FFA for a very fun activity!
Healthiest State Walk
KHS News Goes to KCCI
Last Friday, the students who are involved in the KHS News Channel, a student led News program at Knoxville High School, were invited to come tour the KCCI studios in Des Moines. While students were in Des Moines at the KCCI studios they got to take a tour of the entire facility including the old studio room, offices, control room, studio controls, broadcast studio, interview studio, and a few other places. Students got an in-depth picture of what it is like to be involved with a live broadcast team. Students also had a chance to sit in the studio as the noon news broadcast was being filmed live. Once the news was done students had the opportunity to try using the large studio cameras, green screen for weather, and take photos around the news desk. During commercial breaks and after the show was done the two anchors let students ask them questions about their job, what got them interested in their career, and what they would need to do to make it in the TV business coming out of High School or College.
Check out an album of all the photos from our experience at KCCI.
Check out some of the KHS News posts here or below.
Activities Minute
Upcoming home events -
* Fri, Oct. 25: 9-10/Varsity football v. Newton - 500 PM
** Marching Band, Dance Team performances
* Mon, Oct. 28: HS Vocal Concert - 700 PM
* Tue, Oct. 29: Varsity volleyball v. Oskaloosa or Carlisle - 700 PM
* Fri, Nov. 1: MS Dance - 700 PM
Postseason competition is coming soon!
* All-State Music Auditions for band and chorus students are on Sat, Oct. 26 at Indianola
* Volleyball will host either Oskaloosa or Carlisle in a Regional Semifinal on Tue, Oct. 29 at 700 PM
* Girls Swimming has their Regional Meet on Sat, Nov. 2 at Southeast Polk High School
* Dance Team has State Solo Competition on Sat, Nov. 2 at Newton
* Cross Country has their State Meet on Sat, Nov. 2 at Fort Dodge
Varsity Basketball at The Well!
Our Varsity girls and boys basketball teams will again play regular season games at Wells Fargo Arena this season! We will play Newton on Saturday, January 4, 2020 - girls at 200 PM, boys at 330 PM. Purchasing a ticket gets one into our games and also the Iowa Wolves game that evening. Tickets can be purchased HERE!
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- All home events in the Knoxville High School gym and all school concerts in KPAC will be streamed LIVE on the NFHS Network! Go to www.nfhsnetwork.com for more details!
- Get schedules for all extra-curricular middle school and high school activities by going to www.knoxville.k12.ia.us and then clicking on "Activity Calendar". You can even sign-up for email notifications so whenever we make a change to a schedule - you can be notified immediately.
- Follow the Knoxville Activities Department on Instagram! @knoxvilleactivities
Mark Your Calendars!
The KHS musical will be March 6, 7, and 8th!
Auditions were conducted this week and we're thrilled to announce our cast list!
LONNY BARNETT: RILEY NEWENDORP
DREW BOLEY: LANE FRANCK
DENNIS DUPREE: CADE MCDONALD
SHERRIE CHRISTIAN: KATELYNN COLLINS
SHERRIE’S FATHER: CALEB MURRA
SHERRIE’S MOTHER: CLAIRE SCHNEIDER
THE MAYOR: MADDI GRAVES
ANITA BATH: HAYDEN HUDSON
HILDA KLINEMANN: KAILAN ETHELL
FRANZ KLINEMANN: MASON HATCH
STACEE JAXX: NASH LINSLEY
JUSTICE CHARLIER: JOHANNA LEONARD
CONSTANCE SACK: CHLOE CAHILL
JA’KEITH GILL: ETHAN MORGAN
JOEY PRIMO: REGIS DENG
WAITRESS #1: ABBY WADLE
WAITRESS #2: LILY YOCUM
WAITRESS #3: CLAIRE SCHNEIDER
ROCKER/BAND MEMBER: TANNER ERRTHUM
PROTESTER #1: SHELBY MCGRATH
PROTESTER #2: CALEB MURRA
PROTESTER #3: BRETT SNYDER
MUGGER: TANNER ERRTHUM
VENUS A GOGO GIRLS: RAEGHAN BREAZEALE, CLAIRE FAY, ANNA MCDONALD, HALLE GILCHRIST, ANNA FAY
SLEAZY RECORD PRODUCER: LAUREN MICETICH
SLEAZIER RECORD PRODUCER: CHARLIE VERMEER
PRODUCER: ANGELINA DESOCIO
RIOT COPS: CARLOS MENA, CHARLIE VERMEER
WOMAN IN SEQUIN GOWN: MADELYNN LISTON
Heidi Feldman, KHS Drama Director
DMACC Career Discovery Days
DMACC Career Discovery Days are open to 9th–12th grade students, educators and parents. Explore career pathways through hands-on activity sessions, learn about educational opportunities by hearing from DMACC instructors, and connect to future careers and professionals by touring related businesses. Click here for more information as well as see the schedule is below.
Panther Success Graduate
Notifications for School Delays & Cancellations
Knoxville Schools utilizes GovDelivery to communicate weather cancellations, delays and/or changes to district activities. We recommend all parents/guardians sign up to receive email and/or text notifications. Anyone is welcome to subscribe, including community members interested in schedule changes for activities purposes.
If you signed up in the past for this service, you do not need to sign up again but you will want to adjust notifications if your child changed to a different school building this year.
Screenshots are pictured below of the subscription process.
If you need assistance, please contact: Lisa.Willis@kcsd.k12.ia.usor 641-842-6551 opt 1.
Become a Substitute Teacher
If you hold a bachelor's degree, obtaining a substitute authorization is easy. Sign up to become a sub today through the Heartland Area Education Agency!
IMPORTANT CALENDAR DATES
Nov. 5: 2 hr early dismissal (parent/teacher conferences)
Nov. 7: 2 hr early dismissal (parent/teacher conferences)
Nov. 8: No School
KACT's Mary Poppins: Nov. 14-17
KACT's fall show, Mary Poppins, will be here before we know it! Show dates are Nov. 14-17 at KPAC.
We have 15 Knoxville students in the cast and they're excited to show the community what they've been working on since August. They're all great kids and they have a lot to be proud of!
Carol Adkins, KACT Secretary
Softball Camp Available to Knoxville Athletes: Dec. 14
End of the Month Meals Begin Nov. 18
Hello, everyone! It’s that time of year again. The End of the Month Meal program will be starting up November 18th - 22nd.
For those of you who haven’t heard of our program here’s a little bit of it’s history...
The End of the Month Meal program or E.O.M.M. was started in 2002 by Lillie Brandon of Knoxville, Iowa. God laid the need of the program on Lillie’s heart. There are a lot of elderly people on fixed incomes in our community that tend to have more month than money, especially during the colder months of November- March. So Lillie began the program with elderly people on fixed incomes as her core target. The program is community based and run by volunteers. It is a not-for-profit organization and can only continue as long as generous people are willing to donate their money, time, can food items, or grocery gift cards. Any of these donations may be dropped off at New Covenant Church at 1510 West Madison Knoxville, Iowa. If you send a check please make it out to New Covenant Church and put “E.O.M.M. program” in the memo section.
My name is Shiloh Schrader and I took over the coordinating position from Lillie in 2015. Lillie still takes care of all things financial for us though, thankfully.
We have expanded our core target since 2002 to include not only the elderly, but anyone who finds themselves down on their luck and in need of a meal. Last season we served a total of 6,564 meals to people. Our season runs from November through March. November and December begin the week before the holiday and January through March are the last full week of the month. We send out our deliveries from New Covenant Church 1510 West Madison. If people would like to have their meals delivered to them please call the church office at 641-842-3176 preferably the week before we start serving meals so that we can have an idea of how much food we need to prepare. The only information we need to have is your name, address, a phone number where we can reach you, and the number of meals you would like to have.
If you prefer to dine out you are more than welcome to go to the Jenkins Center on Main street. We provide the casserole and vegetable or salad, whichever is on the meal plan and the people from Living Word Fellowship provides the dessert, coffee, and excellent service. No questions asked.
Our meals usually consist of a casserole for the entrée, a dinner roll, a hot vegetable, or a cold “salad” (these are flip-flopped each meal) , and a dessert. I also like to have a sandwich meal at least twice during the season. This would consist of a Manwich burger, scalloped corn, cole slaw, and a dessert. Our meals are “comfort food” and are good sized portions because nobody should go hungry.
These are the dates for the 2019-2020 season:
- November: 18th-22nd
- December: 16th-20th
- January: 20th-24th
- February: 17th-21st
- March: 23rd-27th
If anyone has questions or would like to have someone talk about our program please E-mail shiloh1971@hotmail.com.
Neighbor Helping Neighbor
Download the PDF below view
https://crossmentalhealth.org for more information.KCSD ADMIN. OFFICE
The Panther Press is a weekly collective newsletter for parents & community members. If you have an article or flyer to share, please submit to Lisa.Willis@kcsd.k12.ia.us for consideration.
Stay connected by frequenting our website or following us on social media!
- High School: www.facebook.com/KHSPanthers/ & twitter.com/KHS_Panthers
- Middle School: www.facebook.com/PanthersKMS/ & twitter.com/Panthers_KMS
- Northstar: www.facebook.com/NorthstarElementary/ & twitter.com/MrKeitges
- West: www.facebook.com/knoxvillewestelementary/ & twitter.com/pantherswest
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Email: lisa.willis@kcsd.k12.ia.us
Website: www.knoxville.k12.ia.us
Location: 309 W Main St, Knoxville, IA, United States
Phone: 641-842-6551