PANTHER PRESS
December 20, 2019
TAG Students Present Donations to MCHS
Activities Minute
Upcoming home events -
* Thu, Dec. 19: JV/V WR v. Clarke, E-B-F, Central Decatur - 530 PM
* Sat, Dec. 21: JV/V G/B BW v. Bondurant-Farrar - 1000 AM (@Monroe)
* Fri, Jan. 3: JV1/V GBB/V BBB v. Bondurant-Farrar - 500 PM (@Knoxville High School)
* Fri, Jan. 3: JV2/JV1/JV2 G/BBB v. Bondurant-Farrar - 500 PM (@Knoxville Middle School)
New School Record Holder!!
On Tuesday, December 10, Knoxville High School senior Katie Keitges set the all-time record for points scored in a career in our girls basketball program. The previous record had been in place since 2010 and was held by Sam Abens - who scored an impressive 1,323 points during her career as a Panther. Just 6 games into her senior year and Katie now has 1,378 points (and counting)! Congratulations, Katie!!
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!
The ‘you shouldn’t life on game day’ Myth
A common belief by many in the sports world is that an athlete “shouldn’t lift on game day” for a variety of reasons. An article from Stack magazine does a nice job of explaining why this is a myth and research shows that lifting on game day can actually help performance in that day’s game. That article can be found here.
Logo Committee Update!
Our Logo Committee had our second meeting with Letterman Creative on Wednesday, December 18 where they presented to us two options for our new logo system! Both options were awesome and high quality; done with an exceptional level of professionalism. The artist took our input and will now make a few final revisions before coming back to us in a few weeks the the final product! Our group was very excited about what we were presented with and can’t wait to unveil this to the public!!
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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
6th Grade Science
6th grade students have a new friend named Snowball! He is a Mini Rex white rabbit with red eyes. He loves roaming around our room from time to time and has really soft fur. He is very curious, loves to flip his food bowl, and loves to chew his toys. The 6th graders have enjoyed having Snowball in our room. They bring him all sorts of treats such as his favorite treat bananas. Fun fact: Mini Rex’s fur is velvety soft because it sits straight up versus laid down like other breeds.
7th Grade Updates
The holidays are a busy time for nearly everyone and the same is true for our 7th graders! The month of December has been packed with unique and exciting opportunities for our students in all of their classes. The following is a sampling of what they have been up to in school.
The week of December 9-15 has been designated as National Computer Science week. Seventh graders along with students in all other grades in Knoxville participated in an Hour of Code Event. Recently during Advisory groups, students learned a little about how some technology developers are using coding to help build AI (Artificial Intelligence) to help identify forest fires in a more timely manner so that firefighters can be deployed more quickly. Students learned about how coding and building artificial intelligence can go hand in hand. During their Science class, 7th graders tried their hand at coding and creating a Dance Party as well as taking a crack at the idea of training a computer program to build artificial intelligence to help clean trash from the ocean. Students created some great dances and enjoyed their time sampling working with computer coding. Please check out their quotes about their coding experiences and links to some of the dances that were created by students.
In language arts class, we have been learning about theme and how to uncover what a story’s theme is. We can discover the theme by looking at a story’s title, setting, characters, and plot. We began reading A Christmas Carol written as a play from our textbook. Our students selected their roles and read to their classmates. We read many new words, so we practiced and completed an activity using Pear Deck. For this activity, our students learned their new vocabulary terms by writing a sentence and drawing a picture about each word.
The 7th graders have been using a program called FutureSmart to learn about Financial Literacy. Financial Literacy skills are a part of the Social Studies standards at every grade level. The online program is designed to empower students to effectively set goals, prepare for careers, and manage their financial future through interactive, real-life scenarios. Students work through scenarios that help them make smart shopping decisions, understand the positives and negatives of different payment methods and savings/investment plans and how to begin planning for their financial futures. The students are enjoying the program and the challenges it presents.
5th Grade Field Trip
Fifth graders from Northstar went to Weiler to learn about how math is used in manufacturing, and how doing our “Panther Best” at school is much like being safe, respectful, and responsible in the workforce. Fifth graders went through rotations including a painting simulator, human resources, engineering, measurement and the history of Weiler and their products. Some of Mr. Kincaid’s students shared their thoughts about the experience:
- Gavin Morgan was impressed at how Weiler has progressed over the years.
- Abbi Wiand was surprised at how accurate their measurements have to be.
- Bradley Hembrook was amazed at how much work goes into creating a product.
WEST ELEMENTARY
FFA PALS joined 2nd grade to teach about caribou and make adorable reindeer ornaments before the holidays.
Estimated property tax impact to fund key projects less than originally expected
The Knoxville Community School District Board of Education has approved a general bond referendum question that will appear on a special election ballot Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
The question will ask voters to approve the first phase of the district's facilities improvement plan, at a total cost of $26.25 million. If approved, the 20-year bond would have a net property tax impact of $8.79 per month on a $100,000 home, $18.53 per month on a $200,000 home and $28.08 per month on a $300,000 home.
These tax impact numbers are lower than the district and board previously expected. An approved bond would place KCSD's levy rates in the middle of comparable districts in the area—and still less than Carlisle, Melcher-Dallas, Pleasantville and Indianola.
"We are very pleased that we have found a potential solution to our facilities needs that will limit the property tax impact on our community members," said Cassi Pearson, KCSD Superintendent. "We look forward to continuing an open and transparent process that began with 20 community members on a taskforce that created the proposal to address the needs. Over 430 residents have signed the petition to call for the March 3 Referendum that could fund the necessary projects."
Phase I of the plan would include a new Knoxville Middle School building, along with air conditioning for Northstar Elementary and an HVAC system upgrade at Knoxville High School. Construction on these projects would take place between 2020 and 2022.
Phase II would be funded through the use of the one-penny sales tax (known as SAVE). It would
include an extensive renovation to Northstar Elementary and athletic facility improvements throughout the district. Construction on these projects would be scheduled for 2022 to 2024.
To learn more about KCSD's facility needs, five-year plan, and the March 3 bond referendum, please visit the Knoxville School’s website at www.knoxville.k12.ia.us.
Subscribe or Update Your Notifications for Weather Alerts
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.
KCSD VACANCIES
Please click the following link to apply for any of the following positions: http://www.knoxville.k12.ia.us/district/vacancies/
- FT Associate (West Elementary)
- Substitutes (Teachers, Associates, Child Nutrition, Bus Drivers, Custodians)
- HS Boys Tennis Coach
- MS Softball Asst. Coach
Marion County Food Coalition Calendar & Information
Marion County General Assistance M-F 8-4:30pm, Located in the Marion County Courthouse
IMPACT Community Action - Food Cards to Fareway/HyVee to be used every 6 months. *indicates food distribution day
Food Share Mobile Food Pantry: 3rd Wednesday of the month
Attica Mobile Pantry 10-10:30
Harvey 10-10:25
End of the Month Meals: New Covenant Church 315 E. Main St. Knoxville 5-545pm DEC 16-20 641-842-3176- Delivered Meals
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Celebrate Community Church
P: 641-828-7603
Email: bruce@celebratechurch.com
Marion County General Assistance/
Veteran's Affairs
P: 641-828-2201
Email: mkuhn@co.marion.ia.us
Helping Hands
P: 641-842-6933
Email: finanhollinrake@yahoo.com
Marion County Senior Nutrition (MCSN)
P: 641-205-3811
Email: jiworthington@marionph.org
Knoxville Food Youth Initiative (KFYI)
Email: robemai@mchsi.com
Email: vgoodykvikesfan@gmail.com
Email: knoxvillelibr@yahoo.com
End of the Month Meals
The End of the Month Meal program or E.O.M.M. was started in 2002 and 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.
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 typically 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:
- 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
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
Rate us on greatschools.org!
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