How can we thank you?

The Sioux Center Community Schools, the Sioux Center School Board of Education, and the Kinsey Elementary School Administration and staff would like to thank ALL of the many people that volunteered and assisted with the installation of the new playground.  Although the project became frustrating at times, your persistence, dedication, and service to our school district and our young students was amazing.  We cannot begin to express our appreciation for the hours upon hours of work and effort you put forth to a project that will be enjoyed by the children at Kinsey and our community for many years to come.

“I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.”

 ~William Shakespeare

Smith Class Action Suit

A class action suit was filed by the Adel-DeSoto-Minburn School District against Martin Brothers Distributing and the Iowa Association for Educational Purchasing..  The premise of their suit was that Martin Brothers conspired to restrain competition in the market for the retail sale of food to schools and that Martin Brothers attempted to monopolize that market in violation of Iowa antitrust laws.

The settlement agreement was filed with the Clerk of District Court in Dallas County on July 31.

The key points of the Martin Brothers settlement in the case are these:

·         Martin Brothers will pay $1,925,000 to create a settlement fund which will provide monetary relief to the settlement class.

·         The settlement class is anyone who paid for a school lunch between January 1, 2000, and July 31, 2014.

·         A third party will arrange to have notices published in an attempt to reach 88% of Iowa’s residents.  This means that notices will be published in 14 of Iowa’s largest newspapers.  The notice will direct interested persons to a website.

·         Individuals in the settlement class may complete and submit paperwork to receive reimbursement.  Individuals in the class may receive $3.50 for each year they attended a participating school district up to a maximum of $50.00.

·         Any funds remaining after attorney’s fees and class members receive their payments will be paid to participating school districts on a pro rata basis.

WHO Television in Des Moines, Iowa provided the article linked here which provides a brief description of the lawsuit.

http://whotv.com/2014/09/02/refund-for-parents-in-school-lunch-settlement/

Iowa School Food Settlement - Link to file a claim 

https://gilardisecure.com/iowaschoolfoodsettlement/Claimant/ClaimForm 

NEEDED: BUS ROUTE DRIVERS

The Sioux Center Community School District is in desperate need of bus route drivers.  Anyone interested please call Ken Dokter at 712-722-2985

Kudos

• To custodial staff for all of the extra work in getting Kinsey and the rest of the buildings ready for the first day of school
• To Kinsey staff for being flexible with the building projects and putting in extra time to get their classrooms ready for the start of the school year.
• The many volunteers that helped to put up the new Kinsey playground.
• Ken Dokter and the transportation team.

Kudos

«  To Nea Nyholm, who won a medal for “Best in Drawing” a medal for “Best in Painting” and she won the Teacher’s Choice Award at the Siouxland Art Conference Student Showcase. 

«  To the Middle School boys and girls track teams who won the Little Lion invitational on Tuesday

«  To the Middle School math kids did a super job in the Math bee

«  To The Warriors Boys Track team who won the Siouxland Conference track meet making it the third title this year (District football, Siouxland basketball).  Conference champs:were

o    4x400 Relay team (O'Donnell, Stewart, Kortlever, Borchers),

o    Shuttle Hurdle Relay team (Van't Hof, Bakker, Hooyer, Rozeboom)

o    110m hurdles – Dylon Van't Hof

o    400m hurdles - Dylon Van't Hof

o    800m Run – Chris Borchers

o    3200m Run – Haile Duden

«  To the members of the Warrior Girls Track team who finished 2^nd in the Siouxland Conference meet.  Conference Champs were

o    4x200 Relay (Kortlever, Sitzmann, Beaver, Boer)

o    4x800 (Harald, Sitzmann, Verburg, Miranda Mouw)

o    4x100 (Kortlever, Aubrey Sandbulte, Beaver, Katie TeGrotenhuis)

o    400m Hurdles Payton Boer

The use of percentages to grade students is mathematically flawed and unfair to students

The use of percentages to grade students is mathematically flawed and unfair to students. If you ask someone the temperature today, do you want him to give you the actual temperature or an average of the temperatures of the last 10 days? Which is more accurate? In a worker’s paycheck, would he want to see his actual week’s pay, or an average weekly pay which includes weeks before a pay raise?

It is unfair to students to include grades from their attempts to learn averaged in with the grade that shows their true final learning. Example: In teaching the learning target “writing informational text,” parents have the right to know how well their students can actually perform the skill without averaging in grades from their initial drafts. That’s an unfair practice.

Standards Based Grading resolves this issue.  Students are assessed on what they know and can do.