Non-Profit US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #4 PO Box 428 Oakland, IA 51560 Postal Patron Striving to Provide the Highest Quality Education for the Communities of Carson, Macedonia, and Oakland. Riverside Community School Mission Statement The mission of the Riverside Community School District is to prepare students to meet the challenges of the future as responsible citizens in a global society. Riverside September, 2015 Volume 22, Issue 2 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: School/Community Attendance Information Movies Homecoming Information * Dr. James Sutton, Superintendent 712-484-2212 Central Office *Mr. Jamie Meek, Pre-K-6 Principal 712-484-2212 Intermediate School 712-482-6296 Elementary School * Mr. David Gute Jr.-Sr. HS Principal 712-482-6465 Jr.-Sr. High School * Don Graham Transportation 712-482-6215 Bus Garage Riverside website is www.riversideschools.org School Pictures are Tuesday, September 15, 2015 Homecoming Week starts September 28, 2015 The Riverside Community School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, socioeconomic status, or disability in its educational programs and activities and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, socioeconomic status or disability in its employment practices, or as otherwise prohibited by statute or regulation. For more information or concerns regarding educational programs or activities, employment practices or information regarding the grievance procedure, contact Dr. James Sutton, Equity Coordinator, Riverside Community School District, 330 Pleasant Street, PO Box 218, Carson, IA 51525, 712-484-2212.
DON T FORGET TO JOIN THE RIVERSIDE BOOSTER CLUBS Single Membership $15 Couple Membership $25 Gold Membership $50 Great Western Bank will be having their annual Homecoming Tailgate on Friday, October 2 nd. Everyone is invited to enjoy food and prizes at Great Western Bank in Oakland from 4:00 to 6:30 pm. A meal catered by Minden Meat Market will be available while it lasts. Great Western Bank will also continue its tradition and honor the 10 th Annual Great Teacher. The Great Teach Award is presented to a Riverside educator that goes above and beyond to help students and the district. Teachers and staff vote each year for the recipient of this award. The recipient is honored at the Tailgate and receives a plaque, as well as a gift basket full of goodies from local businesses. Pizza Pizza Pizza Once again the Pizza Cards are being sold for a fundraiser. We have moved the date up to accommodate the fundraising schedule. Here is the new twist. For the next 2 years the pizza cards are being sold as a fundraiser for the new athletic complex. All fall athletes will be asked to sell the cards to support all of our athletics. We need to purchase things like: new bases, hurdles, starting blocks, timing system and much more. We appreciate all of the support that we get from the community, and hope to see you at all of our events. The cards will be available from September 10th- 22nd. Homecoming Info* Riverside Homecoming: Victory is Sweet! (Theme) Wednesday, September 30: 7:00 pm King & Queen Coronation and Pep Rally 7:30 pm Football Jersey Auction Friday, October 2: School Pictures are Tuesday, September 15, 2015 Homecoming Week starts September 28, 2015 2:30 pm Parade through Chautauqua Park 4:00-6:30 pm Tailgate Dinner at Great Western Bank 7:00 pm Football Game: Riverside Bulldogs vs. Audubon Wheelers Following Game: Homecoming Dance at RHS for High School Students * Check the school website or Facebook page for more details. Page 2
RIVERSIDE FANS Riverside will once again be showcasing their outstanding staff, students and activities on KCSI Radio Station 95.3 FM. Riverside activities will be featured every other Thursday morning beginning September 4 at approximately 6:15 am. Please tune in to hear staff and students talk about what's going on in the Riverside School District. Thanks for your support! Mrs. Piro, Riverside K-12 art teacher, has established a website for her art classes. She is posting all her class information including the lesson plans. Here is the website: http://riversideschoolsart.weebly.com Riverside staff gathered on August 20 at the gazebo in Chautauqua Park for a picnic. Following the picnic, staff took a tour of the new building. Page 3
Meet The New Riverside Teachers Left to Right: Michaela Sieren (Science) Lisa Allen (Business) Hillary Hoffmann (Math) Miss Michaela Sieren My name is Michaela Sieren and I am the new Jr High & High school Science teacher. I will be teaching one section of 7th & 8th grade science. I will also teach Biology, Forensics, Advanced Biology, & Foundations of Chemistry. I am also coaching Jr High & High School volleyball. This is my second year as a volleyball coach. This will be my third year of teaching, but first year at the junior high level. I have always wanted to teach Jr. High and I am very excited to teach it now. My previous job was at Maple Valley Anthon-Oto CSD. I also was the volleyball & softball coach there. I am from southeast Iowa. My high school was called Keota CSD. My graduating class only had 23 students in it. It was a very rural school with 80% of the students living in the country. I actually grew up on a hog farm, but as my brother has taken it over we now raise cattle. I graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with an All-Science Teaching degree and my coaching minor. In my free time I like to play golf & slow-pitch softball. I also love to read & watch Netflix. I also attend a lot of Husker football games with my fiancé and his family. Mrs. Lisa Allen I grew up in Macedonia. I graduated from Carson-Macedonia in 1993. Attended college at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. I have been teaching for 18 years as a junior high-high school business teacher. Previous schools I have taught at are Knoxville and East Mills Jr.-Sr. High Schools. I am married and have two children. Jackson will be in 2nd grade and Daizy will be in Kindergarten. I enjoy spending time with my family and helping on the farm. I am very excited to work at Riverside. It is an excellent school district and I'm proud to be a part of it. Miss Hillary Hoffmann I'm so excited to kick this year off at Riverside Jr/Sr High School. I will teach 7th and 8th grade Pre-Algebra, Foundations of Geometry, and Geometry. I grew up in Avoca and graduated from there in 2011. I went to the University of Iowa and just graduated in May 2015, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and also received my Teaching Certificate. Having graduated from AHST, I feel like I can fit in quite nicely here at Riverside and get along with the teaching staff just fine. I know that the staff already makes me feel at home, and it will just make my time here that much more enjoyable! I can't wait to get started! Riverside Band Color Guard Left to Right: Elsie Welch, Hannah Seifert, Sydney Swope, Hayley Haines, Shae Palazzo Gute News from Junior-Senior High School (Dave Gute, 7-12 principal) Another year has started and I am happy to report that everything at Riverside Jr.-Sr. High School has started off smoothly. Most of the students are walking around with great respect for each other, the teachers, and the school building. We have deployed most of the students laptops/chromebooks and the teachers have them busy working on daily assignments, projects and papers. The students go from having limited choice with their class schedule as a freshman to being able to really set up a diverse schedule as a junior and senior. We have a lot of high-level and technical courses to get the students engaged as they move through the high school. We are able to find most any introductory college course online for our students as well. Students can get a great education at Riverside High School if they choose to do so; it also helps to have support from home. The students can also choose from 9 different sporting activities for the boys throughout the school year and 10 for the girls. We also have many different clubs that the students can get involved in at the high school. I would like to see everyone at the high school involved in something throughout the school year. If your student isn t involved in some extracurricular activity, please help me in trying to get them involved. Students who are more connected to school are more successful at school. Therefore, the more activities you can get your child involved in the better off they will be academically, emotionally and socially. We are looking forward to another great year at the jr.-sr. high school.
2015/2016 ACT Test Dates Test Date Registration Date (Late Fee Required) October 24, 2015 September 18, 2015 Sept. 19-Oct. 2, 2015 December 12, 2015 November 6, 2015 November 7-20, 2015 February 6, 2016 January 8, 2016 January 9-15, 2016 April 9, 2016 March 4, 2016 March 5-18, 2016 June 11, 2016 May 6, 2016 May 7-20, 2016 ******Register for Testing @ http//:www.actstudent.org/start****** Band During First Pep Assembly School Pictures are Tuesday, September 15, 2015 Homecoming Week starts September 28, 2015
Choir News (Kelsey Burns) August 8th-10th, 8 of our high school students participated in the Wartburg All-State Camp. These students sat through many hours of rehearsal to learn the music for All-State auditions in October. Going though the All-State process is extremely difficult and being accepted into the choir is the highest honor a high school choir kid can achieve. They'll be going to audition October 24th, in Atlantic. Good Work! Row 1: Shaelyn Palazzo, Morgan Gentile-Turner, Chris Gaynor, Sara Conway Row 2: Collin Price, Hannah Seifert, Lucas Wilber, Brent Pendgraft Hummel Insurance Services is proud to have been selected as part of an exclusive group of insurance agencies associated with Safeco Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Company, invited to participate in the Player of the Game (POTG) Program. This program highlights a high school varsity football player of the game at each home game of the Riverside Bulldogs. The player selected will receive a certificate as well as a commemorative medallion at the conclusion of the game. On August 24, 2015, Craig Hummel, on behalf of Safeco Insurance and Hummel Insurance Services, presented a check in the amount of $500 to the Riverside Athletic Department, in association with the Player of the Game Program. The Player of the Game banner was also presented, and will be proudly displayed at each home game. The presentation was made to: Dr. James Sutton, Supt., Liz Graves, Athletic Director, and Mitch Rice, Head Football Coach. Hummel Insurance Services has been proudly serving the Riverside area since 1945. Please don t forget to stick around until the end of the game to help honor the hardworking Riverside Bulldog Player of the Game! Left to Right: Dr. Sutton, Craig Hummel, Mitch Rice, Liz Graves
New Lockers? (Tami Skank) We painted lockers across from the library to look like book spines. Mrs. Kallsen picked out some of the most checked out books at the Intermediate School. 20 lockers were done and we hope to have the kids recommend books for the next section to be painted, We had some great artist stop by to help. Top: Student Artists help paint the lockers. Above: Mrs. Drake and Ms. Lejko stop by to help. Right; Mrs. Beattie adds her artistic touch.
Are You Ready for Some Good News? It s great to start another school year, and I have some great news to share regarding it. By James Sutton, Ed.D. First, let s update you on the building. At our recent construction meeting we saw the steel being installed in the center level of the building. This is the final level, and we are seeing it all come together. The kitchen has a concrete floor poured, and the stairs from level two to level three are installed and usable. The classrooms have their interior wall studs up, and the windows should begin to be installed next week. But the most exciting part of the day was watching the asphalt being poured on the new track. I couldn t help but go back in the evening. They were still working and the first layer of asphalt was about complete. Progress on the new building seems to be more noticeable than ever from week to week. Another positive that we received was related to the new building as well. Riverside has a graduate that works for a large insurance firm in Omaha. They were preparing to move to another office, and he gave us a call to see if we were interested in some of the technology and a lot of the furnishings that the company would not be taking with them. We went to take a look last week and found tables and chairs that would work in the cafeteria, conference room tables and chairs, desks that would be great in the business room, nice chairs and desks appropriate for teachers, lots of tables and chairs that would work very nicely in the alcove areas of the instructional level, high tech presentation equipment, cabinets, and more. This is ours at no cost, and the only challenge we have is how to move it out quickly and where to store it all until the new building is ready. This is some very nice furniture that looks and performs like new, and it will probably cut the cost of our not in contract list in half. We are very excited about this unexpected happening and very appreciative to the graduate who told us of his fond memories at Riverside and his desire to give back to the district. Another positive in the district has to do with our ACT scores. We started the ACT Prep program last year and enlisted the help of several community organizations to help us with scholarships for the students who completed an ACT Prep class prior to taking the test. The results are back from last year s tests, and the improvement in the scores is very impressive. Our average English score increased from 19.3 to 22.4, Math average from 19.7 to 21.2 and Reading from 21.1 to 23.0. We dropped a tenth of a point in Science from 21.6 to 21.5. We exceeded state average scores in English and Reading, something we had not achieved in the five year history that the state report gives us. Our composite score, though still one tenth below the state average, increased from 20.6 to 22.1. All of Riverside s average scores exceeded the national averages in all areas. These are terrific gains for Riverside, and I give thanks and credit to our students for their hard work, to our staff involved with the creation and operation of the program, to our community organizations that are involved, and to the John Baylor Prep classes. We hope to see more improvement next year as well. With some of the great additions to our course offerings at the high school and another year of this successful program, I don t know why we wouldn t. It s been a great start to what looks like another great year for Riverside. Top left: They are pouring asphalt for our TRACK!! Above: Retaining wall north of parking lot. Left: The kitchen gets a concrete floor.