Tescott 1st grade students learn

about graphing by helping Mrs. Ehlers

make the graph completer on the

mimeo board. They continue the les-

son by working on their worksheets

where they complete the graphs and

then solve problems from the data

they collected.

S a n t a T o o k T i m e o u t t o v i s i t P A T

C h i l d r e n

T e s c o t t 1 s t G r a d e r s L e a r n

A b o u t G r a p h i n g

B E N N I N G T O N / T E S C O T T

February 2013

Even Santa took a break

from the hustle and bustle

of the busy workshop and

the elves to pay a special

visit to our Parents At

Teachers kids at their sto-

rytimes at both Bennington

and Tescott Schools. He

even brought a small Christ-

mas gift for all that came.

Twin Valley Schools

February 2013

The Tescott School has been awarded Certificates of Recognition from the

Confidence in Public Education Task Force. These awards recognize

schools for outstanding achievement and uncommon accomplishments

based on Kansas Assessment results from 2012 and other qualifying fac-

tors. Tescott was among the sixty state schools meeting the Challenge

Award criteria and identified as high performing. The following certificates

were presented for: 3rd grade reading—Mrs. Abell, 6th grade reading & math—Mr. Anderson, 11th

grade reading, English, and math—Mr. Scheef & Mr. Butler. Teachers not pictured below: Mr. Scheef

& Mr. Butler

*Approved bills in the amount of $146,228.98.

*District moved to employ Kansas Association of School Boards to assist in the search for a new superintendent.

*Appointed Robert Miller and Sara Hodges as negotiations representatives for the board for 2013-2014 contract year

and to appoint Phil Aumick as substitute representative if required.

*Authorized Superintendent Harlan to sell suburban T-62 and purchase a used 35-44 passenger bus.

*Accepted the bid from Precision Electric for camera security systems.

*Approved the attendance of one our of district student at Bennington High School, one at Tescott Grade School and to

deny attendance to one out of district applicant to Bennington Grade School.

*Accepted the resignations of Becky Holliday as Bennington Vocal Music Instructor effective at the end of the semester

and David Butler as THS Math Instructor effective at the end of the school year.

*Approved to hire Theresa Cannefax as Bennington Vocal music instructor as of December 20, 2012.

January Minutes:

*Approved bills in the amount of $80,041.24.

*Approved the attendance of 1 out of district student at Bennington High School, 1 at Tescott Grade School and to deny

attendance to one applicant.

*Accepted the resignation of Robert Murray as Bennington High School Instructor, Melissa Baliey as Tescott Grade

School Instructor and Bill Scheef as Bennington High/Tescott High instructor effective with the 2013-2014 school year.

*Approved to hire Sylvia Kvacik as half time English teacher at Tescott High School and Bill Scheef as 3/8 time district

instructor effective with the 2013-2014 school year.

Congratulations girls for receiving these honors;

Alison Rush (Senior) All League Honorable Mention

Jordyn Kurtz (Junior) Second Team All League

Shiland Fuller (Junior) All League Honorable Mention

T e s c o t t A w a r d e d C e r t i f i c a t e s

o f R e c o g n i t i o n

D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 2 & J a n u a r y 2 0 1 3

S c h o o l B o a r d M i n u t e s

A l l L e a g u e V o l l e y b a l l

H o n o r s

Congratulations to the November stu-

dents of the Month!

Front Row (L-R): Juli Hunley, Hannah

Holob, Akeena Pryor.

Back Row: Bella Dunn, Alex Hunley,

Remington Peterson, Victoria Srna

Not pictured: Karina McMillen

B G S / B J H N o v e m b e r & D e c e m b e r

S t u d e n t s o f t h e m o n t h

Congratulations to these November students of the month!

Front Row (L-R): Charles Crook, Jase Adam, Kasyn Dunn,

Camryn Wood, Nicholas Fletcher, Antonio Janssen.

2nd Row: Chloe Harmon, Brittany DeWitt, Avery Feil, Dallys

Carr, Eli Lawson, Tristan Blundred.

Back Row: Connor Alexander, Denise Ragnoni, Taygen Wat-

son, Alexis Watson, Levi Walters, William Oldham.

2nd Photo: Wryder Stockamp

T e s c o t t S t u d e n t s o f t h e

M o n t h f o r N o v e m b e r &

D e c e m b e r

Congratulations to the December students of the Month!

Front Row (L-R): Austin Miller, Dawson Lee, Benjamin

Case.

2nd Row: Gage Bowling and Kaden Quiles

Back Row: Cierah Maltbie, Sarah Evens, Kylie Flax

Congratulations to these December students of the month!

Front Row (L-R): Madison Simmons, Tambryn Watson, Derek John-

son, Kaiden Wachs

2nd Row: Davin Coil, Gunner Brummett, Nate Ohlson, Kaleigh Har-

baugh, Logan Rook, Bailey Mader

Back Row: Terren Andrews, Shanna Wooldridge, Josh Siemsen, Kait-

lyn Hensley, Daniel Watson, Colton Bradford.

2nd Photo: Sam Gantenbein & Phillip Ardis

3rd Photo: Savannah Coil

WERE ON THE WEB WWW.USD240.ORG

The Tescott 6th through 12th grade first

semester honor roll students were treated

to a “special breakfast” on Tuesday, Janu-

ary 8th. The students cam to the cafeteria

during 1st block to tables decorated with

blue and white table clothes, reserved just

for honor roll students. They were treated

to omelets, juice, sausage, bacon, fruit,

cinnamon rolls, and milk. Thank you to Bet-

ty Loy for making the morning special. Con-

gratulations to all of the 1st semester honor

roll students!

B r e a k f a s t f o r H o n o r s t u d e n t s !

All November & December

students of the month

were treated to a pizza

party for there hard work

and success. Each student was able to bring a

guest of their choice to this occasion. Congrats to

all!

P i z z a P a r t y !

F i r s t S e m e s t e r H o n o r

R o l l T G S / T H S

Alpha 4.0—

6th grade: Karsyn Lee; 9th grade: Kyra Bieker

Principal’s 3.5-3.99—

6th grade: Sarah Evens, Daniel Torres 7th grade: Jay Bieker, Kassidy King, Logan Srna, Taylor Wirtz 8th

grade: Diedre Evens 9th grade: Colton Hillegeist, Kaitlynn King, Devon Lee 10th grade: Celia Alonso, Tesla

Madsen 11th grade: Shiland Fuller, blaine Hayden, Amanda McCosh, Makayla Webb 12th grade: Allison

Rush, Samantha Rush

Scholastic 3.0-3.49—

6th grade: Tommy Cooper, Dillon McCosh, Cassidy Peters, Victoria Srna, Arica Webb 7th grade: Tessa Bremer-

man 8th grade: Cameron Kurtz, Brock Smith 9th grade: Cole Perry 10th grade: Joel McCosh, Aspen Owens

11th grade: Jacob Falder 12th grade: Karyn Bieker

B H S 1 s t S e m e s t e r H o n o r R o l l

Alpha 4.0-

12th grade: Lindsay Curl, Kaylee Long, Adam Schieferecke, Madison Wolf 11th grade: Holly Burt, Taryn Glissman, Ge-

neva Masse, Gunner Mick, Danielle Nay, Ryan Ostenberg, Alessia Pantani, Dwight Pearson 10th grade: Jude Dep-

perschmidt, Josh Fief, Jenna Gantenbein, Michaelyn Laflen, Parker Montgomery, Dustin Stanley 9th grade: Cyrus

Haynes, Abby Jurgensmeier, Kyler Mick

Principal’s 3.99-3.5-

12th grade: Jacob Arnold, Alexis Cochran, Nicole Everhart, Jashandre Favors, Zach Fief, Lucas Garrett, Kasie Garrison,

Casey Herring, Keegan Reeves, Brittany Scheele, Marissa Scheele, Cameron Stanley, Derek Stanley, Erick Underwood,

Austin Werner, Katey Whitesell 11th grade: Sydnie Glavin, Ryein Hensley, Erica Jones, Mackenzie Mallory, Kristen

Mann, Rhiana Martin, Hannah Rohleder, Kylie Wagner, Jesse Weis, Trevor Wood 10th grade: Tyler Appleby, Kayla

Chance, Keely Fellers, Kaitlyn Jackson, Mikayla Reed, Kayla Schlachter 9th grade: Aaron Crowder, Delaney Ellis, Jo-

seph Isaacson, Madeline Schmidt, Jayme Sloan, Luke Snyder, Olivia Stewart, Bryan Weary

Scholastic 3.49-3.0—

12th grade: Hanna Frederick-Miller, Zane Hensely, Karson Kindall, Shantel Sandin, Jacob Stewart, Haley Swanson, Kar-

li Varnadore, John Wagner 11th grade: Drake Juenemann, Kajaunza Mills, Paula Olbrig, Heath Thornhill, Casey Wal-

ters, Lexi Watts, Gabriella Youngquist, Donavon Zamecnik 10th grade: Mickinzi Burrow, Gabby Cooper, Faith DeWitt,

Ian Hodges, Kyle Kieborz, Weston Lampe, Jacob Matney, Elise Vishnefske 9th grade: Aubree Anderson, Sierrah Baffa,

Kindra DeWitt, Cyleste Frame, Jacob Isaacson, Brad Jones, Ashley Junemann, Kody Kind, TJ Ragnoni

S t u d e n t s P a r t i c i p a t e i n

H o n o r B a n d !

Congratulations to Bennington 8th grade students Andrew Stratman and Trey

Wood! The students were nominated and selected to participate in the 2013

North Central Kansas District Music Education Honor Band. Junction City Middle

School was the host site from over three hundred junior high students represent-

ing both band and choir members fro north central Kansas. Andrew (trumpet) and

Trey (percussion) along with close to 100 band students played under the director-

ship of Mr. Donald Linn, Assistant Director of Bands at K-State University. The

band students rehearsed for nearly four and a half hours on Saturday, January

19th then performed a concert that included the following four pieces: U.S.S Hor-

net, Joy!, John Williams Trilogy, and The Red Balloon.

G i v i n g T h a n k s i n M r s . H o f f l i n g e r ’ s

3 r d G r a d e

Thank you to Mrs. Hofflinger’s 3rd Grade

class for their annual Thanksgiving Day Play.

The class performed for Parents, Guests, and

Students of Bennington Grade School. All

donations to the class will go to the Ottawa

County Angel Tree for kids in need.

Let’s just say that the grades given in high school are a reflection of the content learned. That is all fine and well. So if

your child is getting a D or an F, you have a good idea that they are not learning anything….if we follow the premise above.

What would school be like if the school required the student to learn?

Today Johnny took a Chapter Test in Biology and he received a grade of 52%. The “school requires that all students must

receive a grade of 70%” to ensure that the minimum amount of learning has taken place. At this point Johnny gets an

incomplete for that test and must now go through a process of remediation. Remediation could involve after school ses-

sions with the instructor, special sessions during seminar, a variety of instructional worksheets and notes to ensure that

the student has multiple opportunities to relearn the materials. Once the student has completed the remediation process

he/she is allowed to retake the assessment and their grade is recorded without penalty.

Schools are discussing this concept across Kansas contemplating a variety of solutions to the age-old problem of “what

do we do when students haven’t learned?” For whatever reason some students choose not to study for tests at home;

they do not complete homework that is assigned expecting the teacher to give them time in class to get it done; do not

care if they learn the material or not.

The government is putting more pressure on schools and teachers to ensure that ALL students LEARN. The question that

leaves districts and teachers wondering is “How do we accomplish that?” There is no ONE solution. Currently there are

several initiatives in place that are being effective in the elementary school that work with relearning and remediation.

One effort Tescott has implemented is MTSS (multi tier system of support). This program has seen great strides in read-

ing. Next year we are looking at doing the same with math.

High school becomes another serious situation. The staff has implemented a variety of project-based learning strategies

and used research based teaching methods that are tried and true. But push comes to shove and the present system is

not being effective for ALL students – at least if you look at the high school grades and the ineligible list for our building.

What can be done? What can be changed to make it apparent to students and community that we are not going to be

satisfied unless you are learning a minimum amount of the intended curriculum?

Dr. Cheney recently shared an email from the Wamego school district Director of Instruction Services asking what other

districts were doing or considering to combat the apathy and non-learning that is occurring. They are studying the change

in grading that I have mentioned.

This line of thought is all about making sure that students learn. Most importantly is that SCHOOLS COMMUNICATE that

learning critical components of the curriculum is what it is all about and the idea that grades should reflect the measure

of that learning. If schools would NOT ACCEPT less than 70% as a reflection of the student learning the minimum amount

of curriculum would that encourage or speak to students about the importance that our nation, our state, and every

school district places on the value of their personal education?

What C O U L D schools be like?

Respectfully,

Kay Good, Library Media Specialist at Tescott

W h a t w o u l d h i g h s c h o o l b e l i k e i f … … ?

A n e w w r i t i n g p r o j e c t … .

Tescott third and fourth grade students are beginning a

writing project in music class that addresses the com-

mon core standards for writing informational/explanatory

text. They are looking at artifacts from the War of 1812.

Each student will choose an artifact to write about. Each

artifact has a QR code that will take them to a website

that will help them with their research.

B H S J a z z B a n d p e r f o r m s f o r t h e B G S

S t u d e n t s

Thank you to Miss Cash and the BHS Jazz Band for their Christ-

mas performance for Bennington Grade School. The BHS Band

performed a number of Holiday Classics for the students and

read some class Christmas Stories. Thank you to all of the Jazz

Band members for spending part of you day with us.

C h r i s t m a s P r o g r a m s a t T w i n V a l l e y

Bennington

Tescott