Superintendent’s Message The first quarter of the 2009-2010 school year has been exciting! I am proud of the teachers, students, parents, and community members for working together to make Chariton Schools a great place to learn.

As you are aware, Gov-ernor Culver ordered an across the board cut of 10% in October. For the Chariton School District that means a $720,000 reduction in our general fund. The district is facing many tough decisions now and in the near future, relating to these cuts. The district will use cash reserves to help soften the blow of this reduction. Eighty per-

cent of the district’s general fund budget is fixed by salaries and benefits for our em-ployees. The budget reduction for 09-10 must come from the twenty percent of other expenses such as sup-plies, equipment, and transportation costs. The district has imple-mented a freeze in gen-eral fund spending for the current school year. Along with the 10% across the board cut, the district had a de-cline of enrollment by 19 students for the cur-rent school year. Look-ing ahead to 2010-2011, staff reductions will be likely.

The month of Novem-

ber seems to slip by with all of our activities and before you know it, the Thanksgiving holi-day will be upon us. There will be a 2 hour early dismissal on Wednesday, November 25 and no school for students on Thursday, November 26 and Fri-day, November 27. There will also be no classes for students on Monday, November 30 due to teacher profes-sional development. Classes will resume with a regular schedule on Tuesday, December 1, 2009. Enjoy your Thanksgiving break!

Volume 12, issue 4

November, 2009

Elementary News

2

Middle School News

3

Curriculum Cor-ner

5

High School News

6

November Cal-endar

6

Inside this issue:

Charger Pride Char i ton Communi ty School Dis t r i c t

Snow Days! The district will announce delays, cancellations, and early dismissals be-cause of weather by using our emergency calling system, D.M. TV sta-tions 5, 8, and 13, WHO radio, local station channel 12, and KIIC radio.

In the event of school cancellation, the district has designated three snow make up days in the calendar. Missed days will be made up in the fol-lowing order—12/23/09, 2/22/10, and 5/28/10. All additional days missed will be made up after Memorial Day. If we have not experienced school cancellations, we will not hold school on these designated snow make up days.

Volume 12, Issue 4

PK—2 News

Charger Pride

Columbus Elementary is looking forward to the Columbus Read-A-Thon during the month of No-vember. The Read-A-Thon will be kicked off with a reading assembly and special guest appear-ance. Students will then set goals to read for a set amount of time for one week, November 9th through the 20th. Students will collect pledges from sponsors to encourage them to reach their goal. Our school goal is $3,000. We can easily meet this goal if EVERY student collects just $10 in pledges. The money raised from this event will go towards remodeling the library and purchasing technology for the media center.

The character trait of citizenship will be recog-nized during the months of November and Decem-ber. Citizenship relates to these months, especially well, because it is during November that we recog-nize our veterans on Veteran’s Day for their con-tributions, and in December we encourage children to understand the importance of giving during the holidays.

The State of Iowa Child Advocacy Board is recruiting volunteers to work on child abuse or neglect cases in the court system. Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) are assigned one case at a time in their own county in order to give attention needed to make knowledgeable recommen-dations in the child’s best interest. Volun-teers will visit the child on their case at least monthly, as well as gather additional information from other sources.

Special education and expertise is not re-quired; what is needed is an ability to be objective and to work with people and communicate effectively. Training is pro-

vided. We welcome volunteers from all educa-tional, professional, and ethnic backgrounds. Contact Carrie Phelps at 866-451-3214 or car-rie.phelps@dia.iowa.gov for more information about becoming a child advocate in your com-munity. Or visit us online at childadvo-cacy.iowa.gov

The Heart of America!

Songs Celebrating

Our Country, Our Flag, &

Our Freedom

presented by

Van Allen Fifth Grade Classes

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

7:00 pm

Johnson Foundation Auditorium

5th Grade Program

Child Advocate Program Needs Volunteers

Volume 12, issue 4 Page 3

Will Felderman, Laura Tordoff, Mikaela Plank and Jacob Cohen have been selected to perform with the South Central Iowa Bandmasters Association Middle School Honor Bands.

There are three bands, each performing the eve-ning of Nov. 3 at Johnston Middle School in Johnston.

Eighth graders Will and Laura were required to audition, using memorized major scales, chromatic scale and two selected works.

Dates to Remember:

ITBS November 9—20th

Mock Trial November 13th

Message from Ms. Scott-Thomas

Your child will be taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills each morning during the weeks of November 9th-20th. These are timed tests that measure how well your child has mastered skills in the areas of read-ing , math, science and social studies. With this in-formation the school district can make decisions about changing and fine tuning our curriculum to better address your child’s needs.

There are several things you can do, as parents, to help your child achieve the best test results possible. Scientists and educators have learned many things from research on how the brain learns. The brain functions better when having enough food and rest to fuel the thinking process. Please encourage your child to get plenty of rest before taking the tests. Also, encourage your child to eat breakfast. If you have any questions about the tests, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 774-5114.

Students are studying graphing skills in math. They plot and analyze information from line, bar, and stem and leaf graphs.

Students in language arts are developing their vocabu-lary skills, studying morphology, or the formation of the words and their inflection and derivation.

The geography classes are taking a journey to Canada. They are studying the history, climate, government and economy, people, physical regions and map study.

Students in science class are studying plants.

Students in literature class have been reading self-selected pieces from the literature anthology and shar-ing summaries with the entire class.

Middle School Band

Seventh Grade Happenings!

The Middle School has several 2008-09 year books available to sell. The book is all in color, and features pages assembled by students, about students and it has a special feature section of 8th graders as babies. Contact the CMS at 774-5114 to obtain your copy!

Yearbooks Available!

In Language Arts classes, students are producing a variety of writing pieces.

In math class, we are working on problem solving skills with real life problems of the day.

In science class, we are finishing up our study of the moon which included its motion, phases, eclipses, tides, surface, origin, and other character-istics.

Reading classes capped off an awesome study of arachnids by building realistic models of their fa-vorite spiders. Students also used the promethean board to present group projects about spiders to their classmates.

6TH GRADE NEWS

The following inductees met the qualifications to become National Honor Society Members.

The 2009 Inductees to NHS are:

Robert Anderson, Tyler Ann Arensdorf, Jenna Beatty, Katie Blong, Logan Chandler, Owen Drake, Jamie Dunivan, Layne Grgurich, Charlie Hunkele, Mariah Hunter, Tacy Jeanes, Jacob Kaska, Hannah McDaniel, Stephanie McGee , Jessica McRoberts, Chelsea Miller, Justin Pfeifer, Jonathan Plank, Megan Richards, Emily Sanders, Kent Seuferer, Kerissa Shinski, Emily Stintsman, Dalton Storm , and Kelsy Westman.

Volume 12, Issue 4 Charger Pride

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 No School

3 Cereal Hamburger Sandwich French Fries Corn Mixed Fruit

4 Biscuit & Gravy Chicken & Noodles Potatoes Bread & Butter Pears

5 French Toast Rib Sandwich Tater Tots Peas Mandarin Oranges

6 Cereal Ham & Cheese Sand. Carrots Chips Apple

7

8 9 Cereal Hot Dog French Fries Corn Mixed Fruit

10 Breakfast Bar Chicken Nuggets Potatoes & Gravy Peaches Breadstick

11 Pancake on Stick Spaghetti Green Beans Pears Garlic Bread

12 Sausage & Biscuit Pizza Lettuce Salad Mandarin Oranges Cookie

13 Cereal Crisp Chicken Wrap Lettuce & Cheese Potato Wedges Pickle Spear Pears

14

15 16 Cereal Corn Dog Mac & Cheese Peas Pears

17 Egg & Biscuit Soft Shell Taco Mexican Rice Lettuce & Cheese Mixed Fruit & Cookie

18 French Toast Grilled Chicken French Fries Green Beans Pineapple

19 Cereal Chili & Crackers Cheese Stick Peaches Cinnamon Roll

20 Cereal Cheese Pizza Dippers Marinara Sauce Lettuce Salad Orange

21

22 23 Cereal Chicken Sandwich French Fries Corn Pears

24 Waffles Turkey Potatoes & Gravy Green Beans Bread & Butter Pumpkin Pie

25 Breakfast Pizza Cold Cut Sandwich Carrots Chips Apple

26 No School

27 No School

28

29 30 No School

LUNCH MENU SUBJECT TO CHANGE

All lunches served with 1/2 pint of milk. M.S. & H.S. have a salad bar daily.

Breakfast is served in each building and includes milk and fruit/juice.

November Menu

High School Band—1st Place!

The Chariton High School Marching Chargers placed first in Division 3A recently at the Ot-tumwa Octoberfest celebration. The contest was held on October 3, 2009 in Ottumwa.

CONGRATULATIONS! 2009 New Inductees to National Honor Society

Curriculum Corner By Cindy Butler

Volume 12, Issue 4 Charger Pride

Parent Survey

This school year the district will be rewriting our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan. To help us prioritize the actions of an improvement plan, we are seeking needs assessment data from multiple sources. One source of data is feedback from parents. Therefore, we have developed a parent survey for this purpose. At Parent-Teacher Conferences you may have received information on how to access the par-ent survey, and perhaps you were able to complete the survey online while at school. If so, we thank you very much. If you did not have the opportunity to complete the parent survey during conferences, it is still available on the Chariton School District website home page until November 25. If you do not have internet access at home, stop by any school building and ask if you can complete the survey there. Pease note, you only need to complete the survey one time. Thank you for assisting us as we work to make our school district the best it can be.

Annual Progress Report

Enclosed in this newsletter you will find our an-nual progress report to the community called our “District Report Card.” This report contains data that shows progress toward our student learning goals during the 2008-09 school year. Every Iowa school district is required to make student progress information available to their stakeholders.

The enclosed report card contains only a small portion of the data available. The Iowa Department of Education allows public access to a complete set of data by visiting their web site, http://www.iowa.gov/educate/. On the right hand side select: District and AEA Reports. The link titled LEA Annual Progress Reports will allow you to search for Chariton’s report. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the search box. If you have difficulty accessing the information, call me or a building principal for assistance. If you do not have internet access, you can stop by the district office to view a paper copy of the complete report.

The eighth grade class went to Indian Hills College on October 16th and attended individual learning sessions about three different career choices. It was a great ex-perience and we are looking forward to our career unit in the spring.

At CMS, we have been reading Runner, our favorite book ever! We like it so much that we are writing to the author and a movie company to request that it is turned into a movie.

We have been busy in Science working on projects that show our understanding of Newton’s Three Laws.

In language arts we are writing paragraphs and memoirs. It will be fun to save them and read them again when we are older.

We really like our promethean boards in math and history! They make learning easier and fun. In math, we enjoy us-ing classzone.com for our lessons. In history, we are study-ing The Colonists and find the Salem Witch Trials very interesting.

Submitted by Mrs. Goldsmith’s 2nd pe-riod Literature Class

Eighth Grade News

Volume 12, issue 4 Page 6

National Honor Society Tapping

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 No School Prof. Develop-ment

3 4 5 6 7

8 9 Girls BB Prac-tice Begins

10 11 12 13 Musical 7:30pm John-son Audito-rium

14 Musical 7:30pm John-son Audito-rium

15 Musical 2pm Johnson Audi-torium

16 Boys BB Prac-tice Begins Wrestling Prac-tice Begins Advisory Com-mittee Meet-ing—6:30 CC

17 Lady Charger Jamboree 6:15pm

18 19 B MS BB w/ Clarke 4:15pm G MS BB @ Clarke 4:15pm (3:10) All-State Band Festival @ Ames TBA

20 All-State Band Festival @ Ames TBA

21 All-State Band Festival @ Ames TBA

22 23 B MS BB @ Albia 4:15pm (3:10) G MS BB w/ Albia 4:15pm

24 G 9/JV/Var BB w/ Newton 5:00pm B Var BB @ Carlisle Jambo-ree 6:15pm

25 2-Hr Early Dis-missal

26 Thanksgiving No School

27 No School

28

29 30 No School Prof. Develop-ment

November 2009 Events Calendar

Mr. Deatz announced the fall musical, JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. This is the fourth time Mr. Deatz produced the student and audience favorite in his 30 years at Chariton High School.

Performances are Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14 at 7:30, and Sunday, November 15 at 2:00 for a matinee.

Tickets are being sold ahead of time for $6.00 by anyone in the cast and at the door for $7.00.

Please plan to attend this musical that has delighted Chariton au-diences in 1985, 1991, and 2002.

Volume 12, issue 4 Page 7

High School Parents! What to do if...

Your child is late to school: Please call the CHS office to give the reason. Also, remind your child to sign in at the office when he/she arrives.

Your child is absent from school: Please call the CHS office by 9 a.m. on the day of the absence to give the reason. Please ask for homework at that time also; it will be ready to be picked up after school. Absences without a call from home will be recorded as unexcused.

You change your address, phone number, e-mail, etc.: Please notify the CHS office of the change as soon as possible. For the purposes of contacting parents, it is important that we have the most current information regarding your address, phone number, e-mail, etc..

Your child needs to leave school early: Please notify the CHS office by 9 a.m. on the day of the early departure. Remind your student to follow the sign-out procedures required of all students who leave early. This will avoid the possibility of the absence being recorded as unexcused.

Your child knows ahead of time that he/she will be absent from school: As far in advance as possible, please notify the office that your child will be gone. Your child needs to pick up a “Make-Up Work Pass” from the office, fill it out, and take it to all of his/her teachers to get the assignments that will be due. The completed pass needs to be returned to the office before your child leaves.

JEL Officers Elected

Chariton High School JEL-LO's elected the fol-lowing officers at their organizational meeting: Annie Lawrence, president, Emylee Sanders, vice-president, and Becky Roach, secretary.

JEL stands for “Just Eliminate Lies” (by the big tobacco industries). It was formed in 2000 by teens for teens who would like to participate in anti-smoking activities both local and state wide. JEL has grown into one of the largest youth-organized, youth-run groups in the country. Membership recruitment is under way at this time. If you have questions please contact an officer or Carol Brees, Lucas County Tabacco Coalition Coordinator, at 641-774-4509. Web-site address is www.JELiowa.org

H. S. Media Center News

A link to the Chariton High School library/media center is now available from the CHS home page. In an effort to aid student learning, Mrs. Voss, media specialist, and Kent Seuferer, Web Site Development class, teamed together to de-sign a user friendly site for students and fami-lies. Helpful links included on this page are: Facts about the Media Center, The Great Prairie AEA website, various newspapers from around the country, more information about cur-riculum and an interesting facts page. Mrs. Voss encourages you to use this website for assistance with homework, classes, and fun!

It is the policy of the Chariton Community School District not to illegally discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, creed, age or marital status in its educational programs or employment practices. If you have questions or grievances related to this policy please contact the Equity Coordinator, 140 East Albia Road, PO Box 738, Chariton, Iowa 50049.

140 East Albia Road PO Box 738

Chariton, IA 50049

Chariton Community School District

District Mission Statement

Successful Learning for ALL Students

PRESORTED

STANDARD

US POSTAGE

PAID

PERMIT NO.

258

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

2010 After Prom Bench Raffle Iowa Hawkeye & Iowa State Cyclone

Tickets: $1 each or 6 for $5 Drawing to be held December 21st at the

G/B Varsity Basketball Game Need not be present to win.

See Tammy Trenary at the High School of-fice or raffle table at all home basketball

games .

Financial Aid Night November 19, 2009

6:30 PM Johnson Auditorium

This is an informational meeting on complet-ing the Federal Student Aid Form (FAFSA) and other types of financial aid. Parents and

students are encouraged to attend.