TAR WARS!

Early in the year, Dr. Yoxall from Comcare and Lou Ann Snavely from the

OCHD talked to the 4th grade students about the negative effects of to-

bacco use. The students then participated in a poster contest about what

they learned. Garrett Brummet, a 4th grader from Mrs. Sweringen‟s class,

was the winner for the TAR WARS poster contest. He will win a T-shirt

and will be entered into the state contest in the spring. Congratula-

tions Garrett

BENNINGTON SOPHOMORE Receives a Gold Metal at

State……….Congratulations to Katey Whitesell who participated in

KAHSAA sponsored State Piano Festival held on the campus of

Tabor College in Hillsboro. Katey performed the piece “The Village

Church” by Della Join and earned the highest rating of a „I‟ and a gold

medal for her performance. Katey‟s private piano instructor is Mrs.

Verna Davidson.

Bennington Students!

Tescott Students! Super Speller!

Kyra Bieker a Tescott 7th grader earned the title of “First Runner Up” in

the Ottawa County Spelling Bee. Congratulations Kyra! We are proud

of you! The spelling bee was held in Bennington

on February 15th. TGS Winner!

Emma Adams was the winner of the grand drawing

that ended the Tescott Grade School fund-

raiser. She won a package of 20 plastic ducks.

Students earned ducks to put on lanyards as they

sold items throughout the week.

Twin Valley Schools March 2011

*Approved bills for payment in the amount of $354,974.50.

*Accepted the invitation for Tescott Schools to join the Northern Plains League.

*Approved to extend the principal contracts of Bill Edwards, Becky Cheney and Craig

Gantenbein through the 2012-2013 school year, salaries to be determined at a later time.

Bennington 4th and 5th grade students attended an educa-

tional outreach symphony concert on Friday, January 28th at

the Stiefel Theater. The concert featured Edmund and Ru-

dolph Stein, sons of Salina Symphony founder, Eric Stein,

performing on violin and cello. The concert also featured a few

movements from Dvorak‟s famous “Slavonic Dances” as well as

John Williams‟ “Harry Potter Children's Suite.” Our school was

able to attend free of charge along with over 1000 students from

area schools. We would like to thank the Salina Symphony for

providing a grant to fund our transportation and for an out-

standing concert.

Board Minutes for February 2011

Music Event!

BGS January Students of the Month! Congratulations January Students of the Month!

Front Row: (L-R) Davin Coil, Cooper Matthews,

Grant Swearingen, Abby Hodges, Andrew Eikle-

berry, Maizee McKenna

2nd Row: Kyla Kind, Sarah Lampe, Tyler Brock,

Jillian Coykendall, McKenzie Cramer, Logen

Pearson

Back Row: Darian Webb, Brad Jones, Cyrus Haynes, Gabby Cooper,

Tyler Appleby and Kathryn Jackson

2nd Photo: Kalin Chesney

Twin Valley Schools March 2011 Board of Education

John Adam

Phil Aumick

Rick Bremerman

Matt Ehrhart

Robert Miller

Bernie Regnier

Mark Whitesell

Superintendent

Richard Harlan

rharlan@twinvalley.net

District Office

(785) 488-3325

Bennington Schools

Grade School Principal

Craig Gantenbein

(785) 488-3323

High School Principal

Bill Edwards

(785)488-3321

Tescott Schools

Tescott Principal

Dr. Becky Cheney

Brent Mumford

(Assistant)

(785) 283-4774

Tescott Forensics Squad at Salina Central Congratulations to Courtney Case and Makayla Webb for earning two medals at the

prestigious Salina Central Forensics Tournament. Courtney and Makayla earned their

medals in “improvised duet acting.” As a note there were over 46 IDA teams in that cate-

gory….it was the first time in five years a group from Tescott had won medals at Salina

Central.

A few Bennington HS band students participated in Youth for

Music held in Concordia. The event was sponsored in part by

Toms Music House and Cloud County Community College.

Youth for Music featured an honor band and 2 honor choirs.

The band students rehearsed from 9am until 4pm in Brown

Grand Theatre in downtown Concordia. They then performed a concert in the 100 year old historic theater. The

band was under the direction of Mr. Patrick Seiben (CCCC) as well as Ms. Barb Elbrecht from Rock Hills/

Mankato High School. Bennnington students who participated were: Addy McCall (flute), Cody Lampe (tuba),

Jacob Ryland (alto saxophone), Kaci Copas (percussion) and Nolan Regnier (percussion). This was the second year

Nolan, Kaci and Addy were able to participate in this event. The students represented Benningotn and Twin Valley

Schools very well as they performed with approximately 80 other students from North Central Kansas.

Power Panther Pals is a health education program for students in the 3rd, 4th, and

5th grades. This program encourages student to eat more fruits, vegetables and

whole grains, and making healthy snacks. Students received activity books, pedome-

ters and take home newsletters. Included in the activity books are recipes for healthy

snacks and information on healthy foods. They were introduced on how to read food

labels. Students also learned the amount of sugar in their favorite drinks ((pop, en-

ergy drinks, milk and even juice). Each class received a food pyramid poster for their

classroom. Mine-grant funds were used to help purchase ingredients for healthy

snacks and to buy healthy snacks for the remainder of the school year. Mrs. Swearingen‟s 4th grade class made Purple

Power Smoothies as part of their lessons. The students had a blast making these healthy snacks.

Youth for Music!

Power Panther Pals

Kansas Turns 150! Mrs. McClure‟s consumer Education class and Mr. Facklam‟s Wars class displayed their

talents by recognizing Kansas‟ 150th birthday. They collaborated for two weeks together

and created eight booth topics that informed viewers about the “old” days of Kansas life.

The booth topics included farming and ranching, famous athletes, state symbols, Kansas

food technology historical sites and towns, clothing and famous people. The elementary,

junior high and high school students all had a chance to tour the booths and lea about the

topics. Our wonderful cook Betty Loy added to the festivi-

ties by making cupcakes designed in the shape of a sunflower.

We would like to thank all of the viewers for touring and en-

joying the festivities. Happy birthday Kansas and great job

high school kids!

Twin Valley Schools March 2011

Tescott Library Media Specialist Kay God attended the Kansas Association of School Librarians Council

meeting on January 22, 2011 at the Great Plain Nature Center in Wichita , Kansas. Mrs. Good is the Tech-

nology Committee Chairperson and is a voting member of the KASL Council that operates a list serve for the state of

Kansas, organizes the annual Conference, provides members for the William Allen White book selection committee,

relays Governmental Affaires and KSDE information to librarian across the state and many other activities . Mrs.

Good manages KASLTALK, a wiki where Kansas‟s librarians share information and ideas. Jackie Lakin, informa-

tional Management Education Program Consultant at the Kansas Stare Department of Education, presented mean-

ingful information to the group. First, Ms.Lakin reported on a recent study that examined the effects of state-licensed

school library media specialists on student achievement in Kansas. This study was based on state proficiency rates at

the school levels. “Schools with full-timeLMS tend to outperform schools with no LMS in terms of both proficiency

levels, and proficiency change over time. State-by-state, research show that students in a school with fully staffed school

library programs led by certified (licensed) school librarians learn more, get better grades and score high on standardized

tests in reading. Mirah Dow, a co-author of the report, stated, “Because of their interaction with the entire school com-

munity and knowledge of information technologies, school librarians are in a unique position to shape education innova-

tion and positively impact student learning and achievement.” Secondly, Ms.Lakin advised librarians to become more

aware of text complexity analysis and how to qualitatively measure a variety of text and books that will be used in grades 7

and higher, according to the KSDE. According to Kay Good, these quarterly meetings are very informative and pro-

vide her with a variety of resources and information that she shares with our staff members and students at Tescott. The

Great Plains Nature Center gave each librarian in attendance a new book they had published that was written and illus-

trated by Kansas Kids entitled” Kansas Critter: bugs.” They were also given a set of 5 pocket guides to Kansas plants

and animals for their library collection.

Local Librarian Attends State Council

Check out These Lamps! The Tescott 3rd graders made these lava lamps (not really lamps) to learn about volca-

noes, magma, and lava. Mrs. Brumbaugh said the students really enjoyed this science pro-

ject. Good Job, third graders!

Twin Valley Schools March 2011

Top Seller In OSCAR Program! Tescott first grader, Meah Oetting, was the top sales person in

the fund-raiser for the OSCAR reading program. Congratu-

lations, Meah!

We Jump. We Shoot. We Save! Bennington Grade School will be sponsoring Hoops for Heart March 16th from 3:30 to 5pm. Kin-

dergarten thru 3rd grade will be in the new gym and 4th thru 6th grades will be in the main gym. The students will

be participating in many activities. If you would like to make a donation please see that it gets to the school by March 28th.

Any little bit helps to make a big difference!