Adair-Casey Elementary School

Next week is School Counseling Week! We have two great ones here at A-C! Here’s how we plan on celebrating!

6th grade band practice!

This group of teachers spent their Saturday at a Drake University new teacher/mentor workshop! Thank you for your commitment to continual improvement and serving our students!

Concert Season is HERE🎄🎵⭐️ 1. Dec. 5 ~ Guthrie Center Elem. Winter Concert, grades 4-6 and 5th and 6th grade bands @ AC⚡️GC HS gym - 6pm *livestream available 2. Dec. 6 ~ AC Elem. & AC⚡️GC JH Winter Concert @ AC⚡️GC JH gym - 6pm * livestream available 3. Dec. 19 ~ AC⚡️GC HS Winter Concert, concert band/hand chimes choir/concert choir/swing choir @ AC⚡️GC HS gym - 6:30pm *livestream available

13 members of the ACGC Choir traveled to Atlantic today to audition for the prestigious Iowa All State Chorus. Senior Justin Reinhart and Junior Owen Dinkla earned recalls, and Justin was selected to be an Alternate Baritone. We learned. We grew. We improved. We sang our faces off today. That’s all a director can ever ask for ❤️

Red Ribbon Week 2022 Celebrate Life. Live Drug Free. Remind your child to wear RED today to bring awareness and help keep our students SAFE and DRUG FREE. ❤

Charger Update- October 21, 2022 Early Dismissal- Tuesday, October 25, 2022 Tuesday, October 25 is a two hour early dismissal to give our teachers time for end-of-quarter activities and allow them to prepare for the start of our second quarter. Inclement Weather Plan- As we see our temperatures drop this past week, I wanted to inform families of our process of closing schools in the case of inclement weather. The following plan was discussed and developed during our October administrative/department meeting. The purpose of this plan is to communicate a clear process to address early outs, late starts, and the cancellation of school. Decision Making Process Superintendent will drive to check road/weather conditions. Transportation directors will drive to check road/weather conditions. Area school superintendents will collaborate on road/weather conditions Des Moines Weather Service briefings and alerts are used to help make decisions. Collaboration with County Engineers and Adair-Guthrie County Emergency Management. Notifications- Infinite Campus- text, email, and phone. Social Media- sent out by building principals through school social media accounts Website- posted by technology coordinators. Media Outlets- Stuart- KKRF- 107.9 Atlantic- KSOM- 96.5 Des Moines television stations Timing of Notifications- 5:30 - 5:45 am National Principals Month October is National Principals Month. As we enter the last week of October, I would like to thank each of our principals for the work they do on a daily basis. Mrs. Diane Flanery- GC Elementary, Mr. Ethan Lensch- AC/GC High School, and Mr. Chris Douglas- A-C Elementary and AC/GC Junior High. The hard work and leadership our principals provide for our staff and students is a vital component to staff and student success. Be sure to thank our principals for their dedication to our students and families of AC/GC! Parent-Teacher Conferences November 7th and 10th will be parent-teacher conferences for A-C and GC elementary, along with AC/GC Junior High. I hope everyone has a chance to schedule a parent-teacher conference and visit with each of your student's teachers. This is a great opportunity to see the progress of your son and/or daughter, along with addressing any questions you may have at this time. As we finish up our first quarter of school and send home end-of-quarter progress reports, I would like to remind you of the change in grading and reporting as outlined in the standards-based approach below. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your building principal or Karla Mahaffey, AC/GC Curriculum Director. We appreciate your vested interest in your child's education! What is a Standards-Based Approach? A standards-based approach focuses on what a student knows, not how long it takes to get there. It measures how well a student understands the material and how they are progressing on their learning goals. It is based on the Iowa Core standards that students need to meet for each grade level. Teachers gather evidence to determine what each student has learned and how that student is progressing towards end-of-year expectations. This approach builds consistent grading practices throughout the district K-8. The standards-based approach allows teachers to design instruction to give students multiple opportunities, if necessary, to demonstrate success, or provide enrichment if students are already meeting learning goals. A standards-based approach also allows parents to understand more clearly what is expected of students and how to help them be successful in their learning. It provides better feedback to students, parents, teachers and administrators on what each student knows and is able to do based on academic standards and separately assesses the influence of work habits on student learning. Purpose of the Report Card The purpose of this report card is to describe academic achievement and student skills based on our district's grade level learning expectations. It reflects student successes, guides improvements, and provides students opportunity for self-evaluation and reflection. Although teachers are responsible for teaching all of Iowa Core Standards, there are specific standards that teachers will be reporting to parents on a regular basis. These are referred to as Priority Standards and reflect the standards that are critical for student success at that particular grade level. These standards tend to cross content areas, span grade levels and/or are skills that are considered as crucial building blocks for future lifelong learning. Parents/Guardians will be able to access progress reports at midterm of each quarter. There will no longer be semester grades with SBL&G. These ratings are not a comparison of one student to another, but are a measure of the student's work toward mastering the end-of-year standard. Performance descriptors will replace the traditional A, B, C, D, F grading system. For each standard listed, students will be graded using the 1, 2, 3, 4 scale. Many students may start the year with a 1. This does not convert to a D or F in a traditional grading system. It simply shows student progress toward end of year expectations. 4 Exceeds proficiency: The student exceeds grade level proficiency. 3 Proficient: The student understands and applies grade level concepts and skills. 2 Developing: The student demonstrates partial understanding and application of skills and concepts taught in class. 1 Emerging: The student demonstrates a limited understanding and application of skills and concepts even with teacher support. This could potentially indicate an area of concern. NA Not assessed this quarter. IS Insufficient evidence: The student did not show or provide evidence of a skill or concept; therefore the teacher can not determine what the student knows. Yours in education, Mr. Josh Rasmussen Superintendent AC/GC Schools

Red Ribbon Week is next week!

Fire safety week!

Hey, A-C Elementary students… WE CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU!!!

*Most* of the 2022-23 elementary teachers gathered for lunch at Pioneer’s today!

Our 7th graders have had the chance to get on stage through Miss Farnsworth’s speech and drama exploratory this year!

Our 5th graders joined their preschool buddies for their field trip to the zoo today!

Our 2nd and 3rd graders visited a few local farms Friday! Thank you to Phil and Leanne Kading, Blair and Erin Carney and Matt and Monica Fagan, for welcoming our kids to your farms!

Carnival 2022

We are excited to see everyone for conferences on February 17th from 3:45-7:00.

Attention to all of our elementary and junior high families, we want to remind you that we are having parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday February 15th and Thursday February 17th.