The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The La Harpe school board held a regular meeting Tuesday night, October 17th, in the school district library.
School board members in attendance were: Dan Horton, Ricky Johnson, R. D. Trout, Nancy Butler, Mark Irish, and Cindy Wear. Also present were Jo Campbell, Lila McKeown, Pat Deitrich, and Elaine Long from Carl Sandburg College.
Ms. Long passed out the October edition of the Envoy and mentioned several articles of interest to the board.
The board adopted the FY2007 Educational Support Personnel Salary schedule and approved the recommendation of the West Prairie school board of Ken Shoemaker as head high school coop baseball coach and Doug Fisher as assistant high school coop baseball coach for the 2006-07 school year.
In other business, the board authorized up to a $95,000 transition operational expense loan as needed to the high school district #307, approved a building use request from Janet McKee for use of the elementary gym on November 23rd and reviewed the district's school library media program in connection with the Illinois library per capita grant application.
Jr. High/High School Principal Lila McKeown reported that the football team has one regular game left and that the volleyball regional is next week. We are seeded first in the regional.
The golf team has finished their season.
Our marching band members did a great job this year performing at the home varsity football games, the homecoming parade, and two other parades.
The Student Council worked hard to plan homecoming activities.
They started last week working on plans for Red Ribbon Week (October 23-27) and Halloween.
The Homecoming Olympics at West Prairie High School was well attended by our student body. The parade was very memorable. There were 238 alumni registered at the game. The alumni gathered on the field at half-time.
The high school dance was well attended by La Harpe and West Prairie students. Hannah Brown and Tyler Sharpe were crowned at 10:00 p.m. as the Homecoming Queen and King.
All students participated in the bus safety program on October 6th and in the annual fire drill with the fire department on October 13th.
Parent/teacher conferences will be held October 26th from 3:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. and October 27 from 8:15 a.m. - 12 :00 p.m.
Five students have been selected by the faculty to participate in the Leadership Academy. They are Harlan Bolding, Alyssa Swanson, Lindsey Pollock, Jennifer Siegworth, and Mackenzie Ourth.
The 8th grade girls basketball team won the Dallas City tournament.
The boys basketball teams started practice on October 16th.
Jr. high Student Council members and honor group members have been planning Red Ribbon week activities. They will have dress-up days during the week and a dance on Friday night, October 27th from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Mrs. Dittmer is in charge of student council and Mrs. Bartlett is in charge of the honors group.
Mrs. Faul and Ms. McGaughey report that the new math books obtained from the Illnois Free Textbook program are a wonderful resource for the sixth grade classes. They are filled with easy to understand examples and numerous hands-on activities.
Many of the problems pertain to the student's lives helping to make math "real". Extra activities, worksheets, and assessments make it easy to differentiate instruction to the student's levels. The activities are good practice for the ISAT tests. The students enjoy having books that make sense to them.
Ricky Johnson read the Ag report prepared by Melvin Roth. Nine members attended the Green Conference held at Macomb High School. They were able to learn more about the FFA and the opportunities available for members. They began to see how important planning for career success is with the sessions the state and section officers presented.
The members participated in the Ag Olympics held at Argyle Park on September 23rd. A meal was provided after the team building activities were finished and the members enjoyed the evening.
The section forestry contest was held at Nauvoo State Park on September 26th. Our team represented the school well. Garrett Burt placed 4th overall.
Warsaw hosted the land use contest and our sophomores were the representation.
Mariah Myers was 12 points from being in the top ten.
Leadership training school was held on the 12th of October at Bushnell. Our officers listened as the section and state officers helped them set goals for their FFA career and the chapter.