Girl Up: United Nations Teen Advisor
This summer, Ames High senior Ganna Omar attended the 2019 Girl Up Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. as a United Nations Foundation, Girl Up Teen Advisor. The annual conference hosts “passionate youth advocates from around the world,” in an “enriching, cross-cultural experience that aims to empower, educate, and activate the potential of young changemakers.” Girl Up was founded by the United Nations Foundation in 2010, and continues to work across a global community of partners to achieve gender equality worldwide. Omar has led the Ames High Girl Up chapter for the past year where their work has focused on raising awareness, lobbying elected officials, and fundraising.
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New Fellows Elementary Principal
We are pleased to announce Lana LaSalle as the new principal of Fellows Elementary School starting in the 2019-2020 school year. LaSalle has served as an elementary principal in the Bettendorf Community School District since 2012 and has vast knowledge in the areas of math and literacy curriculum. She has also been instrumental in providing professional development opportunities for staff in her district.
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Science Olympiad National Competition
To say that Ames has historically dominated the State Science OIympiad would be an understatement. The competition that includes chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, and general science categories, among others, has been won by Ames High 25/26 years and Ames Middle 24/27 years. That includes earlier this year when both teams won the Iowa Science Olympiad State Tournament at the University of Northern Iowa. Both teams beat the closest competitor by nearly 50 points and all but 4-5 of the 23 events in each division finished in the top three. Those wins earned them a trip to Ithaca, New York to the National Science Olympiad Tournament at Cornell University, May 31 to June 1.
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Girls Tennis 2019 State Champions
The Ames High girls tennis team followed up their runner-up state finish from a year ago with a team state championship this season. The Little Cyclones completed their second consecutive undefeated regular season and qualified for the team state tournament for a 13th straight season. Leading up to the team tournament, 4 players participated in the individual state tournament. Arunadee Fernando placed second in singles, Lauren Couves 4th, and the doubles team of Caitlyn Hanulikova and Chloe Wilson finished 6th overall.
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DECA 2019
The DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) is the culmination of the DECA year. This year, more than 20,000 high school students, teacher-advisors, business professionals and alumni descended upon Orlando, Florida, for several days of DECA excitement. Ames High sent the largest delegation from the state of Iowa with 44 students. Each of those members qualified to attend based on their performance at the district and state level. DECA is a career and technical student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. Their industry-validated competitive events allow students to demonstrate career and college ready knowledge and skills at the highest high school level. Students from every state and many other countries including China, Honduras, Pakistan, Japan, and Spain competed at the international conference.
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Seal of Biliteracy: A New Recognition to Celebrate Language Proficiency
In October 2018, Iowa Department of Education announced that a state Seal of Biliteracy would be available for participating schools to recognize students who demonstrate proficiency in two or more languages by high school graduation. Ames Community School District is pleased to announce that students will have an opportunity to earn this seal. To receive a seal, students in participating schools must demonstrate proficiency in English and at least one other language through approved assessments. Students must be able to read, write, listen, speak in the language they are testing. Read more about the biliteracy guidance, including proficiency levels and accepted assessments here. At Ames High, assessments will be available in French, German, and Spanish. Additional languages are available to students off-site.
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Brian Carico named Interim Principal at Ames High
The Ames Community School District is excited to announce Brian Carico as the Interim Principal at Ames High School. Mr. Carico is currently the Associate Principal at Ames High and will replace longtime Principal, Spence Evans, who announced earlier this semester that he accepted a position in eastern Iowa.
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Multicultural Books
This year, Heartland Area Education Agency (AEA) offered three separate Title III mini-grants and the Ames Community School District is proud to have received all three of them. Totaling $15,000, these grants have allowed the District to purchase books in a variety of languages to help support students who are English Language Learners. One of the mini-grants from Heartland is specific to family and community engagement and aligns with one of our main goals this year that came out of conversations with staff and families who participated in our Lau Plan review last September. The group identified making the school environment more welcoming for students and their families as an area of need. One of the specific aspects of the goal was to have more diverse books in the native languages of English Learners in schools and classroom libraries.
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ISPRA Communication Awards 2019
The Iowa School Public Relations Association (ISPRA) held their annual communication awards the evening of Thursday, April 25. The Ames Community School District submitted materials in 8 of the 22 competition categories that included Bond Campaign, Excellence in Writing, Infographic, Magazine, Social Media, and three Video categories. As a local chapter of the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA), it is a policy that another state score the submissions based on rubrics, and this year the Arizona chapter judged the Iowa submissions.
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CFO Chris Stensland Presented with Professional Leadership Award by Iowa Association of School Business Professionals
Ames Community School District Chief Financial Officer Chris Stensland was presented with the Professional Leadership Award by the Iowa Association of School Business Professionals (IASBO) at their annual conference on March 27, 2019. The award is one of the highest honors that IASBO bestows upon its members as recipients are nominated by their peers. The award is not just a measure of extraordinary deeds or a lengthy career, it is a recognition of school business officials who throughout their career and lifetime have demonstrated excellence in service to their school district, community, and profession. As an award recipient, Stensland receives a scholarship that she will present to a graduating high school senior from Ames, and an invitation to the next Iowa ASBO Leadership Conference.
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