School Offers High School Coop Football to Northeast Nodaway

The Worth County School Board, at the request of Superintendent Matt Robinson, voted 5-0 to offer high school coop football to Northeast Nodaway for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years. The school currently coops with Northeast in Junior High Football and 9th graders from last year's program are allowed to play JV; the 'Lil Tigers football program, which is not affiliated with the school, has five Northeast Nodaway students on the team this year. Football Coach Chuck Borey said that it helped Northeast offer opportunities to kids that they would not normally have and that it allowed Worth County to keep its JV and Junior High programs viable. The two schools have a December 1st deadline to notify the Missouri State High School Activities Association of their plan.





One of the possible obstacles had been enrollment; the two schools must combine their 9-12 enrollment figures for coop purposes. Had the combined enrollment of the two schools been over 200, Worth County would have had to return to 11-man football to offer coop football with Northeast; however, the combined 9-12 enrollment was between 175 and 180 for this year. State rules require schools offering eight-man football to have less than 200 students. The Junior High program brought gate and concession revenues up; Northeast Nodaway busses coop students over, meaning that there is no additional expense for Worth County.





The vote was for the High School program; votes on Junior High programs are taken annually. High Schools must decide on coop football every two years so that they can coincide with MSHSAA's district assignments.





Teacher Julia Moore reported on her work teaching high school and junior high students English. She said that she had taught and subbed in many other schools and that Worth County's students were some of the best that she had taught.





Robinson reported that he had spent a lot of time with the MAP data, which is used to assess the school's Adequate Yearly Progress. Tracking classes across the board, Robinson said that only two classes went down and those went down only slightly. He said that the school was "still a little weak" in math but that they had "tremendous improvements" in both math and communication arts. The school has changed its math series in an effort to raise scores in math. In English II, 75% of students were proficient and advanced while the Math figure was 46%. Schools can now apply up to 25% of a student's grade towards the End of Course exams that schools are now allowed to do; Worth County counts 10% of a student's grade towards that.





The board voted to go into closed session to hire two new substitute teachers.





Enrollment for the Elementary School is 187. 86% of families attended the Open House on August 17th. Parent groups have been meeting to plan for the school year. The room parents are: Kindergarten -- Amber Griffin and Kayna Cameron; 1st grade -- Julie Cassavaugh; 2nd grade -- Bobbi Jo Gladstone; 3rd grade -- Kera Galanakis; 4th grade -- Jamie Allee; 5th grade -- Shelly Straight; 6th grade -- Treva Smyser and Stephanie Hardy. Individual pictures were taken on August 25th; close to 50 people attended the SOAR Family Night on August 21st. Six bikes were given away that night. The FFA sponsored a blood drive that was held in the multipurpose room on September 3rd.





Tracy Stone talked with 5th and 6th graders in the activity center about making wise decisions about behaviors. There was no school on September 16th due to professional development for teachers. Progress reports will go out on Friday notes on the 25th; 3rd grade will begin the STAR program on the 28th. On October 14th, there will be a 10:00 start due to in-service for teachers.





The school released its influenza guidelines. The school will screen for influenza-like illnesses and symptoms; students, faculty, and staff who appear to have an influenza-like illness at arrival or who become ill during the school day will be isolated in a room separate from other students, a mask put on, and sent home. Students, faculty, and staff with influenza-like illness such as fever, cough, or sore throat should stay home and not attend school or go into the community except to seek medical care until at least 24 hours after symptoms and fever have gone away; persons must be fever free without aid of medications.