Tiger TalkNews & Highlights of USD 340 ■ Vol. 11, No. 6 January 2009

Postal Patron

Jefferson West U.S.D. 340P.O. Box 267Meriden, Kansas 66512ECRWSS

NON-PROFITORGANIZATIONU.S. POSTAGE

P A I DPermit No. 2

Meriden, KS 66512

You remember the old adage to “build a better mousetrap?” Well thirteen Jeff West physics students worked outside of class to build vehicles USING mousetraps. They created mousetrap-driven vehicles and competed with Tonganoxie physics students for bragging rights. One vehicle had to move along a track and throw a ping pong ball to another vehicle traveling the opposite direction 15 feet away. The second vehicle then had to transfer the ping pong ball to a stationary third vehicle which then had to move along the path of a swinging bowling ball. Two teams took up the challenge.

Chase Farrant makes final adjustments to the vehicle destined to catch a ping pong ball thrown by another vehicle moving the opposite direction 15 feet away.

Casey Murdie carefully times before releasing the vehicle after Ivey Bruton taps Steve Murdie’s shoulder to tell him when to let go of the bowling ball. Tonganoxie physics students watch in the background.The Physics Teams (Right) Front row (l to r): Ashley Grubb, Katie Houtz, Katie Bigham, Audrey Mullins. Middle row: Ivey Bruton, Lydia Clark, Jared Harvey, Austin Narverud, Trey Bruton. Back row: Casey Murdie, Devan Zwygart, Moriah Dowding, Chase Farrant.

Now what? Moriah Dowding and Chase Farrant work on adjustments to their vehicle.

The Jefferson West High School Debate team has had an excellent season so far! Students have been debating the government funding alternative energy sources. While we have not medaled in many competitions, five students have qualified to attend the KSHSAA State Competition at Washburn Rural High School on January 23-24, 2009. Those students are: Ivey Bruton, Joe Hill, Laura Newberry, Jessica Pearson and Christopher Welsh. In addition to these students, three other students have qualified to attend Novice State in Overland Park on January 9-10, 2009. They are: Tabatha Bell, Sierra Lillie, and Amanda Welsh. Ivey Bruton and Laura Newberry will at-tend the National Forensics League qualifier on January 16-17, 2009. This will determine if

they may attend the National Debate Meet in Alabama in June. Congratulations to all our JW Debaters and continue the great showings the rest of the season!!

The 2008-09 yearbook staff still has room for a few senior salutes/baby ads. Ads are avail-able at a first-come, first-served basis. If your information arrives after the book is “full,” your money will be returned to you. Please send all materials and payment to adviser Lisa Sage at the high school, 619 Condray. Make checks payable to JWHS. Ad prices: 1/8 page $50; ¼ page $75; half page $125.

Debate Off to Good Start

Ads Still Availablein 2008-09 Yearbook

Mousetraps Help Build Better Vehicles?

Tiger Talk■ Page 2News & Highlights of USD 340

The third grade celebrated the holiday season with an excellent concert on Dec. 2, 2008. The students performed tradi-tional selections like “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” and a superb arrangement of “Sing We Now of Christmas” set to Irish accompaniment by John Riggio. The most difficult selection was “Shalom Chaverim” a song about peace that was sung in He-brew. What stole the show though was two of our lighter selections “A Silly Holiday Song” and “There’s Someone in the Chimney” these allowed students to tell jokes and re-ally show off their personalities. Students who were highlighted were Justin Lutt-man, Alex Massengill, Makenzie Tucker, Parker Bohannon, Mariah Murdie, Preston Stanley, Shay Fox, Chase Johnson, Skylar

What happens when everyone works together? You can solve problems! Students in Mrs. Middendorf’s third grade class performed a play on Nov. 25 called “Pushing Up the Sky.” The play told of an Indian village in the northwest who had trouble when the sky was too low. They worked together to solve the problem by pushing up the sky with long poles so all the animals and people of the village could live. The students enjoyed learning their lines, making props and performing for kindergarten students.

Third Graders Celebrate with a Holiday Concert

Bair, Anna Bevitt, Laura Taylor, Austin Baird, Alyssa Garza, and Bryce Cowan. The students worked very hard to perfect their performance and their hard work paid off.

Third Grade Play Teaches Cooperation

Parent Meeting on Internet Safety The Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence will be presenting information about In-ternet Safety for parents of K-12 students Jan. 8, 2009, at 7 p.m. This meeting will be held in the middle school. This group presented to our middle school students Nov. 21 and did an excel-lent job. They present an innovative pre-sentation that utilizes the latest statistics, online resources, videos, and expert tips to educate, engage, and empower children and adults to be safer on- and offline. For more info go to www.netsmartz.org

Help Get Rid of the “Winter Blues” The Jeff West Health Committee will sponsor a Jeff West Family Fun & Fitness Night and Information Fair from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., Monday, Jan. 26, 2009, at Jeff West Middle School. The purpose of this night is to have fun, get some exercise to get rid of the “winter blues,” and learn something new. There will be a variety of games and activities for both kids and adults. We anticipate hav-ing several booths providing information regarding health, wellness, and fitness. All Jeff West students, parents, staff, and patrons are invited to attend. We encourage everyone to come out and have some fun!

MS Girls Finish SeasonThe Middle School Girls Basketball season came to a close on Saturday, Dec. 13. The 7th grade squad finished the year with a 4-7 record. The 8th grade squad ended their 10-3 season with a second place finish at the league tournament. Congratulations, girls! Pictured above– front row: Madison Tucker, and Erika Essman. second row: Abbie Thelen, Jenny McNary, and Macey Brake. back row: Coach Jackson, Mayria Sanders, Sydnee Mundhenke, Molly Hothan, Haley Siess, and Libby Martin

Jeff West High School accepted the chal-lenge given by Perry-Lecompton High School – Who can gather the most non-perishable food items before the Dec. 5 basketball game. Both schools went all out, and when PLHS had gathered over 3,000 items, they thought they had won the Golden Can Award for sure. But NO! JWHS gathered 4,000 items! Together the schools gathered 7,006 items to help restock God’s Storehouse, the Jeffer-son County food bank, and the Lecompton Food Bank housed in Lecompton United Methodist Church. PLHS art department created the Golden Can Award trophy that is currently resting in the JWHS trophy case. At the halftime ceremony, the Kaws promised

Challenge Winnerto bring her home next year. The old saying proved true, inch by inch it’s a cinch, give a kid an inch and he’ll take a mile. Tigers and Kaws, congratulations on join-ing together to accomplish more than you ever could alone.

Hone up on your dairy knowledge, the Shoot for Three challenges are coming to Jeff West once again. On Jan. 13, at the Jeff West vs. Royal Valley basketball games, the Jefferson West Health Com-mittee will be promoting ways to get three dairy products into your diet each day. There are three ways to win on Jan. 13, earn raffle prize opportunities by answering a few dairy-licious questions, create your own milk mustache, and/or shoot three pointers at half time of the Boys Varsity Game. Hunter Overstreet was a champion at all three last year.

Shoot For Three!

Come support the Tigers – and play in your own

Dairy Trifecta Challenge! Shoot for Three!

The beginning of the new semester brings with it a sense of excitement that is undeniable. The educational commu-nity comes charging back into the school buildings after an extended break with a renewed spirit and with a growing

sense of an-ticipation as the older stu-dents move into their new course offer-ings, and the younger stu-dents have the opportunity to get back with their friends they may not

have seen since the close of the first se-mester. Truly, the beginning of the second semester of the school year is always an exciting time in the school business. But, this year is particularly exciting. Along with the normal excitement associated with the beginning of a new semester, the spring semester of 2009 brings with it a whole new technology system for the district! At the completion of this major project, the district will have a revitalized technology backbone, includ-ing a new network, a new server array, and, eventually, a new fiber connection with more bandwidth to the Internet. Once all facets of this project are com-plete, the Jefferson West School District will enjoy a state-of-the-art technology system which will facilitate the learning experiences of our students. The completion of this massive tech-

Tiger Talk ■ Page 3News & Highlights of USD 340

Supt. Scott Myers

From the Superintendent

A New Day is Dawningnology project has been a longtime in coming, officially emanating from the Community Strategic Planning Commit-tee work that was completed over a year ago. Following a comprehensive analysis of our situation, it became apparent that we needed to address all facets of our technology system. So, after lining up the financing of the project, we jumped in and started addressing our issues. For the past few weeks, the maintenance staff of the district has been systematically replacing over 22,000 feet of outdated network cable and setting the stage for the wireless network that will be coming along in the near future. Next, Dynamic Computer Solutions of Topeka came on site over the recent break from school and installed all new routers and switches for the network, completing the network portion of this fix. In the coming weeks, this project will come to an end once we have replaced the district servers and get moved over to the new fiber connection. Once this entire project is completed, we will be in an excellent position to sup-port all of the rich learning opportunities that exist via the use of technology. The simple fact is that the world around us is becoming increasingly dependent on technology, so although we have an excel-lent professional staff that works very hard at providing the students of the district with the learning opportunities they deserve, our old technology system made that job all that much more diffi-cult. Soon, though, those infrastructure issues will be a distant memory – and not a moment too soon.

Jeff West First Grades hosted a People in Communities event in conjunction with lan-guage arts and social studies units. Four-teen parents volunteered. We had a large variety, including daycare provider, heavy equipment operators, firefighter, detective, heating/air tech, song/movement trainer, nurse, welder, college rep., saddle mak-er, gas service rep., shoe company rep., and others. The first grade really enjoyed their interesting visitors.

First Grade Career Day Proves Interesting

How did the season begin? How did the world get its evils? These are the things of Greek mythology! The sixth graders are completing an interdisciplinary unit about ancient Greece. In order to better study character development, plot, theme, dialogue, and theatrical elements, students revamp Greek myths, adding the dialogue, giving the characters personality, etc. After the plays are created in Mrs. Naumann’s Language Arts class, parts are dispersed by Mr. Sidener and students are taught how the ancient Greeks used masks in their plays. Students create a mask for their character. Students then draw, paint and create scenery and props to further develop the plays and the plays are then presented the

Learning Greek Plays

last day before holiday break. Students are pictured here working on sets and props.

The JWMS FCCLA chapter re-cently held a penny drive at the Jefferson West Elementary, In-termediate and Middle Schools to raise funds for the Chapman School district that is still re-covering from a tornado that hit their town on June 11, 2008. The students competed against each other to raise the most money for a pizza party. The total raised was $2000 which will go to the school to purchase a television VCR/DVD combo for the Family and Consumer Science teacher, Sonja Anders to use in her class, and the remaining money will be given to families from the area that need assistance through the holidays. Pictured are Kae-lin Willis, Melissa Scrivner, and Danelle Snodgrass who made the deposit at Denison State Bank in Meriden.

The JWMS FCCLA chapter held a “Who’s the Biggest Turkey of Them All” contest with the JWMS faculty to raise funds which also went towards the $2000 raised for the Chapman School District. Students purchased paper feathers to go on bald turkeys that were hung on each staff member’s door and also to have their name put into a drawing for prizes. Mr. Kimberlin had the most feathers and won a 13 lb. turkey from the FCCLA for participating. He is seen here receiving the prize from chapter member Saman-tha Montgomery.

The JWMS FCCLA chapter recently recognized these students for their Dy-namic Leadership for the Fall months of school. Receiving these certificates were: Kailee Gibson for October, Sarah Allison for September, and Alex Thornburgh for November. Kailee Gibson is the daughter of Kevin and Tina Gibson of Ozawkie, Sarah is the daughter of Ernie and Toni Allison of Meriden, and Alex is the son of Edie Thornburgh of Meriden.

JWMS FCCLA Helps Chapman School

Tiger Talk■ Page 4News & Highlights of USD 340

Scott Myers Superintendent Mary Getto, Director of Curriculum & Instruction Amy Adams-Mitchell, Board Clerk/Secretary Marcia Ricklefs, Accounts/Treasurer Dayna Heineken, CentralOfficeSecretary/StudentData

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Tiger Talk is brought to you by UnifiedSchoolDistrict#340.Ifyou have suggestions or ques-tions, please contact the central office staff at 601 Wyandotte, Meriden, KS or call (785) 484-3444. The persons listed to the right will serve you in any way they can.

4 5 6 7 8 9 10JV/V G/B BKB at Nemaha

Valley–4:45/5/6:30/8Fr/So WR at

Piper–9 am

MS B BKB at St. Marys–9 am

V WR at Hering-ton–9 am

JV BKB Tourn– 9:30 am (H)

Staff Development/Workday

FR G/B BKB at Hiawatha– 5:30/7 pm

ScHool ReSuMeS

JV/V G/B BKB Hiawatha 5/6:30/8 pm (H)

KATS Beginning 3rd Quarter

Feb AcT Registration Due

FcclA lunch Meeting

last Day for Spring Schedule

FR G/B BKB at Seneca– 5:30/7 pm

JV/V WR AccHS/Kc Turner–5:30 pm (H)

1 2 3 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

Booster club Meeting at eS– 7 pm

No ScHool oR KATS—christmas Break

No ScHool oR KATSchristmas Break Variety Show Auditions–3:15 pm

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PDc Meeting–3:30 pm

MS B BKB at Valley Falls– 5:30 pm

Boe Meeting–7 pm

JV/V/G/B BKB Royal Valley– 5/6:30/8 pm (H)

FcclA-Meal

V WR at St. Marys

FR G BKB Tourn at Rock creek– 10 am

Regional Debate

HS Variety Show–7 pm

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Tonganoxie Basketball Tournament

MS B BKB 7A,7B Perry– 4 pm (H)

MS B BKB 8A,8B at Perry–4 pm

JV/V WR at Holton–5:30 pm

FR G/B BKB at Sabetha– 6/7:30 pm

HS Scholars Bowl at easton– 4 pm

JV/V G/B BKB at Sabetha– 4:45/5/6:30/8 pm

Regional Debate

V WR at St. Marys–3 pm

Highland Dual credit Tuition– 3 pm

State DebateNo ScHool oR KATSStaff Development

FFA Speech at Wamego–8:30 am

FR G/B BKB at Perry– 5:30/7 pm

Skating Party–5 pm

MS B BKB 7A,8A at W Rural– 5 pm

FR G/B BKB Royal Valley at JWMS– 5:30/7 pm

JV/V WR RV/Hayden– 5:30 pm (H)

SAT Test

V WR at Piper– 9 am

FR B BKB Tourn– 9:30 am (H)

State Debate

Dist Family Fitness Night– 6:30 pm

JV/V G/B BKB–(H) SFT5/6:30/8 pmAfter Prom-Meal

FR G/B BKB (H) at MS vs SFT– 6:15/8 pm

eS country Store MS B BKB 7A,7B at Sabetha– 4 pm

MS B BKB 8A,8B Sabetha– 4 pm (H)

FR G/B BKB–P. Ridge– 5:30/7 pm (H)

1st Grade Music Program– 7 pm

JV/V WR at Hiawatha–5:30 JV WR at easton–9 am

MS B JV BKB JcN Tourn. at Nor-tonville–9 am

V WR at Atchi-son–9 am