This has been a fantastic week for fine arts at Assumption!
Congrats to our students who participated in the Iowa State Thespian Festival this past weekend. 872 students attended the festival where there were 10 judged events. Our AHS students placed in the top three in three different events:
Large Group Musical Theater: Congrats to the cast of “Canaan Days” on receiving 2nd place and a superior rating. Liam Baldwin, Mundo Cadena, Sam Fer, Sam Jones, Jake Hannon, Patrick Kakert, Tanner Konrardy, Caleb Neff, Jacob Neff, Ben Pashon, Andrew Skalak, and AJ Skinner!
Duet Acting: Congrats to Jacob Neff and Sam Jones who received 2nd place and an excellent rating for their piece from Arthur Miller’s All My Sons!
Costume Design: Congrats to Bailey Hager for winning 3rd place and receiving an excellent rating for her costume design for The Tempest!
Sam Jones is also now the co-Chair of the Iowa State Thespian Student Board, an awesome accomplishment.
Congratulations also go out to Alex Underwood for winning a blue ribbon in the Quad City Area high school art display at Festival of Trees.
Finally, we received the great news just this afternoon that Emma Simmons is sitting 13th chair of 21 on Clarinet, and AJ Skinner is sitting First Chair Euphonium at the All State Band Festival this weekend. In laymen’s terms AJ Skinner is the Top Euphonium player in the STATE of Iowa! They will perform this weekend in Ames, but you can catch their performance the Sunday after Thanksgiving at 5:30 p.m. on Iowa Public Television.
I attended the Scott County Catholic Schools Advisory Board meeting on Monday. We spent a lot of time hearing about the Iowa Education Blueprint and the challenges Catholic schools may face if the proposed salary structure would go through. Hopefully everyone’s concerns will be lessened by the news this week that the governor’s office will not pursue this reform this year.
We also had a discussion about 1:1 computer initiatives and how this would impact the schools in the Diocese and learned that the Diocese will be working on a strategic plan this winter focusing on Catholic identity, enrollment and funding.
There was lively conversation at our administrative meeting this week about ways to improve the educational process at Assumption. While we all feel that we currently do many things well, we also know that we must continue to look for ways to best prepare students for their lives after they leave the halls of Assumption. I will meet with our senior English classes after Thanksgiving break in order to hear firsthand where they feel the strengths and weaknesses have been in their education at Assumption.
The marketing committee met on Wednesday and we continue to work on “ways to afford a Catholic education.”
The Annual Appeal is at the printer, and it should arrive at most houses after Thanksgiving.
We have been working on upgrading the sound system in the large gym. The seniors have expressed interest in using the profits from the Spaghetti Supper to help with this process and student council would also like to donate some of their dance proceeds to this project. It is great to see our kids get behind a project and work to see it completed.
The President’s Appreciation Dinner was held at the Blackhawk hotel on Wednesday night and was a huge success. thanks to the hard work of Liz King. We had a great turnout and the speeches by Mrs. McGuire and Coach Barrer were fantastic. It was a great chance to celebrate the generosity of our donors to Embracing our Future, the STO and the Annual Appeal. It also was a great chance to highlight not only the accomplishments of our students, but also all of the facilities upgrades we have completed in the last year.
Have a great weekend!
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