Dear Parents & Guardians,

The sun is shining and the snow is melting with only a few days of January left. While it has been a long cold snowy month, school days were shortened and it has flown by. Please remember with the cold temperatures and snow on the ground to send winter clothes (hats, gloves, mittens, snow boots and snow pants) if your child wishes to play in the snow. We will continue to go outside if temperatures are above 20 degrees. Please put student names or initials on items. It really helps us get things back to their rightful owners. 

All 8th grade students interested in attending Northwest High School are invited to New Student Orientation on Thursday, Feb. 1 at 6:15 PM.  It is an opportunity to explore Northwest High School, meet the staff, and see the wide variety of educational, academic, and athletic opportunities provided. Check out the Northwest Website for more information. 

We are excited to share your child’s success next week at Parent Teacher conferences. Conferences will be Wednesday, Feb.7th and Thursday the 8th from 2-8 p.m. School will be dismissed at 12 p.m. both days and no lunches will be served. The  Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits us from sharing academic information with anyone other than biological parents or documented legal guardians. While we value and recognize it takes a community to raise a child, we cannot share academic information outside these parameters (including stepparents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, boyfriends or girlfriends etc.) Thank you for your cooperation in meeting these requirements of the law.

K-5 conferences are scheduled individually with your child’s classroom teacher. Please contact them if you have not set up a time. 6-8 conferences are not scheduled for specific times. Parents can come anytime between 2-8 p.m. Mr. Simmons (PE)  and Mr. Herrmann (S.S.) will be available on Wednesday at 1R.  Mrs. Gapp (6-8 music)  from 2-5 p.m. and Mrs. Liberty (K-5 music) will be available from 6-8 p.m.  on Wednesday and 2-3:30 on Thursday at 1R. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mustion will be unavailable at conferences this week. Please email her or any of the teachers if you are unable to attend to set up a meeting time or for a phone conference. There will be NO School on Friday, Feb. 9th. 

I would also like to introduce and welcome Mrs. Tiffany Gapp to 1R and St. Libory. Mrs. Gapp has been covering the 6-8 Music classes since the beginning of the semester. Mrs. Gapp will be covering for Mrs. Liberty (K-5 music) at the end of March through May during her maternity leave. Thank you to Mrs. Gapp for helping us out this Spring!! Mrs. Liberty will host the K-5 Spring concert much earlier this year due to her leave of absence. Please mark your calendars for the K-5 Spring concert on March 11, @ 6:30pm at the Northwest HS auditorium. 

Calendar UPDATE: A notification was sent last week about a Northwest district wide calendar update. There will be NO school for K-12 students on Monday, April 22 instead of April 29. Please make adjustments to your calendars. 

K-3 celebrated the 100 days of learning last week. Check out 1R Facebook, as there were several 100 year olds wandering our hallways. It was a fun celebration and day of learning.   

The second trimester (Careers class) with Mrs. Loeffelholz will end next week. Please stop in and see what students have been working on in Careers these past few months. Mrs. Felske will be joining us for the last trimester. She will be introducing students to technology skills and stem lab activities.  If you have any questions for her please do not hesitate to stop in or email as she gets things set up and students transition. 

Patience, Patience, Patience is the key to a safe driveway and parking lot. Our first priority is that everyone is SAFE!! During drop off in the morning please pull completely forward to the east end beyond the crosswalk, students in the North lane exit to the North safe zone. If you are in the South lane please have your child go to the Cross Walk and not dodge in and out of cars. I know when we have inclement weather, the snow and ice makes it more challenging. We do our best to get snow removed and make it as safe as possible. Thanks for looking out for the safety of all!  

On Wednesday, February 21st, all 6th-8th grade band members will participate in a district-wide band clinic held at Northwest High school. Students will be transported to the high school, provided lunch and will perform a concert at 3:15 p.m. in the auditorium. All parents are invited to attend the concert. Parents will pick up students following the program. A letter from Mr. Meyer concerning this event will be sent home with kids as well. (tmeyer@ginorthwest.org)

We are now looking for August 2024-25 kindergartners. If you have a child who is 5 years old on or before July 31, 2018, they are eligible to attend kindergarten. Please call the office (308-385-6352) and let Mrs. Bachle know. We will add them to the list and begin sharing important information with those families. 

Congratulations to Violet Placke (5th), Hailyn Evans (6th), Taya Olesen (7th) and Judah Crick (8th) on representing 1R at the Hall County Spelling Bee. Judah placed 3rd in the written portion for the 8th grade and 8th overall in the oral competition. Great job Rebels! 

Middle School sports are off to a great start. We are super excited that we have our first ever Middle School Girls Wrestling program this year. The girls are combined with Cedar Hollow and St. Libory to form our inaugural Northwest Girls Wrestling team. I believe they have around 10-12 girls out this year. They have had a couple meets and are finding success on the mats. If you get a chance check out a meet and support the girls. Boys Basketball is also having success on the courts. Reminder the 1R calendar has both the girls wrestling meets and boys basketball games listed.   

There will be a PTO meeting Feb. 5th at 6 p.m. PTO will have a Culvers Dining Night Out on Tuesday, Feb. 20th from 4-8 p.m. There will also be PTO Family Fun Night at Axe Holes on Feb. 29th from 6-9pm. They are also seeking board members for the 2024-25 school year. If you would like to serve in some capacity please reach out to President Lisa Allan (allans21098@gmail.com)

On behalf of the staff and myself, we thank you for your continued support. Please follow our 1R Google calendar for the most current events and check out our 1R Facebook page. If you have questions regarding your child’s education, please do not hesitate to contact the office at 385-6352.

Sincerely,

Mr. Retzlaff, Principal