Education

Allamakee County will offer the Aerial Applicator Continuing Instruction Course (CIC) for commercial pesticide applicators Monday, December 7. The local attendance site is Allamakee County Extension and Outreach office. The course will be held from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. To register or to obtain additional information, contact the ISU Extension and Outreach office in Allamakee County at 563-568-6345.
 

The 2020 Northeast District FFA Dairy Cattle Career Development Event was held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Manchester Saturday, September 26. Twenty-four teams participated in this year’s District event, with participants completing a dairy evaluation test along with placing four classes of cows and heifers. The Dairy Evaluation test consisted of common knowledge, pedigree evaluation, sire evaluation and farm management questions. This year, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, contestants did not give oral reasons to a set of judges. The state Dairy Cattle Evaluation event date is still to be decided.

At its regular monthly meeting Monday, November 16, the Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Board of Directors voted - on a 3-2 split vote - to implement the requirement for students and staff members to wear face coverings in all district buildings. The face covering requirement was put in place beginning Thursday, November 19 and was done so in response to rising COVID-19 case numbers in Allamakee County.

“We held off on this issue as long as possible,” explained Allamakee Community School District Superintendent Jay Mathis when addressing the matter with the school board at that November 16 meeting. “We’ve been very blessed that we haven’t had any huge outbreaks in the school yet. I have given a great deal of thought to this, and agonized over it, but we feel that this was the best way to keep staff and students safe, and in school.”

Allamakee County will offer the Aerial Applicator Continuing Instruction Course (CIC) for commercial pesticide applicators Monday, December 7. The program is provided by the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP).

The local attendance site is Allamakee County Extension and Outreach office. Due to social distancing requirements, preregistration is required. Walk-ins on the day of the program will only be admitted if room allows. The course will be held from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. To register or to obtain additional information about the CIC, contact the ISU Extension and Outreach office in Allamakee County at 563-568-6345.

The course will fulfill 2020 recertification requirements for commercial pesticide applicators certified in categories 11 and 10. Some of the topics covered will include information on safe handling and storage of pesticides, laws and regulations, personal protective equipment and pest management.

submitted by Allamakee Community Education Association

Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) is adjusting to the changes prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak. One of those options for students is to learn from a location different than the school by remote means.

To accomplish learning remotely, usually from home, teachers and students are using an application called Zoom. Also being used are the learning management systems Canvas and Seesaw, along with free programs like Quizlet, Socrative and Google Documents.

Zoom allows students who are home to connect on their computers to the school. Students at home and in the classroom, along with the teacher in the classroom, can interact with video and audio, in real time. Occasionally, there are internet connection issues, but these have been relatively rare for students and teachers.

The four Waukon High School Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) students pictured above were among high school students from Colorado, Iowa and Missouri interested in business who competed in a Business Battle from October 19-30. The Business Battle featured seven business-oriented assessments conducted online: Accounting & Financial Management, Business Basics, Business Development & Entrepreneurship, Business Management, Financial Concepts, Information Technology, and Marketing, Sales and Communications.

by Brianne Eilers

The Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Board of Directors met Monday evening, November 16 for its regular monthly meeting. As its last item of business for the meeting, the board approved mandatory mask usage by students and staff throughout the district on a split, 3-2 vote.

Thursday, October 1, the joint committees of the Iowa High School Music Association and the Iowa Music Educators Association voted unanimously to cancel the 2020 All-State Music Festival due to health safety concerns presented by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The joint committees were also committed to moving forward with the All-State Audition process.

Auditions were held virtually October 22-24, with a total of 3,483 students auditioning virtually by regions: LeMars, Hampton-Dumont-CAL, Independence, Atlantic, Indianola and Washington, representing 263 high schools. A total of 1,081 instrumental and vocal music students were selected to receive the All-State honor, including a pair of Waukon High School vocal students under the direction of Sarah J. Bieber, Vocal Music Director for sixth-12th grades in the Allamakee Community School District.

The 2020 Northeast District Livestock Evaluation Career Development Event was held Saturday, October 3 at the Clayton County Fairgrounds in National. Twenty-five teams competed in this year’s event involving 86 individual FFA members who were tasked with placing six classes of livestock. These classes consisted of four head each of breeding gilts, breeding ewe, market lambs, breeding does, purebred Angus heifers and breeding heifers. Participants did not have to complete a livestock evaluation knowledge test or oral reasons this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and both officials and FFA members participated in social distancing.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now accepting entries for the 2021 Iowa Federal Junior Duck Stamp (JDS) art contest from students in Kindergarten through 12th grade. While entering the JDS contest, students have the opportunity to learn about waterfowl and their habitat, and then create an image of an eligible North American waterfowl species.

School groups and informal groups can enter this contest, or a student may enter individually. All information needed to participate can be found on the website: www.fws.gov/juniorduck.

Iowa entries for 2021 Contest must be postmarked by March 15, 2021, and mailed to: DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge; ATTN: Junior Duck Stamp; 1434 316th Lane; Missouri Valley, IA 51555.