School
Cassville High School Performing Arts Center set to rise soon
The $9.8 million Cassville Performing Arts Center (PAC) will soon see red iron instead of red dirt, as progress on the facility is on track for its August completion. Clint Walton, vice president of construction operations at RE Smith, updated the Cassville School Board on Thursday, explaining what has been completed and what is yet to come.
8 Lady Trojans earn Academic All-State
A total of eight Southwest High School volleyball players earned Academic All-State. They include, from left: Lyric Bernard, Marissa Freeman, Montana Skelton, Riley Flippo, Kaleigh Tull, Laura Jean Henry, Brooklynn Slye and Juliauna Sierra. Coach Steve Voyak said the combined varsity grade point average was 3.94.
Exeter Holiday Joy Food Drive exceeds goal again!
Exeter students, parents, teachers, staff and PTO worked together again this year to collect and distribute 23 food baskets and cases of water to local families in need of assistance during the 2023 holiday season. Exeter collected just over 2,000 non-perishable items last year to meet its goal, so this year it set 2,500 as the goal to collect. Participants brought in 2,874 items, thanks to classes competing to be the biggest “givers!” The winning class in the elementary was Mr. McNabb’s third-grade class, bringing in over 1,000 items. With only 13 students in the class, that was just over 97 items per student brought in, since that is the fairest way to calculate the donations based on class size. The eighth-grade class won the Middle/High School competition, bringing in 7 items per student in their class of 21 students, totaling 149 items donated. The students in those classes celebrated their big hearts on Dec. 21, 2023, with pizza parties courtesy of Pizza Hut of Cassville. Pizza Hut also recognized six of the top charitable students with certificates for Personal Pan pizzas.
Merlyn Johnson: Breaking down the Cassville school district calendar
As we turn the page on the 2023 calendar, it is time for us at Cassville R-IV School District to begin preparing for our academic calendar for the 2024-2025 school year. Five years ago, our state legislators voted to require the school start date to be no earlier than 14 days prior to the first Monday in September.
Entrepreneurship Day winners named
Cassville FBLA students Avery Chappell, Ryan Knight, Jazmin Bradford, DJ Glidewell, Courtney Wall and Meadow Richardson recently earned first place in the Product-Commercial category at FBLA Entrepreneurship Day. Contributed photo
Cassville FBLA qualifies 24 to SLC
For the first time in two years, the Cassville FBLA Chapter traveled to the District V competition in Monett, where they had 48 medalists and 24 students qualify to attend the State Leadership Conference in April. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, the District V competition has been held online. Students moving on are: Jonathan Oliphant, Emerson Grossman, Sharayah Seymour, Ella Reuter, Samantha Sparkman, Cosmo Rhoads, Joey Burton, Reese Heiden, Jacob Martinez, Avery Chappell, Emma Berndt, Jaycie Ertel, Isabella Dunbar, Landry Parnell, Isabella Muise, Angela Cortez-Gonalzes, Jillian LeCompte, Annie Moore, Chaney Cox, Kyah Saffold, Macie Walker, Avery Crain, Maddock Roark and Marianne McCrackin. Contributed photo
Arning provides donation to CMS industrial arts students
Employees at Arning Companies recently made a donation of $500 to the Industrial Arts Program at Cassville Middle School. Funds were raised through Arning’s Casual Friday for Charity (CFFC) fund, which gives employees the opportunity to “dress-down” on Fridays by making contribution to the fund. Employees then select a local organization to donate funds raised through the CFFC program. Robbie Artherton, industrial arts teacher, plans to use the donation to purchase a new circular saw and a grinder for the shop. Front row, from left: Ashlyn Stringer, Jadyn Stewart, Julie Gregory, Riley Stumpff, Payton Ray and Kennedy Truman. Middle row, from left: Ethan Sizemore, Cayden Rohde, Tyra Sturgell, Gage Barnes and Colton Roark. Back row, from left: Artherton; Mark Speakman, director of production at Arning; Eric Bohmke, manufacturing manager at Arning; and Merlyn Johnson, Cassville superintendent. Contributed photo
