School

‘Cats cruising toward competitive district playoffs
Every basketball team wants to be playing their best at the season’s end, and with a highly competitive Class 4, District 12 tournament on the horizon, Caleb Reynolds, Cassville boys hoops coach, said his Wildcats are ding just that.

Hagins crowned Tip-Off Queen at Cassville High School
Cassville Senior Makenna Hagins smiles as she prepares to be crowned Cassville High School Tip-Off Queen on Friday.

100 reasons to celebrate!
Cassville kindergarten student Parker Hickman stacks Solo cups as part of a 100th day of school celebration on Feb. 5.

Lady Wildcats look for late-season push
A back-and-forth season when it comes to results, the Cassville girls basketball team is using its last four regular-season contests to prep for a Class 4, District 12 tournament run from the middle of the pack.

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.

Drake Thomas: Jekyll at school, Hyde at home — Navigating the school-home behavior disconnect
You’ve heard it a million times — a teacher bolsters your child’s behavior at school. They consistently clip off the chart for good behavior, are the teacher’s helper, and even receive awards for their positive behavior.

Wheeler named principal at Cassville Intermediate
The Cassville School Board has hired a new principal for Cassville Intermediate School, effective July 1. After 30 years in education, current Cassville Intermediate Principal Jeff Swadley is be retiring at the end of this academic year.

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.



