“As a teacher, I possess a

tremendous power to make a child's life miser-able or joyous. I can be

a tool of torture or an instrument of inspira-tion. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In

all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated

and a child humanized or de-humanized.”

-Dr. Haim Ginott

Twin Valley

Schools is very honored to be able

to present these

awards to two very exceptional teach-

ers and human be-

ings. The dedica-tion and enthusi-

asm they show to

our youth in the schools is with out

words. Congratu-

lations to both on

such great honors.

Sherry,

This year you have done a tremendous job! You have kept class-room instruction, yearbook deadlines, advisory needs; all bal-anced with impressive results. These all take time and effort above and beyond the call of duty.

You have done all this at a very difficult time in your life. Your hard work is greatly appreciated. Thank you for all you do!

Congratulations Sherry!

Parents please remember

that USD 240 Schools

will be out for Christ-

mas Break from Decem-

ber 21st @ 11:30 and

will resume classes on

January 3rd, 2011.

Board Of Education

John Adam

Phil Aumick

Rick Bremerman

Matt Ehrhart

Robert Miller

Bernie Regnier

Mark Whitesell

Superintendent

Richard Harlan

rharlan@twinvalley.net

District Office

(785) 488-3325

Bennington Schools

Grade School

Principal:

Craig Gantenbein

(785) 488-3323

High School

Principal:

Bill Edwards

(785) 488-3321

Tescott Schools

Principal &

Assistant Principal

Dr. Becky Cheney

Brent Mumford

(785) 283-4774

Cathryn,

You demonstrate the positive aspects of this quotation. Your posi-tive attitude and open mind sets you apart from the crowd. You have a relentless tenacity in never letting your students quit while remaining patient and understanding of their needs.

This year, you have done a tremendous job, taking on the MTSS initiative for junior high and high school students with impressive results. Launching this new program has taken additional time and effort, which is greatly appreciated. You have done this while still assisting students after school, assisting with the school play, sponsoring FCA, and helping at volleyball games. Thank you for all you do !

Congratulations Cathryn!

Parents, if you have not notified the school your child attends that he/she will be absent there will be an automatic notification to alert you that your child is absent from school on that day. If you

need to update any email addresses or phone numbers please contact the school your child attends.

The Twin Valley Education Foundation was founded in 2007 to provide innovative ways to facilitate educational opportunities for all students in

the USD 240 school district.

Every child deserves a first-rate education. Obtaining this will open doors

for them in their future. Twin Valley Education Foundation strives to find creative ways to continue USD 240’s status of providing an excellent edu-

cation for the youth of our district.

The Foundation is governed by a 6 member Board of Directors and serves

over 600 students within two different communities, Bennington and Tes-cott. It is housed within the district office in Bennington. For more infor-mation about the Foundation please contact Deana Betts at the District

Office @ 785-488-3325. Also please keeping checking the school website for more news about the Foundation at www.usd240.org

“Make a ripple by giving

to our local students, the

future of our

community!”

*Approved bills for payment in the amount of $406,922.58.

*Approved dissolution of the cooperative agreement between Bennington Junior High and Tescott Junior High for football and to reinstate Jr. High 8-man Football at Tescott beginning

with the 2011 season.

*Authorized the attendance of 2 out-of-district students at Ben-nington Schools for the 2011-12 school year.

*Approved the hiring of Gregg Tanzer as BHS Freshman Boys Bas-ketball Coach

Parents with winter weather right around the corner be sure to check your messages. Our new School Messenger System should alert you of

school closing, game cancelations and other school functions that may be canceled. You can still tune into local radio stations (KSAL; KY94; Old-

ies-98.5;Buzz-104.9; Sunny-102.5; KABI-1560;910 & 99.9 Eagle Coun-try) and television stations (Eye Witness News; KSN; KAKE 10; KSNT) to find out about current

school closings.

Here are the October Students of the Month from Bennington Grade School and Junior High.

1st Photo: Front Row: (L-R) : Dean Clark,

Lauryn Betts, Aliya Masse, Trista Watson, Jace Ohlson

2nd Row: Jayci Shepard, Avery Feil,

Jon Martin, Ryan Stanley, Colby Bul-

leigh, Claudia Trout, David Williams.

Back Row: Jacob Stanley, Kalli Ship-

ley, Mikayla Reed, Dustin Stanley,

Sierra Mann, Skylar Nelson

2nd Photo: Bria Huelsman

Officer, Enrique (Kiki) Cama-rens was killed. In honor of his

dedication against illegal drug use, ribbon s are now used as a

symbol of intoler-

ance to drugs use.

This year red rib-bons were given

to all students. Preschool stu-dents were given

a red ribbon coloring page, and activity

October 25th –29th was Red Ribbon Week, other-

wise known as Drug Aware-ness

Week. The Na-

tional Red Rib-

bon Campaign is the oldest and

larges drug pre-vention program. It was founded in

1985 after a Drug Enforcement

booklets were given to the ele-mentary students. Junior high

students played the game “Wheel of Misfortune” as they tested their knowledge of street

drugs. High school students par-

ticipated by dressing up during

the week. Their activities were sponsored by TRUCE.

Mrs. Neaderhiser and Nurse An-gie help organize the various Red Ribbon Week activities.

Congratulations to Shiland Fuller and Kodee Wood from Tescott High School. Shiland Fuller was awarded, All League Honor-

able Mention. Shiland was the only freshman in the league to win this award. Kodee Wood received football All-League 1st Team Defense Linebacker & Honorable Mention Offense Quar-

terback. We are proud of both of you!

Mrs. Trout’s 2nd Grade

Class with their ribbons

The Bennington Lady Dawgs

hosted the Minneapolis Lions for their first basketball game of the season. Minneapolis en-

tered the game undefeated win-ning their pre-season tourna-

ment, beating Solomon, Beloit, and Sacred Heart.

The first half of the game went well for the Lady Lions, but the Lady Bulldogs battled to stay

within 8 pts at half. The Bull-dogs turned the ball over a lot

and had many mental mis-takes. The halftime score was

16 to 8. Entering the second half, the Bulldogs came out with an increased intensity and

Play Harder or Go Home atti-

tude. This is the Bulldog’s team motto for the year and

they lived up to it. The Lady Bulldogs attacked the rim getting Minneapolis in

foul trouble. In the final quarter the game went back

and forth, but still the Bull-dogs trailed. With 18 sec-

onds left in the game Coach Piepho called time out and set up a special play.

Michaelyn Laflen hit Gabby Cooper on the low block.

Gabby Cooper attacked the middle of the basket and

scored the Bulldogs first go ahead basket of the game. Minneapolis called a time

out. The Bulldogs set up

their defense and forced Min-

neapolis into a force shot. The Lady Dawgs rebounded the missed shot and ran out the

clock. Both teams fought hard and will have great seasons.

The Leading scorers for the Bulldogs were Elise Vishnefske

scoring 12 points and Gabby Cooper with 9 points. The lead-ing rebounder for

the bulldogs was Jenna Ganten-

bein with 9. Spe-cial kudos to

Michaelyn Laflen for the tenacious defense guarding

on Minneapolis’ best players.

and Deb Harris. Win-ners from Mrs. Werner’s

class were Brenna, Kris-tin and Logen. Winners from Mrs. Hofflinger’s

class ere Conner, Bre-anna, and Chloe. Each

winner received a gift cer-tificate for a small ice

cream sundae at the Lin-

Recently, Nurse Angie had the Bennington third graders

participate in a bus safety poster contest in Mrs. Consta-ble’s art class. The students

were to draw about what they have learned about bus safety.

The following bus drivers judged the posters: Mandy

Gantenbein, Tera Chance,

ger Longer. Congratula-tions Winners.

Mrs. Abell’s 3rd Graders at Tescott worked with their parents to disguise turkeys for part of their So-

cial Studies Native American Unit. Check out some of the great disguises. Great Job students

(and parents). See photos to the right: Montana-Cowgirl, Alex-Indian, Dalton-Cowboy, Cody-Santa

Photo coming Cindy :)

5

Parents as Teachers and the Bennington morning preschool received a visit from Trooper Matthews on November 12th.

Trooper Matthew was happy to tell the children about his job and how he helps to protect us and keep our communities safe. Along with him came his dog “Hook.” “Hook” showed

us the many things he does to help Trooper Matthews throughout the day and while he is on the job. The children

enjoyed asking questions and getting the opportunity to peek into the patrol vehicle and see where “Hook” sits while riding as well

as all the neat things inside that Trooper Matthews uses to do his job. It just so happened that the preschool was having letter “T” week so Cooper Matthews was happy to share all about his dad,

Trooper Matthews. A big thank you goes out to Trooper Mat-thews for taking time out of his busy job to share with our classes.

Mrs. Stanley’s first grade class took a Virtual Field Trip to Plymouth Plantation in Plymouth,

Massachusetts. They listened to an interview with a Wampanoag Warrior and a Pilgrim woman and teenage girl. They learned about life in 1621 and

about the First Thanksgiving.

help. The Bennington Recrea-tion Commission donated funds

for one of the batting nets. The batting facility will serve two purposes: provide additional

opportunities to improve their hitting and to build stronger bat-

ting skills in our youth programs to feed the high school team in

years to come. One or both of the nets will stay up all summer for the local youth teams to use.

A huge thanks goes to Tracy Piepho, Darren Rodine, Bob

Harmon, Darren Stanley and Dave Stanley for their long

hours digging holes, pouring

concrete, cutting pipe and weld-ing the frame together. The

cages should last a long time and benefit the Lacy Dawg Softball Program for years to come.

Coach Piepho and Coach Rodine are

excited to announce the addition of two state of the art batting cages south

of the Bennington Softball Field. Fundraising for the

project was a team effort. The batting cage frame

and nets were funded by working concession stands (softball girls and jr. high

girls) and donations from the Bennington Booster

Club and Bennington Summer League. Thanks

to all the girls for their

6

Congratulations to the Bennington HS Band students who par-

ticipated in the 2010 HOA League Honor Band. Pictured are

Addy McCall, Chandler Loomis, Mollie Miller, Ian Ostenberg, Erick Underwood, Cody Lampe and Cameron Stanley. The participants practiced on Tuesday, November 9th from 1pm un-

til 5pm at Salina Central High School with approximately 100 other band students from our league schools. Guest conductor,

Dr. Jeff Jordan from Ft. Hays State University worked with the students on six musical selections. The combined league band

concert was performed that evening at 7pm.

Student council recognized student/staff of the

month for October: Bill Scheef– for “pushing us to

our potential and trying to prepare us for college”

Amanda McCosh-for being “a model student that

gives her best efforts all of the time. The student Council also had a food drive. Every student that

brought 10 cans for the drive could qualify for a morning of fun on November 24th. Students had to be in good standing academically and donate 10

food items to qualify for the event. The high school donated 500 items to the emergency food bank.

Good Job THS Students!

Recently, Dr. Yoxall from Comcare in Minneapolis and Lou Ann Snavely from the Ottawa County Health Department

gave a presentation to the Bennington fourth graders about tobacco education. They discussed short-term effects, reason

people smoke, and advertising. They discovered that 2% of students their age have already smoked their first cigarette.

Students also discussed what items they could buy verses spending money on tobacco product. Nurse Angie also gave a short demonstration using inflatable pig lungs to demon-

strate the negative effects tobacco has on the respiratory sys-tem. Students observed the difference between a black to-

bacco lung and a pink healthy lung. A poster contest will be held for all fourth graders in Ottawa County. Judging will be

based on originality, positive approach, and if it is color-

ful/eye catching. All entries are due the first week of December. Two winners will be picked from each school district. These winners will be entered in the state contest. The

winners at the state contest will receive recognition for their poster being used in the TAR WARS program.