ThE MuStAnG MeSsEnGeR

Mustang Update

Welcome Back Mustangs!!

We are up and running and excited about the 2025-2026 school year here at Valley Heights! Some great things were happing over the summer months beginning with an excellent turnout for our summer weight and conditioning program. Out student-athletes put in the extra time preparing for the upcoming year. This included small group workouts in our sports programs and jamborees as we tested our skills against other schools! Our FBLA chapter competed at nationals and members of our FFA Chapter competed at the state convention and our 2025-2026 officers participated in an Officer Retreat to plan for the upcoming year. In case you missed it, Class of 2025 member, Dustin Denton was elected as the State FFA Vice-President at the state convention!

We also made some major improvements to our facilities and we have another one coming once the basketball season is completed. This summer the track surface was replaced and repainted and really looks nice. While that was going on the football field was reshaped and new sod was placed on the playing surface. The spring project that I referred to is replacing the gym bleachers with all new bleachers that will really put our school spirit on display! We hope to have the majority of that work completed during spring break! Our custodial and maintenance crew have deep cleaned all of our areas, repainted some surfaces and did a phenomenal job getting us ready for classes. A big thank you to Ryan Bishop, Clayton Reed, Jamie LeSage, Amber Swearingen and Monica Sump. Also, thanks to our painting crew – Dana Stryker and Tori Simmons.

We will have two new staff members joining us this fall! Ms. Emma Toerber will be teaching 7th and 8th grade ELA and Mrs. Malari Schroller will be handling our Vocal and Instrumental programs at Valley Heights and Blue Rapids! Although not a new staff member by any means, but Shannon Conti will rejoin us here at Valley Heights as a paraeducator. We want to welcome them to the Mustang Family! Something new we will be doing this year is having a staff spotlight portion in our weekly newsletter so tune in and learn a little bit more about the staff out here at Valley Heights.

Two big nights out here at Valley Heights are coming up quickly! We will host our Open House on Tuesday, August 19th. During the evening we will host a 7th grade orientation session for the newest group of students, and their parents, in our building. This will be great opportunity to bring in locker and classroom supplies and meet the staff. This event starts at 6:30 pm and runs until 7:30 pm and is open to all of our students and their parents! Then on Friday, August 22nd, we will host our Mustang Spirit Night which starts at 5:00 pm! We will introduce fall sports team members, new staff and host a variety of games, dance and cheer routines and a performance by our young dancers as just a small part of our agenda! We invite all of you to attend to kick of our year in style!

Parents & Students – We will be watching student attendance and tardies very close this year. You should have received a letter in this regard in your welcome back mailing! Make sure you look this over and plan on following those guidelines closely. If you have any questions about this please do not hesitate in contacting my office for more information.

Our theme this year is “Dream Big, Work Hard, Stay Focused!” That will be our daily goal and we expect nothing less than all of the great things we will accomplish this year at Valley Heights! Now, let’s go out and make memories!

Go Mustangs!

Mr. Savage

The Class of 2025 wanted to add their mark on VHHS one more time. This time, their class made a donation of 4 "Welcome" flags for our high school building. The first use of these flags was on district-wide enrollment day. All four were proudly placed at the front of the high school.

Valley Heights put on a Computer Science camp this summer, facilitated by Mrs. Steinfort and additional Kansas State University professors and staff. The camp met from 9 am to 11:30 am for 8 days in early June. During that time, the class learned how to code using a computer program called Scratch, build and program small robots, as well as learn some basic AI programs. There were six students from 8th grade to 10th grade that participated in this program, put on by the K-State Rural Education Center.

Susan Steinfort was selected to be the Class 2A representative for the Kansas Volleyball Association All Star Match held in Topeka on June 7. One coach from each classification is selected to be on the coaching staff to facilitate practice sessions and then coach the top players from the state of Kansas in the All Star match.

Thank you to Valley Heights National Honor Society and members, Avery and Kinze for their hard work in helping get things done at Waterville Grade School today! They definitely exhibit Service, Leadership, & Character!#MustangPride