IOWA-GRANT PANTHER PRESS

Athletic Co-ops: Iowa-Grant and Highland

This Iowa-Grant School District and Highland Community Schools have a history of cooperation through an athletic co-op for wrestling and a multi-school gymnastics co-op through Dodgeville. From all reports, these co-ops are functioning well for all districts and we send off state-qualifiers year after year both in wrestling and gymnastics. Congratulations to our wrestlers and gymnasts for earning state berths in 2026! Read below about our champions and good luck ladies in the upcoming competition.

In September of 2024, there were discussions of forming a co-op between Iowa-Grant and Highland for varsity football. There was a joint board meeting. The Iowa-Grant School District Board of Education took action in its September 24, 2024 meeting to approve a co-op for football with Highland. For its part, Highland declined.

Recently, Highland Community Schools have been reviewing their enrollments and the number of potential participants in their athletic programs with an eye toward assessing program viability. Highland community forums preceding their recent board meetings resulted in a proposal for a co-op for baseball with Iowa-Grant beginning with the 2026-2027. On February 9, 2026.the Iowa-Grant board responded by also approving the co-op, contingent on details. Highland Community Schools hosted a second forum and a special board meeting on co-ops February 25, 2026 with no action taken for varsity level co-ops, but approving a co-op for middle school track.

The Iowa-Grant School Board will consider a co-op for middle school track at the next regular meeting on March 9, 2026. Any input from community members about this and the potential for other co-ops will be welcome and appreciated during the opportunity for public input at the meeting.

I believe we should nurture the relationship among our two school districts. By finding ways to share resources we might increase opportunities for all students and perhaps realize some cost savings while doing so. No matter the outcome of these co-op discussions, I hope that we can work together for the benefit of all our students, our families, and our communities.

03/02 4:30 PM SWAL Forensics @ Riverdale

03/02 6:00 PM State Wrestling Pep Rally - IGHS Gymnasium

03/04 Casimir Pulaski Day

03/04 9:00 AM SWAL Math Contest @ Fennimore

03/0511:15 AM Iowa County Career Day @ Dodgeville HS (Juniors & Seniors)

03/05 6:30 PM Board Meeting

03/05 7:00 PM LEO Club Banquet

03/06 12:00 PM Gymnastics State @ Wisconsin Rapids

03/06 7:00 PM Basketball: Boys Varsity Regional vs TBD (Home)

03/07 10:00 AM Gymnastics State @ Wisconsin Rapids

03/07 10:30 AM IGHS Band & Choir Trip - Leave for New Orleans

03/08 IGHS Band & Choir Trip - New Orleans

03/09 IGHS Band & Choir Trip - New Orleans

03/09 SPRING BREAK - NO SCHOOL

03/10 IGHS Band & Choir Trip - New Orleans

03/10 SPRING BREAK - NO SCHOOL

03/11 IGHS Band & Choir Trip - New Orleans

03/11 SPRING BREAK - NO SCHOOL

03/12 IGHS Band & Choir Trip - New Orleans

03/12 SPRING BREAK - NO SCHOOL

03/13 SPRING BREAK - NO SCHOOL

03/16 6:00 PM Music Parents Meeting

03/17 The Great Hunger

03/17 IGHS Band & Choir Concert

03/20 8:30 AM - 2:30 PM IGHS Blood Drive

03/22 Senior Class Trip - Mall of America

03/23 Senior Class Trip - Mall of America

03/24 ACT Plus Writing Testing - Juniors

03/24 4:00 PM Forensics District @ Barneveld

03/27 NO SCHOOL

03/28 Solo & Ensemble @ Cuba City

On Friday, February 27th IGHS Art students traveled to Platteville High School to participate in the annual Visual Arts Classic Regional Competition. Students created long term and onsite projects to be judged. As a group, students competed in a critical thinking challenge as well as an arts based quiz bowl.

Payton Freymiller and Chris Crow both received 1st awards so they will be moving onto the State level VAC competition on April 10th at Edgewood College in Madison

Congratulations to our State Wrestlers!!! What an incredible year!

The Dodgeville Gymnastics CO-OP Team are Sectional Champs and are on their to State with a new record of 141.4! Congratulations! Panther Proud!

The Iowa-Grant Academic Decathlon team competed at the State competition in Green Bay February 26 and 27.

I-G placed 4th in Division 4. Quentin Koss placed 2nd in Speech, and Chris Crow achieved a perfect 1,000 in Interview and was the highest scoring team I-G team member.

Congratulations to these students on a great season!

In February our chapter really started to ramp things up. CDE practices started and LDE competitions too (practice schedule can be found in Google Classroom). District LDEs were held on the 4th, Lily Linscheid placed 1st, Maddy Klein placed 2nd, Mackenzie Liddicoat DNP, and Payton Freymiller DNP, each in their respective events. State Proficiency Applications were due on the 10th, Lily Linscheid, June Spurley, and Garrett Rech each submitted an application. We held our Chapter Meeting on the 13th, at this meeting we discussed our previous activities and reminded members about the Strawberry Sale. The Strawberry Order Forms were due on the 16th, orders will be delivered on March 2nd. National FFA Week was the 23rd-27th, each day we had fun dress up themes and competitions. On Wednesday we held Ag Olympics in the gym and students competed in fun ag based activities. We ended the week with Drive your Tractor to School day!

Noah Lange is the valedictorian of the Class of 2026. He has participated in many extracurricular activities, including LEO Club, FFA, National Honor Society, Academic Decathlon, Cross Country, Basketball, Baseball, and Track and Field. He also likes being outdoors and spending time with friends. Noah would like to thank his parents, teachers, friends, and coaches for supporting and encouraging him. His advice to underclassmen is to find a balance between working hard and having fun because the four years go by fast. He plans to attend UW-Madison for civil engineering. Noah is the son of Tim and Samantha Lange of Cobb.

Will Fulton would like to thank his parents, teachers, coaches, classmates, family, friends, along with Mr. Gotto and Mr. Shimshak for their continued support of his academics and other activities throughout his high school career. Will loves to be outside, whether that is hiking, running, biking, or just exploring, and music is a large part of his life. He participated in Cross Country, Basketball, Baseball, Forensics, LEO Club, Academic Decathlon, Band, Jazz Band, Choir, and Sources of Strength. Will is a member of the National Honor Society and is the Class President. He is also a member of his church's council. Will plans to attend the US Naval Academy or the University of Idaho, and after graduation from college, he will commission as a Marine Corps Officer. His advice to the underclassmen is to just go for it. Life is about chances and choices. Go do the things you are too scared to do. This is the time of your life to try and fail, but you have to decide to go for it; you can’t steal second with your feet still on first. Will Fulton is the son of Don and Deanna Fulton of Cobb.

Happy March! We are gearing up for spring and summer in the next few months!

Due to our gym floor getting refinished this summer, we will be hosting all of our summer school dates in July. We plan to run the summer school bus again as well. I have listed the dates below so you can add them to your calendars.

Summer School registration will begin on Monday, March 30th, and will be due April 24th.

The dates are as follows: July 6 -9, July 13-16, and July 20-23

1st session: (2 sections, 8:15 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.)

2nd session: (2 sections, 8:15 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.)

3rd session: (2 sections 8:15 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.)

There will be a snack/recess in between sections. We are trying something new with only offering summer school in July and August. Please reach out to Jennifer Gallagher if you have any questions.

We also offer T-ball and Coach pitch softball and baseball. This runs in the evenings on Mondays and Thursdays from July 6 to July 30:

T-Ball 5:30 - 6:15 p.m.

Coach Pitch 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Sign-ups for T-ball, Coach Pitch softball, and baseball will be with the summer school sign-up.

Missoula Children’s Theater will be held Monday, August 3rd - Friday, August 7th. If you have questions, please email Ms.Breuer at dbreuer@igs.k12.wi.us or Mrs. Mayne at hmayne@igs.k12.wi.us.

The Wisconsin Forward Exam will be held from March 16th to April 24th. Testing will be held in the following grades:

• grades 3-8 in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics,

• grades 4 and 8 in science,

• and grades 4, 8, and 10 in social studies.

This exam will assess your child’s achievement in grade-level standards and will be used as part of Iowa-Grant Elementary Middle School’s state report card. We appreciate your support of our efforts.

There is some helpful information regarding the Forward Exam: https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/assessment/pdf/Forward_Brochure_for_Families.pdf

https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/assessment/pdf/Forward_Brochure_for_Families_ES.pdf

It's that time of year for Summer Recreation Baseball and Softball to start. If your child is in 3rd-8th grade and they are interested in baseball or softball. Please sign your child up today. Registration closes March 20th at 4 pm.

https://forms.gle/vGtM6VwLrz8FRHAg9

The fourth grade spent the month of February learning about the Winter Olympics. In language arts class, each student researched a sport and wrote a report about it. In social studies, students researched a country that was competing in the Olympics. They also watched daily video clips of American athletes earning medals. During WIN time, students tracked medals for the top 13 countries. They quickly realized that Norway was the “GOAT” when it came to earning medals. They were excited to discover that the USA came in second and Italy came in third for the total medal count.

The Iowa-Grant Panther Packs Program ensures that all students have nutritious food to eat during the weekends and school breaks. This program is funded solely through donations and we are proud to be assisting 33 students each week. If you are interested in donating to the Panther Packs Program please drop off donations in the IGEMS office. Ideas of donations include individually packaged meals such as mac and cheese packets, chef boyardee cups, cereal boxes, fruit cups, and individually packaged snacks. Monetary donations are also appreciated and all money collected is put toward food purchases to fill the backpacks weekly. Thank you for continuing to support the Panther Packs Program and the students of IGEMS!

Middle School Spanish Club will have their meeting on March 19th, 3:30-5:00 pm

Where: Iowa-Grant Elementary

When: Friday, March 20, 2026

8:00-12:00

Who: Any child in the district born between September 2022 and August 2023

The Iowa-Grant School District is holding a Child Development Day for any child in the district born between September 2022 and August 2023. This is an exciting opportunity for you to bring your child to school to check his/her preschool readiness skills. Through play we will explore colors, shapes, counting, following directions, and language development.

If you would like to bring your child to the Child Development Day please call (608)943-6313 ext 0 to sign up!

We would like to thank the generosity of the local businesses, organizations, and community members for supporting RIF. We were able to give more than 300 books to our K-6 students this past year. If you would like to donate to RIF please send payment to the Iowa-Grant School ℅ Mrs. Vacha. Your generous donation will go to purchasing new and exciting books for our students.

Elections will take place at the April meeting. If you wish to run for a board position, please let Christi Kennicker know by April 1st.