West Nodaway Newsletter
May 2025
Wrapping Up a Fantastic Year of Growth and Achievement
Dear West Nodaway Families,
As we turn the final pages of the 2024-2025 school year, I want to take a moment to reflect on what has been a truly outstanding year for our students, staff, and community. May always arrives with a mix of excitement and nostalgia as we prepare to send our seniors off into the world, celebrate accomplishments, and begin planning for what’s ahead.
First and foremost, I want to congratulate the Class of 2025. Your resilience, leadership, and spirit have left a lasting mark on West Nodaway. Whether heading to college, entering the workforce, or serving in the military, we are incredibly proud of your achievements and can’t wait to see the amazing paths you forge ahead. Graduation will be held on Sunday, May 11, at 2:00 p.m. in the high school gymnasium, and we invite all to join in celebrating these bright young leaders.
Throughout the year, we’ve seen incredible academic progress across all grade levels. From our youngest Rockets learning to read and write, to our high school students earning dual credit hours and excelling in extracurricular competitions, this has been a year filled with hard work and growth. Our teachers and support staff have continued to go above and beyond to meet the needs of every student, and I am deeply grateful for their dedication.
This spring, our FFA, music, and athletic programs have continued to shine. Highlights include our FFA chapter’s success at the state convention, outstanding music performances, and spirited seasons for our track and baseball teams. Thank you to all our coaches, sponsors, and families for supporting these valuable programs.
We are also proud of the progress we’ve made on district goals this year. From technology upgrades in the classroom to improvements in safety procedures and student supports, we are committed to providing a learning environment that is innovative and forward-thinking. Our partnership with community stakeholders continues to be a vital part of our success, and your input is always valued.
As we look ahead to the summer, we’ll be working on building maintenance, curriculum planning, and preparing for the 2025-2026 school year. We have a few building enhancements planned that will provide needed upgrades to the facilities.
Finally, I want to thank each and every family for your continued partnership and support. West Nodaway is more than a school district—it’s a family. The strength of our community, the dedication of our educators, and the spirit of our students make this an incredible place to learn and grow.
Have a safe, restful, and joyful summer. We look forward to welcoming everyone back in August!
With Rocket pride,
Dr. Mitch Barnes
Superintendent, West Nodaway R-I
Hello Rocket Families and Welcome to our last month of school! Students and teachers have been working hard on the MAP/EOC testing. As you know, testing continues thru May 8th so please make sure your student(s) are in attendance, getting plenty of rest, and eating healthy! See page 11-12 in the Student Handbook to view the MAP, EOC, and ACT Incentives Program.
Some important upcoming events include the FFA Banquet on May 4th followed by Baccalaureate for the graduating seniors. Graduation will be held on May 11th at 2:00PM. Lastly, finals for those taking them will begin Wednesday, May 14th and students’ last day of school is May 16th!
Coaches have started having meetings with the kids to share summer information, including practices, weights, and contests.
We will celebrate our wonderful teachers May 5-9 for Teacher Appreciation Week! We’re very fortunate to have such amazing teachers at West Nodaway.
In addition, its important you stay current on your students’ grades thru the parent portal in Infinite Campus. Grade checks will occur every two weeks. Below are the tutoring hours that are available for the JH/HS students.
Tutoring Hours:
o Math - Daily 7:15am-7:45am, Wed/Thurs 3:45pm-4:30pm
o Science - Daily 3:45pm-4:30pm
o Social Studies - Tues/Wed/Thurs 7:15am-7:35am; 3:45pm-4:25pm
o Music/Band - Wed/Thurs 3:45pm-4:45pm
o College Apps & Scholarships - Daily 7:00am-7:30am, 3:45pm-4:45pm
Finally, if you have any questions or concerns, please give me a call, email, or stop in the office.
Mrs. Livengood
Wow! I can’t believe it - we are in the last few weeks of the school year. It’s been a great year at West Nodaway Elementary and I know the students and staff are excited to have a nice summer break. We have several events and activities in the month of May as we wrap up our school year.
Before I list these events, I would like to mention how great our new playground is. It has been a very big challenge for students and staff to look out our back windows and see this awesome playground just waiting to be finished, and not be able to play on it. When the day finally came, we had a picnic outside and spent some extra time enjoying the equipment. Thank you so much to everyone who had a hand in our new playground. We definitely have something to be very proud of!
May 2nd is the 4th and 5th grade Field Trip. All Library books need to be returned by this day as well.
May 8th is the 2nd and 3rd grade field trip as well as the 6th grade D.A.R.E. trip.
May 9th is the 6th grade field trip.
May 13th is our fun day.
May 16th is the last day of school. The end of the year Awards Assembly will be 8:30a.m. in the elementary gym. We will have an early dismissal at 12:30p.m. and parent pick up will begin at 12:20p.m.
Once again, it has been an honor and a privilege to be the principal at West Nodaway Elementary School. I hope everyone has a wonderful and eventful summer and I look forward to the students returning in August. In the meantime, parents - “Tag, You're It” Have a great summer!
Another year is almost complete! It’s been a great year and I would like to say, thank you for working with us to keep our kids healthy and in school. We hosted an immunization clinic and sports physical clinic here at West Nodaway. Nodaway County Health Department and Community Hospital Fairfax were both able to come in this year. We were able to serve 27 students with immunizations and 35 students with sports physicals. This helps us get these completed and documented now instead of when we are busy with back to school tasks. Thank you so much for utilizing these programs! If you didn’t participate please get us copies when completed elsewhere. State law requires immunizations to be completed PRIOR to the start of the new school year. Sports physicals are required per MSHSAA to participate in JH/HS sports and are good for a 2 year period. We’ll continue to offer these both here at school next year. Again, thank you for another great year and enjoy your summer break!
The end of the school year is just around the corner and that means it is testing time! It’s been three full weeks of testing for students and they have worked diligently, putting forth great effort on each exam. Beyond the standard state testing for 3rd through 8th Grade and a few classes in high school, we have also focused on juniors and seniors completing their Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway exams. The agriculture students achieve this through FFA contests by obtaining certain individual scores at contests. The business students don’t have the same type of contests so they have to pass a 150-question test related to business and technology concepts. Another way to achieve CTE completion is to fulfill the requirements of a health science or industrial arts program through Vo-Tech.
Thank you to everyone in the community who donated snacks for testing this year. We had a variety of cereals, cookies, crackers, and other snacks to get us through the last three weeks. Students always look forward to what snacks are offered each day. The variety and amount provided wouldn’t be possible without the donations.
As the year winds down, elementary is focused on the character word “Creativity” which means using their imagination to solve problems. Surprisingly this can be difficult for students as they struggle to think outside the box for solutions. I have encouraged students to play outside this summer, develop new positive games, explore their surroundings, read books, and think of other ways to be creative inside and outside the house.
Junior high and high school will be looking at classes for next year in the upcoming days. Students will use their 4-year plans to help make decisions about courses as the goal is to complete a career pathway upon graduation. We have several students attending VoTech next year and a few interested in dual credit. Please talk with your child(ren) over the next couple of days and inquire about their potential classes for this coming school year.
Have a great rest of the spring as summer is quickly approaching!
Mrs. Clayton
