Scholastic Spotlight: Award winning counselors & Ag educators
We are celebrating teachers and staff in Central Iowa schools! Des Moines' Hoover High School is recognizing its counseling team for earning a prestigious national recognition and both DMACC and Southeast Warren High Schools now can say they have agriculture teachers who are the top of the top. See all the highlights in this week's Scholastic Spotlight.
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06-06-2025
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'We didn't expect it to be life changing': Hoover, Bergman say banning phones was just that
DES MOINES, Iowa — Looking back on their year as pioneers, two very different schools sound remarkably similar. 'We anticipated a lot of pushback and we got hardly any,' says Sydney Gerritsen, director of student affairs at Bergman Academy, central Iowa's only non-church-affiliated private school. 'It didn't take long for most of our kids to go 'got it—keep the phone away during the 45 minutes of class,'' says Qynne Kelly, principal at Des Moines' Hoover High School, one of the metro's most diverse public high schools. 'I'd say now we're taking maybe–at most—ten cell phones a week.' Looking for a way to solve the nationwide problem of cell phones in schools, Hoover banned phones, requiring all students to keep them in their backpacks during class. Kelly says the small-but-difficult rule change affected everything. 'You could start with a 14% increase in As and Bs,' she says. 'We'll be over 55% As and Bs after this semester—maybe even higher. Failures cut in half.' In addition to grades, student behavior at Hoover improved as well. 'Out-of-school suspension is down 60%. That's 6-0,' she adds. VR Headset offers new way for Des Moines lifeguards to train Bergman, with its younger student body running grades K-8, took the ban up a level: all students were required to check them in at the front office at the beginning of the day. As they left in the afternoon, the phones were returned. The results were much the same as Hoover's. 'It was so good to see them engage more with each other,' Gerritsen said. 'That is the biggest thing that we noticed this year, is the inter-student engagement was completely different than it's been the last couple of years with those older students.' Kelly says classrooms at Hoover came alive without the distractions of phones. 'When you used to go in a year ago, there were a lot of kids honestly looking down at their laps, looking at cell phones,' Kelly remembers. 'You'd go in and a kid would be watching a full-length film on their cell phone!' She says 90% of students followed the rule immediately. Others came around quickly and the entire atmosphere changed. 'Now it's entirely different. You go in there and you hear chatter and engagement and learning—like and energy, a buzz is what I would call it. And not just in the classrooms, in the hallways as well.' Both leaders say they expect other schools to see the same sort of results during the 2025-26 school year as they follow the new law signed by Governor Kim Reynolds this spring, banning cell phones from all Iowa classrooms. Four-day school week 'went fantastic' says Saydel Superintendent 'It ended up being easier than we thought,' Gerritsen says. 'We know we don't have high schoolers. We know that can be a different level of challenge, and I know high schoolers are probably going to approach it differently. They're not going to have wooden boxes in the office to lock 700 phones in. But it can work, and the kids do see that it makes a huge difference for them.' And both leaders agree the key to success is having a clear plan in place. 'First it's explaining the 'why,'' Kelly says. 'Second it is being consistent, and third is trusting your team to do the job—and make sure that your community is supportive of the people who are going to be doing that.' Below are the full interviews with Bergman Academy Director of Student Affairs Sydney Gerritsen and Hoover High School Principal Qynne Kelly. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
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Student winner of Iowa education license plate challenge revealed
DES MOINES, Iowa – An Ames High School student was surprised with some big news from Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow on Monday. Snow was at the high school to announce the winner of the Iowa Education License Plate Design Challenge. Scholastic Spotlight: Griff visits Norwalk classroom Sophomore Erin Cho was the winner and received a poster-sized version of her winning license plate. It features a goldfinch as an educator perched on three school books. Cho said that her design was meant to incorporate the educational theme as much as possible. 'I kinda just looked up like different symbols for education …and I incorporated that into my artwork. Like books, and like the graduation hat, and things like that. And also a pair of glasses on the educator finch that I tried to show in my artwork. And also used the state bird as well to show this is Iowa education,' said Cho. If you are looking to get her design for your Iowa license plate, it will be available later this summer. Student winner of Iowa education license plate challenge revealed Needed rainfall begins across Iowa, storms to develop tonight Scholastic Spotlight: Colfax-Mingo coffee shop Public safety leaders across Iowa to discuss impact of 911 systems charge Scholastic Spotlight: Griff visits Norwalk classroom Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
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Over 1,000 origami cranes to be displayed during Iowa State Fair as tribute to Japan
DES MOINES, Iowa — Over 1,000 origami cranes made by Iowans will be displayed during the Iowa State Fair to honor Iowa's sister-state relationship with Yamanashi, Japan. The Cranes of Friendship Project was organized by the Japan America Society of Iowa (JASI). It started after an Iowa delegate visited Yamanashi, Japan, last year. He was gifted 1,000 cranes to bring back to Iowa. In return, JASI wanted to do something special in honor of the 65th anniversary of their sister-state relationship. In Japanese culture, 1,000 cranes are made when people want to celebrate something. Scholastic Spotlight follow-up: Crestview GOAT Party JASI's Executive Director, Yoko Tanaka, started holding workshops across the state at different high schools, colleges, organizations, and even people's homes. During these workshops, she teaches Iowans how to make origami cranes and gets them involved in the project. Her most recent workshop was held at the Zen Center in Des Moines, where 14 participants made 80 origami cranes. JASI has already exceeded its goal and made over 1,100 cranes. 'I was not sure if I could make it all the way to 1,000 at the beginning of the project and I was thinking, if I couldn't make it then I have to take care of the rest of it,' said Tanaka. She said she will continue to host workshops for people to be involved in the project. Their new goal is to have as many cranes as possible. Tanaka will soon start to thread all of the cranes together. 'Making the cranes is one thing, [but] threading them is going to be another daunting task,' she said, A Japanese company based outside of Cedar Falls, Iowa makes fermented thread and they are gifting one spool of this thread for JASI to complete the display. The finished product will be on display during the Iowa State Fair in the 4-H Building. Tanaka will also hold a crane-making workshop in the 4-H Building on August 15. Tanaka will soon hold workshops in Muscatine and Sioux City, showing that she travels anywhere in the state from as far east as Muscatine to as far west as Sioux City. Iowans can schedule a workshop by emailing info@ Buttigieg gives a strident anti-Trump message in Iowa, demands Democrats make their agenda clear Over 1,000 origami cranes to be displayed during Iowa State Fair as tribute to Japan Madison County leaders have a vacancy to fill, how that will happen is unclear Iowa crops planted ahead of schedule thanks to dry weather Work requirements for state Medicaid sent to Gov. Reynolds Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
