District Staff Directory
Academic CalendarA NOTE FROM TOM MESSINGER
Cardinals,
The 2020-2021 school year has seen many changes between August 2020 and February 2021. We saw changes due to COVID-19, the derecho, and inclement weather. In a year with new ways of communicating with families and reaching our students, many people have not seen family members or loved ones in a long time. The Newton Community School District is making one last calendar change to provide some concrete closure to the school year. It is important for everyone to have some “normal” experiences again. To do that, we want to reassure all of our families that the last day of school for our students will be June 4, 2021. To accomplish this, we will eliminate early dismissal Mondays for our students starting on March 1, 2021. The extra hours each week will allow us to meet the required instructional hours for our students. 98.5% of our families responding to the recent School Calendar Changes survey selected this option.
The other big news for the Newton Community School District is the beginning of the COVID-19 vaccination process for our Cardinal Staff. Many of the bus drivers have received their first dose of the vaccination and the scheduled days for the remainder of the staff wishing to receive the vaccination will be February 18 & 19, 2021. This is a major step in the process of returning to normal. We want to thank all of our staff members who have continued to go above and beyond to keep our schools open and operating. We have experienced a tremendous amount of success this year with our mitigation efforts and constant attention to our Return to Learn Plan.
As we prepare for the end of our school year, we are also busy thinking ahead about 2021-2022. We have learned many things which will help us improve and we will continue to challenge ourselves to provide the best possible opportunities for each and every student.
Yours truly,
Tom Messinger
Superintendent
Newton Community School District
Red Pride Runs Deep In Newton
Red Pride runs deep in Newton Community School District and when there is a need, there are educators who are there to meet them. Check out how these educators have gone above and beyond to show how much Newton means to them.
