Announcements

Parkview Middle School students Lucius Ray and Carter Marovets were recently selected as winners of the 2022 Congressional App Challenge for Iowa’s Third District. 

Parkview students Lucius Ray and Carter Marovets showcase the app that they created.

The two seventh-grade students collaborated to create an app featuring a game to teach younger generations about the function and importance of the stock market through a built-in tutorial. The app was described as extremely creative, fun, and educational. 

As winners for the Third District, the students are invited to attend the #HouseofCode Reception at the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC in April, where they will showcase their app to members of Congress.

Congrats to these bright young students!

Congratulations to our Rock Creek Elementary students for getting first place in the Iowa Department of Human Rights Call 2 Serve youth contest!

The Class of 2030 submitted a video in the 5th/6th grade division describing how they demonstrate and promote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘s principles of non-violence. After learning about his core principles, students brainstormed examples, created posters in other languages, and drew pictures that could go with each of his seven principles. View the video.

The 5th graders video will be recognized at a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration on Monday, January 16, beginning at 10:45 AM.

Friday, January 13 is a professional learning day for our staff, and Monday, January, 16 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  We hope everyone enjoys the extra long weekend and we will see students back in the building on January 17!

Getting published isn’t easy but how Orbis came to be makes a great story. The program mission statement “Unleash passion. Realize potential. Impact the world.” focuses on that exact purpose aiming to solve real problems and improve the community. Authors, Trent Grundmeyer, School of Education, Drake University; Jill Urich, Ankeny Community School District; Jill Olson, Results Group; Stephanie Brown, Ankeny Community School District; and Susan Gentz, Ben and Susan Gentz Strategies, came together for this article explaining the Orbis program at Ankeny Community School District and the influence project based learning has on high school students. View their publication in Science Publishing Group!

Onsite Kindergarten Parent Meeting • Thursday, January 26 at 6:30 p.m.

Purpose: Visit your child’s home building before registration opens. Learn about the kindergarten experience within Ankeny Community School District, turn in the Kindergarten Information Form, learn more about Jumpstart, utilize the Address Look-Up Tool and ask questions.

View more information here!

All curricular areas engage in a review process in order to ensure that students have the most effective learning experience along with access to the most up-to-date and research-based  resources. This year, the district’s literacy curriculum will begin the process of a full review. Literacy curriculum includes learning to read, write, speak and listen and also how to use reading and listening to learn and writing and speaking to communicate learning. The review will evaluate which standards teachers think should be prioritized from the Iowa Core for each grade level and/or course.  In addition, it will clarify what it means to meet those prioritized standards and engage in an in-depth review of what science currently says are best practices in literacy instruction. The review will also evaluate the most appropriate resources to use when engaging students in those best practices of instruction. 

We are seeking community input in order to gather information from all stakeholders about the current state of the literacy curriculum, as well as what the community is looking for in future literacy learning and implementation.  Please take a few minutes to answer the following questions. Your answers will be reviewed by the curriculum advisory team and used to develop goals for our future delivery of literacy instruction.

Thank you so much for your time and participation. The review will begin February of 2023 with initial implementation anticipated to begin in the Fall of 2025.

This fall, sixty-eight Ankeny Community School District students, grades sixth through ninth, were selected for the 36th Annual Opus Honor Choir Festival hosted by the Iowa Choral Directors Association, more than any other school district in the state. Nearly three thousand students were nominated by their directors for one hundred-eighty positions in each of the four OPUS Honor Choirs.  Judges made their selections by scoring a recorded audition from each nominated student.  The 2022 Opus Honor Choirs performed on Thursday, November 17th, in CY Stephens Auditorium in Ames.  

Congratulations to the hundreds of Ankeny students who submitted recordings, especially to our outstanding selected musicians (below) and their directors: Emma Feldhans and David Sponder, Parkview; Emily Battani and Lisa Rehms, Prairie Ridge; Riley Anderson and Caroline Edgeton, Northview; and Jill Bjorklund and Nick Oswald, Southview.  Additionally, Nick Oswald had the distinguished honor of serving as the guest director for the 7th/8th Bass Clef Choir this year.  JJ Menke, Logan Peterson, Jackson Robie, Brannen Shanahan, and Landry Wagner performed as featured soloists or small group members at the concert as well!  Congrats to all!

5th/6th Choir
Chatham Beck (PR)
Roman Bockes (PV)
Natalie Hall (PR)
Nora Huebsch (PR)
Sebastian Rivera-Alvarez (PR)
Zoe Saunders (PV)
Elisabeth Skog (PR)
Katharine Yoder (PV)

7th/8th Treble Clef Choir
Elin Alber (PV)
Calista Beck (NV)
Krista Bogers (PR)
Gwenyth Carl (PV)
Emily Doubleday (SV)
Natalie Ford (SV)
Carla Foster (NV)
Maylin Gustafson (SV)
Savannah Hulse (SV)
Delphine Johnson (SV)
Whitney Lee (NV)
Jaleigh Moen (SV)
Sara Phillips (SV)
Rhonda Rullestad (SV)
#Landry Wagner (SV)

7th/8th Bass Clef Choir
Austin Albaugh (SV)
Cael Austin (SV)
Lincoln Blessing (SV)
Seth Buxton (SV)
*Caleb Crouse (SV)
Keegan Elliott (NV)
Jack Kent (SV)
Andrew Langholz (NV)
Lennox McCracken (SV)
#JJ Menke (SV)
Adrian Morales (PV)
#Logan Peterson (SV)
Derek Pross (PV)
Gus Ringholz (NV)
#Jack Robie (SV)
Blake Sauer (SV)
Ezekiel Scroggs (NV)
Berritt Sipes (SV)
Jaxon Speer (SV)
*Zane Wickencamp (SV)

9th Mixed Choir
Jonas Adams (SV)
Mya Backstrom (SV)
Connor Behrens (SV)
Ella Breuer (SV)
Sareena Casady (SV)
Caitlyn Chance (SV)
^Ben Colby (SV)
Nathan Gerth (SV)
Abe Groen (NV)
Jayden Huegel (SV)
*Harrison Jansen (NV)
Jasira Jones (SV)
Kaii Jones (NV)
Oliver Klein (SV)
Erik Kleve (SV)
Zach Kragel (SV)
Addy Lehman (SV)
~Lilian Monthei (SV)
Allison Muehr (SV)
Brendan Perry (SV)
Ethan Quinn (NV)
Anders Repp (SV)
Ella Schulz (SV)
#Brannen Shanahan (SV)
Kyra Swenson (SV)
Abby Willardson (NV)

^Alternate
*Solo Finalists
#Selected Solo/Small Ensemble
~Selected for All-State Choir

PV=Parkview
PR=Prairie Ridge
SV=Southview
NV=Northview

A prescribed (controlled) burn of the District’s prairie grasses have a start window of Dec. 1, 2022 through June 1, 2023. The burns will be conducted when the weather is within our parameters. The burns will be at:

The DNR recommends a burn every three years to maintain prairie grasses. District staff conducting burns have been trained and certified in prescribed burns.

We have another online auction running now until Tuesday, December 6, 2022. The auction features equipment and furnishings no longer needed in our schools and offices. The inventory includes electronics, tennis tables, rugs, chairs, desks, benches and much more.

The district is contracted with Purple Wave Auction, an online auction service, for the sale. Holding an online auction allows more people to see and study what is available, says Jeff Johnson, our district purchasing agent. All available auction items may be viewed here.