What is great about a small school in Iowa?

Highland’s choir director, Jennifer McClenahan, and band director, Andrew McDonald, put on the Disney musical, Newsies, Jr, in Highland’s high school gym on Nov. 3 and 4. The cast had over 30 students in it. The production brought in another 10 students to help backstage.

Why are small schools in Iowa great?

Over 40% of the cast is out for four or more other school activities. All schools can provide a Dance Team, Drill Team, Musical, Athletics, Robotics, Cheerleading, Band, and Choir. At how many schools can students be in all of those activities during their high school career? To see 75% of all the cast members be in one or more activities in the school, I am left to wonder, how many activities can students participate in at much larger school districts?

To see that many students participating in so many activities makes for a school culture that centers around movement, involvement, and having fun with each other. Many athletes are pushed to do multiple sports, but at Highland, I believe our students participate in multiple activities. They are on the Student Council, in sports, and doing musicals.

While I thoroughly enjoyed watching the musical, I also couldn’t help but be proud to see so many students stepping out of their comfort zone and participating in more than one activity for our school.

Highland’s Facilities Advisory Committee met again on Nov. 1. We had over 25 community members participate in a 90-minute discussion on what are the top priority needs for the district. The goal of the meeting was to narrow down a list of 10 potential projects to the top two or three.

Right now, we may not have gotten our list down too far from ten items, but we had robust conversations on each project. I believe the committee will work on finding projects that affect as many students as possible and then bring those ideas to the school board early in 2024. Our goal is to pick out the district’s biggest needs and present them to the school board for consideration of doing a bond issue in November 2024.

These are exciting discussions since we know we are impacting future Huskies with our decisions! Go Huskies!