Izard County STEM School

Payson Speake will compete as a finalist in the Entrepreneurship competition on-site at the Summit in Hot Springs November 5th and 6th. She will also have her fly tying business on display during the summit and be considered a vendor!  Gage Neilsen has won 3rd place in the AGFC Generation Conservation high school pre competition submission for AGFC Nature Center Exhibit.  Congratulations to both of these IC STEM High School students!

Mrs. Michelle’s class officially kicked off our 2nd annual Pumpkin Jack Experiment, inspired by our read aloud, Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell! We will observe Pumpkin Jack and Pumpkin Jill all year long as they decompose and (hopefully!) sprout new life right before our eyes. Thank you to 2nd grader Emmarie and Mrs. TaKara for growing and sharing this year’s pumpkins with us!

Congrats to Abby Drollinger and Kevin Cap for passing the Microsoft PowerPoint certification exam yesterday!

Congrats to Kirsten Williams and Erick Canela for earning their Economics certificate in Financial Planning & Wealth Management class!

It’s almost time for Red Ribbon Week! ❤️
Join us in celebrating healthy, drug-free choices by taking part in our campus-wide dress-up days all week long!

Red Ribbon Week is a nationwide campaign that encourages students to take a stand for making safe, healthy decisions. It’s a week dedicated to building awareness, showing school spirit, and reminding everyone that we’re stronger when we choose to stay drug free.

Check out the dress-up day schedule—and get ready to show your Cougar Pride and commitment to positive choices! 🖤🤍
#CougarNation #RedRibbonWeek #EveryChildEveryDayWhateverItTakes

Thank you, Amanda Brewer and Amy Boles! We want to recognize the hard work of Amanda Brewer and Amy Boles for applying for the Accelerated Learning Equipment and Materials Grant. Because of their efforts, Accelerated Biology, Accelerated Chemistry, Accelerated Physical Science, and Accelerated Math 7 each received $1,000 in funding to support student learning and classroom resources! We appreciate their dedication to providing engaging, hands-on opportunities for our accelerated learners!

Congratulations to all of our 4H and Livestock Show Team students who competed in the Arkansas Youth Expo and the Arkansas State Fair - we are proud of all of you! Below are alphabetical lists of IC student placings for each event.

Arkansas Youth Expo
• Akynna Nielsen: won her class with her Charolais Bull, Grand Champion Shorthorn Plus Bull, and was called back for Showmanship.
• Ari Walters: 2nd in class with Brahman heifer, 2nd in class with Star 5 Bull, placed 12th and 14th place with dark crossbred commercial gilts.
• Carsen Cooper: 3rd in class with Sant Gertrudis heifer and Bull, 11th in class with light crossbred commercial gilt.
• Charleigh Barnes: received a call back in showmanship class, placed 5 in class with market goat.
• Chesney Helm: 9th in class with light crossbred commercial gilt.
• Faith Crider: Reserve Grand Champion Shorthorn Plus Bull, 1st in class with A.O.B. heifer, and 5th in class with Exotic commercial heifer.
• Savanah Nielsen: received a call back in showmanship class, 1st in class with Angus heifer.
• Whitley Smith: 2nd in class with American Commercial heifer, and 4th in class with Exotic commercial heifer.

Arkansas State Fair
• Akynna Nielsen: won Grand Champion Shorthorn Plus Bull , placed 1st in class with Shorthorn Plus Bull and Champion Arkansas Bred Shorthorn plus Bull. In the open show: won Grand Champion Shorthorn Plus Bull and placed 1st in class. Also won Reserve Champion Charolais Bull, Champion Arkansas Bred Charolais Bull, 1st in class in the Open Show, and won her class in the junior show.
• Ari Walters: won Division Champion Star 5 Bull, Reserve Champion Star 5 Bull, Reserve Division Champion with Brahman heifer, 1st in class with Star-5 bull, and 2nd in class with Brahman heifer. She also advanced from her heat in showmanship.
• Carsen Cooper: placed 2nd and 5th in class with Santa Gertrudis heifer, 3rd in class with Santa Gertrudis bull in the junior and open show, and she advanced from her heat in showmanship.
• Danielle Hollingsworth: 3rd overall senior showmanship with Dairy Goat, placed 5th and 7th in class with dairy goats.
• Faith Crider: 1st in class with Shorthorn Plus Bull, 1st in class in the Junior show, 1st in her class and Division Champion in the open show with percentage Simmental heifer; advanced from her heat in the commercial heifer junior showmanship, 3rd in the Livestock Skill-a-thon, 4th in class with Commercial Heifer, and competed in Junior Dairy Goat Showmanship; won most creative dairy goat costume contest, placed 2nd in the Dam and Daughter class, 3rd and 4th in class with dairy goats.
• Hazel Burns: won Grand Champion and 1st in class with Red Angus Bull, 3rd in class with Red Angus heifer. In the open show, won Reserve Champion Red Angus Bull and 3rd in class with Red Angus heifer.
• Jacee Morehead: won Grand Champion Shorthorn Bull, Reserve Champion Shorthorn Plus heifer and 1st in class with Shorthorn plus heifer. In the open show, won Grand Champion Shorthorn, 1st in class with Shorthorn Bull, and 2nd in class with shorthorn plus heifer.
• Kacee Morehead: 1st in her class in both the Open and Junior Show with Charolais Bull.

This week, we celebrate our amazing bus drivers for keeping our students safe every day! Remember, always stop for red flashing lights and the extended stop-arm.

The Lady Cougars begin Regional Tournament play tomorrow at Cotter, and we have Senior Night for Cheer and Football on Friday. We can't forget intramural action on Monday and Mighty Mites on Saturday... let's have a great week, Cougars!

Reminder! Students who had a photo taken on retake/makeup picture day, the deadline to return the order form is Tuesday, Oct 21. For more info, please contact Pinkston Photography.

We have been asked to share this message (below) from AR No Kid Hungry and the Arkanas Hunger Relief Alliance.

"TAKE THIS SURVEY FOR A CHANCE TO ENTER A GIFT CARD RAFFLE!

This summer, many families received grocery money to help buy food for their kids through Summer EBT. Please take 5 minutes to share your thoughts and experiences in a short survey and get a chance to participate in a gift card giveaway!

Here is the survey link: https://shareourstrength.questionpro.com/SEBTparentsurvey

Even if you did not participate in this program, we want to hear from you. Your feedback will help make the program better for all families. "

There have been some changes to this Saturday's Mighty Mite Football schedule... there will be four games played at Highland. Game 1 is set to begin at 9:00 AM. The games will be played in the following order:

Game 1: 3rd/4th IC vs Highland
Game 2: 3rd/4th Cave City vs Highland
Game 3: 5th/6th Cave City vs Highland
Game 4: 5th/6th IC vs Highland

⚽️ Soccer Coach Maison Hudgeons meets with prospective soccer players for our first season, coming in the spring! Go Cougars! ⚽️

Congratulations to Maggie Blackburn, Jayda Sanders, and Xander Lock for passing the Microsoft PowerPoint Certification test earlier this week! The learned the skills needed to prepare for this test while taking Introduction to Business class.

Izard County STEM Middle School has been recognized by the Office for Education Policy (OEP) at the University of Arkansas as a school where students are Beating the Odds by demonstrating high growth on the ATLAS, despite facing economic challenges outside of school! The OEP creates an annual report entitled the Outstanding Educational Performance Awards where they recognize schools with high student academic growth. OEP believes growth is the best indicator of the positive impact that a school is having on students. Congrats to our middle school students and teachers for earning the High ELA Growth (Northeast region) award!

Exciting News! 🎉 Our district has been awarded the DESE CTE Innovation Grant for $38,590! This funding will be used to modernize and enhance our computer science courses through the project titled “Code to Career: Modernizing Computer Science Education Through Hands-On Technology.” A special thank-you goes to Maison Hudgeons, our Computer Science teacher, for writing the grant, and to Keri McCarn for her help finalizing the details and submitting the application. Their hard work and dedication are helping us expand opportunities for our students and prepare them for future careers in technology! 💻✨

Thank you to Luke Francois from Solution Tree for leading today's Professional Development. IC STEM teachers are working hard in their PLC groups, and we know our students will benefit tremendously from our Professional Learning Communities!

Come to the Cougar Den at 7:00 to catch our Lady Cougars in the first round of the District Tournament tonight!