Students and Staff “Roll” Into a New School Year!
With another summer coming to an end, the 2023-2024 school year is in full swing and students and teachers at Leigh Community Schools are ready to roll right back into things! With all fall sports beginning and extracurricular activities starting, students at Leigh Community Schools will be proving that we are ‘Being the Best!’
To kick off the back to school festivities, there was an open house held on Monday, August 14th from 5-7. This open house was a great opportunity for K-12 students to meet their new teachers, pick up computers, and grab a tasty burger!
The official start to school happened on Wednesday, August 16th for K-12 students and LCS staff. To roll into success in the new school year, K-12 students joined together in the gym for a back to school assembly. The staff surely brought the fun by ‘rolling’ into the new school year in many different ways including a four-wheeler, many bikes, scooters, and wagons, and even some wheelchairs and a motorcycle! The video has been viewed nearly 7500 times on Facebook! Be sure to check it out if you haven’t seen it!
This year’s kindergarten class welcomes 26 students and the senior class has 19!
Along with the excitement of school starting, we are also excited to see many new faces in the building! This year we have 6 new students and 4 new staff members! We also have three staff members that have moved job positions. Our new students are Tobias Hughes in Pre-K; Millie Hughes in Kindergarten; Piper Hughes in 2nd Grade; and Darel Lopez-Cruz, Bryce Hawley, and Carter Freudenburg all in 6th grade. We welcome them all!
For the staff changes, Mr. Tyler Brester is our new 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Sydney Wemhoff is teaching K-12 music, Ms. Cully Cerv is teaching 7-12 art, and Mrs. Linda Schwanebeck is a new part-time para. Mrs. Melissa Brabec is now a Special Education teacher, and Mrs. Steph Dostal is now the 2nd Grade teacher. Mr. Kevin Welsch has also rejoined the ranks to help direct the band with Mrs. Wemhoff!
One new addition to high school this year is a CNA class taught by Mrs. Spring Wendt through Central Community College in our STEM room. Students were given the opportunity to take this class and receive their CNA certification if they pass. There are four seniors taking the class this semester.
Some new facility changes will be seen soon as well. The victory bell from the old high school is currently being reconstructed in front of the school. There are bricks and a “Public School” sign from the old high school being put to use for the outside of it. Another cool addition to the victory bell is the senior class of 2024 will be putting a time capsule into the foundation of the bell. While taking the victory bell down, Mr. Fischer found a time capsule from a senior class sometime in the mid-1980s. He brought the idea up to this year's seniors about putting one in the new victory bell, and everyone was on board!
Along with the victory bell, there is also a four-room addition being added on to the north side of the elementary building to help with rising enrollments. This will be completed around July of 2024.
Superintendent, Mr. Cole Fischer said, “We are excited to "ROLL" into success in the 2023-24 school year. It is good to see students and staff back in the building! We have big things happening throughout the year...We will have our victory bell back in action in a couple of days and our new elementary classroom addition will begin construction within the next few weeks. We now have more area behind the school for our elementary students to play activities and we plan to add more parking to the north of the school driveway. Most importantly, we look forward to watching our students grow and accomplish many things throughout the school year! BE THE BEST!”
High School Principal, Mr. Andrew Faltys said, “I am really excited to be back in the building with staff and students. Last year was a fantastic first year for me here at Leigh Community Schools and I am looking forward to 2023-2024. One thing that I am looking forward to seeing the students roam the hallways. I feel that our staff does a great job building relationships with our students and that shows every morning when they walk through the doors with a smile on their faces. I told the seniors at our orientation that the year will go fast so they need to enjoy every minute of it.”
Senior Aubrie Hanna said, “I'm really excited to start off my senior year and to see all my classmates again. I think it's going to be an interesting year, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I really hope that we all get to walk across the stage at the end of this year."
With many new faces and additions to the school, Leigh Community Schools is ready to roll into a great year with many great moments and successes!