Author: Decorah Community School District

The Decorah Middle School 7th and 8th grade students will be presenting “A Night of Plays” on Thursday, March 9, at 7:00 p.m. A variety of small cast plays will be featured, including one from the Carol Burnett Show.

The performance will be at the Carrie Lee auditorium, and admission is free.

Decorah High School musicians from the 7 O’Clock Jazz Band, directed by Matthew Cody, will be joining forces with the Middle School Jazz Band, directed by Emily Hahn, to share their talents at a Jazz Coffeehouse Friday, March 3, in the high school cafeteria. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. and music starts at 7 p.m. 

Coffee from Impact Coffee and desserts prepared by Decorah Community School District Executive Chef Chad Elliott will be available. A free will donation with a suggested price of $5 for one dessert and a beverage is appreciated to support music in Decorah schools. The public is cordially invited to join in the fun, relaxed atmosphere.

Eleven Decorah High School band students were selected to attend the Dorian Band Festival at Luther College. Over 420 students from the area participated and were able to attend a mini lesson with the option of competing in a solo competition. 

Three students were selected to perform as soloists at the grand concert, and two of them were from Decorah High School. Alex McGohan was selected to perform on Bass Marimba and Elias Vorvick was selected to perform on Bass Trombone.

At times in our lives, we lean on music to express what is felt inside–what is brewing just beneath the surface or, in other times, what is radiating from us. These moments occur during grief, happiness, hope, and celebration. Additionally, all of us have experienced hearing a song and being transported back to another time in our life: a popular song from a TV show when we were young, a family road trip song, a song shared at a family member’s funeral, “Pomp and Circumstance” from high school commencement, and the list goes on and on.

On Tuesday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Decorah High School auditorium, the Decorah Middle School Seventh and Eighth Grade Choir will combine with the Decorah High School choirs to celebrate “Why We Sing.” This concert program uses music to comment on times in our lives of challenge and celebration, to encourage us to embrace these moments, and to hear the messages as we explore why we sing.

Pieces shared at the concert will include “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” “Over the Rainbow,” “Where the Light Begins,” “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen, and “Requiem,” a song written in response to the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The concert is free and open to all.

Decorah High School’s individual speech participants—coached by Molly Holkesvik, Gabriel Twedt, Carrie Kauffman, Rachel Breitenbach-Dirks, and Lyra McKnight—competed in the district contest on Saturday, February 25th, at Decorah High School. Around 47 DHS students participated in the contest. Out of Decorah’s 51 performances, 45 received I (excellent) ratings. Those performances will advance to the state competition.

The directors shared, “Our students did an incredible job representing our school with their poise, professionalism, and preparedness. We are also so grateful for all of the students, staff, families, and community members who stepped up to help us host this contest.”

The Individual Speech State Contest will be held at Starmont High School in Arlington on Saturday, March 11th.

Results for Decorah Speech Performers Grades 10-12

Receiving a I (excellent) rating:

Original Oratory: Becca Kane, Jenna Hartz, Diep Doan

Public Address: Grace Blikre, Alex McGohan

Expository Address: Max Wilson, Junior Battle

Storytelling: Margret Zook, Henry Weis, Ramsey Zilka

Prose: Danielle Rix, Bethany Hanson, Sophia Christman

Poetry: Kathryn Kelly, Ezra Vorvick, Brynn Storhoff

Review: Jensen Korsness, Elliana Brodbeck

Literature Program: Natalie Goodner, Hayley Stowe, Leslie Campbell

Solo Musical: Libby Phillips, Ella Grouws

Acting: Jake Magner, Ada Lovelace

After Dinner Speaking: Davis Coppola, Lily Sandhorst, Gabriel Hiner

Spontaneous Speaking: Michael Njus, Corina Timm, Ethan Stravers

Radio News: Rebecca Anderson, Anders Lovstuen, Simon Kutz

Individual Improv: Jack Sovern, Joe Stammeyer, Liam Chamberlain

Receiving a II (good) rating:

Expository Address: Luke Arendt

Review: Braunwyn Darrington

Solo Musical: Alex Kane

Acting: Elsa Johnson

Public Address: Klaara Short

Results for Decorah Speech Performers Grade 9

Receiving a I (excellent) rating:

Original Oratory: June Breitenbach-Dirks

After Dinner Speaking: Caleb Johnson

Prose: Ezra Harman-Wood

Literature Program: Mikayla Hiner

Solo Musical: Mikayla Hiner, June Breitenbach-Dirks

Acting: Caleb Johnson

Storytelling: Klara Kelly

Receiving a II (good) rating:

Acting: Ezra Harman-Wood

The junior/senior robotics club team from Decorah High School, named the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men and Women, competed in their Super Qualifier, sub-state competition in Bettendorf on Saturday. Because of their performance, they are headed to the state competition. Team members who competed include Cody Carolan, Quin LaBelle, Justin Berlage, Nathaniel Myers, Montana Jump-Gerleman, Brock Christensen, Aiden Burroughs, Ethan Stravers, Nathan Swarbrick, and Travis Nordheim. The rest of the team–Junior Battle, Henry Weis, Peter Essa and Anders Lovstuen–were representing Decorah High School at a different event.

The robotics club competes in a worldwide competition known as FIRST Tech Challenge, a program that helps prepare young people for the future through STEM education while building leadership and collaboration skills. Each September, teams of 7th – 12th graders are given an obstacle course scenario played on a 12-foot square playing field. Teams then design, build, and program an 18 x 18 x 18-inch robot that they can both run autonomously and be driver controlled to accomplish as many of the scenario’s tasks as possible. This season’s course is named Power Play and requires teams to place as many of their colored cones onto different pole junctions in an effort to connect circuits of their color across the field.

In January, the team won its league championship and earned a spot in the Super Qualifier event. After their six qualification round matches at the Super Qualifier, the junior/senior team finished in third place going into the playoff rounds. This gave them the opportunity to choose two alliance partners to play with them going forward.

The team chose the 5th ranked team UBett from Bettendorf High School and 10th ranked Xcentrics from Xavier High School to join them. The alliance won their semi-final competition in two matches and advanced to the finals to play against the 1st, 2^nd, and 9th ranked teams from Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Pleasant Valley High School in a best of three series.

After winning the first match due to the other alliance having technical difficulties, the second match was a tight competition. The Decorah alliance would have only won by three points, but the opposing alliance accidentally knocked over a stack of 15 cones Decorah had made, incurring a 150-point penalty. The final score was 255 to 180, with the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men and Women leading their alliance to victory. The team also received third place honors for the Control Award given to the team who best explains and uses sensors, programming, and autonomous functions in their robot design. 

The Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men and Women will be joining 47 other Iowa robotics teams competing again at the Iowa State Championship on March 3rd and 4th at the Xtream Arena in Coralville.

A Group Improvisation team from Decorah High School was selected as a banner recipient at this year’s All-State Speech Festival held in Ames over the weekend. This is the first time that Decorah has won a banner in the area of Group Improvisation.

Cast members of the Group Improv team include Anders Lovstuen, Jack Sovern, Ansel Kowitz, Adam Jones, and Alex Irwin. They were directed by Molly Holkesvik, Rachel Breitenbach-Dirks, and Lyra McKnight.

Approximately 70 Decorah High School students made the trip to Ames over the weekend to perform at the festival at the Iowa State Center on the ISU campus.

Ten events were nominated as outstanding performances and joined other elite speech students from across the state to share their performances with a professional critic.

Each critic selects one performance at the end of the day and awards a banner to that entry, signifying them as “best of center” in that category. The banner winner, in the eyes of the critic, represents a state championship-quality performance that stands out above the rest.

The Group Improv team performed a draw about washing windows on the Empire State Building. The critic praised the group for their creativity, willingness to trust, and their ability to “gift” each other with ideas.

“We couldn’t be prouder of these students! They worked hard to create a fun, witty, creative story that everyone enjoyed. They proved how effective the art of improv can be with the right amount of patience, persistence, and balance,” remarked the large group speech directors Molly Holkesvik, Gabriel Twedt, Carrie Kauffman, Rachel Breitenbach-Dirks, and Lyra McKnight.

A Group Improvisation team from Decorah High School was selected as a banner recipient at this year’s All-State Speech Festival held in Ames over the weekend. This is the first time that Decorah has won a banner in the area of Group Improvisation.

Cast members of the Group Improv team include Anders Lovstuen, Jack Sovern, Ansel Kowitz, Adam Jones, and Alex Irwin. They were directed by Molly Holkesvik, Rachel Breitenbach-Dirks, and Lyra McKnight.

Approximately 70 Decorah High School students made the trip to Ames over the weekend to perform at the festival at the Iowa State Center on the ISU campus.

Ten events were nominated as outstanding performances and joined other elite speech students from across the state to share their performances with a professional critic.

Each critic selects one performance at the end of the day and awards a banner to that entry, signifying them as “best of center” in that category. The banner winner, in the eyes of the critic, represents a state championship-quality performance that stands out above the rest.

The Group Improv team performed a draw about washing windows on the Empire State Building. The critic praised the group for their creativity, willingness to trust, and their ability to “gift” each other with ideas.

“We couldn’t be prouder of these students! They worked hard to create a fun, witty, creative story that everyone enjoyed. They proved how effective the art of improv can be with the right amount of patience, persistence, and balance,” remarked the large group speech directors Molly Holkesvik, Gabriel Twedt, Carrie Kauffman, Rachel Breitenbach-Dirks, and Lyra McKnight.

The coaches added, “A big thank you to all involved in the fire truck parade, the ringing of the victory bell, and for packing the house at all our performances throughout the season. Saturday night was a true celebration of our entire speech team.”

Cristy Nimrod, head girls’ cross country coach at Decorah High School, has advanced as a finalist for the National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA) 2023 National Coach of the Year. Following a rigorous scoring process, she is now one of only eight national finalists for this distinction. 

Nimrod has coached girls’ cross country at Decorah High School for twenty-one years, and her success is notable: 17 consecutive conference championships, 11 regional championships, 16 state appearances, and five state titles. 

The National Coach of the Year will be awarded at the NHSACA National Convention in July in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Decorah Family, Educator, and Community Organization (FEC) recently hosted their first ever Elementary Family Dance Party.  Over 415 participants joined the fun between the lower elementary (preschool through second) and upper elementary (3rd and 4th grade) dance parties.  The event was made possible with the support of several Decorah High School students who assisted with balloon animals and face painting as well as the Luther Football Team who also kept the party fun and exciting.

Four Decorah High School students earned distinguished honors–and the highest designation earned by a team from Iowa–in the 2022 High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM). The team of Lucas Arendt, Gabriel Hiner, Anders Lovstuen, and Aidan Nalean-Carlson earned a Finalist designation, which places them in the top 7% and secures them an invitation to participate in the 9^th International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM2C).

A total of 854 teams, with up to 4 students each, representing 362 schools and 18 countries/regions competed in the 2022 HiMCM, made possible by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP). All teams worked at their own schools within the contest window of November 2-15, 2022. Each high school team chose from two modeling problems offered, and then they constructed their solutions. The judges were impressed with all the teams’ creativity and ingenuity in mathematical modeling as well as their ability to explain their strategies and problem-solving techniques in clear terms. Results of the contest were recently released.

Decorah High School had a total of 23 students participate. Earning recognition as Successful Participants include Jacob Magner, Daniel Skrade, Ethan Stravers and Max Wilson; Elsa Christman, Mason Myers and Isabella Sailor; Justin Berlage, Peter Essa, Nathaniel Myers and Henry Weis; Elayna Hook, Hayley Stowe, Nathan Swarbrick and Abbie Valkosky; and Tommy Hammel, Reid Kuehner, Brenna Parker and Amelia Wadsworth.

This year all six teams chose to address the same question:­­­ “The Need for Bees (and not just for honey).” Requirements were to develop a model to determine the population of a honeybee colony over time, conduct a sensitivity analysis to determine which factors have the greatest impact on colony size, model and predict how many hives are needed to support pollination of a 20-acre parcel of land containing crops that benefit from pollination, write a technical paper communicating their solution, and create a blog or infographic sharing their information.

Four Decorah High School students earned distinguished honors–and the highest designation earned by a team from Iowa–in the 2022 High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM). The team of Lucas Arendt, Gabriel Hiner, Anders Lovstuen, and Aidan Nalean-Carlson earned a Finalist designation, which places them in the top 7% and secures them an invitation to participate in the 9^th International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM2C).

A total of 854 teams, with up to 4 students each, representing 362 schools and 18 countries/regions competed in the 2022 HiMCM, made possible by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP). All teams worked at their own schools within the contest window of November 2-15, 2022. Each high school team chose from two modeling problems offered, and then they constructed their solutions. The judges were impressed with all the teams’ creativity and ingenuity in mathematical modeling as well as their ability to explain their strategies and problem-solving techniques in clear terms. Results of the contest were recently released.

Decorah High School had a total of 23 students participate. Earning recognition as Successful Participants include Jacob Magner, Daniel Skrade, Ethan Stravers and Max Wilson; Elsa Christman, Mason Myers and Isabella Sailor; Justin Berlage, Peter Essa, Nathaniel Myers and Henry Weis; Elayna Hook, Hayley Stowe, Nathan Swarbrick and Abbie Valkosky; and Tommy Hammel, Reid Kuehner, Brenna Parker and Amelia Wadsworth.

This year all six teams chose to address the same question:­­­ “The Need for Bees (and not just for honey).” Requirements were to develop a model to determine the population of a honeybee colony over time, conduct a sensitivity analysis to determine which factors have the greatest impact on colony size, model and predict how many hives are needed to support pollination of a 20-acre parcel of land containing crops that benefit from pollination, write a technical paper communicating their solution, and create a blog or infographic sharing their information.

Sponsor Allysen Lovstuen shared, “Once again, I am proud of all of the students who participated. This contest requires interdisciplinary thinking and perseverance. The students demonstrated strong problem-solving, critical thinking, and research and writing skills. That we had so many students willing to spend two days taking on this challenge speaks highly of them.”