Articles in Ames Middle School

The Ames Community School District is a proud partner of the Central Iowa Community Identification Card (CICID), along with Ames Police Department and Story County Sheriff’s Office. 

Being able to present a valid form of photo ID is essential to accessing many services and benefits of the community. The Ames Community School District will accept CICID as a form of identification for the purposes of student enrollment and to satisfy the ID requirement incumbent upon parents, volunteers and community members seeking admittance into our school buildings during hours of operation.  …

The Amazing Education Podcast is a new communication channel from the Ames CSD that focuses on education-related topics with a blend of local and national conversations. Each episode of the Amazing Education Podcast will be 25-30 minutes and feature a guest on a specified topic.  …

We are excited to announce the launch of the official Ames Community School District online apparel store. Starting today, you can order Little Cyclone apparel representing every school building across the District. The store has a wide variety of options to choose from with the convenience of ordering online and having the items delivered directly to your door. Many of the items on the store have the ability to customize the logo you prefer. …

Thanks to our fantastic partnership with the Ames Police Department, we are excited to announce the addition of Officer Don Johnsen as a second school resource officer (SRO) within the District. Officer Johnsen will join Officer Nick Schieffer who has served as the only SRO for the past 5 years. Both officers will collaborate with District and building administrators throughout the year with the primary goal of school safety.  …

Summer programming looked a little different this year but provided many of the great courses that families were accustomed to. Two programs within the district (ELP Super Summer and ALP summer school) and two community partners (YSS and United Way of Story County) joined together to create the Enrich, Empower, Excel summer program. Dr. Anthony Jones, Director of Equity and administrator in charge of the summer program said, “The reasons the programs joined together were to ensure all students have equal access to rich learning opportunities and to enhance the academic enrichment provided to all students.” …

In April 2018, the Ames community overwhelming approved a bond referendum for a new high school. With the design of the new Ames High School underway, now was a prime opportunity to assess the “Ames High” brand. 

Through our evaluation of the brand, we quickly realized that Ames High brand had no brand standards or proper file formats associated with it. Brand standards are a set of guidelines for the colors, graphic elements, logo specifications, and fonts that comprise a brand. In essence, they are the glue that holds a brand together. Without those, it is difficult to regulate how our brand is used and we often see the inconsistent application and an overall diminished brand. For example, a walk-through of Ames High showed three different secondary mascot logos being used in a variety of ways. Through our evaluation, we also quickly realized that our elementary schools, as well as Ames Middle School, would benefit from a solid identity.  …

To say that Ames has historically dominated the State Science OIympiad would be an understatement. The competition that includes chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, and general science categories, among others, has been won by Ames High 25/26 years and Ames Middle 24/27 years. That includes earlier this year when both teams won the Iowa Science Olympiad State Tournament at the University of Northern Iowa. Both teams beat the closest competitor by nearly 50 points and all but 4-5 of the 23 events in each division finished in the top three. Those wins earned them a trip to Ithaca, New York to the National Science Olympiad Tournament at Cornell University, May 31 to June 1. …

Ames Middle School associate principals for the 2019-2020 school year were approved by the Ames school board on Monday, April 8. The Ames Community School District is pleased to announce the following associate principals for Ames Middle School:

• Jeremie Knutson, Associate Principal for Operations and Student Services
• Erin Miller, Associate Principal for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
• Nicole Coronado, Associate Principal for School Improvement, Culture and Equity

Principal Yonas Michael opened all the positions this spring and added another associate principal for next school year. Each principal will be a point person for a specific grade, but will also use their expertise in their particular area to better serve Ames Middle School. …

The Ames Community School District is excited to announce Dr. Jeff Hawkins as the new Executive Director of Secondary Education, and Dr. Chad Dumas as Executive Director of Elementary Education. Both are new positions as part of a district office reorganization that will provide a more focused approach to aligning curriculum efforts across the District. …