CCSD Cool School News

CCHS
Churchill County High School students helped ChurchillCSD kick off the Modern Learning Conference 2025 (MLC25) on Monday, Feb. 24. Educators from across the county received a warm welcome at CCHS as they arrived from Reno. ROTC students, dressed in full uniform, greeted the guests and guided them through the Greenwave inflatable football helmet at the auditorium entrance. Inside, guests received swag bags that included cookies made by Alisha White and her culinary arts students and wooden keychains designed, cut, and laser-engraved by Jake Lewis and his students. As guests entered the auditorium, ROTC members showed them to their seats while the CCHS band provided musical entertainment. To officially start the welcome event, the ROTC presented the colors, and the band played the national anthem. The involvement of CCHS students set the tone for the rest of the day and the conference. Their dedication and willingness to help made the event even more memorable for the guests.

CCMS
Principal Victor Schoenfeldt recognized 25 students for maintaining perfect attendance during the 2024-2025 school year with a special celebration on Thursday, Feb. 27. During fifth period, students gathered in the library and enjoyed pizza, drinks, sweet treats, and tech time. As an added surprise, all of the students were entered into a drawing, and Rhett Beach won a $75 Amazon gift card.

“Coming into CCMS, I knew a goal of mine was celebrating wins — big and small. I want to thank each one of these students for being a shining star, for being here and showing up every single day. Their dedication to attendance deserves to be celebrated and will continue to be,” Schoenfeldt said.

Congratulations to the following students for perfect attendance: Isabella Bailey, Laurel Beach, Rhett Beach, Haley Camara, Alice Chambers, Kinley Dinneen, Russell Downs, Darius Fruzza, Xavier Fruzza, Juan Gonzales Martin, Ali Rae Hamlin, Amelyia Hamlin, Brodie Kiger, Landon Liston, Neveah Martinez, Leland Schut, Sophia Seymour, Andrew Stanton, Mark Thomas, Ameera Tyler, Issabelle (Izzy) Walter-Chicas-Garibay, Emerson Weldon-Ward, Jack Willey, Zoey Wright, and Morgan Zanetti.

“Stupendous job, Gerka Greats,” Schoenfeldt said.

Numa
Barb Hickox's fifth-grade class put their critical thinking skills to the test as they learned how to draw inferences by solving mock crime scenes with the help of local professionals.

“Capt. Riley, Det. Sgt. Perez, Officer Aller, and Officer Alcaraz from the Fallon Police Department came in to help students solve a mock crime by assisting them in pulling forensic evidence together and writing up the criminal case using the RACE method for writing,” Hickox said.

To conclude the unit on drawing inferences, the investigator team — Sgt. Maynez, Cpl. White, and Cpl. Hardin — from the Churchill County Sheriff’s Office presented a mock crime scene. Students had to narrow down suspects using evidence found at the crime scene to solve it.

“The students learned a lot and had fun covering the learning targets,” Hickox said. “We would like to thank the Fallon Police Department and the Churchill County Sheriff’s Office for the great job they do for our community and for helping us put evidence together to solve crimes.”

E.C. Best
This past month, students in Lisa Christy's English Language Learner program completed the annual WIDA Access test. The test assesses students' English skills in four language domains: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. When students completed each part of the test, they chose a snack as a reward.

“This assessment is very rigorous and time-consuming, but all of my students worked hard to perform their best on this important test, and I am very proud of their progress,” Christy said.  Photo: Alexa and Ava Barros posing with the snacks they chose for completing their WIDA test.

Lahontan
Last week, students in Kirby Goetsch’s kindergarten class celebrated National Children's Dental Health Month by learning how to take care of their teeth.

“Every day, we read a poem and identified new ELA concept words with the short e sound, words with the long e sound, sight words, and question marks,” Goetsch said.

During centers, students used toothbrushes and puffy paint to find and cover sight word "cavities" on construction paper teeth, wrote sight words on laminated teeth and brushed them away, labeled pictures of dental health practices, read a Scholastic magazine about taking care of their teeth, and decided which foods would make their teeth happy or sad. On their Chromebooks, they played a game called "Brush Those Teeth," watched videos about tooth facts, and listened to tooth-related stories.

Students also used letter tile "teeth" to spell consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and practiced writing and tracing sentences about dental health tools like floss and mouthwash. On Wednesday, a local hygienist visited the class to talk about dental health and answer questions.

Finally, to practice counting up to 20 objects, students used mini marshmallows to create models of their mouths, demonstrating that most children will have 20 baby teeth before they start losing them and getting their adult teeth. This unit covered dental health along with writing, math, creativity, and reading skills. Photo: Students in Kirby Goetsch’s class posing with their mouth models.

Northside Early Learning Center
Octavia Merritt’s class is setting out on an adventure this March and is asking for the community’s help. The students are searching for a leprechaun and are looking for letters that lead them closer to finding him. Merritt designed this activity to teach her students the power of written communication and to show them that connecting with people does not require the latest technology or social media.

The class has already been receiving letters and surprises from various places, and now Merritt is hoping to expand their reach even further.

“We would love for friends, families, and the Fallon community to help spread the word and even participate by sending us a letter about where you may have seen the leprechaun,” Merritt said. “This is just a great way for my young students to see how we can communicate with others by sending letters through the mail, and it has been so exciting for them to see where the letters come from. I am looking forward to seeing what responses we get for leprechaun spottings.”

Anyone interested in sending letters, postcards, small notes, clues, or stories about the leprechaun can send them to Mrs. Octavia Merritt’s class at NELC, 340 Venturacci Lane, Fallon, NV 89406. Let’s rally together to help these young students and make their St. Patrick’s Day even more special.