District News

The Dubois County Safety Commission was honored to have Mr. Jeff Lyons as their special guest presenter on 9/4/2024. Jeff serves as the Chief Meteorologist for Channel 14 News in Evansville and has over 35 years serving as a weatherman.

Topics discussed included weather spotting and how to prepare and respond when severe weather events occur. Various applications such as RadarScope were discussed as well as other resources that can serve as useful aids when making decisions during weather events.

Glenn Buechlein, chairman, shared that the presentation was both highly informative and appropriate due to the recent upticks in severe weather.

At the August School Board Meeting, students who received perfect scores on the IREAD-3 and 8th Grade ILEARN ELA were recognized. 11 students across all grade levels received perfect scores. Congratulations!

The GJCS Staff Member of the Month Award honors staff members that show exemplary leadership, unwavering dedication, utmost professionalism, excellence in their roles, and their consistent willingness to exceed expectations for the betterment of GJCS.

The August award recipient is Mr. Mark Gehlhausen, Maintenance Man at Ireland Elementary School. 

A fellow GJCS employee commented, “Mark Gehlhausen, better known as Mr. Mark, has the title of maintenance man at Ireland Elementary School. However, that barely scratches the surface to appropriately capture his true role in our building. Sure he mows the lawn, takes out the trash, sports a tool belt to tackle any issues that arise, sets up and tears down for countless events, and the list goes on and on and on. But those are all things listed in his job description and expected in the day to day grind of an elementary school maintenance man. They’re all tasks anyone who applied for his position would hopefully fulfill. He does his job well, but managing the requirements of his job is not what makes Mr. Mark worthy of any special recognition. He’s so much more to the staff and students at Ireland Elementary than our maintenance man".

Thank you for all you do, Mark, to make Jasper GREAT! 

A Jasper Elementary School 4^th Grader has broken the National Record for the total number of Accelerated Reader (AR) Points in a single school year!

Blaine Rohleder is a 4^th Grader in Ms. Shepherd’s class at Jasper Elementary School. This school year, he got 2,804.8 AR Points. The previous record was 2,718.6 points.

When asked how it feels to say he broke the national record, Blaine said, “It feels good. I passed it by quite a bit!”

Blaine read 1-2 books a day to reach his goal. Some books were bigger than others. He enjoys reading fantasy books, and his favorite series is called Spy School. In addition to reading, Blaine plays three sports and the piano.

His teacher, Ms. Shepherd, commented, “At Meet the Teacher Night, his parents shared his goal with me. He had his goal in his mind since probably last May. He read all through the summer. He has brought out a joy of reading in me. My role in this has been to allow him to take his tests, encourage him to keep reading, and let him know he had my support.”

Jasper Elementary School Librarian, Mrs. Peters, said, “Blaine comes in once a week over his recess to help in the library. Usually, he shelves books. He has helped me stay up to date on different series and put some new books on my order list. I am super proud of him!”

To honor his accomplishment, on May 10, Jasper Elementary School is going to have a presentation in the gymnasium. Before heading to the gymnasium, he will be walking through the halls of JES, where he will be celebrated by students and staff. In the gymnasium, they will be presenting Blaine with a plaque and an additional plaque will be placed in the library. Along with the fourth grade, some guests of honor will be in attendance, including family members, Dr. Tracy Lorey, Jasper Mayor Dean Vonderheide, and members of the local media.

Next year, Blaine has his sights set on reaching 3,000 AR Points.

Congratulations, Blaine! The Greater Jasper Consolidated School Corporation is proud of you for this incredible achievement!

Blaine with a book from Spy School, one of his favorite series. He is sitting in a section where he most frequently picks books from in the JES Library. 

Blaine is surrounded by some of the books that he read this school year to help break the record and reach his goal.