Meet Mrs. Allsbury

Mrs. Allsbury is one of our 5th grade teachers at Lake Contrary. She is well respected for her experience, can do attitude and for having excellent expectations for her students.

Mrs. Allsbury was born in Maryville, Missouri and actually lived on the Northwest Missouri State University Campus until 2nd grade because her dad was the college dairy farmer. Her mother taught school for 34 years, most of which were in a Title I school in St. Joseph, Missouri.

She currently has two sisters that are teachers, her mother, grandmother, aunts, uncle, great uncle, and cousins have all been teachers. Her Great Uncle was a college professor at Graceland University. Mrs. Allsbury's older sister Sharon played so much school her that Mrs. Allsbury could actually read before kindergarten!

After 2nd grade Mrs. Allsbury moved to St. Joseph where she attended Bliss Jr. High and Central High School. She graduated from MWSU with a degree in Elementary Education and an emphasis in math.

Mrs. Allsbury has been married for 26 years, has 2 children, 4 grandchildren and a spoiled dog! Her hobbies include reading, crochet, yard work, and walking her dog. She has been on two mission trips, one to an Indian reservation in Mission, SD (the 2nd poorest county in the United States) and the other in Guadalupe, MX to help build an orphanage. She loves to travel and has been to most of the continental 48 states! Someday she would like to travel and tour lighthouses.

Did you Know?

Volunteers make our school a great place to learn! Our students benefit from the vast experience, knowledge and care that our volunteers bring to Lake Contrary. These are just a few of our volunteers:

• Parents
• PTA
• Health Buddies - Students from MWSU Physcial Health and Education Programs
• Wyatt Park Christian Church - mentors, tutors, and school supporters!
• A+ Students - many amazing and great students (many of which are Lake Contrary Alumni) from Benton High School
• America Reads - reading tutors from MWSU
• Junior Achievement - business members from Nestle-Purina

Our Business Partners make many initiatives possible, we thank them for their kind and generous donations of clothing, time, and recognition for students.

• Wyatt Park Christian Church
• Hoof and Horn - Character Kid Lunches
• Omnium - assisting with the community garden and science club
• Chick-Fil-A - donations of proceeds from Chick-Fli-A nights for student recognition
• Nestle-Purina - sponsor of Back-to-School Night and donations of juice and other food products for family events

We deeply appreciate your partnership with Lake Contrary Elementary. We strongly believe in school, family and community partnerships. Together we CAN educate each child for success!

Great News

Lake Contrary has been awarded a grant through the Youth Health Partnership to promote happy and healthy lives for our students. We will be installing a new kickball field and community garden this spring! This grant will be instrumental in connecting our families, students and school together in new and exciting ways. We look forward to the many great blessing this grant will bring to our school.

We need all types of volunteers including experienced gardeners! If you are interested please contact Nona Miller, our Family Involvement Coordinator at 671-4240.

Meet Mrs. Page

Mrs. Page teaches 2nd grade at Lake Contrary Elementary. She taught one year in the 5th grade and is currently in her second year as a 2nd grade teacher.

Mrs. Page was born in Kansas City, Missouri and has two younger brothers named James and Jarod. Growing up Mrs. Page moved every couple of years because her mom was active military in the Marine Corps. She has lived all over the United States and has a unique understanding of what it is like to be highly mobile while attending school.

Mrs. Page attended Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, majoring in Elementary Education. In 2010 she married her husband, Daren. They love living in St. Joseph with their two dogs!

You can visit Mrs. Page's classroom website at:  http://pageclass.webs.com/

Making a Difference

Years ago, when Mrs. Halloran taught 4th grade her students told her they could never be scientists. Since then she's made it her mission to bring science awareness and scientific careers to Lake Contrary students. Each year she coordinates the Lake Contrary Hometown Science Club. This science club is more than a club it is a state of the art science education opportunity, complete with guest speakers and on-site learning at various locations in St. Joseph.

Speakers include Native American Experts, entomologist, Shelly Cox from the Missouri Department of Conservation, forensic detective Thom Cates, Diane Jurchen from the Beekeeping Federation of America, meterologists Mike Bacciano and Justin Gesling, Susan Fisher geologist from the Environmental Protection Agency and Laurie Salanski the Executive Director of the Humane Society of St. Joseph. This year we will also learn from Dr. David Ashley a biologist at Missouri Western State University with a special visit from Dr. Morgan with the traveling Bio Technology Mobile Laboratory from MWSU as well. This lab is designed to travel to secondary school locations, Lake Contrary is the only elementary school that will get this opportunity!

Mrs. Halloran's Hometown Scientists' Club also tours the Remington Nature Center. There they speak to Mike and Andrea George about Native Americans and use of science in their daily lives.

As you can tell, this is a club unlike any other! Not only in its innovation but because it is coordinated by a dedicated teacher who believes that Lake Contrary students can accomplish anything! I can't wait for Lake Contrary alumni to come back and teach our next generation about careers in science!

PACT Community Engagement

February 7th and 14th from 6:00-8:00 are the Lake Contrary PACT building tours. Please join us!


Next week will also be a community wide PACT meeting at Central. Contact Connie, our secretary, to reserve a spot! See you there.

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Did You Know?

Did you know that Lake Contrary is the recipient of a Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Grant? This Missouri state grant is new to our school this year and allows us to offer fresh fruits and vegetables to our students as a snack two times a week. You might see students healthfully snacking during independent reading or while solving a math problem!

 Although our district serves fresh fruits and vegetables daily in school lunches, providing them as a snack allows students to try new foods and incorporate more healthy snacking into their diets. The kids love snacking on baby carrots, fresh pineapple, pears, and even broccoli! The cooks and teachers agree, students are eating foods at snack time they wouldn't even try in the cafeteria. This is great news because healthy eating habits have been linked to improved attention span, memory and academic performance in schools. Be sure to ask your child, "What snack did you have today?" They might just surprise you!