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Forum maryville Daily
Volume 104 • Number 86
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Monday, May 5, 2014
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Parsons new vocal director By KEVIN BIRDSELL Staff writer
The Maryville R-II School District Board of Education has named Vanessa Parsons as its new director of vocal music. Parsons replaces current director Nic Vasquez who is leaving at the end of the school year after accepting a similar position near Kansas City. “I feel like this is where my career has always been building up to,” Parsons said. “I think it will be an exciting new adventure.” Parsons grew up in Red Oak, Iowa, where her father served as a music teacher for 36 years before becoming a recruiter for Northwest Missouri State University, where Parsons attended college. She currently teaches music at the university’s Horace Mann Laboratory School and earlier in her career taught in both Columbia and at St. Gregory’s School in Maryville, where in addition to music she taught Spanish and art. Parsons in married to Ty Parsons, a grant writer at the univer-
sity. “I came to college at Northwest,” Parsons said. “I’m one of many in my family who have come to school here and who work on campus or teach on campus. … Northwest has always been kind of a second home to us.” Her new job is the first Parsons has had at the high school level. “I’ll be thinking the kids are a lot taller than the ones I used to work with,” Parsons said. “But I’ve taught pre-school to ninth grade as well as observation and practicum at the university. So, there’s that little piece of 10th,11th and 12th (grades) that’s been missing from my career that I’m excited to do.” In addition to teaching, Parsons in also known in Maryville for her work with the Maryville Young Players, a summer drama camp that stages children’s versions of Broadway musicals each year at the Houston Center for the Performing Arts. “I relate really well to older kids and high school kids that I’ve worked with,” Parsons
said. “I’ve already had many of the kids as students or in the Maryville Young Players. So, I feel pretty comfortable going into that already knowing a big core of the kids.” But she knows that high school will be a different. “I’m so very used to planning so much and being with the kids and leading them, literally, down the hall,” Parsons said. “There’s so much more freedom at the high school level, and that’s the one thing I might have to get used to the most. I’ll just have to tell them when to be somewhere and expect them to be there instead of having to actually get them there at a certain time.” Parsons said she’s looking forward to working with pianist Richard Boettner, who serves as accompanist for MHS concerts and other stage productions. “I’m encouraged and excited to have Mr. Boettner as the accompanist.” Parsons said. “He’s a wonderful asset to that program so I’m really looking forward to that.”
KEVIN BIRDSELL/DAILY FORUM
New vocal music instructor
Vanessa Parsons, pictured here at the keyboard, will be the new vocal music director at Maryville High School beginning this fall. Parsons is a Northwest Missouri State University graduate and has been teaching music since she graduated college in the mid-1990s.
New grad follows mentor into classroom By Rachel Sielaff
Special to the Daily Forum
STEVE HARTMAN/DAILY FORUM
Getting fixed
An art studio at Northwest Missouri State University is where Hannah Hill and LeDonna McIntosh met, and where their relationship developed. “We got along really well,” said Hill, who was one of McIntosh’s painting students at Northwest. “She was really encouraging and energetic, which is something you don’t always see with college professors. You could tell that she loved teaching.” Two years after that initial encounter, Hill graduated Saturday from
Northwest with a degree in art education. This fall, she will begin a classroom career as the art teacher for the Nodaway-Holt R-7 School District, where she will follow in the footsteps of her mentor, McIntosh, who is retiring at the end of the school year. Last fall Hill had to decide where she wanted to student teach. She remembered McIntosh saying she was the art teacher at Nodaway-Holt in addition to serving as an adjunct instructor at Northwest. “I felt honored when Hannah asked to student teach with me,” McIntosh See NEW GRAD, Page 3
The Northwest Missouri State University Board of Regents last week unanimously approved an extensive repair project at the Herschel Neil Track at Bearcat Stadium. A new asphalt base will be put down and the track resurfaced. Cost of the project is not to exceed $645,750, with half the total included in the 2014-2015 budget and half in the 2015-2016 budget.
NW Board of Regents approves track repair By STEVE HARTMAN Staff writer
The Northwest Missouri State University Board of Regents on Friday unanimously approved the proposed renovation of Herschel Neil Track at Bearcat Stadium. The track has an asphalt base that after nearly 40 years is failing and has buckled in several areas to the point that athlete safety is a concern. “Twenty to twenty-five years is the average life span for a track base,” Northwest Athletic Director Mel Tjeerdsma said. “The base on our track was put down in 1976, and it has finally worn out and must be repaired.” The track itself is resurfaced every eight to ten years, but this repair project will involve the complete removal of the current track. A new 4-inch asphalt base will be laid down, which
will have to cure for 30 days before the track is resurfaced. The work is scheduled for this summer. “Our track gets heavy usage virtually every day,” Tjeerdsma said. “We have over one hundred track athletes on our teams. Several area high schools use the track, and it gets heavy community usage. “The damage to the base was much greater than we originally thought, and we need to repair it now. Summer is the best time to do such a project, due to the curing that takes place with the asphalt base.” The regent unanimously approved the track repair proposal presented by Tjeerdsma and Vice President Stacy Carrick. The project has a “not to exceed” cost of $645,750, with half of that total included in the 2014-2015 budget and half in the 2015-2016 budget.
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NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY PHOTO
Big shoes to fill
Brand-new Northwest Missouri State University graduate Hannah Hill, left, will follow in the footsteps this fall of her mentor, art teacher LeDonna McIntosh, when she joins the faculty of the Nodaway-Holt R-7 School District. McIntosh will retire as R-7’s art teacher this spring and, in her role as an adjunct instructor at Northwest, played a key role in preparing Hill for a classroom career.
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Record....................... 2 Opinion..................... 4 Graduation........... 5, 6
Sports.................... 7, 8 Comics...................... 9 Classifieds......... 10, 11
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