Announcements

Mark your calendar!  Project Fresh Start and Ankeny Community Engagement are once again providing school supplies for students in need.  Students enrolled in Ankeny Community Schools or Ankeny Christian Academy are eligible to receive new backpacks and school supplies at no cost.

The giveaway will take place on Saturday, August 7 from 10:00am-12:00pm and Sunday, August 8 from 1:00pm-3:00pm at Prairie Ridge Middle School, located at 1010 NW Prairie Ridge Drive. Attendees should enter through the East entrance: door E16.

The school supply giveaway is a collaboration between the Ankeny Community School District, Ankeny Service Center, Wal-Mart, area churches, local businesses, and generous individual/group donations.

For more information, contact the Ankeny Community Engagement office at (515) 289-3960 or email project coordinator Dave Kissinger.

The Ankeny Community School District (ACSD) is committed to keeping our students, staff, and community safe while we continue to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. In order to respect current social distancing requirements and to protect the health and safety of our staff and community, the procedures communicated below may be different compared to past practices.

Ankeny Community Schools is accepting the annual textbook rental fees, purchases of CIML (Central Iowa Metro League) student activity tickets, K-8 activity passes, eight-punch pass activity tickets, parking passes, and meal account deposits for the 2021-2022 school year. Fees are accepted by:

• Credit/debit card online at TouchBase. This is the preferred method of payment.
• NEW/CHANGE – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY – Credit/debit card at a building.
  • School building: An appointment must be made by calling that building’s main office. Please know that office hours may be limited.
  • District Office building: An appointment must be made by calling 515-965-9600. Please know that office hours may be limited. Checking the website would be beneficial.
  • Credit/debit card numbers CANNOT be taken over the phone.
  • Mail check to 306 SW School Street, PO box 189, Ankeny 50021-0189 using this payment form.

For information on making online payments, please refer to the online fees and meal payments. You may view an instructional video on using TouchBase.

You can learn more about how to use TouchBase by reading this new user guide.

Important points regarding online payments:

• Meal account deposits may be made throughout the school year. Try the recurring purchases feature on TouchBase!
• NEW/CHANGE to staying online all school year: League student activity tickets (9-12 only) and the K-8 grade activity tickets may be purchased online all school year.
• Eight-punch activity tickets can be purchased online until Sunday, August 8. Beginning August 9, payments for the eight-punch activity tickets/passes may be purchased from your feeder system’s high school Activity Office or at a home event.
• TouchBase can be found under Online Payments, which is located in the Quick Links at the top right and bottom of the page. Please note, when accessing TouchBase, you will be leaving the Ankeny Schools website and entering a secured environment hosted by InTouch Receipting.

What is the annual Textbook Rental?

The Textbook Rental is an Iowa Department of Education state-wide term used that covers not only textbooks, but electronic textbooks and any supplementary instructional materials used that conveys information to the student or otherwise contributes to the learning process. This is referenced and authorized in Iowa Code 301.1.

If you have already paid the textbook rental fee for this year, you do not need to do so again.

Free/Reduced Priced Meals and Other Fees

To be eligible for free/reduced price meals and textbook rental fees, you must submit an application and the fee waiver form EACH SCHOOL YEAR. This can be done online late July on the nutrition services free and reduced meals webpage.

Please contact LeeAnna Vigor before completing an application, if:

• You are enrolling a kindergarten student and another student in your household was eligible for free or reduced meals the previous school year.
• You have a student who is transferring from another school in Iowa and was eligible for free or reduced meals at that school.  Eligibility does NOT automatically transfer – you need to notify LeeAnna Vigor.
• The state has placed a foster student in your care.

To be eligible for Free/Reduced Text book Rental, a free/reduced priced meal application and the fee waiver form must be completed and approved on October 4, 2021 or before. If not, unless a student is a new enrollee, full priced Textbook Rental Fees will be applicable for students in your household. PLEASE NOTE: if a fee waiver is applicable, it is only valid if completed and submitted within that eligible school year.

Contact Information:

• For questions about fee and/or fine balances, fee and/or fine payments, please email studentfees@ankenyschools.org
• For questions about meal balances and/or meal payments or School Cafe, please email leeanna.vigor@ankenyschools.org or scott.litchfield@ankenyschools.org.
• For questions about the Free and Reduced Meal Program, please email leeanna.vigor@ankenyschools.org.
• For questions about the Before and After School Program and/or about the payment structure, please email nikki.logsdon@ankenyschools.org.

To sign up for 6th grade Leadership Camp, please click on this link:  Parent Instructions PV Leadership Camp Registration InTouch.

Instructions to purchase supply kits, for Both 6th & 7th Graders,  please click on this link:  Parent Instructions PV School Supply Kit(s) in Touch.

Here are also 2 Videos for you to watch:

Welcome!  https://youtu.be/1-FKtdzzAaQ

Big to Small  https://youtu.be/WytEetYjmxI

No more running around looking for those school supplies that are picked over and hard to find. We are offering you a full school supply pack ready for your kids to pick up in their homeroom class where we all start the first day of school. All required supplies will be bundled, bagged, and ready for use. CLICK HERE TO PLACE YOUR ORDER TODAY. For detailed instruction on where to buy in InTouch, please click here.  ORDERS ARE DUE BY JULY 10th.

PACK 1 $22.00 All of the essential supplies on our school supply list • (5 notebooks, 5 folders,4 Pencils – #2, Colored Pencils, 1 Highlighter • any color, 3 pack of Post-it Notes (3×3 size), 2 each wide-rule composition • notebook, ear buds/headphones (for Chromebooks)

PACK 2 $38.00 Includes all of the items in Pack 1 plus a stainless steel HAWK water bottle and Hawk drawstring bag suitable for chromebooks, notebooks, etc.

Today our LEAD Council kids and their leader, Emmeline Hallam, delivered 70 + emergency shelter bags to the Ankeny Service Center! There were already people there to give them to while we were there!  Thank you to everyone for helping with donations to such a great service project.  Here are some pictures of the kids making the emergency bags as well as delivering them today.

As we approach the last day of school, we’d like to remind our families that the last day falls on Wednesday, June 2. This means that it will be a late start and early dismissal day. Please see below for your building arrival and dismissal times. *Reminder to Preschool parents their last day is this Friday, May 28th. 

Elementary (K-5)
Start time: 8:55 a.m.
Dismissal: 12:55 p.m.

Middle School (6-7)
Start time: 9:30 a.m.
Dismissal: 1:45 p.m.

Middle School (8-9)
Start time: 9:20 a.m.
Dismissal: 1:35 p.m.

High School (10-12)
Start time: 9:25 a.m.
Dismissal: 1:40 p.m.

Parkview Band Families,

With the weather forecast projecting rain, thunderstorms, gusty winds, and small hail this afternoon and evening we are canceling tonight’s 6th grade band concert. Unfortunately, there is no contingency for an indoor concert.

We would like to extend an invitation to any parents or guardians to attend our end of year concert on June 2 at 10:45 a.m. at the Ankeny Band shell. Please park in the Ankeny Market Pavilion lot on the Southside of 1st street or the Lakeside Center lot North of Hawkeye Pond. The Parkview/Terrace lots will not be available for concert parking on June 2. This concert will also be livestreamed and recorded for those who cannot attend in person.

Please know how proud we are of each of our 6th grade student-musicians. They have stuck with it and grown as we have learned along with them. They make us proud every day. We hope you can join us either in person or through the livestream on June 2 to celebrate their success in band this year.

All the best to you and your family,

Christian Baughman and Pam Hayden

Due to very wet conditions at the bandshell field, and anticipating additional rain today, the 7th  grade vocal music concert scheduled for 6:45 p.m. this evening is canceled.  In lieu of this cancellation, our vocal music department will record our students performing and send that out to you by the end of the school year.  Also, parents of 7^th grade vocal music students are welcome to join us Wednesday, June 2nd at the band shell at 12:15 p.m. for a concert designed for our 7^th grade students.  Parking will be available at  Ankeny City Hall, Lakeside Center, and the Ankeny Amp Pavilion.

As per previous years, the Ankeny Community School District encourages all 5th through 11th grade students to keep their school-issued Chromebook over the summer.  Please click on Summer Chromebook 2021 Letter for more information.

The Parkview Middle School yearbook is being printed right now. We ordered a limited amount of extras – click here to reserve your copy today!

They will be delivered toward the end of the school year. Don’t miss out on the memories and the celebration of the year!!

To see a glimpse of the yearbook, click here.

Any questions, please contact Yearbook Advisor Leah Preisser at  leah.preisser@ankenyschools.org