Goldfield Community Room

The former Goldfield Elementary building is getting more use.  In addition to being used by Iowa Central Community College for nursing class, concerts, athletic practices and contests, the building is seeing increased use as a community building.  Groups are renting the gymnasium for company wellness activities (basketball league, dodge ball, etc.), family reunions, fund raiser benefits and walking.  The district continues to work with the City of Goldfield to explore additional uses and improvements.  The district and city are soliciting cost estimates to air condition the multipurpose room and kitchen, to make the facility more attractive for summer use.  Individuals or groups interested in renting facilities in Goldfield should call the CG District Office at 515-532-3423.

School District will no longer have classes in Goldfield building
Teachers leaving positions won't be replaced

April 17, 2008 - At Monday's Clarion-Goldfield Board of Education meeting, the board accepted the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. Robert Olson and approved beginning Barker Procedures which prescribe the steps a district must take to close the Goldfield building.

"There is no timeline," said Olson. "The procedures are stated in very general terms. It should be stressed that the district isn't abandoning the building. It will still be used for athletic practices, community room, ICCC classes, music concerts and the five year all-school reunion. We will still heat the building using night settings and maintain it."

"Since there is no timeline, I feel we could discuss this more," said board member Missy Schultz. "I don't feel like the board knows enough about the enrollments there? Also, does Barker prohibit having classes there again someday?"

Olson said, "Barker is the process for informing the community. It can be reversed, however, our policy says we must have 15 students before we have a class. We currently have 43 students from Goldfield at the elementary level. If we would have 15 students from Goldfield in one class, we could reverse this decision."

The next step in closing the Goldfield attendance center is for the board to establish a timeline which begins with informing segments of the community within the district that the matter is under consideration by the board. The board shall then seek public input in all study and planning steps involved in making the decision. The rules require the board and others to carry out research, study and planning to include enrollment statistics, transportation costs, financial gains and losses, program offerings, plant facilities and staff assignment.

Olson presented the board with a financial impact summary as a result of closing the building to district students. Included in the approximate savings are transportation costs of $34,000 (last year); staff salary and benefits of $83,600; instructional materials of $5,000 and utilities of $5,000 for a total of almost $95,000 per year.

Olson also presented other recommendations for cost cutting. "Our spending authority has been going down every year," said Olson. "By making cuts now we are trying to work on it as we go, rather than having a huge cut in one year. Funding goes where enrollment goes. We have lost 78 students in the past three years and I project another 78 students lost in the next two years."

The district will pursue sharing teachers with nearby districts but will not otherwise cut any teaching positions. However, those teaching positions left vacant for any reason will not be filled. Olson estimates total savings to the district, through closing the Goldfield building and not replacing teachers to be almost $250,000 for next year. If two sharing positions are finalized that total will rise to almost $300,000.

"Eagle Grove is interested in sharing Vocational Agriculture and Webster City is interested in sharing a halftime elementary art person," Olson said. "I have also been approached by Belmond-Klemme about sharing wrestling.

"We will not share unless we can have a quality program," said Olson. "We need to learn the needs of the other districts and compare them with ours to see if sharing staff will work. If it appears that our students will be harmed by the sharing agreement, it won't happen. Even if it saves money, we must preserve instruction." The board approved pursuing sharing personnel and programs.

-set the next regular meeting for May 12 at 7 p.m.

Goldfield Elementary becomes new home for ICCC nursing students.

On Wednesday, January 9, Goldfield Elementary opened its doors to Iowa Central Community College’s Nursing Program. Jane Townsend, a 26-year nursing instructor, said that for the previous four years,
Wright Medical Center had been a “great partner.” Due to hospital expansion, however, space had become an issue for everyone. A Goldfield resident, and employee at WMC contacted Principal John
Suhumskie and Superintendent Dr. Robert Olson regarding the possibility of relocating the classes to the second floor of the Goldfield Elementary building. Representatives of Iowa Central Community College toured the building on Thursday, December 20, and on Friday, December 21, Dr. Paxton of ICCC and Dr. Olson made the relocation plan official. “Everyone has made us feel absolutely welcome,” stated Townsend. The college was allowed to put up a sign identifying the nursing school’s new location which
made them feel at home. The faculty and students of the college have enjoyed other benefits as well. There is ample parking and classroom space. Additionally, the nursing students and faculty have access to the school’s computer lab.

Both the nursing students and the third graders attending Goldfield elementary have had a very positive reaction to the new location. Naturally curious, many third graders have asked who the newcomers were and what they were doing there. Many have become newly aware of adults as students and have learned that you must go to college to become a nurse. The possibility of interaction between the students exists. Townsend mentioned the college students spending time during elementary lunches
speaking with Goldfield students would give them a traffic real-world experience with talking to young people.

The Iowa Central Community College currently provides instruction to 23 freshmen and 24 sophomore nursing students at the Goldfield and Webster City off-campus locations with the main campus in Fort Dodge. Some students travel from as far away as Ankeny, Nevada, and Ames to attend the college. Consistently, high numbers of students pass their nursing board exams. Townsend shared that ICCC employs a tenured faculty with most inspectors having 15 or more years of teaching experience. She stated “online courses don’t meet the needs of every student.” In addition, their courses are very clinically-based. Two days a week nursing students work with adjunct faculty members at five clinical sites: Wright Medical Center, Rotary Ann, Humboldt County Memorial Hospital, and Hamilton Hospital in Webster City.

They get hands-on experience and guidance with a certified instructor. Students benefit from real experiences and constructive feedback. Making contact with patients is a very important piece of the nursing students at education. Townsend shared.

Looking down the road, Townsend stated,” I hope the partnership between Iowa Central Community College and the Clarion-Goldfield Schools continues into the future, and that the Goldfield elementary building could be utilized even further.”

The GHS Alumni reunion was held on 06/23/07. It was a huge success with 418 tickets sold. It was a wonderful weekend. Thanks to everyone involved and to everyone that came back to enjoy it. Additional pictures can also be seen in the Photo Gallery on this website.

Reunion T-shirts are no longer available. Thank you to everyone who supported this fundraiser.

Here are photos of the beautiful quilt that will be auctioned off at the 2007 GHS Alumni Reunion after the program on June 23rd. This quilt is done in Goldfield Indian colors, royal blue and white.  In keeping with the 2007 theme “The Places We’ve Been” the quilt’s pattern is called Indian Trails.  It is queen size, and measures 87” x 104”.  It was made for this fundraiser by Claudia Sheets and machine quilted by Jolene Crees Rasmussen.  It has 1800 pieces and took lots and lots of hours!

We would like to thank our sponsors of the GHS website. The current sponsors are Eagle Grove Greenhouses , Foust Funeral Home, Goldfield Cheese Mart, Gold-Eagle Coop, and Comm 1. Just click on any of these to go to their web links. They are also listed here on the right hand side of each page for your convenience. Please remember to say thanks to all of our sponsors whenever you get the chance. They are very much appreciated! If you would like to become a sponsor of this website please let me know. Alan

The GHS Alumni committee is busy making plans for the next alumni banquet which will be held June 23, 2007. The past few weeks I have been working on updating the contact information for all of the alumni. I am in the process of contacting each and every alumni either through email or by phone. I would like to thank those of you who have responded so quickly, it really makes this job much easier. Brett Trotter is fantastic to work with and has been making the changes to the website about as fast as I send them to him. We have made close to 200 changes to the information on the class pages lately. This will come in very handy for you if you are planning a class reunion or just want to get in touch with a former classmate. Whenever you do have a change of address, email address, or last name change, feel free to click on the link on the bottom of your class page and submit them to us. It will open an email that will come directly to Brett and me and we will get your changes updated.

Alan

The GHS Class of 1956 held their 50th class reunion this weekend. Pictured at the Fountain City Sister’s Tearoom in Goldfield are front L-R, Donald Abrams, Lois Christensen Richardson, Ardith Askvig Holtan, Mary Axon Michaelson, Betty Steffenson Sunner, Wanda Jones Hassman, Kathryn Evje, and Marilyn Brazee Flogstad. Back row L-R are Gary Nelson, Edwin Thomas, Marcia Robinson Hintz, Edward Hassman, and Dale Smith.

For those of you that attended last years Goldfield Sesquicentennial and enjoyed the Saturday evening entertainment in the park, I thought we would pass this along. Dennis Anderson is former teacher at GHS.

The Al Welsh Orchestra releases CD of popular big band dance music
Selections chosen based on audience requests
Dawn Thompson, Entertainment editor

ROCKWELL CITY — Give the crowd what it wants.
That’s the theory behind the recently released CD by the Al Welsh Orchestra called ‘‘At Your Request ... Puttin’ on the Hits.’’
‘‘We were playing different ballrooms and celebrations and people would come up and ask if we had a CD,’’ said Dennis Anderson, owner and leader of the dance band. ‘‘So, we took the hint and decided it was time to record one.’’

The group, an ensemble of nine musicians, went into the studio at Junior’s Motel near Otho and laid down 29 tracks, enough music to fill almost 76 minutes with big band era and popular dance music from the 1920s and ’30s. The selections were chosen based on how often they were requested by audiences at the band’s performances. Included are ‘‘Puttin’ on the Ritz,’’ ‘‘Ain’t We Got Fun,’’ ‘‘Hot Cha Cha Cha’’ and ‘‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree.’’
‘‘It’s hard to say which is my favorite,’’ Anderson said. ‘‘I enjoy playing them all. Probably the most requested is Glenn Miller’s ‘In the Mood.’ Another good one is Ann Murray’s ‘Could I Have this Dance.’’

Also on the disc are ‘‘Hey Good Lookin,’’ ‘‘Ragtime Cowboy Joe,’’ ‘‘Blue Bayou,’’ ‘‘Sioux City Sue’’ and ‘‘Woodchopper’s Ball.’’ Arrangements performed were by artists including Tommy Dorsey, Woody Hermann, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Lawrence Welk and Guy Lombardo.

Anderson, from Twin Lakes, plays trombone in the band. He has been playing with the group since the late 1970s. He is also a long-standing member of Karl L. King Fort Dodge Municipal Band, playing with them for 34 years. Anderson retired in 2000 after 32 years as band director with the Rockwell City-Lytton Schools and currently teaches part time at Pomeroy Palmer Community Schools in Pomeroy.

The Al Welsh Orchestra was started in the early 1950s by Allen Welsh, a music store owner from Webster City. Welsh was one of the state’s most well-known band leaders and performers of the time. He led his band until his death in 1989. His wife, Sherry, kept the band going until January 2003 when she sold it to Anderson.

‘‘At Your Request ... Putting on the Hits’’
By The Al Welsh Orchestra

The CD includes 29 dance selections ranging from fox trots and waltzes to polka and Latin styles. The CDs are $12 and can be purchased at the band’s performances or at Abstract Services of Calhoun County.
Also, a copy can be purchased by sending $15 (includes shipping and handling) to:

Al Welsh Orchestra
P.O. Box 24
Rockwell City, IA 50579.

The photo gallery section has grown a little bit thanks to some of the recent contributions after the Goldfield Sesquicentennial. Make sure to check it out.

Pictured above is Robert Hansen, age 97, from the class of 1925, getting ready to ride in the Sesquicentennial parade. He is the oldest living GHS alumni. He is still very active and continues to enjoy golfing several times each week.

News Update - 07/17/2005

The Goldfield Sesquicentennial was held this weekend and was a big success. If anyone has digital photos that were taken during the weekend's events that they would like to share, please email them to:

editor@goldfieldalumni.com or trotty66@msn.com

We'll get them posted in the photo gallery section for others to see.

News Update - 07/12/2005

Bulletin Board Update #2

We've been monitoring the updates on the restoration process related to the EZBoard attack that occurred about a month ago. Initially, we were told that all topics and posts would be eventually restored. What we're being told now is that the posts do not appear to be recoverable and that we will be receiving credit toward our subscription to this service due to our inconvenience.

Needless to say, we are very disappointed that we will not be able to get our data restored. There was a lot of great comments that all the alumni who have visited the site and the bulletin board took the time to write.

The bulletin board should be in working order now though and can be used again. Again we are sorry for the loss of this information but hope all of you will continue to use this feature of the site in the future.

News Update - 06/07/2005

Bulletin Board Update

Some of you may have noticed that all the posts on our bulletin board are missing. EZBoards (The service we use to provide the bulletin board) was apparently the victim of some sort of internet attack on their servers. They are telling us that as a paying subscriber to their service, the data should be eventually restored. They provide bulletin board services to a large number of customers however and this restore process will take time.

Thank you for your patience.

News Update - 03/19/2005

On March 12, 2005, the 1955 Goldfield Girls basketball team was honored at a special halftime ceremony at the girls state basketball tournament in Des Moines, Iowa. The Goldfield girls team was the first to win a state championship at Veteran's Memorial Auditorium and since this is the last year the tournaments will be held at Vets, the team was invited to be part of a special recognition ceremony for several teams and players.

Many of you were unable to attend this event or even view it on TV so we have a video clip that you can watch here on the alumni site and a photo gallery with some of the pictures from that special day.

VIDEO CLIPS OF THE AWARDS CEREMONY

(Cable & DSL users)
High Bandwidth Video - 1955 Girls Award Ceremony

(Dial up users) Be patient...may take 10 minutes to load
Low Bandwidth Video - 1955 Girls Award Ceremony

Check out some other photos in the Photo Gallery.

1955 Girls’ Basketball Champions To Be Recognized



In March of l955 the Goldfield High School girls’ basketball team won the Iowa Girls’ Basketball Tournament at Veterans Auditorium in Des Moines. It was the first girls’ tournament to be held at Vet’s, and the championship game in l955 still holds the all-time attendance record. In the summer of l955 the City of Goldfield also celebrated its Centennial.

In 2005, fifty years later, the l955 team will be recognized, along with several other special teams, during the 50th and last tournament to be played at Vet’s. The 2006 tournament will be moving to the new Iowa Events Center. Also in the summer of 2005 Goldfield will be celebrating its Sesquicentennial.

Tickets are available for the evening championship game on Saturday, March 12, 2005, at $7.00/person. These tickets are in a block set aside for Goldfield supporters. If you would like to purchase tickets, please send a personal check or money order to: Scott Whyte, P.O. Box 394, Goldfield, Iowa 50542. The offer is only good through January 24, 2005. There is no limit on the number of tickets available to purchasers.

Goldfield Class of 1959 Holds 45th Class Reunion

The Goldfield Class of 1959 held their 45th class reunion Saturday, September 25. Ten of the 17 classmates and 3 spouses enjoyed dinner and social time at Oakridge Recreation Association in Goldfield. Following, they all went to Crossroads and enjoyed ice cream and more fellowship. Present were: Sharon (Brazee) Weiss, Shirley (Brazee) Mennig, Jim and Lois (Comstock) Fields, Terri (Kvale) Fry, Michael and Margaret Freeman, Yvonne (Lester) Peterson, Caroline (Nesheim) Lund, Ed Stice, Wayne and Mary Jo (Templeton) Wilson, and Maureen (Whyte) Cameron.

Editors Note: Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. I had been waiting for a picture to go with it, but according to Maureen, she can’t remember if there were any pictures taken that evening and to just tell everyone that they were all just as beautiful as ever!!

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