Dr. Marc Snow Named Superintendent of Schools Starting July 2017

Grain Valley, Missouri

The Grain valley Board of Education has named Dr. Marc Snow as Superintendent of Schools effective July 1, 2017.

Dr. Snow will take the reins of the fast-growing Grain Valley School District next summer. He has served as a school or district leader in Grain Valley for 15 years, having first served as the principal of Grain Valley Middle School for the 2001-2002 school year when the school was on Main Street. He was then the principal of Matthews Elementary School from 2002-2005 and served as the principal of Prairie Branch Elementary School 2005-2009 before being named assistant superintendent for finance and support services in 2009, a role he has now served in for eight years.

Dr. Snow is in his 25th year in public school education overall. Prior to his coming to the Grain Valley School District in 2001, Dr. Snow first served as interim vocal music instructor at Chinn Elementary School in the Park Hill School District from 1992-1993 before serving the Smithville School District for eight years. While in Smithville, he first served as a vocal music teacher at Smithville Elementary School, then as assistant principal at the same school, and finally as principal of Smithville Upper Elementary School.

According to Board President Mr. Chris Bamman, it was Dr. Snow's long-standing demonstration of leadership that made him the right person for the role. "We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Snow has accepted the new role of Superintendent of Schools for Grain Valley.  We believe his proven leadership and the success he has enjoyed in previous roles in the District will continue to build on the successes we've enjoyed in our school district."

Dr. Snow is humbled by the opportunity to serve the Grain Valley School District community as superintendent of schools, “I am grateful for the privilege to serve the Grain Valley School District for the past 15+ years, and I am humbled by the opportunity to serve as superintendent. My time in Grain Valley has shown me that our students and community have unlimited potential and the capacity for greatness. My goal is to ensure we have the resources, staff, and direction to achieve that potential.”

Grain Valley School District personnel were notified in an email last May that the School Board had designated Dr. Snow as second in command of the school district behind Superintendent of Schools Dr. Roy Moss, and that the School Board had indicated their intention to promote him to superintendent following the expected retirement of Dr. Moss after the 2016-2017 school year.

The process to fill the assistant superintendent position Snow vacates will begin in the next few weeks.

Superintendent Dr. Roy Moss Announces Retirement

Grain Valley, Missouri

After 32 years of service in education, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Roy Moss officially announces he will retire at the end of this school year.

In his career, Dr. Moss has served as a teacher, coach, transportation director, activities director, high school principal, and superintendent. Prior to coming to Grain Valley in 2009, Dr. Moss served as Superintendent of Schools for the North Callaway School District, 20 miles east of Columbia, Missouri, from 2004-2009, and prior to that as high school principal at South Callaway School District from 1994-2004.

Dr. Moss will retire July 2017, after having served as superintendent in Grain Valley for eight years. During Dr. Moss’ tenure in Grain Valley, student enrollment has grown by more than 1000 students, the district has built North Middle School, the Early Childhood Education Center, a new transportation facility, and began a long-range plan to update and double the size of the Grain Valley High School building and student activity spaces.

Grain Valley High School has received national recognition in recent years for preparing students for college. Newsweek, US News & World Report, and the Washington Post have each listed Grain Valley High School among the top high schools in the nation.

In his first year with the school district, Dr. Moss established the Grain Valley Education Foundation. To date, the Foundation endowment has grown to $203,956.00; and has provided scholarships to our graduating seniors totaling $122,000.00, teacher grants totaling $53,000.00, and $108,000.00 in contributions to schools and student activities.

Dr. Moss was named the 2015 Missouri Superintendent of the Year by the Missouri Association of School Administrators. In May 2016, Dr. Moss was inducted into the Wellsville High School Wall of Fame, in Wellsville, Kansas where he graduated in 1971.

Dr. Moss and wife, Patricia, have five sons. All graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He and his wife have five grandchildren.

School Board President Mr. Chris Bamman expresses the appreciation of the community for Dr. Moss' service, "Our school district and community have been blessed to have Dr. Moss as our Superintendent for the past eight years.  His vision and leadership for our district has been truly appreciated and we wish him and his family the very best in the years ahead."

As he reflects on his time in Grain Valley, Dr. Moss focuses on the opportunity he has been given to serve. “It has been a true blessing and honor to serve the past eight years as a servant to the Grain Valley Schools community and I would like to thank this great community for an amazing tenure. I have cherished my time in the Grain Valley School District.” Dr. Moss also acknowledges his successor, Dr. Marc Snow, whom the school board has selected to be the district’s next Superintendent of Schools beginning July 1, 2017. “I have the utmost confidence in Dr. Marc Snow and the executive team currently in place.”

Grain Valley High School Makes National List of Most Challenging High Schools... Again

Grain Valley is named to the Washington Post's list of “America’s Most Challenging High Schools” for the 3rd year in a row. 

Grain Valley High School is ranked in the top five percent of public high schools in the United States, 12th in the state of Missouri, and 2nd among Missouri schools in the Kansas City Metro Area behind Park Hill High School.

Rankings are based on the total number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests given at a school each year, divided by the number of seniors who graduate in May. The list also looks at ACT scores, Advanced Placement scores (the percentage of seniors who score a “3” or higher on at least one exam), and free and reduced lunch numbers.

Jay Mathews compiles the list for the Washington Post. He states the significance of Advanced Placement courses, “AP, IB and AICE are important because they give average students a chance to experience… heavy college reading list and long, analytical college examinations. Research has found that even low-performing students who got a “2” on an AP test did significantly better in college than similar students who did not take AP.”

This honor is the third national recognition for Grain Valley Schools in the past 2 years. Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report have also recognized Grain Valley High School as a top U.S. high school for preparing students for college.

Please check outhttp://apps.washingtonpost.com/local/highschoolchallenge/ for the full list of rankings and additional articles.

Grain Valley to Join Suburban Conference in 2018

The Grain Valley School District was notified earlier today of being accepted into the Greater Kansas City Suburban Conference by the Suburban Conference Executive Committee, beginning with the 2018-2019 school year. This change affects middle school and high school activities.

The District wrote to the Suburban Conference Executive Committee in February requesting consideration to be admitted. The Suburban Conference currently has 25 member high schools that are organized into four color-coded divisions. Grain Valley can expect to be placed with similar-sized schools in the Blue Division, which currently includes Belton, Grandview, Kearney, Platte County, Raytown South, and Winnetonka.

Grain Valley High School has experienced rapid growth in recent years, which led to the decision to request admission into the Suburban Conference. Grain Valley High School has 1150 students at this time, up from 636 students in 2005 and 450 in 2000. 

Grain Valley has become the largest high school in the Missouri River Valley Conference (MRVC) since joining in 2004. Prior to the MRVC, Grain Valley was in the Show-Me West Conference.

Grain Valley Activities Director Mike Tarrants says transitioning to the Suburban Conference is the next natural step for the growing school district. "As we grow, we become more like the suburban conference schools. We already play many of these schools as non-conference scheduling opponents now.” Tarrants adds, “the ability to change conferences at this time reflects the support of our community in making necessary facility upgrades in recent years."

Suburban Conference Executive Director Bob Glasgow says there is much enthusiasm around the inclusion of Grain Valley into the Suburban Conference. "Grain Valley is a natural fit for us in bringing their competitive and progressive programs into the conference. This move is a win-win."

Admitting Grain Valley contributes to the goal of the Suburban Conference to expand. 

Superintendent of Schools for Grain Valley, Dr. Roy Moss, affirms that this is a win for all schools involved. "We appreciate the MRVC for the many years of working so closely and for understanding our need to seek a change. We look forward to the new opportunities this change holds."

Planning for a change that is two years away will allow all districts impacted by the change to plan accordingly.

Letter from Dr. Moss on the Passage of the Bond Issue

Grain Valley Parents, Community, and District Employees,

We are pleased to report that yesterday’s bond issue passed with 81.46% “yes” vote and we thank you for your support! We appreciate this endorsement by our community to continue the work to ultimately double the size of the high school, as well as expand activity space and parking, to accommodate the larger class sizes that are coming up through the grades.

Equipment will begin moving dirt from the area northeast of the building in a few weeks and much of the project will be completed before school begins in the fall. Due to the scope of this phase, it will be later in the fall before the seven new classrooms are available for student use.

This is the third of several phases of work to transform our high school into a larger and more modern facility. We will continue to provide you updates on construction progress and on plans for future phases along the way.

The responsibility we feel as a result of the passage of this bond issue is something we take very seriously. We are committed to working with you to continue to provide for the needs of our children. Thank you!

Blessings to you and your family,

Roy Moss

Superintendent of Schools

Bond Issue for Feb 2, 2016 to Support Next Phase of High School Expansion & Renovation

The next phase of the high school facing west from the current tennis courts features seven new classrooms, plus restrooms, collaboration spaces and the renovation of existing classrooms. This new entrance will serve students who ride buses to and from school.

Our district continues to grow. We currently have 4200 students in pre-Kindergarten through 12^th grades, including nearly 1200 students in our high school.  This is twice as many students in our district as we had just 11 years ago.

Prior to 2012, our high school building had a capacity of 850 students.  In 2012 the school district hosted public forums to address the needs of a much-overcrowded Grain Valley High School. Based on the input from stakeholders in these sessions, the School Board approved a long-range plan to double the square footage of the high school building and renovate the existing structure to provide the infrastructure, instructional space, and activity space needed to accommodate as many as 1600 high school students. This long-range plan has led to the passage of school bond issues in 2013 and 2014, resulting in additions and renovations to the southeast corner of the school. Improvements have also been made to the entrance and north plaza of the stadium. The next phase of the long range plan shifts attention to the northeast corner of the school.

The School Board has approved the placement of a $9.5 Million bond issue on the ballot for February 2, 2016 to allow for the next phase of work to our high school. Passage of this bond issue does not require raising the district tax levy rate.

This year’s bond issue for $9.5 Million will allow us to:

1. Add seven classrooms to the northeast corner of the high school, north of the science rooms added in 2013. Five of these will be larger classroom spaces for business labs, video broadcasting, and computer science. Smaller existing classrooms will be combined or expanded and renovated to create new larger classrooms for family and consumer science lab classrooms. New collaboration spaces and student restrooms are also included in the base bid.
2. Renovate approximately one-half of the classrooms and hallway spaces between these new business classrooms and the science classrooms that were constructed in 2013.

3.  Add a greenhouse to the southeast corner of the school, the outline of which was defined when new science classrooms were added in 2013.

4. Re-purpose the former transportation building into student activity space.

5. Add eight new tennis courts south of the school, west of the baseball and softball fields.
6. Add a plaza area with restrooms, concession stand, press box, and storage to support baseball, softball, and tennis.
7. Add 200 parking spaces south of the building for use as school and activity parking.
8. Renovations to the remainder of classrooms and hallways connecting this business classroom addition to previous phases, the addition of a practice field, a concrete hitting wall for tennis, the complete renovation of existing restrooms near the school office and commons area, plus additional parking (beyond the base bid 200 spaces) are included as alternative bids with this bond issue.

The work to transform our high school campus to meet our students’ needs into the future is going to take more phases over multiple years.  This phase continues the work of our long-range plan to have the classrooms and other facilities needed to meet the demand of a growing school district.

The election is Tuesday, February 2, 2016.

The bond issue on the ballot for Feb 2, 2016 will cover the classroom addition and renovation work shown in medium blue along the east (pictured right) side of the high school, as well as the new tennis courts and plaza/concessions/restroom/storage near the baseball and softball fields. Two hundred additional parking spaces are included in the base bid. The classroom renovations shown in dark blue are included as one of the alternate bids. Other alternate bid projects include: additional parking beyond the 200 in the base bid, a practice field (lower/center of image), concrete hitting wall for tennis, and renovations to restrooms near the office and commons.

A new plaza area supporting baseball, softball, and tennis is included in the base bid of the Feb 2, 2016 bond issue. This plaza will include concession stand, press box, restrooms, and storage.

The bond issue that passed in Feb 2013 led to the addition of new science lab classrooms to the SE corner of the school and provided a preview of how Grain Valley High School will look and function as a modern high school.

The bond issue that passed in Feb of 2014 funded engineering and industrial arts classrooms on the SE section of the school. With passage of the Feb 2016 bond issue, attention moves to the NE corner of the school.

A concept drawing of what the new main entrance of the high school could look like when it is eventually added to the northeast corner of the building. The addition supported by the Feb 2, 2016 bond issue extends the school north to just behind this future phase. What is pictured here is NOT associated with the Feb 2, 2016 bond issue.

Veterans Invited to Schools on Veterans Day

All Grain Valley Schools will take time on Wednesday, November 11 to celebrate Veterans Day.

On Veterans Day we honor those who have served their country in any military capacity. The day was originally proclaimed as Armistice Day by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 to honor World War I veterans.

Our area veterans are invited to Veterans Day celebrations at any of the schools listed below.  All host schools will feature students in leadership or performance roles.  Special features are listed with the schools and start times:

• South Middle School, 901 SW Ryan Rd, at 7:15 am. Breakfast will be served to any Veteran in our community.
• Prairie Branch Elementary, 2100 Dillingham Rd, at 9:30 am.
• North Middle School, 31608 NE Pink Hill Rd, at 9:45 am.
• Matthews Elementary, 144 McQuerry Rd, at 10:30 am.
• Stony Point Elementary, 1001 Ryan Rd, at 2:30 pm.
• Sni-A-Bar Elementary, 701 SW Eagles Pkwy, at 2:30 pm.

Thank you, veterans, for your service to our great country!