Here we are, fast approaching the end of September.  Where has the first month of school gone?  For me, it seemed like mid-March through the first of August just crept on by, then the school supplies came out and the next thing you know we’re halfway through the first quarter of the school year.

School looks different for a lot of people in a lot of different ways.  Some of us have kids that are back at school, some of us have kids that are learning remotely from home and some of us, like at the Burdorf house, have a combination of both.

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For the first time since the Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation was founded in 2016, there is a change on the board.  Steve Lorimor, who has served for the past four years, is stepping down and Paula Brownlee will be replacing him.   

When our education foundation was being formed, we felt it important to have a member that would represent our Farragut community,” said foundation president Corby Fichter. “Steve Lorimor was our top choice. Steve has been a dedicated and engaged member of our foundation from our beginning. He has provi...

Hello to all who call Shenandoah, Iowa, home.  It has been almost six months since my last column, and oh my, have our environment and our world changed!  Fortunately, I am not writing an update about the coronavirus, but I do want to share a couple of updates about our Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation.

First, as all of you know by now, we have hired our first executive director, Jamie Burdorf.  It is a privilege having Jamie join us and help lead our foundation board to new and exciting strategies to enhance the educational opportuniti...

Cheri Kenyon, a member of the Shenandoah High School Class of 1975, says it’s hard to imagine that anyone has ever loved the community of Shenandoah and the local schools more than her late parents Harold and Carol Kenyon did.

“Neither one of them was originally from Shenandoah, but it really became their home,” said Cheri, who is now 63 and divides time between her homes in Florida and North Carolina.  “My dad and mom both to Shenandoah in 1956 – he from the Denison area and she from the Atlantic area – and they met when both were working at th...

Hello to all of you supporters of the Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation!

In case you missed the announcement at the end of June, my name is Jamie Burdorf and I was named as the very first executive director of the foundation.  I am honored to be the first person to hold this position and I look forward to helping continue to do great things for the Shenandoah Community School District and community.

I thought I would take this opportunity to let you get to know me.  First of all, both my husband Aaron Burdorf and I grew up in the small town of...

There’s an old saying that if you have job that really needs doing, you should find a busy person to do it.

It appears the Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation has done just that in hiring Jamie Burdorf to be its first executive director. 

Burdorf, who lives in Shenandoah, is a busy wife, mother of four children ranging in age from 14 to 9, a part-time pre-school teacher at Turnbull Child Development Center, and still the editor, part-time, of the weekly newspaper in State Center, Iowa, where the family lived previously.

“I don’t sit very well,” B...

Thanks to donors to the Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation, graduating seniors in the Shenandoah High Class of 2020 have been awarded 34 scholarships valued at $46,500.

The scholarship winners were announced last week in an online version of the traditional awards assembly, since the corona virus pandemic made it impossible to hold the usual ceremonies.

Amy Miller and Star Ann Kloberdanz, two members of the foundation’s board of directors who helped administer the scholarships, reviewed the awards for the public Wednesday morning, June 3, in an...

Financial grants over the last three years to teachers and staff members of the Shenandoah Community Schools, provided by the Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation to enhance the learning experiences of students, now total more than $13,000 after the spring 2020 grants have been determined.

The latest grants are supporting teachers and students in a variety of areas.  While some will need to be postponed – because of the pandemic-forced closure of schools -- others are fulfilled.

Grants to teachers from the Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation hav...

The Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation is now accepting applications for a part-time Executive Director to assist our Foundation’s work in overseeing of administration, programs, and strategic plan for our organization.

Below here in this story is the job description for this newly created position.

Please submit your resume and letter of application to our P.O. Box 351, Shenandoah, IA 51601.

In an earlier story, Foundation president Corby Fichter said the organization "was very blessed late in 2019 to receive a gift of $250,000 from a donor in...

As president of the Shenandoah Iowa Education Foundation, I’m very happy to report that, by every measure, we had our biggest year ever in 2019.

And we start 2020 – our fifth year – poised to take some major steps to enhance the educational opportunities and experience for students and alumni of the Shenandoah Community Schools.

It’s all happening because of the generous donations and pledges made by hundreds of alumni, alum-nots, former & present faculty and staff, as well as some local businesses and organizations. They understand and are inves...