Category: News

Ava Yungbluth | The Chronicle  Mason High School students are getting exposure to the real world through the Experiential Learning program.  Marketing teacher Deanna Hogenkamp is the director of the program. She believes experiential learning opportunities will help students find out more about career paths while also helping them build their resume.   Hogenkamp has helped connect students to internship style […]

By Josie Lorenz | The Chronicle  The Comet Skippers jumped into the spotlight at the 2021 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Jumpers from around the country were offered an opportunity to be part of this famous parade as part of Jumpers United, a group of jumpers from 33 teams and 29 different states, and seven Comets took that opportunity, qualifying and […]

Bradyn Johnson | The Chronicle As schools around the world begin to implement one-to-one technology programs, teachers are faced with the dilemma of distinguishing when to use paper versus technology. Teachers at Mason High School (MHS) are implementing effective ways to keep students engaged in learning with and without the use of technology. Although teachers have differing opinions as to […]

Tanya Keskar | The Chronicle Mason High School (MHS) staff became poets as they captured the essence of inclusive excellence through powerful prose. On the October Professional Development Day, students had a day to guide their learning while the MHS staff had the opportunity to reflect on Inclusive Excellence (IE) in the school district by composing found poems. A found […]

Aditya Thiyag | The Chronicle  Learning a new language often consists of intense grammar and writing practice, but one club is bringing an alternate approach to teaching English. Speakeasy is a new tutoring club at Mason High School that emphasizes conversation as a method of teaching Mason’s English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Taking place during Connect Time on […]

Isabelle Paley | The Chronicle Surfing the web at school is yielding choppy waters. As a measure for student safety, Mason City Schools (MCS) has applied software that filters certain websites or keywords to all of the 14,000 devices throughout the district. In previous years, the filtering company Securly was efficient at blocking inappropriate websites, but left little room for […]

Ava Yungbluth | The Chronicle By diversifying their bookshelves, teachers are showing their students how to read between the lines. All across the Mason City Schools (MCS) district, books have become more varied along with the students that read them. Inclusive excellence, which is an aspect of superintendent Jonathan Cooper’s “three big rocks”, centers around valuing, engaging and including a […]

Aimee Liu | The Chronicle While each school year contains many of the same practices at Mason High School (MHS), the bell schedule has always remained an inconsistency. The 2021-22 bell schedule at MHS consists of shorter seven-bell days on Mondays and Fridays along with a medley of different block scheduled days the rest of the week, featuring five different […]

Tanya Keskar | The Chronicle Many freedoms develop the culture of Mason High School, and the Mason City School Board plays a big role in making it possible. The school board is a team of five individuals who are elected every four years and have ultimate authority over the school district. From eliminating valedictorian and salutatorian positions to instating a […]

Izzy Gaspar’raj | The Chronicle Some new staff members at Mason High School have students to thank for their position on the high school staff. Over the last five years at MHS, student panels have started to become a part of the hiring process for staff positions. The consistency of the panels started to increase in the spring of the […]

Anna Kinasewitz | Staff Writer In a pandemic year when everyone pressed pause the Mason Schools Foundation (MSF) pressed forward in their efforts to fund innovative learning programs in the Mason City School District. As the local economy came to a standstill when the Coronavirus shutdown occurred, the foundation still managed to find unique ways to generate funds in order […]