Dexter, Missouri - Tyler Heil was awarded the first ever Jamie D. Sifford Memorial Scholarship sponsored by Biovante located in Bernie, Missouri.

Jamie Sifford, a well known farmer from the community suffered a fatal accident in April of 2016.  "I have known Jamie for about four years," commented Chris Masters, President of Biovante.  "We worked together on his farm and has always been a student of products and new technology.  I was kind of a new kid on the block for our company, Biovante, and he gave me a shot to use some of our products."

"He understood why we do what we do and this year he had set up on his corn, he had set up some plots and we were going to evaluate them throughout the season to emergency all the way until harvest time," continued Masters. "I just felt that with the situation that as much as a passion he had for farming if we could facilitate something to another student to help keep that passion alive and keep it going would be a great honor for him."

Tyler is a senior at Dexter High School and is the son of Dan and Connie Heil.  He has played football his freshman and sophomore years, Cross Country his junior year, Baseball and Basketball all four years of high school.  Tyler is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Future Farmers of America, and Student Council.

His future plans are to attend Missouri State University and Study Agri-Business.

"Tyler was one of four applicants that we received and we narrowed it down to two," stated Masters.  "One major criteria was GPA and with Tyler's history of being involved with different groups, not that basketball was part of it, but he was heavily involved in the program and that was a passion for Tyler as much as it was for Jamie.  I think there were some similarities between this applicant and Jamie, but overall his history of being in school, education, and GPA along with his primary studies going into Agri-Business.

This scholarship will be part of Jamie's legacy. "As long as I am alive and Biovante is alive we are going to have Dexter Schools who are interested in agriculture receive a scholarship for many years to come and we will do this every single year," stated Masters.

Shown in the photo are from left to right: Chris Masters, Meagan Masters, J.D. Sifford (father of Jamie), Tyler Heil, Dan Heil, and Connie Heil.

Imperial, Missouri - Singles and doubles sectionals were postponed due to weather this week, but were finally played on Wednesday afternoon.  Four Dexter seniors and one junior earned a spot in the MSHSAA State singles and doubles tournament in Springfield, Missouri.

Dexter senior, Ethan Flowers, (Ethan graduated on Friday, May 13th) secured his 3rd trip to the State Tennis Tournament with a singles win over Caleb Rueweler from Windsor 6-0, 6-3.

The doubles team of Josh Kohlbaker (senior) and Zach Potts earned their first trip to State with a 6-2, 6-1 win over a doubles team from Lutheran South.

Addison Moore (senior) and Tyler Stevenson (senior) won their doubles match in 3 sets over St. Mary's.

The State singles and doubles championship tournament will be held at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, Missouri on Friday, May 27th and Saturday, May 28th.

The Dexter (11-2) will play the Team Sectionals on Saturday, May 21st against John Burroughs (13-2).

Photo credit to Kimberly Flowers.

Dexter, Missouri - The Missouri Choral Directors Association sponsors Honors Choirs for their summer conference which is held in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Mrs. Jamie Sepulvado, Choral Director, for Dexter Public Schools submitted recordings of the students who wished to audition in March.  They received the results on May 1, 2016.  These 7th and 8th grade students competed against students from all over the state of Missouri.

They will now travel to Jefferson City on July 20, 2016 to sing with other students from around the state in the Honors Choir program.

Since their founding in 1959, the Missouri Choral Directors Association has made this even possible in part by relentlessly pursuing the first objective in their constitution: to encourage higher standards of choral singing and its performance.  they are proud to sponsor several honor choirs which represent excellence in choral music from elementary age to adult.  They will feature Missouri Youth Honor Choirs, All-State ShowChoir, and Vocal Jazz Ensembles, and the Church/Community Honor Choir.

Shown in the photo front row from left: Bryston Pemberton, Sydney Patrick, and Keiton Buck.  Back row from left: Cole Barker, Dalton Granger, Nate Bryant, Jeb Hubbard, and Justin Viers

Dexter, Missouri - Dexter's Central Elementary 4th grade superstar students earned Pizza in the Park! These students devour every word on a page and can't wait to get to the next exciting adventure! 

In order for each student to attend the 200% 4th quarter AR party they must read certain books and take tests at a 85% accuracy to reach double their goal!!!!  Now that is pretty amazing for these awesome students to go above and beyond.

This summer don't forget to keep your reading skills sharp in anticipation of the more advanced reading requirements in 5th grade!!

Dexter, Missouri - Three Dexter High School students received scholarships from the Community Teachers Association.

The recipients of the 2016 Dexter Public Schools Community Teachers Association (CTA) Scholarship are Garrett Kyle and Delaney Pullen. They each received a $500 nonrenewable scholarship.

The recipient of the CTA Education Majors Scholarship is Erin Lauters. She will receive a $1,000 scholarship. 

Pictured from left to right are Mrs. Laura Stone, Dexter High School CTA Building Representative, Garrett Kyle, Delaney Pullen, and Erin Lauters.