One by one students in their fancy dresses and bow ties entered the Ozark Innovation Center (OIC) on April 19, greeted with cheers, high fives and fist bumps as they walked the gold carpet. Organized by the Ozark High School (OHS) special education department, it is a night students look forward to each year. It is the Spring Fling. more

Since its founding in 2003, 4 The Love of K9s dog rescue has made it their mission to save unwanted dogs from a horrible fate and find them loving homes. Because of the dedication of organization owner, Sherry Lee, and her team, 1,000 dogs have been rescued out of the Nixa Animal Control pound. more

Ozark School District has a number of Tigers who are retiring this year. The retirees were recognized during an all-staff meeting April 22. more

The Christian County Health Department announces a contract continuance to provide Women, Infants and Children (WIC) services for federal fiscal year 2024 has been signed with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. more

The Ozarks Health Commission (OHC), a coalition of public health entities, hospital partners and community leaders across the Ozarks region, has come together again to better understand the health status, behaviors and needs of the residents in our region. more

Finley River Community Foundation (FRCF) invites the community to join in the organization’s grant round providing assistance to not for profits in eastern Christian County. more

The Ozark Board of Aldermen voted on a new building proposal for a vacant lot on the downtown Ozark square this past Monday, May 6. With three aye votes (Bruce Galloway, James Metcalf, David Snider) and three nay votes (Eddie Campbell, Jean Ann Hutchinson, RJ Flores), Mayor Don Currence broke the tie with an aye vote, carrying the motion to move forward with Torgerson Design Partners’ (TDP) new building proposal. more

Each year, choir students across the state of Missouri are invited to audition for the 7th and 8th grade All State Choir. This choir performs at the Missouri Choral Directors Association Summer Conference each July. more

The Ozark Police Department received certification of its accreditation from the Missouri Police Chiefs Charitable Foundation (MPCCF) for the third time last Monday, April 15. more

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), an agency of the Department of Defense, announced that Jeff Lofton, Clever Police Chief, was honored with a “Patriot” award in recognition of extraordinary support of its employees and family members of those who serve in the National Guard and Reserve. more

The Ozark Fire Protection District held a grand opening hose uncoupling ceremony for its newly renovated Fire Station 3, as well as a wet down ceremony for its new pumper/tanker truck on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. more

Impact 100 Ozark is seeking to offer transformational grants to organizations that can use the money to accomplish something big. Impact 100 Ozark will be issuing two grants in September, one for $14,000 and one for $35,000. These grants will be awarded to local non-profits or public entities by a vote of Impact 100 Ozark’s membership. Grant applications should not include funds for day-to-day operations, scholarships or to start a new non-profit organization. The organization encourages applicants to reach big, think big, think impactful. more

Nixa High School Journalism students took home more than 30 awards and recognitions at the 2024 Journalism Day event hosted by the Missouri Interscholastic Journalism Association. Among the awards were two Best of Show winners and five All Missouri winners. more

Nixa Journalism won the top Journalism Sweepstakes award at Missouri Southern State University’s Media Showcase event on April 10. The awards are based on student work for the journalism department’s four publications: Wingspan magazine, EagleAir TV broadcast news, the Eagle Yearbook and NixaJournalism.net. more

When Payton Shelor was in the second grade at South Elementary, she learned the importance of customer service, social skills, teamwork, time management and budgeting while participating in the Second Grade Restaurant. more

Sparta School District has announced the passage of the 21 cent no tax increase levy transfer ballot question after the April 2 election. The question received 61.97 percent of votes in favor of the ballot initiative, which will transfer 21 cents from the district's debt service levy to its operating levy. This will help generate additional revenue to support staff salary increases, student programming and other necessary operating costs annually. more

The Christian County Agriculture & Mechanical Society awarded their sixth annual scholarships at a fish fry on April 20, 2024, in the Finley River Park. more

The City of Joplin is announcing the hiring of Drew Douglas as its first-ever Director of Communications and Marketing. Douglas will begin his new role with Joplin on April 22. more

The Nixa Fire Protection District held a grand opening hose uncoupling ceremony for its new fire station on Sunday, April 14, 2024. more

Ozark School District welcomed two newly-elected members to the Board of Education following the April 2 election. Newcomers James Griffin and Dustin Kirkman were sworn onto the Board at the April 11 meeting. The Board voted to elect Mark Jenkins to serve as president and Amber Bryant as vice president for the 2024-25 school year. more

First responders descended upon Nixa High School on Monday afternoon to participate in a “Docu-Drama” assembly for all junior year students. The scene was played out by student actors and depicted a car accident and student death, which showcased the consequences of impaired driving. more

Nixa Journalism students recently attended the National High School Journalism Convention April 4-6 in Kansas City. “Wingspan,” the student-produced news magazine, won second place in the convention’s news magazine Best of Show competition. EagleAir ranked 10th place in the Broadcast category. more

It may not be a traditional Olympic event, but when Team Ozark swept the T-Shirt Folding Competition with first, second and third place at the Branson Job Olympics, Ozark students exploded with excitement and cheers. more

The American Pickers are returning to Missouri. They plan to film episodes of The History Channel hit television series throughout our area in June 2024. more

Billings Elementary has announced its quarter 3 honor roll. Congratulations to the following students: more