Test day is time for Edgar community service
Edgar High School freshmen, sophomores and seniors participated in community service activities while juniors took ACT tests in a quiet building, principal Tom McCarty told the Edgar Board of Education last week Wednesday.
The principal said students visited the Edgar Fire Station, played board games and bingo with village seniors, painted a room at St. John’s Catholic Church and tied blankets for veterans who go on Never Forgotten Honor Flights.
“We gave the juniors some peace and quiet,” said McCarty. “There was no transportation, zero cost and everything was donated.”
The principal said teacher Kris Federwitz helped organize the community service events.
In other school board business:
_ Principal McCarty said an e-sports team has formed at Edgar High School. The group, which includes juniors and seniors, plays competitive video games with other students after school.
_ District administrator Dr. Cari Guden said school referendum spokespeople have attended three community meetings to explain the proposal. She said the reaction so far has been “pretty positive.”
Guden reported that Edgar Public Schools no longer has regular COVID- 19 meetings with the Marathon
County Health Department.
_ Board member Rebecca Normington questioned why so many Marathon County Special Education paraprofessionals quit their jobs at Edgar Public Schools. Elementary school principal Dr. Lisa Witt said many of the paraprofessionals are on-on-one with special education students “who need a lot of support.” Normington said she wished more could be done for the paraprofessionals. “I wish we could do something to help them,” she said.
_ Witt told board members she is planning a five-week, June 13 to July 14 summer school that will have two sessions of swimming instruction.
_ McCarty told school board members that the local FFA would take 31 members on a fishing trip to Minnesota this year, not Canada.
He told board members that the school has saved $25,000 by being a member of the Rural Virtual Academy (RVA). He said RVA students have participated in Edgar extra-curriculars. “We are making connections with kids,” he said.
_ Administrator Guden announced the resignations of English teacher Jennifer Laxton and elementary counselor Emily Gilmore.
_ Board members voted to require teachers who receive reading training and resign pay back the cost of the training over three years.
