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Boyceville School Board approves parent notification system

BOYCEVILLE — The school board took action at their regular school board meeting to move ahead with a parent notification system. District Administrator Kevin Sipple had discussed the system at the November Board Meeting and brought fourth prices for a system that would allow the administration to notify parents of school business.

Sipple gave a couple of samples that area school used to contact parents of pending things at school. Sipple said that most school dfistricts have a system where they can contact parents immediately if the need arises such as a change in bus times or emergencies.  Referring to the school shooting in Connecticut, Sipple told the board, “last Friday I would have liked to send a message to parents that we have good security in our school and everyone is safe.”

Sipple related that messages can be send by e-mail, fax, cell phones or regular phones and it gives the school instant communication with parents. He recommended that they approve the price quote from Blackboard Connect at $1,480 a year. He noted that they will accept this price on a three year contract and that the current budget was set up with the cost being much more and that they could pay for the three year package in the current budget. Board member Steve Bird indicated that it was a “terrific bargain” and the board approved the program.

Science Olympiad

The Boyceville Science Olympiad Invitational event was held at the Boyceville High School on Saturday and both Sipple and High School Principal Steve Glocke spoke about it to the board. Glocke indicated that it was very well attended and exceeded our expeditions. He said that Boyceville placed fourth out of 51 schools involved. Glocke explained that the three that finished in front of Boyceville were all state champions, one each from Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin and he noted that three individuals from Boyceville received gold metals.

Sipple also talked about the Science Olympiad and the number of people in the school, but the building did not appear crowded. It was a very fun event for our school. “I was honored,” Sipple told the board, “I met a teacher that I had when I was principal at another school and it was her first time involved in the Science Olympiad program and she had so many nice things to say about our school.” Glocke also noted that the middle school won their level. His report indicated that the team will be traveling to Dayton, Ohio on January 17 to compete at the National Invitational Science Olympiad Tournament at Wright State University.

Elementary Principal Nick Kaiser spoke about Ronald McDonald making an appearance at Tiffany Creek Elementary. They put on a program about bullying. One member of the group noted to Kaiser that they had been at Tiffany Creek before and he discussed that in 2007 Tiffany Creek had collected a million pop tops for the Ronald McDonald House. Kaiser noted that they are on their way to collect another million and he said that they needed seven barrels full of pop-tops for a million and they are just two barrels short of that second million.

The board accepted three grants to Tiffany Creek and Kaiser recognized three teachers for their efforts. Deb Bell received a Wal-mart grant for $250 to use for Technology. Steve Duerst received a $500 DNR grant for a ground water demonstration model and Angie Hellmann received a $500 Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse grant from the Department of Public Instruction.

In other action the board approved the hiring of Doug Palmer and Scott Bryant as Middle School Assistant Wrestling Coaches.