Boyceville school board approves 19 field trips, including two-week Spain excursion

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE  —  The Boyceville Board of Education approved 19 out-of-state and overnight field trips at Monday night’s meeting, including a two-week trip to Spain.

Chelsey Hunt, who teaches Spanish at Boyceville High School, said the trip to Spain is scheduled for next June through a company out of Menomonie called Ceta Tours.

Six students from Boyceville will be traveling with students from other schools in the Twin Cities area, Hunt said.

Ceta Tours likes to have groups of 30 to help keep the cost down, she said.

The students will spend four days in three different areas of Spain and will focus on cultural and historical sites in the country, Hunt said.

The cost of the trip to Spain will be $3,899 per person, and students also will have to pay for one meal per day, their passports and for travel insurance, she said.

The students will be holding a variety of fundraisers to help defray the cost of the trip to Spain, such as selling pizzas, 50-50 raffles at basketball games and possibly a spaghetti dinner, Hunt said.

The list of out-of-state and overnight field trips approved by the Board of Education includes a variety of trips in a number of categories, such agricultural/FFA, art, athletics, music, science, and Spanish.

In addition to the trip to Spain, the list includes World Dairy Expo in Madison (September/October); National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky (October); 212 Conference — Made for Excellence in Oconomowoc (December); Taylor Falls, Minnesota, FFA ski trip (December); Half-Time in the Locker Room Conference in Steven’s Point (January); Minneapolis Institute of Art (November); Walker Art Center (February); State Visual Arts Classic in Madison (April); Badger vs. Gopher Volleyball (October); wrestling invitational in Wisconsin Dells (December); Northern Badger Wrestling Invitational (December); Chanhassen Dinner Theater (March); Wisconsin Dells and the UW-Madison Varsity Band Concert (April); Iowa Lakeside Lab field and research studies (April); Science Olympiad Gopher Invitational (January) and the Wright State National Invitational Tournament (February); Festival of Nations in St. Paul (Spanish classes and Spanish Club) (April); Concordia Language Villages weekend in Bemidji, Minn. (language immersion) (Spanish classes and Spanish Club).

The Boyceville Board of Education unanimously approved the overnight and out-of-state field trips.

Newspaper museum

Carlton DeWitt, publisher of the Tribune Press Reporter, spoke to the Board of Education during the visitors’ portion of the agenda about the Minnesota Newspaper Foundation and the foundation’s newspaper museum at the Minnesota State Fair.

DeWitt is a member of the foundation, and every year during the Minnesota State Fair, works at the newspaper museum.

Foundation members are considering opening the museum in the spring for field trips for students, DeWitt said.

The museum, now located in the 4-H building, produces the Maynard News during the fair using equipment from the 1930s and the 19th century, he said, adding that the museum at times has more than 2,000 visitors per day during the state fair.

The equipment is original newspaper equipment from Maynard, Minnesota, DeWitt noted.

The Linotype machine that is used in the museum used to be in the Glenwood City Tribune Press Reporter office, DeWitt said.

Foundation members are asking schools in their respective areas if they would be interested in bringing students to the museum for field trips. The foundation still needs to obtain volunteers and permission from the fair association, he said.

The Maynard News has been produced at the Minnesota State Fair for 28 years, and every year, the foundation raises between $20,000 and $30,000 to support the effort, he said.

Kevin Sipple, school district administrator, said he would pass the information on to appropriate staff in the Boyceville schools.

Other business 

In other business, the Boyceville Board of Education:

• Accepted the resignation of Diana Robinson as the middle school boys’ basketball coach.

• Approved hiring Jacob Peterson as the middle school boys’ basketball coach to replace Diana Robinson.

• Approved hiring Jay Lagerstrom as the junior varsity girls’ basketball coach to replace Tom Turchaney.

• Approved adopting the CESA No. 6 district administrator performance evaluation system.

• Accepted a $6,500 grant from Fairmount Santrol for iPads in the third grade classrooms.

• Accepted a $1,520 grant from Fairmount Santrol for the purchase of a new digital camera for the Yearbook Club.

• Accepted a $1,000 wellness grant from Mayo Clinic Health System to continue the school-wide walking program that promotes fitness and healthy lifestyles. Parents, grandparents and community members are encouraged to participate in this weekly program as well.

• Accepted and acknowledged school supply and monetary donations for needy students from MSA Professional Services, WESTconsin Credit Union and Northtown Ford.

After the meeting had adjourned, Sipple presented a lifetime pass to all athletic contests in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference to Gail Stark, who retired from the Board of Education this spring. Stark served as president of the school board.

The Dunn-St. Croix Conferences allows school districts to nominate one person each year for lifetime passes who has provided significant service to the schools, Sipple said.