By Amber Hayden
BOYCEVILLE — For the second year in a row the Boyceville School District has received the Mayo Hometown Health Grant.
The Boyceville Board of Education learned about the Mayo grant at the October 23 meeting, and was also updated on the monies received for the Resilience/Health Realization program totaling $78,800 since 2017.
“The Boyceville School District, along with the Menomonie District, had begun piloting curriculum developed for the program in the late 90s,” said Paula Smith, who has worked side by side with Deb Bell. “And in the year 2000, Tiffany Creek Elementary adopted the curriculum developed by Deb Bell as its health curriculum.”
In 2012, the curriculum was integrated into the Tier 1 primary prevention strategy for TCE’s school wide positive behavioral interventions and support system, said Smith.
Since the start of the program it has expanded to include seven grade levels, 2nd – 5th, 7th, 8th, and 10th, and to utilize an instructional coaching model for sustainability.
The current 2019-20 Mayo Hometown Health Grant will allow the expansion of the model to other school districts in Dunn and Buffalo County.
Also, the entirety of the Boyceville School District staff has participated in a half day review/refresher course prior to the start of the school year and again during the November in-service dates.
Additionally, six to eight development opportunities will be offered to any staff interested during the school year.
Special Education, guidance counselors and health teachers also received five hours of training in the curriculum: Lifelines Suicide Prevention, Cyberbullying prevention, and transformative life skills program.
“Each school year, all 7th, 8th, and 10th graders along with secondary special education students receive four classroom instructional periods on their personal understanding and application of the principles of the R/HR model,” Smith explained. “This way they know how to understand how to recognize stress in their bodies, understand their mental and emotional states, how stress affects their ability to learn and the choices they make and tools for managing stress.”
Elementary students have a 45-minute health education lesson to utilize and expand the instructional coaching model twice a month.
“Parents were also offered the ‘Parenting with Heart’ course. The survey results indicated a high level of interest in the class,” Smith stated. “It also allowed for an additional opportunity to learn about the program in general.”
Eighth grade students have added The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens along with the companion workbook as part as their Business class, while fourth and fifth graders have been reading Leader in Me.
The fourth-grade students also have one day a week designated wellness Wednesday, and the fifth graders have Mindful Mondays.
“During Family Fun Night on Tuesday, October 22, parents and students learned about growth mindset and about a full workshop day that teachers are working on with the students,” Smith said.
Tiffany Creek Elementary’s inner light lab is also available for students to provide a space for self-regulation and mindful awareness activities.
Students can visit the lab that has areas for reading, yoga, and a general sense of relaxation when they enter the room.
Since the beginning of the program. $10,000 has been put into materials, books, and professional curriculum. This includes six tubs of 20+ books and lesson plans, the Lifelines Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Postvention curriculum, Cyberbullying Prevention Program, Transformative Life Skills, and 120+ copies of The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Teenagers books and workbooks.
Second grade teacher Deb Bell has been grateful to Paula Smith and Bonnie Scheel, both of whom have helped with the R/HR program.
“I see in our teachers what our goal was when we started out,” Bell said. “Our school is special that way.”
Smith also commented she had worked in 39 districts and the inner workings and how things are done in the Boyceville School District is phenomenal.
TCE principal Andy Hoeppner also added that students have begun their wellness walks on Wednesday mornings, “K-2 combined will log miles from International Falls, MN to New Orleans, LA, and our 3-5 graders will be collectively walking from New York City, New York, to San Francisco, California.”
Superintendent Nick Kaiser made mention that Nate Anderson of the DNR would be at the November 20 board of education meeting, and would be willing to answer any questions that involved the recent project along Tiffany Creek.
The Board of Education also approved the upcoming 2019-20 budget, along with the levy funds and could give a final mill rate number of 9.716 which is a 7.7 percent increase instead of the proposed 8.4 percent increase presented to the Board in the October 9 annual meeting.
The following levies were also set: Fund 10 $2,033,583, Fund 38 $46,477, Fund 39 $979,625, and Fund 80 at $60,000.
Two students were also approved for the Start College Now program and will attend Chippewa Valley Technical College with an interest in the Certified Nursing Assistant program, and one student will attend UW-River Falls under the Early College Credit program and has a variety of classes listed they are hoping to get into.
Other Business:
• Accepted the resignation of Jim Chich as the Transportation Director.
• Accepted the resignation of Jodi Kanerva as High School English Teacher.
• Accepted a donation from Ron Olson in the memory of Trish Olson for $4,300 for a softball scoreboard.
• Accepted a donation from the Village of Boyceville for $5,000 for the Tiffany Creek Stream Bank Project.
• Accepted a donation from Murray and Madonna Hostetter for $1,000, with a matching $1,000 from Northwest Mutual, for the Science Olympiad program.
• Accepted a donation from Murray and Madonna Hostetter for $1,000, with a matching $1,000 from Northwest Mutual, for the student meals program.
• Accepted a donation from the Boyceville Knights of Columbus for $119.22 from the Tootsie Roll Drive for the Special Education department.
