BOYCEVILLE — The top honor students in this year’s graduating class at Boyceville High School were revealed at last Wednesday evening’s Board of Education meeting and includes three valedictorians.
Tyler Moy, high school/middle school principal, made the announcement during his report to the board at its February 16 meeting held in the middle/high school Instructional Media Center (IMC).
The Boyceville Class of 2022 tri-valedictorians are Libby Bygd, Ella Holden and Shiloh Wheeldon, whom each earned a 4.00 grade point average (GPA). Harper Olson has been named salutatorian. Those four along with Ira Bialzik and Jacob Granley will graduate with high honors in a ceremony this coming May.
Moy also brought forward a pair of recommendations, for the board’s approval, to award the Academic Excellence Scholarship, which goes to the graduating senior with the highest GPA at the end of seven semesters, to Shiloh Wheeldon and the State of Wisconsin Technical Excellence Scholarship, an award given to a student who has demonstrated a high level of proficiency in technical education subjects such as business, technology, agriculture and family consumer science, to
Torrie Bland.
In order to assure that both scholarships are used this year, Moy presented a ranking of students should the nominated recipients decline or be unable to use the awards.
The order for the Academic Excellence Scholarship as presented were 1. Shiloh Wheeldon, 2. Ella Holden, 3. Libby Bygd, 4. Harper Olson, 5. Jacob Granley and 6. Ira Bialzik. The Technical Excellence scholarship would first be awarded to Bland, then Trent Peterson followed by Jonathan Zebro and finally Dawson McRoberts.
The board voted to approve both nominees and the order of succession.
District resident Curt Klefstad addressed the board during the visitor’s welcome and comments portion of the meeting.
Klefstad voiced his concerns about the district’s perceived low scores on the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) 2020-21 report card as compared to neighboring school districts in Colfax and Glenwood City.
“I don’t think I or a whole lot of other people are too pleased with the reports,” began Klefstad.
Klefstad noted that the DPI’s reports card covers several categories in English Language Arts and mathematics with a zero (low) to six (high) rating in each category with three in the middle (average).
“I guess you could call it the good and the bad or the good and the poor which ever terminology you want to use but Colfax and Glenwood are both on the good side,” continued Klefstad pointing out that both of those aforementioned districts’ scores in just about all but a few categories were in the three to six range (the good side as he called it).
“Boyceville had none on the good side,” he added.
Klefstad said that he had checked with the administration and claims they were not pleased with the report either but were working on it.
Klefstad went to point out that he did not believe it was because of too many students or funding as he said that, of the three districts, Boyceville had the lowest pupil to teacher ratio and spent the most money per student.
“We are going to have to dig deeper to find out just what the problem is,” Klefstad said.
Another area Klefstad touched upon was students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs) noting that all three districts showed about 17 percent of their students had IEPs but claimed that in Boyceville’s case those students with IEPs or disabilities appeared to rank higher than those without any disabilities.
“Where do we go to find out the reason for Boyceville being so poor on the DPI report card is what I don’t understand,” stated Klefstad.
He went on to also question the busing of special needs students to school for in-person instruction along with the teaching staffs’ children when buildings we were supposedly closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In unrelated issues, Klefstad also queried the board on the alleged use of the bus garage and equipment to service private party vehicles and the Village of Boyceville’s police car and the disparity in sources of funding for recent improvements to the baseball and softball fields.
The Boyceville FFA chapter, represented by advisor Jenna Behrends and officers Dawson McRoberts, Preston Coombs and Allie McRoberts, gave a power-point presentation for the board that explained their organization’s mission and the many projects and opportunities it offers for students and alumni.
The board also took action on several items on its agenda.
It approved the 2022-23 high school course offerings handbook, the middle school/high school student handbook and accepted the resignation of Jenna Behrends as varsity volleyball coach.
It also gave authority to Superintendent Nick Kaiser to work with either American Fence or Century Fence to install a new backstop and fencing along the first and third base sides of the north softball field (the one adjacent to the newly built high school softball complex) at Tiffany Creek Elementary.
Kaiser had told the board that he had received quotes in the fall of 2019 for approximately $11,000 to do the work. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit that winter and postponed any work. When he recently rebid the project, Kaiser was shocked to find that the project cost had skyrocketed to over $26,000. He did tell members that the new fencing would be required in order to host any sanctioned games or tournaments on the field.
Citing concerns for the safety of students, athletes and spectators, board member Steve Olson moved to approve the expenditure and giving Kaiser the ability to make final decisions on the project as well as the selection of a contractor to complete the work this spring, weather permitting. Member Jeremy Mittlestadt second and the board approved it unanimously.
Kaiser told the board that the district would make improvements to the infield and install a portable outfield fence.
The expenditure of $100,000 was also approved to purchase two new district-wide servers which will include five years support, parts and labor.
Finally, the board accepted a pair of grants from the Ann Marie Foundation which awarded $979 grant, authored by fourth grade teacher Coleen Pember, for active core engagement chairs and flexible seating and a $5,000 grant for STEM kits, airpen scanners, non-fiction books and several other materials that was written by Renda Armstrong, a middle/high school special education teacher.
