On Tuesday afternoon Yellow Medicine East Super-intendent Al Stoeckman was still processing a district judge’s ruling that $2.8 million used to finance a portion of the district’s health and safety improvement was not authorized by law.
“Right now, I’m just looking over the information. I’ll be discussing the next steps with our attorney. From there we’ll develop a plan for moving ahead,” he said.
“I am YME. Like it or not, dude,” says Yellow Medicine East Paraprofes-sional Ben Lecy with a wise-cracker chuckle.
Governor Mark Dayton has declared it Paraprofes-sional Recognition Week for the week of January 16; creating an excuse to talk to YME’s biggest cheerleader as he represents the high school’s 15 paraprofessionals.
The idea of a flexible learning year (FLY) calendar for YME was laid to rest by a majority vote of the YME School Board at Monday night’s meeting. Super-intendent Al Stoeckman introduced the idea of the FLY calendar late last year. The initial idea was to join with other schools that are part of the MNRVED District to petition the State Department of Education to begin classes about two weeks prior to Labor Day and end classes before Memorial Day.
Prom.
To mention the adolescent-American rite-of-passage causes a decidedly bright, composed, 16-year-old girl like Janina Tremmel to gush with excitement:
“Oh, yes. I’m so excited to go. Jeanne and I were talking about prom a lot: the dresses, what we’ll wear, how it looks and stuff like that,” says Janina speaking much faster than before.
She giggles at the mention of a prom date. She can’t wait. It’s experiences like prom that brought her here. The chance to learn about a culture and experience it, all in one breath.
They don’t have proms in Germany.
The storytelling was done in soft voices, sometimes hesitantly, and not just because of problems with the sound system at the Blue Earth County Historical Society Saturday morning.
“Am I doing OK?” asked Joe Whitehawk, speaking to an almost exclusively white audience at the first of 12 monthly events aimed at helping southern Minnesota learn about Dakota culture.
Whitehawk, a Dakota who lives in Granite Falls, and Dave Larsen, a Dakota from Morton, were last-minute fill-ins when scheduled storyteller Carrie Schommer — an elderly Dakota woman from Granite Falls — had to cancel due to illness.
Several years ago Jim VanDerPol sensed the natural fit writing had with farming.
“I can honestly say,” he will say, “that some of my columns were half written while I was busy doing physical farm work.”
Anyone who has spent time cultivating, riding a horse, or any number of other farm activities can relate to VanDerPol’s comment. However, he was the one who took those thoughts from the mind to paper, first as a long running series of columns in area weekly newspapers, including the Clara City Herald and the Advocate Tribune, and eventually to regional agricultural magazines.
And, now, finally into book form.
Heather Velde wasn’t looking for a new job, but what came knocking she couldn’t pass up.
On her final day as Senior Advocate last Friday, Velde wrote a quote on a white board that hangs in the Senior Center for the last time.
“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”
The Wood Lake Battlefield Preservation Association (WLBPA) has taken a major step toward the development of a memorial site to commemorate the last major battle of the U.S. - Dakota Conflict.
On the eve of the Association’s sixth anniversary in January, the organization announced last week that it had signed a conservation easement with owners of a 240 acre section of land that had been a substantial portion of the Battle of Wood Lake’s setting.
“It’s a great day for future generations of Minnesotans to have this historic area preserved,” said WLBPA founder and president Tom Hosier. “We’re most pleased that it is done.”
The grand opening of the newly restored K.K. Berge building on Prentice St. in downtown Granite Falls was a long awaited event. It took countless hours of meetings for a large group of people and has culminated in the restoration of a building that certainly can be called historic and more importantly has a location that embraces both downtown and the Minnesota River.
Over the years, there have been changing visions of what the river front of Granite Falls should look like. Beginning in the 1880s, the city had turned its back on the river, particularly along Prentice Street south of the popcorn stand.
In the center of a long line of commercial buildings, there was a narrow opening that led to the foot bridge over the river. Other than the observation point provided by the bridge, you might not realize that there was a river behind those buildings. The front doors faced the street and the buildings appeared as if the river was at best an inconvenience and at worst a pest.
The face of downtown Granite Falls continued to change over the years but it never opened itself toward the river, which was the very reason that the town was founded here. Then, 30 or so years ago, a group of citizens formed a downtown beautification committee. That group dared to envision the removal of several substandard buildings along the river and open up the view from main street toward the river.
The YME School Board approved the official audit for the year ending June 30, 2011. Barry Evenstad presented the report that was prepared by Hoffman & Brobst, PLLP. Evenstad dwelt on several areas of the report including financial highlights, factors bearing on the District’s future, and the budgeted amounts and actual amounts for the year ending June 30, 2011.
The YME School Board certified the levy for property taxes payable in 2012 at a Truth in Taxation meeting held on Monday night in the YME Board Room. The certified levy accounts for 17.66% of the total operating budget for the YME School District.
The bottom line is that local property taxes are increasing. There are several factors that affect the tax levy increase:
People in and around Montevideo who are looking for an opportunity to get involved in an activity, or are simply looking for fresh musical entertainment are in for a treat. The Oasis, a community choir serving the Montevideo area, began rehearsal Oct. 2 and is still looking for interested singers.
When the K.K. Berge Building holds its Grand Opening this Thursday, it will signify the end of a four year restoration effort led by the Granite Falls Riverfront Revitalization (GFRR) organization and powered by the community.
Now, the real fun begins.
An evacuation drill has long been a component of the Yellow Medicine East School District’s crisis plan, but it wasn’t until this past Wednesday that school administrators decided to give it a run through.
Saturday was an exciting day for Bert Raney Elementary students who were given the opportunity to interact with a living legend during the filming of an upcoming documentary.
Superintendent Al Stockman introduced the idea of a Flexible Learning Year to the board members last night. He explained that 24 school districts joined together last year and petitioned the state to start school two weeks before Labor Day. As a member school in MNRVED, YME will be exploring the possibility of joining Montevideo, Dawson-Boyd, and Lac qui Parle schools to petition the State Department of Education to start school in mid-August in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Stoeckman stressed that “We’re starting the discussion” and no decisions have been made.
Minnesota’s nonprofit organizations ask Minnesotans to give to their favorite charities at GiveMN.org during the third annual “Give to the Max Day” on November 16, with hopes of raising as much money as possible for nonprofit organizations in 24 hours (starting at midnight on Nov. 16 through midnight on Nov. 17).
With wine tasting and hors d'oeuvres, of course the mood was light and casual during the Granite Falls Area Community Foundations (GFACF) grant recipient celebration.
One year after only a single $113 grant was issued by the foundation, a combined $2,450 was bestowed upon six community organization––thanks in large part to the growing endowment.
As the school nurse for the entirety of Yellow Medicine East District, Cassandra Suter is responsible for tending to 800-plus five-through-eighteen-year-olds.
“I would say that it’d be nice to clone myself at times,” she admits.
Of the series of new staff and teacher articles that have appeared in the A/T in preceding weeks, Suter is the last of those to be introduced. And if being last wasn’t injurious enough, in truth Suter is actually in her second year as the school nurse but failed to get her due recognition in 2010.
It was back in October of 2009 that the Yellow Medicine East School Board voted to go forward with a multi-million dollar project that would bring the elementary, middle and high school buildings up to Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) Health and Safety code standards.
And it was in May of 2010 that the first lawsuit was brought forth by two district taxpayers working to halt it.
Two summers later and the approximately $10 million project is complete. Yet, still, a lawsuit remains.
