Story originally printed in the Onalaska Life or online at www.onalaskalife.com
Published - Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Student efforts add up to math honors
You can count on four middle school students and they can count in mathematics. So well, in fact, that in math competition, the middle school ranked first in the region for grade 6, first in the region for grade 7 and second in the state for grade 8.
The four students — who missed getting their Onalaska Board of Education recognition in person Monday night, presumably because they were home studying math — did exceptional work in the Feb. 26 Wisconsin Mathematics League Math Contest. Eighth-grader Caleb Senger took third; eighth-grader Rachel Caron took sixth; sixth-grader Jeffery Wan was seventh; and seventh-grader Andrew Stuhr was 23rd.
FBLA competition
 Onalaska Board of Education Clerk Kathleen Kennedy administers the oath of office to re-elected board member Florence Hyatt as Lauren Chafoulias, background waits her turn. Hyatt and Chafoulias were re-elected to the school board April 1 without opposition. Photo by Bob Seaquist |
Three Onalaska Future Business Leaders of America members worked hard all year in the high school store, and they worked hard enough at the state FBLA competition that they will head to nationals June 26-29 in Atlanta, Ga.
Sarah Christianson, Austin Zeng and Nadia Elfessi will compete in business communication and business math. Naturally, the high school FBLA chapter raised enough money in its store that all expenses will be paid from its activity account.
Webmaster honored
For an hour a day high school senior Andrew Sahlstrom designed and now maintains the OHS Web site, work that earned him recognition as March School Web Site of the Month in Tech Directions magazine.
Sahlstrom does the Web work for credit and is guided by tech ed teacher Jason Ludwigson. “I tried to give more information and work with teachers to update their information daily,” Sahlstrom said.
Recognition was accorded, in part, because his design gives teachers an opportunity to post information for their classes, and that it makes information more readily accessible for students and their parents.
Helicopter nixed
A helicopter ride fundraiser for the OHS Boys Soccer Booster Club will be at Sunfish Days, but not at the Riders Club Road Soccer Fields. The school district’s insurance carrier will not cover any aviation-related events and the helicopter operators liability coverage “is far less than what we are accustomed to work with,” said Larry Dalton, the district’s finance director.
School Superintendent John Burnett said the booster group will presumably still have rides, only at a site just to the north of the soccer fields.
Onalaska soccer parents have aggressively raised money for lights, scoreboard and shelters for the teams.
People
Four longtime Onalaska teachers — representing 93 years of district teaching — announced their intentions to resign at the end of the school year. They are Jay Flury, high school; Terry Brandau and Jody Olson, middle school; and Susan Liska, Eagle Bluff elementary.
Kindergarten teacher Michelle Borgardt also resigned.
Orin Midtlien and Robert Fowler were hired as limited term groundskeepers.
Co-curricular appointments included: Tyler Parks, middle school track assistant; Lisa Radloff, middle school softball assistant; and Scott Skogen, high school assistant golf coach.
All stories copyright 2006 Onalaska Life and other attributed sources.