Board approves ‘Bluewater Cove’ name for alternative ed house, PdC’s Sources of Strength mental health program seeks trusted adults from community
By Ted Pennekamp
The Prairie du Chien School Board Monday night approved of rolling over the current loan to pay off the approximate $850,000 in cost overages for the $18.9 million facilities upgrade project into a 10-year loan. District Administrator Bryce Bird said the 10-year loan will be paid off at approximately $100,000 per year at 3.35 percent.
In other business, the board heard a presentation by Mike Liddell about alternative education. Liddell said there are eight students in the GEDO program, 11 in the alternate education program, and 59 in the Mighty River School.
The goal is to get these kids transitioned back to the high school,” said Liddell about the alternate education program. He also noted that the students are glad to have their own place which is a blue house on South Buchanan Street near the high school. In fact, the school board approved of allowing the house to be named Bluewater Cove, which is a name created by the students. Cove stands for “Community of Vital Education.”
Bluewater Cove is an alternative school site designed for giving its students an environment that could benefit them academically and socially.
“It’s been a great addition,” said High School Principal Andy Banasik about Bluewater Cove. “Mike has been doing a great job.”
High School and Bluff View Chinese teacher, Adam Stout, gave a presentation to the board about the possibility of becoming a sister school with a school in Shanghai, China. He said students would become pen pals and have video chats.
“It doesn’t cost anything and it sparks student interest,” said Stout, who also told the board about a seasonal exchange program at no cost to the Prairie du Chien District whereby 20 students or fewer from China would come to Prairie du Chien for the summer for a cultural exchange.
There is also a program by which teachers and students from Prairie du Chien could go to China for about 2.5 weeks. The teachers would teach at an international academy with teachers from around the world. There would be no cost to the Prairie du Chien District for the teachers expenses. The students would be responsible for the cost of their air fares and visas.
Lastly, Stout said an exchange program is available by which students from China can come to Prairie du Chien High School for one academic year. There would be a tuition package, he said. The students from China would graduate and gain an American diploma, which would help them to get into an American college.
School Counselor, Adrienne Udelhoven, and prevention and resilience counselor, Katrina Johnson, gave a presentation about Sources of Strength, which is a school based mental health program. Prairie du Chien is one of the 35 schools in the state involved in Sources of Strength, each at varying stages of implementation. Prairie du Chien High School is entering its second year in the program.
In 2019-2021, there will be $6.5 million distributed among 105 school districts, which includes Prairie du Chien. This funding is the year 2-3 expansion grant.
“We want Sources of Strength to be contagious and to saturate southwest Wisconsin,” said Johnson.
Johnson and Udelhoven presented numerous statistics and benefits of Sources of Strength, which is a proven program to help students with bullying, substance abuse and a variety of other issues. Community support and adult volunteers are a vital component of Sources of Strength, they said, because students not only need teachers and counselors, they also need other trusted adults in the community who they can call and talk to.
“We need more people for these kids to have someone to reach out to,” said school board member Cassie Hubanks.
In addition to themselves and adult volunteers, Johnson and Udelhoven also noted that Rebecca Miller is a licensed professional counselor in Boscobel who holds a satellite office in each of Prairie du Chien’s school buildings.
Johnson and Udelhoven also said there will be adult advisor training sessions coming up.
Community Training will be held on Oct. 28, 8:30 a.m. - noon. This is open to community members who are interested in learning why Sources of Strength was selected to be the positive culture shifting tool to fit the needs of Prairie du Chien and Crawford County.
Adult Advisor Training will be held Oct. 28-29, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. This is a highly interactive training with adult advisors and approximately 60 high school students. Lunch will be provided. These training sessions will be held in the Crawford County Administrative Building in room 236. Contact Adrienne Udelhoven at 326-3711 or udelhovad@pdc.k12.wi.us for more information and to register.
In other school board news, several Prairie du Chien High School forestry wildlife conservation management students gave a presentation to the board about the potential for planting rain gardens in various areas on school property to help prevent erosion and the toxic runoff of pesticides that can get into the groundwater or the Mississippi River.
One area would be in the back of the new fieldhouse. Another would be near the new performing arts center. The students said eventually there would be 31,758 square feet of rain gardens.
The students said such gardens have been successful at UW–La Crosse where they stopped some roads from being flooded after heavy rain and also from large amounts of mud getting on those roads.
Rain gardens could be a hands-on educational experience for various courses taught at Prairie du Chien High School. The students have applied for grants and have contacted Crawford County Conservationist Dave Troester and Master Gardener Donna Teynor for advice.
FFA advisor and teacher Diane Colburn said the seeds of the plants for the gardens can be grown in the school’s greenhouse this winter and planted in the spring. She said the gardens soak up the water and also are good for pollinators such as bees and butterflies. She said the gardens would have a natural look with native grasses and other plants, and would look far better than what some of the low lying areas near the school look like now.
School Board President Lonnie Achenbach said the gardens sound like a great idea, and that Colburn and her students should come to next month’s board meeting with concrete budgetary information regarding the rain gardens.
Dale Hanson and Tracy Morovits-Feye talked to the board about the possibility of a theater co-op with other area schools such as River Ridge, Wauzeka-Steuben or Seneca in order to put on bigger and better productions in the performing arts center. The board said Hanson and Morovits-Feye can look into the co-op further.
It was noted at Monday night’s school board meeting that High School Principal Andy Banasik has been named Rural School Principal of the Year by the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance.
