As the Northfield Public School District prepares to return students to school next week, the Northfield School Board has been
hearing from the various educational entities within the district about their Continuous Improvement Plans, which highlight their goals for the year, showing where they are having success and where they expect to do better.
Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann called this his “favorite time of the year” at the School Board meetings because the improvement plans are part of the gearing up for a new year.
Hillmann said the Community Education Center’s plan is centered around the district’s child care program, and the crisis of childcare across the district, and in Rice County. He said they are also very focused on preparing kids for kindergarten, where last year, the childcare center had a 100% success rate.
The Area Learning Center and the Portage program are both focused on continued improved communication with the families of students. The three elementary schools’ goals are in mathematical fluency and improved reading proficiency. Hillmann said they are using the ‘science of reading’ to ensure that all students are reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
The Middle School plan centers around making sure the students feel a connection to the school, the community and each other. Hillmann said setting these types of goals, and then achieving them, creates success for those students in both the present and the future.
“We talk a lot about what I called Domino goals. That means if we are able to achieve a specific goal, that the domino effect will occur, and a number of other things will come along with it. Our Northfield public Schools, for example, are doing what we can through the Northfield Community Education Center to ensure that kids are ready for kindergarten, because we know if they’re ready for kindergarten that we can take that hand off to the traditional K-12 study model and keep helping students move forward academically. And at that middle school age when kids are undergoing the greatest rewiring of their brains since they were a toddler, it is so important that they feel connected. If they feel connected and they feel that teachers care about them, they are more likely to be able to engage in content.”
The new high school principal Shane Baier and new activities director Bubba Sullivan are expected to present their plans at the next board meeting on September 12.
Waterford Town Hall will be on the move
In an effort to preserve a piece of local history, Waterford Township has announced that it will donate the Waterford Township
Community Center and Town Hall to the Rice County Steam and Gas Engine location on Highway 3, just south of Dundas. The building will be moved to its new location in late October.
The Waterford Township Board has been looking at options for what to do with the building, which was built in 1882 as the Waterford Public School Building, for five years. After 140 years, the building can no longer serve Waterford Township’s needs, and an alternative location had to be found.
The board identified three criteria that were necessary to be filled in order to resolve the problem: the historic building had to be preserved, Waterford Township had to find a new location for board meetings and the annual Township Meeting in March, and the Township had to have enough time to evaluate the next steps toward building or renting a new location, or possibly even merging with another Township.
Recently the board was able to secure an indefinite lease on the Sciota Township Town Hall, allowing for the Waterford board’s monthly meetings, and securing enough time for the Waterford board to evaluate its needs.
After the building is moved and secured, it will be displayed on the Steam and Gas Engine property in its original form as a one room school house. Authorities expect it will be ready and open to the public by Labor Day of 2023.
Thomas warns against phone, email, social media scams
Rice County Sheriff Jesse Thomas is reminding people that con artists, and the scams they run, are as busy and crafty as ever, and
said the public needs to be aware of their schemes and vigilant against them.
Thomas said an old, but particularly effective scam has recently resurfaced, targeting the elderly. Someone will call and say they have the person’s grandson in custody, and that the person must send $1000 in cash or gift cards or cryptocurrency in order for hm to be released.
Another popular scam is an email telling the recipient they have won a prize, but they must register and send money for shipping, and they have a limited amount of time to do so.
Sheriff Thomas said the best thing to do is to question anything that is not part of the standard routine. If a person receives one of these calls or emails, he said, think twice. Question what is going on. There is no law enforcement agency in the country that will accept a gift card or bitcoin to pay bail. The best thing to do is to ask the person who is calling for their phone number and offer to call them back. Those who receive an email, he said, should ignore it.
“So, like I always say, if it seems too good to be true, it is. I get an e-mail probably three times a week saying I won this Yeti cooler. Well, I didn’t register to win it. I didn’t register for a Yeti cooler. I didn’t enter any sweepstakes or anything like that to win anything. So how did I win a Yeti cooler? I don’t even respond to those emails.”
He said it is very important to never give anyone personal information over the phone or electronically. Legitimate businesses will never ask for a social security number over the phone, he said, and that information should never be given to a random caller.
The sheriff advised to not answer a phone number that the recipient does not recognize, because that can only trigger more scam calls.
Most importantly, he said, those who do feel that they are being scammed should call the sheriff’s department or the local police department right away.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Rice County Sheriff Jesse Thomas can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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