PAGE 12
January 14, 2016
B A O ...JLA ...... ....... www.tricountynews.mn
:s oL purL:S Y
In a weird twist, this year's One-
Act play is about a One-Act play.
"Competition Piece" is a comedy
about three very diverse schools
who are participating in a One-Act
play competition.
"We chose the play because it's
fun and crazy and we wanted to
try a comedy," said director Vicki
Meyer.
The subject is a contrast to the
past few One-Acts that have been
serious and thought-provoking.
Drama students "Wanted to chal-
lenge ourselves with something
different," Meyer added.
The cast and crew will take
their show on the road with fes-
tivals at both Sauk Rapids-Rice
and Annandale. Sub-sections are
Jan. 30 at Paynesville. If students
take first or second place, they
will advance to sections in Milaca
Monday, Feb. 8.
A public performance of the
play is planned for 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 30, in the high
school auxiliary gym.
Cast members include: Cassidy
Becker, Heidi Geislinger, Emma
Roy, Jasmine Miller, Dyani Acosta,
Mackenzie Field, Allison Och,
Emily Sieben, Jordan Stanwick,
Nathan Utecht, Kaitlyn Gruber,
Brooke Geislinger, Eryn Eken,
Scott Bourland, Sydney Ruhland,
Madi Haag, Carter Geislinger, Jada
Jesberg, Jake Manske: Alternates
are Abby Nistler and Laura Klein
with Michael Bautch as light and
sound technician.
Rehearsals are underway for "Competition Piece", EV-W's One-Act play. Pictured
from left to right are Jade Jesberg, Carter Geislinger, Jacob Manske, Madysen
Hang and Kaitlyn Gruber. Submitted photo.
Eden Valley-Watkins grapplers
at Norwood Tri
By Pat Garry, Staff Writer
The Eagles competed at the
Norwood-Young America Tri
Thursday, Jan. 7, and they were
joined by Sibley East. Results:
106 Dayne Morton, (Sibley East)
def. Taylor Ludwig, (Eden Valley-
Watkins) {Fall 0:14} (Score: 6-0);
113 Kevin Melger, (Sibley East)
def. Trevyn Ludwig, (Eden Valley-
Watkins) {Fall 1:30} (Score: 12-0);
120 Lincoln Carpenter, (Sibley
East) def. Everett Eken, (Eden
Valley-Watkins) {Tech Fall 15-0}
(Score: 17-0); 126 Zach Nistler,
(Eden Valley-Watkins) def. Ben
Klaers, (Sibley East) {Fall 1:02}
(Score: 17-6); 138 Mason Voight,
(Sibley East) def. Matt Schindler,
(Eden Valley-Watkins) {Maj
Dec 10-2} (Score: 21-6); 145 Troy
Kelley, (Eden Valley-Watkins)
def. Jose Felipe, (Sibley East)
{Fall 0:36} (Score: 21-12); 152
Tyler Dockendorf, (Eden Valley-
Watkins) def. Logan Tesch, (Sibley
East) {Tech Fall 18-1} (Score: 21-17);
160 Quinlan Riffenburg, (Sibley
East) def. John Salzl, (Eden Valley-
Watkins) {Dec 8- 6} (Score: 24-17);
170 Logan Donnay, (Eden Valley-
Watkins) def. Paul Glisczinski,
(Sibley East) {Fall 1:53} (Score:
24-23); 182 Brody Bates, (Sibley
East) def. Aaron Holmberg,
(Eden Valley-Watkins) {Maj Dec
10-0} (Score: 28-23); 195 Jake
Wentzlaff, (Sibley East) def. Isaac
Stommes, (Eden Valley-Watkins)
{Fall 1:06} (Score: 34-23); 220
Christian Figueroa, (Sibley East)
def. Forfeit (Eden Valley-Watkins)
{Forfeit} (Score: 40-23); 285 Tanner
Kurtzweg, (Sibley East) def. Matt
Utsch, (Eden Valley-Watkins)
{Fall 0:20} (Score: 46-23). In other
action, Sibley East defeated NYA,
60-9.
Eagles wrestle at Paynesville
Invitational
By Pat Garry, Staff Writer
Eden Valley-Watkins stayed
busy last week, wrestling at NYA
on Thursday, Jan. 7, and at the
Paynesville Bulldogs Invitational
on Friday, Jan. 8. Stats: 1 Litchfield
(LIT) 234; 2 Sartell (SAR) 187; 3
Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa (BBE)
168; 4 Morris Area/Hancock/
Chokio-Alberta (MAHCA) 92;
5 Paynesville (PAY) 8§.5; 6
Barnesville (BAR) 89; 7 Eden
Valley-Watkins (EVW) 69.5; 8
Holdingford (HOL) 66.
106 Pounds Championship
Afton Kaping (LIT) Fall Canon
Swanson (BBE) 5:26; 113 Pounds
Championship Nick Pelach (SAR)
Dec. Ezra Kaping (LIT) 7-6; 120
Pounds Championship Andrew
Loch (LIT) Dec. Caleb Stetz.(BAR)
6-4; 126 Pounds Championship
Rylee Molitor (SAR) Maj. Dec.
Derek Fruetel (LIT) 20-7; 132
Pounds Championship Sam
Tibbits (LIT) Tech Fall Jake
Fernholtz (SAR) 2:31; 138 Pounds
Championship Adam Jaeger (BBE)
Dec. Trenton Nelson (MAH) 3-2;
145 Pounds Championship.
Isaiah Gilbert (BBE) Dec.
Dylan Penk (LIT) 6-3; 152 Pounds
Championship Colby Schramel
(BBE) Dec. Logan Nelson (LIT)
6-5; Third Place Tyler Dockendorf
(EVW) Maj. Dec. Connor
Meagher (PAY) 13-2; 160 Pounds
Championship John Salzl (EVW)
Fall Lawton Miller (SAR) 5:15; 170
Pounds Championship Conner
Hoff (LIT) Tech. Fall Steven Koehl
(MAH) 4:57;
Third Place Logan Donnay
(EVW) Fall Jonah Voss (BBE) 3:15;
182 Pounds Championship.
Tyler Snoberger (SAR) Nolan
Prokott (HOL) 3-2;. Fifth Place
Toby. Sayles (MAH) Fall Aaron
Holmberg (EVW) 2:15; 195 Pounds
Championship Ben Thompson
(BBE) Dec. Cole Fibranz (SAR)
3-1; 220 Pounds Championship
Joe Reller (BBE) Maj. Dec. Patrick
Kranz (PAY) 11-0; 285 Pounds
Championship Walker Nienaber
(HOL) Fall Bradey Berg (BAR) 4:37.
Friday Update Jan. 8, 2016
By Mark Messman,
Superintendent EV- W Schools
2016 Legislative Session
Happy New Year! I'd like to wel-
come everyone back to school fol-
lowing the Christmas break and
also provide a brief update on
the upcoming legislative session.
MASA, the Minnesota Association
of School Administrators solic-
its feedback from school dis-
trict administrators from across
the state. A MASA committee
will use the feedback to create
and promote a political platform
that is used to inform the public
and advocate for needed change.
The legislative session begins on
March 8 and must conclude by the
end of the day on May 23. Our local
and regional superintendents
have already begun to attend vari-
ous hearings and meetings on the
following educational topics:
• Fully fund the cost of Special
Education services
• Establish a cost of living
adjustment to address the impact
of inflation on school budgets
• Ensure school district flexi-
bility and full funding if required
to implement full day Pre-K
programs
• Improvements to the State's
equalization factors to provide
funds for facilities, deferred main-
tenance, capital projects, and
technology infrastructure
• Strategies to address the
teacher shortage in Minnesota
• Repeal the 2015 statutory
requirement for filling School
Board vacancies through expen-
sive special elections, and once
again, allow local school boards to
fill a vacancy by appointment
• Implementation of solutions
for credentialing secondary teach-
ers to teach concurrent enrollment
courses to high school students
I') keep you informed of the
progress throughout the legisla-
tive session, and please, don't hes-
itate to contact me with your ques-
tions or comments.
Paraprofessional Recognition
Week
Governor Mark Dayton has pro-
claimed the week of Jan. 11, 2016,
as Paraprofessional Recognition
Week. Paraprofessionals are
individuals who work in a vari-
ety of positions in our school dis-
trict. Their roles include, but are
not limited to those who work as
instructional assistants, Title 1
paraprofessionals, special edu-
cation paraprofessionals, lunch
room and playground assistants,
hall monitors, media center assis-
tants, and more.
Please make time during
Paraprofessional Recognition
Week to recognize and celebrate
the contributions and hard work
of paraprofessionals working in
the Eden Valley-Watkins School
District.
Weather and Wind Chill:
Living and working in
Minnesota we understand the
adage that, "if you don't like the
weather, be patient, itwill change!"
Our Minnesota climate offers a
variety of weather conditions that
often require Superintendents to
make difficult and time-sensitive
decisions. If faced With weather-
related decisions, I can assure you
that the safety of our EV-W stu-
dents and staff is always at the
forefront. It's a very difficult bal-
ance taking into account that
we live in rural Minnesota, con-
duct school during the winter
months, travel varied landscapes
throughout the district, and face
adverse weather and road condi-
tions. School-closing decisions are
rarely easy, and require immense
communication between district,
transportation, and city/county
officials, along with those driv-
ing the plows and weather experts.
It's always tough to make the call
to close school because of weather
and second-guessing the decision
always happens no matter where
the bar is set.
Our weather-related decisions
are bfised on information pro-
vided by many sources, includ-
ing the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
(N.O.A.A.). The N.O.A.A. provides
a Wind Chill Chart. You can find
this chart at: www.nws.noaa.gov/
om/winter/windchill.shtml, that
takes into account the combina-
tion of wind speed and tempera-
ture to determine the time in which
it will take someone to potentially
suffer from frostbite. When tem-
peratures and wind speed fall into
the 10-Minute Threshold, school
districts sometime delay or close
schools depending on additional
variables such as transporta-
tion routes (i.e. suburban/rural),
predicted temperatures through-
out the day and/or week, how
close the temperature/wind chill
is to the "5 minute" Threshold,
reliability of buses, etc.
While we will continue to mon-
itor the weather closely, we will
likely not make any final deci-
sions about delaying and/or clos-
ing school until morning. We real-
ize people like to know the eve-
ning before if we are having school
or not, and we always attempt to
make the decisions as early as pos-
sible. However, weather forecast-
ers are not always accurate and
weather frequently changes. At
times, the hype from the weather
forecasters is far worse than what
ultimately becomes reality. For
this reason, when deciding school
closings due to weather, we often
wait to make the most accurate
decision; sometimes this can be
done the night before, but many
times we need to wait until early
morning.
It would be great if our weather
was 72 degrees and sunny every
day, with 0.1 inches of rain every
other night. However, we live in
Minnesota and the climate is
always changing which results in
making time-sensitive decisions to
safely operate schools for children,
families, and staff. Fortunately,
our Parent Notification System
has been a great communication
tool for families and allows us to
communicate important infor-
mation as soon as a decision is
made. Be sure to adhere to the
winter weather advisories, travel
safe, and thank you for exercis-
ing patience with these difficult
weather-related decisions.
Senior Spotlight
The EV-W School District
would like to recognize Ashley
Anderson, daughter of Amy and
Tim. Ashley admires her friend,
Kristin Phillip, for guidance and
support through the tough times.
Currently, Ashley is enrolled
in four college-level courses
and participates in Volleyball,
Basketball, Softball, Eagles Cry,
Student Council, Leadership
and Investment Club. Following
graduation, Ashley plans to
attend Alexandria Technical &
Community College to pursue a
degree in the Law Enforcement
Program. Congratulations!
