ELLSWORTH — Each of the building principals reported strong attendance at the optional interim school days, emphasizing their importance for both students and staff at the Sept. 9 Ellsworth Community School District Board of Education meeting.

“They’re great days. It’s a great opportunity. We talk as a staff a lot about the ability to go slow to go fast,” Middle School Principal Olin Morrison said. “We have so much that we need to teach and so many standards we need to get to, so the second the school year officially starts, there’s that feel, that pull, that pressure to start getting to curriculum and start teaching those items. The gift of the interim days is three days to really do a lot of that set-up work to make sure that when we do get to curriculum, we’ve set up our classrooms in a way that we can effectively teach.”

The elementary and middle schools saw attendance over 80% on each of the three days Aug. 25-27, with the high school ranging from 64-77% over the three days.

High School Principal Marcy Burch said these are important days that can benefit both the students and the staff, and they want to continue to emphasize their importance.

Student enrollment count was at 1,504 as of the meeting, down from 1,544 at this time a year ago, but in line with what the district projected. High school enrollment is down from 501 to 473, middle school enrollment is up from 324 to 330 and elementary school enrollment is down from 719 to 701.

The board lifted a restriction on a piece of property in Bay City that required it to be used for recreational purposes. The district sold the property to the village in the 1970s for $1 with that restriction, and it was ultimately used as a park. After the construction of another park in Bay City, the property the district sold was not used as frequently. Bay City representatives asked if that restriction could be lifted, and the school board approved the motion.

Other business

• Superintendent Brian Nadeau encouraged the community to help the school become a top 25 finalist in the T-Mobile Friday Night Lights sweepstakes by tagging Ellsworth Panthers Athletics, the school district and T-Mobile on Facebook with the #FN5GL and #Entry included in the post. The district was already awarded $5,000 for athletics facilities and could move to larger and larger prizes all the way to the $1 million grand prize.
• Approved the Project SEARCH agreement to share costs with the School District of River Falls for a program that bridges the gap between education and employment for young adults with disabilities. The board also approved the deaf and hard of hearing contract to share costs and teaching services with River Falls and Prescott.
• Approved the Education for Employment policy, a state requirement to educate students K-12 for life after high school.
• Heard a lengthy series of technical corrections and first readings of policy revisions.

Personnel

The board approved the following personnel changes:

Hires: Katlin Berenschot, special education teaching assistant long-term substitute; Addyson Huppert, teaching assistant long-term substitute; Julie Winger, high school food service staff; Linette Winger, elementary school special education teaching assistant.

Resignations: Rod Jacobs, middle school and pool custodian.

Extra/Co-Curricular: Addyson Huppert, girls varsity assistant golf coach; Nash Kuhl, seventh grade assistant football coach; Jack Stoltenburg, eighth grade boys basketball coach and ninth grade assistant football coach; Marissa Woletz, middle school musical co-chair director.