CONNECTION - Middleton Cross Plains Area School District

Middleton Cross-Plains Area School District
MHS musicians shine at solo & ensemble festival
Fourteen MHS students received
Exemplary Soloist Designations at the State
Solo & Ensemble Festival in April at the
University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
More than 120 MHS musicians qualified
for state. Students performed solo settings,
chamber music of small ensembles, and
larger groups of brass choirs, woodwind
choirs, madrigals, and chamber orchestras.
Each adjudicator is only allowed to give
two Exemplary Soloist Designations from
the 40-plus performances that they hear
the entire day, Schneider said. The MHS
students to receive the honor are:
Senior Hattie Bestul (clarinet)
Junior Liza Couser (soprano)
Senior Eva Fourakis (euphonium)
Allison Clussman, an eighth-grader
at Kromrey Middle School, received a
volunteer award from the United Way of
Dane County on April 26.
More than 600 people attended the
luncheon and ceremony, which was held at
the Madison Concourse Hotel & Governor’s
Club. More than 100 people were
recognized, including Allison. Ten special
awards were also handed out.
Allison attended the event with her
mother, Laura Clussman, and Kathleen
Nieber-Lathrop, a Kromrey staff member
who nominated Allison for the award.
“It was very inspiring,’’ Laura Clussman
said.
Clussman has been a member of the
Kromrey Builder’s Club the past three years.
This year the club made blankets and took
them to the Dane County Humane Society.
Sophomore Eden Girma (piano)
Junior Alex Goodsett (alto sax)
Senior Kazuki Hanado (cello)
Junior Michael Hoot (alto sax)
Senior Alex Rezutek (timpani)
Sophomore Emily Schmidt (cello)
Senior Samantha Springer (flute)
Sophomore Chance Stine (alto sax)
Senior Deborah Thompson (piano)
Junior Sonia Urquidi (clarinet)
Freshman Michelle Xie (piano)
The 14 students will be considered to
perform for the prestigious recitals during
the music convention in October, MHS
band director Brad Schneider said.
“These students certainly represent the
best of the best in musicianship, talent,
and poise,” he said.
Kromrey student recognized by United Way
School lunch to expand array of choices
You may notice some new fresh new
changes to next year’s hot lunch program.
School Nutrition Services Coordinator
Susan Peterman plans to continue offering
as many fresh choices of locally produced
fruits and vegetables as possible.
Each hot lunch offered will include the
choice of an entrée item or a sandwich
and additional choices of two or more
vegetables and/or fruits.
“We find students enjoy having an array
of choice within their lunch selections
even though they are not required to take
all items offered,” Peterman said.
To accommodate the new USDA
requirements for school lunch, the
MCPASD menu will be published one
week at a time with the current week
plus the next week on the website to
allow students and parents to plan their
selections.
Peterman and her nutrition staff will
continue to improve school menus by
increasing offerings low in fat, lower in
added sodium and rich in whole grains.
Whenever possible, the school district
purchases local produce.
The school district’s hot lunch program
is considered one of the best in the state,
and its policies and menus are often
replicated at other school districts, said
Peterman.
This past spring, Peterman sought
feedback from parents and fifth-graders
through a survey about the hot lunch
program, and her staff is working to make
changes to improve.
Based on parent feedback, all milk
offered to students will be continue to be
rBGH-Free.
Although meal prices for breakfast
and lunch will rise slightly for the 2012-
13 school year, the Board also approved
offering lunch at no cost to students
eligible for the meal at a reduced price.
About 69 percent of reduced-eligible
students currently eat school lunch
each day, Peterman said, although she
expects that number to rise with the new
approach. Students currently pay 40 cents
They also worked on the school garden
and gave some of the fruit and vegetables
to the Middleton Outreach Ministry (MOM)
and are selling flowers from the garden for
Mother’s Day. She plans to join the MHS
Key Club next year.
Both organizations are sponsored by the
Middleton Kiwanis Club.
“She was my most active member,’’
said Nieber-Lathrop, who also added that
Clussman won a Builder’s Club state essay
contest in the sixth grade. “She’s great.’’
Clussman also has done service projects
through Girl Scouts, which she has been a
member since kindergarten. Some of those
projects include cooking for the Ronald
McDonald House, collecting food for MOM,
and hosting a family through MOM every
Christmas. She also volunteers as a server
at her local church.
for each meal so the financial impact to the
district would be less than $2,500 per year,
she said.
The Board of Education approved
the meal prices in May. Peterman
recommended several small price increases
after a careful study of revenue and
expenditures and a comparison of other
like-sized districts.
Breakfast and lunch at the six elementary
schools will increase by 5 cents to $1.40
and $2.45, respectively. Breakfast and lunch
at the middle schools and high schools will
rise by 10 cents. Middle school breakfast
will cost $1.70, while high school breakfast
will cost $1.95. Lunch at the middle schools
will cost $2.75 and it will cost $3.05 at
MHS reflecting three complete choice at
the middle school level and five complete
choices each day for MHS.
2012-13 school
lunch highlights
* Lowering sodium content of
foods offered
* Increased choices of fresh,frozen
and canned vegetables/fruits
* Continuing our emphasis on
Whole Grain bread items
* Continue to follow our Wellness
guidelines as well as USDA
requirements for 30% or less calories
to total fat and 10% or less to
saturated fats
* Continue our policy of 0 trans
fatsContinue to offer rBGH-Free Milk
to meet the health expectations of
our families
* Lunch free to families eligible for
reduced lunches (NEW)
* Two-week menu cycle rather than
the historical month at a glance
Glacier Creek students significantly cut lunch waste
Glacier Creek students lost nearly 100
pounds a day over the last two-plus
months of school. That’s 100 pounds of
lunch trash.
The reduction in trash was part of an
Earth Week Challenge the school instituted
beginning on April 16, said Jonathan
Daugherty, a Spanish teacher at the school
who also supervises the cafeteria during
lunch hours.
“There have been lots of little highlights,’’
he said. “It’s been exciting having kids
come up to me in passing periods and say
they didn’t have any trash that day or they
learned something else about recycling.
Or having teachers say they’d like us to
start composting next year. It has started a
conversation school-wide.’’
Before the challenge, Glacier Creek
students produced 180 pounds of lunch
trash each day. Now before students dump
anything in the two trash containers, they
can put any unused food in a bin that
fellow students can take from or another
one that goes to the Middleton Outreach
Ministry (MOM). There also is a TerraCycle
for non-recyclables such as chip bags. That
program up-cycles the bags and turns
them into new products.
Students also are encouraged to empty
Sunset Ridge one of eight to be nominated
for National Blue Ribbon Schools award
Sunset Ridge Elementary was one of
eight Wisconsin schools to be nominated
for the 2012 National Blue Ribbon Schools
award in January.
Sunset Ridge is the second school in
the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School
District to be recognized since the program
began in 1982. Middleton High School
was nominated in 2005. More than 6,000
schools in the United States have received
the honor, including 305 this past year.
“It is a great honor to have Sunset
Ridge Elementary School nominated
for the National Blue Ribbon Program,’’
Principal Todd Mann said. “Our entire staff
is committed to the achievement and
success of all students in our school. It is
a very special recognition and reflects the
dedication of our entire school community
on behalf of our students.’’
The Blue Ribbon Schools program
recognizes schools striving to achieve
excellence. Wisconsin is allowed to
nominate up to eight schools a year. To be
recognized a school must fall into one of
two categories:
Exemplary High Performing Schools. To
be eligible, schools must score in the top
15 percent on state assessments in reading
and mathematics. High-performing
Middleton High School was one of
three state schools to be named a Green
Ribbon Schools award winner by the U.S.
Department of Education in April.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan,
together with White House Council on
Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley
and Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa Jackson, announced
that 78 schools received the award.
“Middleton High School is an exemplar
of efforts across the district to be energy
efficient, engage students in relevant
environmental curriculum, and provide
a healthy place to learn,’’ MCPASD
Superintendent Don Johnson said.
“The students and staff of MHS are the
foundation of our collective success. We
are clearly proud of all, and celebrate this
well-deserved recognition!’’
The other state schools honored were
Dimensions of Learning Academy in
the Kenosha School District and Purdy
Elementary School in the Fort Atkinson
School District.
The recognition program recognizes
schools that save energy, reduce costs,
their milk cartons before recycling them.
Has the program worked? Daugherty
was hoping to cut waste by one-third. The
students obliterated that goal.
In the first week, seventh-graders cut
their waste by 50 percent, sixth-graders
by 54 percent and eighth-graders by 62
percent. The net result was 100 pounds
less of trash every day. The students were
still cutting waste by about 50 percent in
the second week.
“There are some students who don’t
buy in and are a little hesitant but the
overwhelming majority are excited and
are happy to do it even if it does take a
little more time,’’ Daugherty said. “I’ve
been surprised to be on the receiving end
of high-fives from students.
“It’s pretty cool.’’
schools also must have met the state’s
adequate yearly progress objectives for
the previous two years. Up to five schools
nominated can come from this category.
Exemplary Improving Schools. To be
eligible, schools must have at least 40
percent students from disadvantaged
backgrounds and must dramatically
improve student performance on state
assessments. At least three of the eight
schools nominated must come from this
category.
Sunset Ridge was nominated as a high
performing school. More than 98 percent
of fourth-graders at Sunset Ridge were
proficient or advanced in reading and
mathematics on the 2010-11 WKCE test.
Nominated schools must complete an
application from the U.S. Department
of Education by March 2 that focuses
on results and scientifically based
instruction. The federal education
department reviews applications and
will announce Blue Ribbon Schools in
September. Schools earning the award
receive a plaque and flag signifying
their status as a Blue Ribbon School. A
principal and teacher also will be invited
to attend a recognition ceremony in
Washington, D.C., in November.
MHS awarded Green Ribbon Award
feature environmentally sustainable
learning spaces, protect health, foster
wellness, and offer environmental
education to boost academic achievement
and community engagement.
The program, which was announced on
Sept. 29, 2011, should also increase STEM
(science, technology, engineering and
mathematics) skills and ensure students’
college and career preparedness.
MHS applied for the award in early
February and Debra Weitzel was the main
author of the application. Each state was
allowed up to four nominees. MHS found
out it was a finalist in late March.
“It’s the culmination of a number of years
of effort,’’ Assistant Superintendent for
Business Services Tom Wohlleber said at a
Board of Education meeting.
MHS Principal Denise Herrmann and
MHS teacher and Ecology Club co-advisor
Leah Williams attended a ceremony
honoring the winners in Washington, D.C.
in early June. Duncan, Sutley, Jackson and
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin
addressed the honorees and congratulated
them on their exemplary practices.