Category Archives: Stand Up for Public Ed

Holmen Students Open Store, Help Local Family

Holmen High School students opened a model store whose proceeds will benefit a local family, WXOW reports.

The Christmas novelty store, “Bundled Up,” sells food, Christmas decorations and clothing. It’s part of a long history of entrepreneurship students opening model stores.

The store raises money to help the a family whose father died unexpectedly of a heart attack in August.

“I’m glad we’re opening up the Bundled Up store because it shows the Holmen community has their back to get through this hard time,” Store Co-Manager Chloe Lichucki said.

The store is open through December 16. 

Read the full story and watch the video at WXOW’s website.

Chippewa Falls Siblings Featured in Good Morning America

Susan Bergeman pushes her brother Jeffrey Bergeman at an August race.

Two siblings from Chippewa Falls has received national recognition for competing together, The Chippewa Herald reports.

Susan and Jeffrey Bergeman, who attend Chippewa Falls Senior High, have been featured in Runner’s World magazine, Good Morning America and elsewhere.

Susan pushes her brother, Jeffrey, who has cerebral palsy. The Bergeman family has been running with Jeffrey for years, said mother Jess.

“I think all families like to have activities that they can do together and running has become something that we have found that regardless of ability level that we’ve been able to do together and it’s something Jeffrey really enjoys,” Jess told the newspaper.

Read more about the siblings in this August profile in the newspaper.

Prep Cross Country: Chi-Hi's Bergeman siblings run together for a cause

Eleva-Strum students create ‘sensory safe space’ bus for young children

Eleva-Strum students work to turn a bus into a “sensory safe space.” The goal is to help children, many of whom have disabilities, to take a break before returning to the classroom.

Eleva-Strum High School students are working with a tiny home builder to convert a shuttle bus into a safe space for 4k students to decompress, WEAU-TV reports.

“We get to do a lot of things many high schoolers don’t get to do and it’s a real-world experience here,” student Garrett Zimpel told the station. The students are working with the Eau Claire-based tiny home company No Boundaries Tiny Homes.

An occupation therapist working with the DC Everest, Alison Vlietstra, tells the TV station that many of the children in the 4k program have some level of disability.

“Some of them have sensory processing regulation disabilities and some of them have autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, some just have developmental delays,” Vlietstra said. The bus is intended to give space to children when they need it, with the goal of returning them to the classroom.

Read the story and watch a video at the TV station’s website.

Racine students learn to protect Lake Michigan shoreline

Racine students study the Lake Michigan shoreline.

(RACINE) — Students visited the Lake Michigan shoreline recently to learn about native plants, invasive species and other elements of coastal health, the Journal Times reports.

The goal: teach the next generation how to protect the fragile coast of Lake Michigan.

The program was the creation of Wisconsin Sea Grant Senior Special Librarian and Education Coordinator Ann Moser and funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and others.

“These students are asking all these amazing questions about their place and just watching their imagination get sparked — it’s been a long time (since) I have been able to work with students, so being with students in this age group, it’s just fun,” Moser told the newspaper.

Read more about the program at the newspaper’s website.

D.C. Everest seniors build 15th Habitat for Humanity home

A D.C. Everest students helps build a home.

(WESTON) — Students at D.C. Everest High School have built 15 Habitat for Humanity homes, WSAW-TV reports.

“They start out thinking they are going to build a house, and within the first couple of weeks, they realize they’re building a home,” Career and Technical Education Coordinator Aaron Hoffman told the TV station.

Construction student Eddie Zynda said, “We’re just killing two birds with one stone, and you’re learnin’, everyone’s learnin’ here, and then giving a family a house, I mean you can’t go wrong with that.”

Read the full story and watch the video at the TV station’s website.

Lovable Saint Bernard serves as elementary school ‘counselor’ for 6 years

The logo for Lake Superior Elementary School, part of the Superior School District

(ASHLAND) — For six years, a lovable Saint Bernard has roamed the hallways of Lake Superior Elementary School, helping to calm anxious nerves as a shaggy counselor, the Ashland Daily Press reports.

Belle has made “a lot of friends” at the school, part of the Superior School District, special education teacher Mike Weaver told the newspaper.

Belle belongs to Jenny Richardson, a Lake Superior Elementary employee.

“She came to school one day, and she hasn’t left,” Weaver said.

“Sometimes students are struggling with behaviors and they just need someone who is not an adult to help them process. So Belle will come out and instantly, they just kind of melt and their demeanor changes. They get set and regulated and they are able to go back into class,” Weaver told the newspaper.

Read the full story to learn more about Belle. Find the story in the Ashland Daily Press here (paywall).

Madison East cook historic gumbo dish, host district leadership

Students at Madison East High School cook up a historic gumbo dish and shared it with district leaders.

(MADISON) — Madison East High School students cooked up a historic gumbo dish and shared it with district leaders recently, WMTV reports.

The class has been learning about the civil rights leader behind the dish, Leah Chase, and her restaurant, Dooky Chase.

Emily Sonnemann, the culinary teacher at East, told the TV station Chase “built a legacy at that restaurant of building bridges and having positive conversations for change over a bowl of gumbo.”

Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Dr. Carlton Jenkins said sharing a meal was a good way to start difficult conversations.

“Let’s put on a table some of the recent issues that we’ve been talking about,” said Jenkins. “But then also talk about how we can make it better as a community and co-create a space where everyone knows that teaching and learning is at our forefront along with safety.”

Read more about the event and watch the video at the TV station’s website.

Program to Engage Milwaukee, Green Bay Students at Intersection of Sports, Data

Michelle Morris-Carter, principal of Golda Meir School, says “Providing this program for our students will serve as a catalyst for ensuring that our students are poised and ready to embark upon careers in the data science field.”

A new sports analytics program is coming to Green Bay and Milwaukee school district, CBS 58 reports.

The Sports Analytics Club Program is modeled to engage high school students of color and steer them towards careers in fields like engineering and data science.

“I’m super excited. It involves science, math, a lot of inside work for sports,” Solimar Sanchez, a junior at Golda Meir School, told the TV station.

Sanchez was selected to work with about 20 other students after school, learning how data science plays into sports. They will work alongside teams like the Bucks and Brewers.

Golda Meir is one of two schools in Wisconsin offering the program. The second club will be founded in Green Bay in partnership with UW Green Bay and Green Bay Area Public School District.

Learn more about the program at the station’s website.

Oostburg Students Build Underwater Robot, Compete for World Robotics Championship

The Oostburg High School Robotics Team.

After their remotely operated underwater robot won a regional competition in Milwaukee, the Oostburg High School robotics team headed to an international competition in Tennessee last week, the Sheboygan Press reported.

Thirty teams from around the world met to create robots to solve problems related to marine plastic pollution. The competition also includes a business component; teams are scored on a business plan and a technical report on how their robot works.

“Everyone has a different job, and everyone can find a place in the team to contribute,” said Chloe Breunig, a first-year team member who has worked on the engineering, business and cameras teams.

Watch videos of the competition in Tennessee on the team’s Facebook page and learn more about the 35-person team at the newspaper’s article.

Rice Lake Celebrates Hometown Runner’s Olympic Silver

Kenny Bednarek, a Rice Lake graduate, won a silver medal Wednesday in the 200 meter dash.

Rice Lake is celebrating after one of its own won the silver medal in the 200-meter dash this week, as WQOW and Spectrum New 1 reported this week.

Kenny Bednarek’s former high school coach, Jared Sasada, told News 1 he saw something special in the runner from a young age.

“We heard about him [in middle school] coming up through the ranks,” Sasada, now a science teacher in the Tomah Area School District, told Spectrum News 1. “We had him come out and run the 400-meter against some of our best 400-meter kids, and at about the 250-meter mark we found out he was not ‘middle school fast’— he was ready to go because he was getting ready to smoke some of the best runners that we already had on our team.”

Watch the coach being interview at Spectrum News 1’s story.