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2 for 2: Platteville student wins state oratorical contests
Masoom Legion
Saafia Masoom (right) is pictured with American Legion Department of Wisconsin Commander Bob Shappell after Masoom won the Legion oratorical contest at Ripon College Feb. 14.

Platteville High School junior Saafia Masoom has had quite the month of February.

Masoom won statewide speaking contests, earning trips to Washington, D.C., and Indianapolis for national contests.

Masoom’s month began Feb. 14 when she won the American Legion Oratorical Contest at Ripon College. She was sponsored by American Legion Post 42 of Platteville.

Masoom, the daughter of Abulkhair and Fahmida Masoom, qualified by winning the district event at Barneveld High School Jan. 31. Her speech was “Our Great Experiment, Our Constitution.”

Winning the state contest earned her a $3,000 college scholarship after winning five levels of competition. She will be going on an all-expenses-paid trip to Indianapolis April 10–12 to participate in the national contest.

Before that, Masoom will be taking another all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the VFW Voice of Democracy national Audio-Essay Contest Feb. 28–March 4. Masoom won the Wisconsin contest, earning a $1,500 scholarship. She was recognized at the VFW mid-winter convention in Appleton Saturday.

The American Legion Oratorical Contest exists to develop deeper knowledge and appreciation for the U.S. Constitution among high school students. Since 1938, the program has presented participants with an academic speaking challenge that teaches important leadership qualities, the history of our nation’s laws, the ability to think and speak clearly, and an understanding of the duties, responsibilities, rights and privileges of American citizenship.

Young orators earn some of the most generous college scholarships available to high school students. More than $138,000 in scholarships can be awarded each year. The overall national contest winner gets an $18,000 scholarship. Second place takes home $16,000, and third gets $14,000. Each department (state) winner who is certified into and participates in the national contest’s first round receives a $1,500 scholarship. Those who advance past the first round receive an additional $1,500 scholarship. The American Legion’s National Organization awards the scholarships, which can be used at any U.S. college or university.

High school students younger than 20 are eligible. Competition begins at the post level and advances to a state competition. Legion department representatives certify one winner per state to the national contest, where department winners compete against each other in two speaking rounds. The contest caps off with a final round that decides the three top finishers.

Speaking subjects must be on some aspect of the U.S. Constitution, with some emphasis on the duties and obligations of citizens to our government. Speeches are eight to 10 minutes long; three- to five-minute speeches on an assigned topic also are part of the contest.

Each year, nearly 40,000 high school students from across the country enter to win a share of the $2.2 million in educational scholarships and incentives awarded through the VFW’s Voice of Democracy audio-essay competition. The VFW established the Voice of Democracy program in 1947 to provide high school students the opportunity to express themselves in regards to democratic ideas and principles.

The national first-place winner receives a $30,000 scholarship paid directly to the recipient’s American university, college or vocational/technical school. Other national scholarships range from $1,000 to $16,000.

School Board approves new ELA curriculum
North Crawford
North Crawford

The North Crawford School Board approved acquisition and implementation of a new English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum for students in grades 6-12. The action was taken at their meeting on June 18.

The ELA curriculum is ‘Commonlit Schools Essentials Pro Plus,’ and is described as “a package that enables schools to implement CommonLit 360 forgrades 6-12. CommonLit 360 is a full-year secondary English Language Arts curriculum (EdReports Green rated for grades 6-8) designed to support student growth in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Our  curriculum is grounded in research-based practices and is built around the idea that students learn best when they are engaged in meaningful, relevant, and challenging work. By providing educators with rigorous content and instructional support, CommonLit 360 enables students to reach their full potential.”

High school ELA teacher Brandon Bankes addressed the board, explaining the process he and a team of other teachers used to arrive at their recommendation of the curriculum to the board.

“Starting last year, we did a lot of work on establishing standards, with the plan that we maybe start looking at curriculum this year,” Bankes said. “At the beginning of this year, the state report card came out, slightly less than stellar results in English. So that lit a fire, and we looked at that, along with several, several other challenges that we have.”

Bankes reminded the board that the grades 6-12 has two new educators out of a total of three teachers, with all three of the positions having turned over in the last three years.

“I'm still fairly new, so that's a pretty big change for the department,” Bankes said. “There's no existing 9-12 curriculum. We have some resources, but what we have is really not doing the job, and then some challenges with the existing materials in grades 6-8.”

Bankes explained that part of the challenge is that there is really no alignment from 6th grade through 12th grade.

“We know how important continuity is to make sure that our students are meeting the standards at every grade level,” Bankes explained. “That follow through from one grade to the next, and teaching all the standards to the appropriate level of depth is crucial.”

In searching for a new curriculum, Bankes said the team piloted two curriculums this year. One was a textbooks focused curriculum, and then Commonlit, which is internet-based, and a fairly well known curriculum that is actually free. He said the curriculum is built by a nonprofit that was started by educators and a lot of teachers all over the country, who use it as a supplemental tool in their classrooms for free.

“There is a mix of reading lessons that progress throughout the unit, and discussion lessons, including discussion skill lessons, that are built in as well,” Bankes said. “So, we're not just having discussions, we're teaching the students how to have discussions, how to include evidence, how to ask appropriate questions, how to build on ideas throughout our discussions, that sort of thing. We also integrate writing lessons so that the students really see writing as a process, which is how we want them to see it.”

“We also get a lot of data out of this. All of the units have skills assessments. It's a very skills-focused curriculum. We also have these with the unit skills assessments, ways to look at how all of our students are doing on those skills and on the standards.”

Bankes said that in piloting the program with grade 10 students, he had seen evidence of significant progression in learning between the beginning and the end of the pilot period.

“We know that our students are pretty far behind on the average - this is not a secret, right?” Bankes observed. “I think with really tailored instruction, when we're looking at a lot more data and drilling into where our gaps are, having a curriculum that's very accessible for our teachers and that's approachable for our kids, I think that we're going to have a lot more success than what we've been having.”

Bankes said that what a district pays for, really, is the assessment series. He said the data side is free.

“They want teachers using this because they know how hard it is, especially for small schools who face a lot of challenges with poverty and low achievement, that teachers need good resources,” Bankes said. “And this is a nonprofit organization that's built by teachers for teachers like me, who need the support and need the resources.”

Bankes said if they're able to go with this kind of approach, all be aligned, all teaching unit one at the same time, we can have those kinds of common conversations about what we're seeing with kids,” Bankes explained. “We can identify gaps a whole lot easier with the data, and the opportunity for conversation, the same routines, the same kinds of writing types that we see year over year, so that by the end of 6-12, the students will have had a very holistic approach that's research-based and evidence-based of English language instruction.

One board member asked if there would be a good transition from the elementary curriculum to this one.

“Jamie Bearrows seems very positive about that,” Superintendent Brandon Munson said. “CKLA at the elementary level is thematic based, so there's similarities in that.”

“They will also offer four hour-long training sessions with the contract, and that can be whenever we want,” Bankes explained.

Munson said the contract would be for five years, $27,500 as the up front cost. He said he currently has this cost built into the budget.

“I did build another $10,000 into the middle school, high school budget for the additional resources - the novels and some of those other things,” Munson explained. “So, we're able to chip away at that by using some of our common school fund money, working with (librarian) Liz Bransky collaboratively, and finding other options that are out there, that would be a bonus. But, I would say that it is comfortably in the budget at this point in time.”

Board member Judy Powell moved, and Mark Fredelake seconded, a motion to approve acquisition and implementation of the Commonlit curriculum, and the motion carried.

District Showcase

Munson said that the spring sports teams would be showcased this month.

“As we do, at the conclusion of each of our seasons, we ask our coaches and some of their athletes to come be recognized in front of the board for their incredible commitment to their seasons, and share a little bit about their respective seasons,” Munson said. “So tonight, we have baseball and track represented in person, and I do have something to read from Coach Mellem with the softball program.”

“This is the first year I coached down here - I was hired right before the season started, baseball coach Stenner said. “My kids have gone to school here for a long time, so I've known all these guys for quite a while. But, when we started the season, we were picked last in our conference, and we were one and 13 last year. We turned that around. We were 12 and 10.”

“Sawyer Stluka got second team all-conference and Cullen Jacobus and Landon Blaha got first team all-conferences, Landon at catcher, and Zach Bender, got honorable mention,” Stenner said. “So, that's true testament to the time and commitment these guys put in. Cullen and Landon also got honorable mention all-district for the Southwest District as well. That includes juniors and seniors from an hour north of La Crosse all the way down to the border of Illinois. So that's a pretty, pretty prestigious award too.”

Middle School/High School Principal Rob Sailer pointed out that Stenner was also named All Conference Coach of the Year.

Stenner thanked Eric and Brian who built the new dugouts, his two assistant coaches, Cody Brockway, who's currently coaching 12 and under, and Devlin Smith, who's also an assistant coach of basketball.

 “They played a huge role in what we were able to this season,” Stenner said.

Andy Watters spoke to the board about the track team’s season and successes.

The boys were second in the conference this year, and the girls were third,” Watters said. “So another strong performance.”

Watters said the team sent 13 kids to sectionals, with the boys placing fifth in sectionals and 13th at state.

“At state, Carter Emler placed fourth in the long jump, and eighth in the triple jump,” Watters said. “Anthony Fradette placed 7th in the 100-meter dash, and Gavin Tamling placed 5th in both shot and discus.”

Munson read a short re-cap of the softball season from Coach Mellem.

“We finished the season with a one in 17 record. The one win was against Boscobel, 19 to 4, losing two seniors at the completion of the season. Anna Chamberlain, who was also a primary track person, and Dakota Heister, catcher, led the team in stolen bases with 11, and a close second with hits at 17, and were nominated to the all conference sportsmanship team. Anna Logue, pitcher and shortstop, led the team in hits with RBIs, including an out-of-the park home run.”

In other business

In other business, the board:

• heard that elementary students had lots of fun at the end of the school year, with activities like a field day on school grounds, inflatables day, and a staff v. students kickball game

• learned that 13 certificates were issued in tape and rule measurement, 14 in slide caliper measurement, 12 in gage measurement, 13 in angle measurement, 14 in micrometer measurement, 13 in dial gage measurement, 14 in multimeter measurement, 14 in OSHA 10, and 8 in Microsoft credentials

• learned that a Hunter Education Class will be offered on August 12-14 at the school – to register, go to DNR.WI.GOV

• learned that of graduating seniors, 24% are attending a four-year college, 36% a two-year or technical college, 10% joining the military, 10% joining the workforce, 10% taking a gap year, and 12% returning to their home country

• approved amendments to the district’s Foodservice Policy

• approved nine 2025-2026 FFA overnight field trips, and one overnight cross country field trip