DARLINGTON – The Darlington School Board of Education accepted the donations totaling over $10,000 to purchase the stacks or shelving necessary to finish the library project at the Monday night meeting on Oct. 2.
Steve and Deb Pickett were instrumental in organizing donations for the library, board president Aaron Wolfe stated. Several community members came together and at the time of the meeting had donated $10,483 with more money still coming in.
“We had quite a few people donate and not just ones from Darlington but those who had graduated from Darlington. They called and thought it was a good idea, seeing [the library] hadn’t changed in 50 years. There are people that are very interested in providing good education for the kids and this is a community that prides itself on its school,” Steve Pickett commented.
Board member Bob Hermanson said that he would like to see an open house to present the new library and other additional upgrades that were made over the summer. He stated that community members have stated how they would like to tour the newly remodeled areas. Steve Pickett agreed.
DHS Principal Aaron Lancaster said they have been working on a date when everything is completed. The stacks will take six weeks to be ordered and be installed. If community members would want to see the library, they can call Aaron Lancaster and set up a time to tour it.
Matt Wilson made a motion with Nick Zuberbuhler seconding to accept the donations for the DHS library from the following people: Aaron Wolfe and Cristina Camacho; Huntington Farms, LLC; Darlington Ridge Farms, LLC; See-Mor Grain, Inc.; Riechers Beef; WW Belgians – Wellnitz Family; Jeff and Michelle Savatski; Darlington Lions Club; Judy M. Riley-Smith; Ed and Julie Fitzsimons; Jon and Dawn McCoy; Bob Hermanson; Tom and Kay Wiegel; Rodney and Mary Lindell; Hirsbrunner, Opsal, Pickett; Lori Neumann and Jim Sinclair; Mike and Pat Gallagher; William and Sharon McDaniel; Sue Cashman; Pat and Luann Donahoe; Badger State Ethanol; Mary Buschor; Cheryl Christensen; Virginia and Jim Schenk; Jean and Bob Kendall; Connie and Lewis Burmeister; Al and Janie Ruf; Marlene and Bob Finley; Bob McDonald; Kris Javurek; Candi Fitzsimons; Sue and Rick Finley; and other anonymous donors. The motion passed. When more money comes in for the library, those donations will be on the agenda with the additional names that donated.
ALICE: School Safety Program
Darlington Police Chief Jason King went to training for ALICE, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. It is a new safety measure for schools. Previously, when there was a threat within the schools, they would lockdown the rooms, shut off the lights and sit quietly. As King stated those were the procedures put in place after the Columbine School shooting in 1999. In recent years, from the active shooting situations, things have changed. Lockdown procedures have adapted from incidences that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary and Virginia Tech.
Darlington Community School District has been embracing ALICE where the school is alerted to the threat, told to go into the lockdown procedure, become more informed with where the threat is in the building with security cameras throughout and informing police and emergency responders to the situation, students, staff and teachers are taught to counter in anyway possible (such as throw books, school supplies or use a baseball bat) and evacuate if at all possible.
Along with the ALICE training, the district is also implementing evacuation comments into welcoming people to events (sports, music, etc.), laminating floor plans for emergency responders to use, numbering entryways for responders, providing room numbers for classroom windows, exploring installing secondary locking devices for out-swinging doors and practicing two security drills throughout the school year.
More information on ALICE and its training will be in the paper at a later date.
Other Business
The Darlington School Board of education also approved/accepted:
-Riley Brothers Angus’ donation of a metal Redbird, valued at $500, to be placed in the DHS Library.
-a trumpet, valued at $250, from John Bausch to the DEMS Music Program.
-Mariah McMullen as the Assistant DHS Track Coach, Molly Rice as the DEMS Girls Basketball Coach, Willy Chambers as the DHS Assistant Wrestling Coach and Sean Leary as the DHS Assistant Softball Coach.
-Policy #1200.3-Guidelines for Public Use of School Facilities, where the rental fee is being waived for all community non-profit organizations that want to use the facility. They are still required to pay all custodial fees or any repairs that they caused.