The Fennimore Community School District “exceeds expectations” across the board, according the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) recently released school report cards for the 2024-25 school year.
The district’s “grades” were presented at last Wednesday’s school board meeting. In addition to exceeding expectations, the district was ranking second out of the 31 schools in the CESA 3 district.
The elementary school was ranking 16th out of the 31 CESA 3 schools, while the middle school received a fifth place ranking, with the high rounding out the ranking at second overall of out 31 CESA 3 schools.
Fennimore School Board President Peter James stated, “It’s nice to see us towards the top in every category. Some schools rankings are all over the place, but we’re at the top in each category.”
District Administrator Jane Wonderling shared James’ sentiments while adding, “Kudos to all of our staff and administrators.”
Presentations were given on the two recent Wyalusing and Washington D.C. field trips.
Sixth graders William Biba, Carter Knapp, and Emma Tollefson gave a recap of their class’ recent trip to Wyalusing which included teamwork activities, campfires, building shelters, and hiking, lots of hiking.
The seventh grade student council then gave their presentation on the seventh grade’s Washington D.C. trip which included stops at Shedd’s Aquarium and Gettysburg before arriving in our nation’s capital.
While in D.C., the seventh grade visited the many memorials such as the new Pentagon Memorial, Lincoln, and Iwo Jima Memorials to name a few.
Also, four students had the opportunity to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at Arlington National Cemetery.
Kindergarten teacher and District Safety Coordinator Jenna Peterson also addressed the board last Wednesday evening, giving a brief review of the district’s school safety plan.
Not much changed from last year’s plan, according to Peterson, only updated staff names, with most protocols and procedures remaining the same.
Peterson did suggest some possible additional/refresher staff training in the near future due to staff turnover.
In other business, Fennimore Middle/High School Principal Boone Tollefson presented the updated course of studies.
Tollefson stated the several new class opportunities will be made available for the next school year such as AP Business and Personal Finance, as well as AP Anatomy and Physiology, while some classes will have their titles changed such as Precalculus updated to AP Calculus and Forensics being classified as just Speech now, which Tollefson said will take some getting used to.
Several donations were approved by the board including the Fennimore Area Foundation’s $1,732 donation toward the weight room, a $1,250 donation toward hand bells by the Peter R. Marish Foundation, a $1,500 donation by Elmer G. Biddick toward the FFA to offset travel costs, and lastly a donation of winter gear such as hats and gloves to the elementary school by Catrice and Mike Hunt.
The board accepted the retirement of Torri Govier after a little over 25 years with the district. Govier had been serving as an assistant bookkeeper-account payable and special education secretary. Govier’s last day will be Feb. 2.
Two resignations were also accepted by the board, Cori Friederick as food service director, and Jim Prochaska as JV softball coach. Prochaska stated in his letter that he would like to stay involved with the program as a volunteer coach.
The next meeting of the Fennimore Community School Board will be held at the middle/high school at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
