Shawano Community High School has been named this year’s recipient of a $500 science and technology grant from the ExxonMobil Educational Alliance program through local fuel retailer Auto Prep Center, 220 N. Main St., Shawano.

“Our schools work hard to make learning interesting and fun,” said Pat Trinko of Auto Prep. “We are proud to be a part of this program and to assist in that pursuit.”

Only Exxon retailers that maintain favorable rankings in their store operations are eligible to apply for the grant. Over the past 15 years, Auto Prep has secured nearly $7,500 in grants to local schools.

The ExxonMobil Educational Alliance program was designed to provide Exxon retailers with an opportunity to invest in the future of their communities through educational grants to neighborhood schools. Local retailers are allowed to work directly with educators to identify schools and programs most in need of support.

United Cooperative’s Scholarship Program is accepting applications.

The program awards $1,000 scholarships to 40-50 high school seniors and current college/technical school students who are continuing their full-time education in 2019-2020.

Scholarship applications are available at www.unitedcooperative.com. The deadline to apply is March 1.

To be eligible, the student or parent must be one of United Cooperative’s patron members; the student must plan to attend (or be currently enrolled in) an accredited college, university, or technical school; and the student must maintain a GPA of 2.0 or above on a 4.0 scale.

At least 10 of the scholarships will be awarded to students majoring in an agricultural field, at least 10 will be awarded to students attending a technical school, and at least 10 will be awarded to current college or technical school students who are continuing their full-time education in 2019-2020.

The remainder of the scholarships are open to all majors. Previous United Cooperative scholarship award winners are not eligible to apply for the college or technical school continuing education awards.

Applicants will be judged on their leadership skills, scholastic achievement, extracurricular activities, motivation, and academic and personal goals. Scholarships are paid to the winning student when a transcript is received after the semester is completed, and proof of registration for the next semester is documented.

For more information, contact Samantha Schade, United Cooperative promotions specialist, at samanthas@unitedcooperative.com.

Shawano Community Middle School has added a new experience to help get fifth-grade students prepared for the jarring transition from elementary school to middle school.

The school invited parents of students currently in fifth grade to an informational meeting Thursday to explain some of the changes that can be expected and new rules students will be expected to follow.

According to principal Stuart Russ, this is the first time the school has held a parent meeting in addition to the other things staff members do to prepare students to transition to the middle school.

“The whole purpose of the event is to just give a brief overview about what to expect as sixth graders (later) this year,” Russ said.

Russ noted that, in addition to the meeting, school counselors are making the rounds at Olga Brener Intermediate School. They talk with the fifth-grade classes about the changes that come, including no longer having just one teacher provide instruction for most of the day.

“Here’s the good news: You have a bunch of adults that are excited about having you here, who care about you, and who want you to be successful,” Russ said.

Rebecca Jacoby, guidance counselor, told the parents and students that there are a number of other things the school will do between now and September to prepare students for the culture shift. The school will invite fifth-grade students to the school in May for a transition day, and students will get information about the coursework at the sixth-grade level.

Fifth-grade classrooms will also receive combination locks in the spring so students learn how to use them when they get their lockers, something not usually available at an elementary school.

“They have locks on their lockers in the hallway, their gym lockers, and then if they’re in the band or orchestra, they have another locker for their instrument,” Jacoby said.

Another spring activity is learning how to utilize hall passes, according to Jacoby. The teachers also assign more homework to prepare students for middle school work, she said, and a career assessment is also done in the spring.

The district also offers a summer school class to help students adjust from elementary to middle school, learning about the passing periods and developing study plans to be their best in middle school. The middle school offers core courses like English, math, science and social studies on a daily basis to the students, but it operates on an every other day basis for homeroom, study hall and classes like physical education and elective courses.

Jacoby said last summer’s program was so big that it had to be separated into two classes.

There will also be one more parent meeting offered, taking place in late August during the school’s teacher meet-and-greet.

Sixth-grade students will spend the last class period of their day in exploratory classes like technology, keyboarding and art, according to Brittany Pensis, guidance counselor. Each of the different classes are 4½ weeks long to give students a wide variety of options, she said.

“It’s a good opportunity for students to explore and see what they like and don’t like,” Pensis said. “They try new things, and they might discover that they really like them.”

Giving them short primers in sixth grade prepares them for the next two grades, when they’ll be taking year-long elective courses, Pensis said.

For two College of Menominee Nation students, fall semester 2018 wrapped up with a statewide symposium highlighting Wisconsin’s participation in “Tiny Earth,” an international initiative involving nearly 10,000 students in antibiotics research.

The men — Gavin Braun, a natural resources major from Keshena, and Tyrell Hesse, a biological and physical sciences student from Shawano — were among students, faculty and staff from several Wisconsin colleges and universities taking part in the Dec. 7 event. Special recognition for Braun and Hesse included selection of their soil microbe research poster for fifth-place honors among 57 entries, and an invitation to Braun to address the symposium audience.

At the College of Menominee Nation, “Tiny Earth” curriculum and protocols are used in the general biology and microbiology courses of professor Lucy Fenzl. “We are excited to be the first tribal college invited to join the initiative and begin using the curriculum,” Fenzl said. “Having CMN as part of this international network of faculty members and college students is energizing and brings us really exciting resources. It is a wonderful opportunity for all students to join in finding solutions for the real-world health problem of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.”

“Tiny Earth” participation also dovetails with ongoing applied science in CMN’s Sustainable Development Institute. In his address, Braun credited “Tiny Earth” with opening up opportunities for students in the college’s science labs to also collaborate on the institute’s campus-based Phenology Trail climate research. “Tiny Earth” lab work contributes “by adding data on soil bacteria found at each plant research site,” Braun said. “This will enhance the longitudinal data already being collected and serve to address added variables in the research.”

For students, Braun added, “Tiny Earth” research has given “a new experience in the labs that opened our eyes to new or different fields of interest. It also gave us a new opportunity to experience research by providing different research applications.”

CMN’s experience with “Tiny Earth” reflects the initiative’s mission: creating a network of instructors and students “focused on crowdsourcing antibiotic discovery from soil”; inspiring students to pursue careers in science though hands-on introductory courses and lab experiences with real-world applications; and addressing the diminishing supply of effective antibiotics “by tapping into the collective power of many student researchers concurrently tackling the same challenge.”

The Wisconsin event, labeled “Tiny Earth in Titletown,” was held in Green Bay’s Lambeau Field facilities. For information on the initiative, visit tinyearth.wisc.edu/about-us or email lfenzl@menominee.edu.

Pulaski High School is staging the musical “Newsies” in February.

Performances are 7 p.m. Feb. 9 and Feb. 16, and 2 p.m. Feb. 10 and Feb. 17. Reserved-seat tickets are $8 and can be purchased at the Pulaski News office at Pulaski High School or by calling 920-822-6800.

Newsies is based on the Newboys Strike of July 1899 and is adapted from the 1992 Disney film. It was first produced on Broadway in 2012. The show is fictional but based on real people. Joseph Pulitzer wasn’t actually in New York during the strike, and Gov. Theodore Roosevelt didn’t actually intervene. Newsies leaders Kid Blink and Morris Cohen were the inspiration for Jack Kelly and Nellie Bly inspired Katherine Plumber.

When the newspaper publishers decide to raise the cost of the newspapers for the newsies to buy, the newsies go on strike to change unfair labor practices. Jack Kelly (played by Caleb Miller) and Davey (Marcus Moss) unite the newsies to strike against newspaper goliath Joseph Pulitzer (Benjamin Petroll). Katherine Plumber (Ava Baenen) documents the process and publishes stories in the newspaper. Other newsies are played by Amber Ahlswede, Ryan Bouchard, Alyssa Bruckert, Adrian Caylor, Trentin Dauk, Hannah Dornfeld, Connor Heezen, T.J. Hock, Marie Kraning, Rylee Miller, Cole O’Brien, Alyssa Rettke, Giselle Rottier, Lauryn Wessely, Caleb Wilinski, Mickey Wirtz and Autumn Wood.

The cast is completed by Evan Brenkus, Riley Brown, Allison Carter, Abigail Cheney, Oriana Cheney, Hunter Chrisman, Grace Christiansen, Regina Clark, Bailey Denny, Grace Drake, Jessica Goska, Abby Harris, Allie Huber, Amelia Lara, Braydon Lom, Gavin Mangold, Heidi Matz, Avery McCallum, Sienna Potts, Jade Sampo, Lindsey Seaquist, Ethan Theoharopoulos, Jena Truckenbrod, Joanna Vesterdall, Katelyn Wessely, Bailey White, Karissa Willette, Gracelyn Williquette and Brittney Winter.

Members of the orchestra are, piano, Karen Rafn; keyboard, Cecilia Maroszek; keyboard, Corinne Galligan; flute/piccolo, Victoria Vaile; clarinet, Maddie Wendrick; saxophones, Ben Evenson; trombones, Sarah Kurowski; trumpet, Shawn Postell; bass, Will Voelker; guitar, Kaiden Crouse; drum set, Scottie Smith; and auxiliary percussion, Alyssa Uttech, Ella Sobieck and Hadyn Sobieck.

Stage crew members are, lighting, Nick Diefenthaler and Rachel Page; spotlights, Heather Le Comte and Nicholas Symons; soundboard, Gavin Naumann and Jacob Spredeman. Working backstage are Ashunti Allen, Jayden Lepp, Haley Brabant, Iyana Ramey, Jade Chrisman, Kiley VanSchyndel, Sinai Guzman, Hannah VanEnkevort, Coreena Hernandez and Ruby VanZeeland.

Amy Tubbs is the director. Kathryn Brown is the choir director. Melissa Welsing is in charge of choreography. Others helping with the musical are Jackson Smith, orchestra director; Spencer Karls, scenic designer/crew chief; Bryan Brown, sound designer; Kimberlee Miller, lines rehearsal/characterization director; Rolean Wernicke, costume designer.

There are plenty of letters and numbers in the kindergarten classrooms at Bonduel Elementary School.

There are also pirate ships.

These are not from pictures in a storybook, but actual reproductions of pirate ships. One even has a flag with the skull and crossbones.

In a pre-kindergarten classroom, there’s a McDonald’s drive-thru, a Starbucks counter and other places where you would normally get stuff to eat and drink.

These settings do more than give students a chance to play. They also provide opportunities to learn.

Bonduel recently adopted the Tools of the Mind curriculum for its kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classrooms. The curriculum is based on the work of psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who believed that play was the best medium to incorporate learning for young minds and help them become critical thinkers.

The curriculum was adopted in 2017 by the nearby Gillett School District, and Gillett staff helped Bonduel teachers to learn methods necessary.

“It’s really great for teaching self-regulation with the students,” said Heidi Cynor, one of the pre-kindergarten teachers. “There is a lot of play-based learning, which we find the kids really need.”

Tools of the Mind operates under the philosophy that it takes more than a teacher teaching students how to read, write their letters and numbers and do basic math.

“There’s research out there that kids learn so much more with hands-on and tactile, and this program really encompasses a lot of that,” said Corinne Salerno, who teaches kindergarten.

Salerno said there’s usually a week of background building with learning units, where the classrooms build the props. With the pirate unit, the students are building the ship, making eyes patches and pirate hats, creating an island hideout and more.

“There are five ebooks (on the units) online, and they teach to the new (state) science and social studies standards,” Salerno said. “There’s a lot of vocabulary and then they do some writing about something that they’ve learned.”

Kindergarten teacher Jenny Kray said that, while the previous teaching methods were effective in promoting learning through their “strong, structured” styles, Tools of the Mind allows learning to be more child-centered instead of teacher-directed, focusing on the standards first.

“A lot of the knowledge that they’re getting, they’re carrying over on their own,” Kray said. “They have their own free choice, and they’re doing some writing. Some of the students have gone home and told their parents they want to go to ancient Egypt.”

Cyron said the restaurant theme in her classroom is a little more basic than what the kindergarten students are learning.

“They can do things like sorting the food by type and color, sorting out all the vegetables,” Cyron said. “They can do math where they have to take the orders, and they’re practicing great social skills where they might have been working on their own on something with the curriculum, but now they have to work on their math with a friend.”

Sara Hyska, who teaches pre-kindergarten, said Tools of the Mind helps to bring literacy and math to the whole classroom. Before, teachers would have literacy in certain stations around the classroom and math in other stations, but now the way students are learning are in areas where both subjects meld.

“There’s math in every single spot, and there’s literacy in every single spot,” Hyska said. “They have buddies to check their work, so the self-regulation’s built into that. They have to listen to what their buddy says and remember that.”

The teachers all noted marked improvement in behavioral issues. Instead of having to constantly tell a student whose attention is wandering to focus or get a student who is misbehaving to stop, the students are regulating themselves.

They all sang the praises of Tools of the Mind, noting that there is constant teacher training and evaluation. Salerno said the trainers constantly do class visits and gives pointers to the teachers if they have any questions.

“Gillett has been a constant resource for us,” Salerno said.

Kray said she believes the way they’re learning in the kindergarten and pre-kindergarten will allow them to work independently.

“We think the positive behavior will carry over into other grades,” Kray said.

School principal Brad Grayvold believes learning via the Tools of the Mind concept goes beyond the basics and provides his school’s youngest students with the ability to comprehend some of the more complex things going on outside of the classroom.

“The children come out with a broad base content knowledge, and they’re really building that on a daily basis, where their knowledge of the outside world is at a much higher level,” Grayvold said.

Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay will be at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Shawano to update the public on his strategic plan for Catholic schools. The presentation will be held Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. in the gymnasium.

A year ago, Ricken unveiled his “Disciples on the Way: Strategic and Mission Plan for Catholic Schools” initiative. He said the key steps to vibrant schools built upon missionary discipleship circle around the students, staff, education, operations and funding. Sacred Heart was chosen to be the site of Ricken’s follow-up address this month.

The event will also include a few words by Todd Blahnik, superintendent of Catholic schools for the diocese.

The seventh annual Menominee Indian School District Scholarship Gala will take place on March 29 at the Menominee Casino & Resort Conference Center from 5-9 p.m.

All proceeds go to MISD’s scholarship fund. With the help of countless sponsors and donors over the last six years, the MISD has raised more than $135,000 in scholarship funds, resulting in 88 scholarships for students pursuing post-secondary education.

The event features nonstop activities including meat raffles, bucket raffles, dinner, a live auction and first-hand accounts from MIHS alumni on how scholarships had a positive impact on their ability to stay in school.

The gala committee is now accepting sponsorships for the gala, including event, meat wheel, dessert, live auction and corporate table sponsors. Sponsorships range from $600 for a corporate/organization table to $3,000 for event sponsors. Sponsors receive promotional consideration, signage and tickets to the event.

“Each year, more of our students are choosing to pursue secondary education, which is fantastic, but many struggle to stay in school because of lack of financial resources,” said MISD Superintendent Wendell Waukau. “We rely on the community stepping forward to help raise scholarship dollars to ensure these students’ success and help them achieve their dreams of a degree.”

For information, contact Waukau at 715-799-3824, ext. 6010.

Sacred Heart Catholic School will be celebrating National Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1 with the theme of “God’s Winning Team.”

Sacred Heart Catholic School is the only Catholic school in Shawano County.

The school will officially kick off the week on Sunday with a 10:45 a.m. family Mass at Sacred Heart Parish. Following Mass, the school will open its doors to the whole community for a free and family friendly open house event from noon to 2:30 p.m.

The family-friendly event will feature free snacks, door prizes, school and classroom exploration, as well as fun activities for all ages and abilities, such as Kindness Rock Painting and Friendship Bracelet making. The large group activities, supersized ball pong, hungry human hippos, and Hoop Hustle will be in the gymnasium.

Enrollment information will be available during the open house and is also located in the school lobby and Sacred Heart Parish gathering space.

The school is also starting a collection of socks and large puzzle books for residents of local nursing home through a collaboration with Sacred Heart Parish’s human concerns committee. A drop box will be available in the school lobby for any one that wishes to contribute and help support the elderly in our community.

Each day of this week the students will be engaged in classroom and school-wide activities. Each class will be decorating its door around the week’s theme, too, and the doors will then be voted on at the open house with the winning classroom earning a special prize.

On Monday, the school will kick off its week long penny war in support of Habitat for Humanity, dancing with the Go-Noodle app, and singing songs.

On Tuesday, the school has Spirit Day that includes team building activities, and welcomes Bishop David Ricken of the Green Bay Diocese for his diocesan-wide update on Catholic schools at 2 p.m. in the gymnasium.

Students, staff, and community members will honor local law enforcement officers, government leaders, and retired/active members of the military during their all-school Mass at 8:15 a.m. in Sacred Heart Parish. The Mass will include the procession of the American flag, a blessing for the special guests, and the singing of the National Anthem. All are welcome to attend.

Students and staff also get to enjoy ice skating, hot cocoa, and cookies on Wednesday.

Thursday’s festivities will include another all-school Mass celebrated with Ricken, followed by small group activities with the bishop, which the students are so looking forward to.

The school will conclude Catholic Schools Week next Friday with its Special Persons Day that includes a presentation by “Rock On, Kindness-Pay it Forward” creator and author, Stephani Curran, an all-school Mass, ham luncheon and spelling bee.

For information, call 715-526-5328, email agee@sacredheartshawano.org, or find Sacred Heart on Facebook.

When Pulaski Community Middle School seventh-grade band director Jackson Smith lifts his baton to lead a combined band of grades 6-12 on Sunday, the 366 musicians will play an original three-part work written by Delafield composer Rick Kirby especially for the Pulaski Community School District.

The band will play the piece around 2 p.m. at Sunday’s annual Pulaski High School Music Boosters Chilirific Musicpalooza fundraiser from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Pulaski High School. At the fundraiser, the PHS and PCMS bands will perform along with PHS choir groups and PHS and PCMS jazz groups. The event also featured all-you-can-eat chili, sandwiches, milk and coffee. Dessert is also available.

The Pulaski Music Boosters funded the entire composition project.

The first section of “A Midwestern Trilogy” is titled “The Beginnings.” This piece uses galop-like rhythm throughout the section as a tribute to cavalryman Casimir Pulaski, after whom the village is named. (The galop is a lively ballroom dance in duple time, popular in the late 18th century.)

The second, more peaceful section, is “Tranquility” and is representative of peace and well-being as settlers developed their farm lands and harvested the abundant lumber in the area.

The third section is “Celebration,” a rousing and joyful polka. Although not a traditional polka, it takes many of its rhythmic and melodic characteristics from this dance.

Kirby — a long-time music educator at the high school and college levels — retired in 2001 to pursue a career as a composer and arranger. He estimated he has composed and published about 500 pieces of music over the years. He was in Pulaski on Tuesday and Wednesday to work with band students in preparation for Sunday’s performance.

Kirby said he has worked with many school districts and the Pulaski district ranks high.

“Pulaski should be very proud about their band program,” he said. “All the kids have been great. They are very serious about what they are playing.”

PCMS eighth-grade band director Tim Kozlovsky said he approached Kirby a year ago to write something especially for the band students to perform. Students performed a Kirby composition that was commissioned by Fond du Lac High School at last year’s Chilirific event.

PCSD music teachers who commissioned the piece and who have been working with students who will perform the piece on Sunday are Thomas Busch and Michael Guerrero at PHS and Kozlovsky, Smith and Michelle Henslin at PCMS.

The winter musical for Shawano Community High School is going swimmingly as more than 75 students prepare to show “The Little Mermaid” to the public next week.

Most of the show will be familiar to those who saw the Disney film, as the musical also tells the Disney tale. However, there will be a few more songs that help extend a 90-minute movie into a live show that lasts beyond two hours.

For those who have not seen the film, the story of “The Little Mermaid” follows a girl named Ariel who falls hopelessly in love for a prince. The problem is that the prince walks on land, while she gets around on fins.

To further add drama, her father, Triton, the king of the seas, is against Ariel being with anyone on land, so in a fit of teenage rebellion, she heads off to see the villainous sea witch, Ursula, in search of a pair of legs. Ursula agrees to give Ariel legs, but the mermaid only has three days to get the prince to kiss her, or she becomes a mermaid and Ursula’s slave — and she must woo the prince without her lovely singing voice.

Alex Konen, who directs the school’s fall plays and has helped with musicals the last few years, was tapped to direct this year’s show after longtime choir director Jonathon Kent retired in 2018. Konen admitted there are more moving parts to directing a musical than with a show that doesn’t require singing and dancing.

“There were a couple of different shows I was looking at (to be the winter musical), and there was one that was more comfortable to me — I’d done it before — but then they put these really weird restrictions on the advertising,” Konen said. “So I said, ‘Whoa, let’s pump the brakes.’”

Konen’s priority for this year was to get a musical that was fun and upbeat. He wanted something that the entire community would want to come see.

“‘The Little Mermaid’ seemed to have a good mix,” Konen said. “Some of the characters can be cast as female characters, even if it’s technically a boy part in the Disney version. It really gave us some flexibility to move some things around as we needed to.”

Konen said that all of the classic songs like “Under the Sea” and “Poor Unfortunate Souls” are in the stage adaptation, but there will be some that audiences will be less familiar with if they’ve only seen the film.

“There’s a song in there between the father and the daughter, lamenting how their relationship is fracturing,” Konen said. “We get a song with the seagulls, and Scuttle is trying to teach Ariel to walk. In the movie, it’s just, ‘Oh, you’ve got to get up and you’ve gotta go.’ In here, there’s a whole dance number to try and get her on her feet.”

There are almost 50 students on the stage, followed by another 20 performing in the orchestra pit and about a dozen working as technicians behind the scenes.

“There are a lot of moving pieces at this point,” Konen said.

One of those moving pieces is the choreography, and Konen brought in a former student, Laura Arens, to map out the dance numbers.

“They actually come out into the audience with one of their numbers around the pit,” Konen said. “Laura has spent a number of years doing dance, and she came back and was willing to help us out.”

Even though the story of “The Little Mermaid” was familiar to the actors, learning different ways to sing the classic songs was a hurdle, according to Konen.

“That’s one thing that we warned them about starting out was that, because it’s music you’re familiar with, you have to be careful because some of the notes or melodies are different than what you’ve been belting out in your living room for the last 10 years,” Konen said.

No school means no lunch for thousands of Wisconsin’s economically disadvantaged children in summer. To help feed hungry kids when school is not in session, the Department of Public Instruction is seeking new and renewal sponsors for the Summer Food Service Program.

“Many families struggle to provide food for their children throughout the year, but especially so during the summer when the School Breakfast and National School Lunch programs aren’t running,” said State Superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor. “The Summer Food Service Program helps close a nutrition gap for children in communities throughout the state.”

While the most common sponsor has been local school districts that combine a meal program with their summer school sessions, nonprofit organizations, summer camps and government entities can also serve as sponsors. Last year, 240 sponsors provided 2.9 million free meals to children from low-income families at 965 sites statewide, an increase of 60 sites from the prior year.

For information on the Summer Food Service Program or sponsorship opportunities, call Amy Kolano at 608-266-7124 or visit https://dpi.wi.gov.

Newspaper subscribers tend to get irritated when they don’t get the news delivered on time, but imagine that the late deliveries are on purpose.

That scenario is at the center of “Newsies,” a musical being performed by Pulaski High School this weekend and next. The musical is based on the 1992 film, which was based on the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City.

The show follows a ragtag band of newspaper delivery boys as they struggle to make a living delivering the news. Many of them are living on the streets, and others are delivering papers to help their families put food on the table. That living is put in jeopardy when Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, hikes the price for the newsies to purchase their papers to sell. After finding that the other papers in the city are planning to follow suit, the newsies, led by Jack Kelly, decide to go on strike.

At first, the strike goes badly, with one of the newsies beaten and taken to the Refuge, a juvenile detention center. Things take another turn when it’s revealed that Jack had previously stolen food and clothing. Despite the efforts of an enterprising young reporter named Katherine, who gets her story about the strike on the front page, things seem bleak until a solution is figured out that will get Gov. Theodore Roosevelt involved.

Until recently, “Newsies” wasn’t available for high school groups to perform, according to director Amy Tubbs. But after the rights were released to high schools in March 2018, Pulaski was among a number of schools, including Green Bay Preble and Appleton North, to select the show and bring the charming tale to northeast Wisconsin audiences.

“We have a lot of great dancers and some really strong actors,” Tubbs said. “Everybody’s super stoked about it.”

The musical went on Broadway in 2012, according to Tubbs, and usually when shows are performing in that venue, they’re not available for community or school theater groups to perform.

“For whatever reason, Disney finally said, ‘OK, high schools can do this now,’” Tubbs said.

To prepare the students for their roles, Tubbs made sure a lot of time was spent on the historical context of the musical and why it was such a gripping and dramatic story for its day. However, the story was nothing new to them, as the movie came out only a few years before they were born.

“We looked at some films, and we got some information about it,” Tubbs said. “The kids, when we started out, I think they knew the show better than anyone, because they grew up with the movie, and then Broadway did a release as a movie a while back. They’ve seen it, and they know it. So when we announced ‘Newsies,’ they were just ecstatic.”

The story is one where the little guys have to fight against the big corporations and their greed, and in true musical fashion, they do it with a song in their hearts.

“Pulitzer and the other publishers realize their profits aren’t where they want them to be, and so they decided that, instead of raising the price of the newspaper for the customers, they were going to charge the newsies more to buy the paper,” Tubbs said. “Basically, the newsies were going to bear the brunt of losing profits, so all of a sudden, it became harder for them to make a living.”

The show has required some additional rehearsals, according to Tubbs, as the newsies perform in quite a few different dance numbers, and they have to sing as they’re spinning around the stage.

“It has been hard to find enough time to work on all the things that they want to do,” said Tubbs, who noted that the three days area schools were closed last week due to the weather necessitated bringing the students in for an additional all-day rehearsal Sunday.

Tubbs noted that the show is mostly true to script, but Pulaski has added its own flavor to it.

“Some things might look a little different, so it’s not going to be like seeing the same exact show,” Tubbs said, not elaborating on the differences. “I’m sure there are expectations from our audience about seeing certain things.”

Throughout the months of January and February, David Kaiser, principal at St. James Lutheran School, has visited his preschool students at their homes for a unique learning experience.

Kaiser asked for the parents of each of the preschoolers to sign up for a time where he would be able to come to the preschooler’s home and read a bedtime story on the couch to each student. Kaiser asked for each of the preschoolers to wear their pajamas so right after he left, the parents would be able to send their preschoolers to bed.

When he arrived to a student’s home, Kaiser was not wearing a suit and tie like the students see him in during the school day. Instead, the principal was wearing a pair of flannel pajamas, a sleep hat, a bathrobe and a pair of chicken slippers.

“I am trying to show each young student that he or she should be reading not just at school, but at home as well,” Kaiser said. “I feel that schools need to do a better job of encouraging recreational reading, as well as the reading required for school coursework. Travel was a bit dicey at times, but the students are too important to miss an appointment.”

Not only did the child get to have the principal visit for a bedtime story, the child also got to keep the book that he or she chose. Knowing that cold weather was coming, students were also able to choose a cocoa mug, a packet of cocoa and a free T-shirt. The reading program ends in the middle of February.

Beans and Books bookstore and Thrivent Financial donated generously to allow the preschool reading program to take place.

Michelle Powers’ 4-year-old kindergarten class at Sacred Heart Catholic School talked about what it can do for others this school year. They decided to raise the funds to adopt a llama for a family in Bolivia.

The llama will provide milk and wool for the family.

“It is important for my students to understand that the world is bigger than themselves, and that even at 4 years old, they can help people far, far away,” Powers said.

This time of year is also close to the 100th day of school and Valentine’s Day. Since each llama costs $100, it ties everything together for their Llamas of Love project.

Sacred Heart recently did numerous service projects for the local homeless shelter, food pantry and women’s emergency shelter, so Powers wanted to stretch her class’s project beyond the local community to promote international outreach. So far, the students are more than a third of the way toward their goal, and they will keep working at it until they earn at least $100.

To help the students practice writing, for every donation that is received, they are writing the donor’s name on a paper llama and hanging it on the display in the school’s lobby. The class also prepared a presentation and went classroom to classroom to kick off their service project and get others excited about participating.

To donate, call the school’s office at 715-526-5328 or mail a labeled donation to the school at 124 E. Center St., Shawano, WI 54166. The entire project booklet can be viewed at https://www.catholicfoundationgb.org/projects-available-booklet.

In celebration of Catholic Schools Week, students at Sacred Heart Catholic School created a large mosaic of Jesus carrying the cross. Under the direction of new art teacher Emma Follett, the project was not only a lesson in creativity but one of faith and cooperation as well.

“While teaching the students about mosaics was important to my classroom curriculum, my main goal was to come together and realize how art can communicate and celebrate our Catholic mission,” Follett said.

To create the mosaic, Follett used a black background as well as many colors of scrap paper that were recycled from previous projects. Second- and third-grade students held the reins for the art project, but she said some students from fourth and eighth grades volunteered to help, as well.

The bits of paper used for the mosaic were all different — some imperfect or frayed around the edges. Midway through the project, some of the students struggled to see how the image would come together.

“It provided a beautiful lesson in trusting God’s plan,” Follett said. “We are just like the pieces of the mosaic; though we may not understand the full picture, God has a beautiful plan for us.”

The mosaic is hanging in the hallway at Sacred Heart for students, staff, parents and visitors to admire.

Sacred Heart Catholic School’s eighth grade science class, instructed by Scott Marohl, created soda geysers on Feb. 22.

The experiment was a part of STEM education, a curriculum based on four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Students were to draw on the scientific method, and construct hypotheses about the reactions of Sprite, Mellow Yellow, root beer and Coca-Cola when candy Runts, Mentos and Nerds were dropped into each of them.

Students had to hypothesize as to which soda andcandy combination would create the largest geyser. Then, the experiment was conducted to test their hypothesis. Finally, the results were analyzed and shared to determine if the hypothesis was true, partially true, or false.

By conducting this experiment, the class was able to draw the conclusion that the combination of Mentos and Coca-Cola produced the largest geyser, while Sprite did not react with any of the candies.

The overall goal of this experiment was to practice the scientific method, practice safety in experimental situations, and practice communication and team-building skills.

Pulaski High School has another reason to celebrate beyond the week-long community festival in the village of Pulaski.

The school received the coveted Spirit of Excellence Award on Monday, an award sponsored by the Wisconsin Association of School Councils, Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, Wisconsin Athletic Directors Association, Milwaukee Bucks and the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association.

Although Monday was the school’s celebration, the Red Raiders will be recognized throughout the year. Another awards ceremony is scheduled for halftime at the April 7 Bucks game, recognition at a WASC conference April 28, continuous recognition on Fox Sports Network and a promotional spot airing during the WIAA State Boys and Girls Basketball Tournaments.

The award is not one geared toward strictly athletics or one specific aspect of a school. PHS received the award for excellence in multiple categories — including leadership development, school spirit, sportsmanship and service to school and community.

“Through demonstrations in leadership, academics, sportsmanship, athletics and other dimensions, the Pulaski Community School District embodies the ideals of this award in that it was founded on tradition and pride and is truly focused on excellence,” said Jack Walker, PHS student council president, during a speech at Monday’s awards ceremony.

The student council put in many hours creating a portfolio that highlighted the best of the school, according to Sara Diehlmann, one of the student council’s advisers.

“I think we were all surprised,” Diehlmann said following the ceremony. “It’s a big undertaking, but they all came together and did a really good job. We were super excited when the principal came and told us that we won.”

This is the first year that Pulaski has submitted its name for consideration, which makes it all the more exciting for the community.

“I truly can’t think of another school that is more deserving than Pulaski High School to receive this award,” said Michelle Grath, executive director for WASC, to the crowd. “The leadership of your high school, as well as the leadership you’ve demonstrated athletically, academically, in the arts and all else truly sets the bar for the state of Wisconsin.”

The award was created more than 13 years ago to recognize excellence in schools, according to Todd Clark, WIAA director of communications and advanced media.

“This award was created to recognize the good and positive things happening in our schools throughout the year,” Clark said.

PHS has more than 1,100 students within its halls, and 90 percent of them participate in at least one co-curricular activity, according to school principal Jeremy Pach. There are 46 clubs in addition to the athletic and artistic venues available to the district, Pach said.

The high school also has a community service day where students go out and help to improve the lives of their friends and neighbors. The school is also open late into the night for community organizations that utilize the building, according to Pach.

“This is the hub of our community,” Pach said.

Walker said the award shows an accurate representation of what goes on in the Pulaski community.

“I think the culture at Pulaski High School is very welcoming in that there are different things for our students to participate in,” Walker said. “Whether it’s academics or athletics, there’s something for everyone to get involved in and develop a passion.”

The fourth annual spring Free Clothing Swap is scheduled for April 6 at Bonduel Elementary School, 400 W. Mill St., Bonduel. It will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the school cafeteria.

Under the “Give What You Can, Take What You Need” theme, donations of clothing will be accepted in the elementary school office from March 18 through April 5. Families are encouraged to donate any outgrown or not-needed clothing that is clean, in good condition and sorted by size; no rips, holes or stains.

Requested items include shirts, pants and jeans, skirts and dresses, leggings, sweats, winter jackets, snowpants, winter boots, shorts, sneakers/gym shoes and sport-specific shoes, such as those for baseball, soccer, basketball, etc. Items that will not be accepted include swimsuits, socks and underwear (unless brand new and in original packaging), hair accessories and other non-clothing items.

In addition to donations, volunteers are also being sought. For information or to volunteer, contact Kris Wondra at wondrkri@bonduel.k12.wi.us or call the school at 715-758-4850.

The fourth annual spring Free Clothing Swap is scheduled for April 6 at Bonduel Elementary School, 400 W. Mill St., Bonduel. It will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the school cafeteria.

Under the “Give What You Can, Take What You Need” theme, donations of clothing will be accepted in the elementary school office from March 18 through April 5. Families are encouraged to donate any outgrown or not-needed clothing that is clean, in good condition and sorted by size; no rips, holes or stains.

Requested items include shirts, pants and jeans, skirts and dresses, leggings, sweats, winter jackets, snowpants, winter boots, shorts, sneakers/gym shoes and sport-specific shoes, such as those for baseball, soccer, basketball, etc. Items that will not be accepted include swimsuits, socks and underwear (unless brand new and in original packaging), hair accessories and other non-clothing items.

In addition to donations, volunteers are also being sought. For information or to volunteer, contact Kris Wondra at wondrkri@bonduel.k12.wi.us or call the school at 715-758-4850.