B-T school board approves full-day 4K

At their last meeting the Blair-Taylor school board approved the district to begin an all-day four-year-old kindergarden program, expected to begin next year.

The program’s staffing is expected to cost the district roughly “$80,000 on the high end,” according to superintendent Jeff Eide. There was no mention of additional classrooms being added to the building but will instead be scheduled into existing classrooms. 

“We’re a little tight but the school meets our needs at this time,” Eide said.

In his superintendent’s report, Eide relayed that he has been selected to be a district administrator representative  on the Agriculture Education and Workforce Development Council. Eide said the council is comprised of private industry education and state government representatives with the mission to attract, develop and retain the premium workforce required to grow Wisconsin’s agriculture industry, food and natural resource systems. The council aims to increase hiring and retention of qualified employees, promote coordination of educational systems, and recommend policies to improve development and provision of education related to the aforementioned industries. 

Justin Shramek was approved to replace Hank Kujak who has decided to step down from his position as assistant baseball coach due to time constraints. Schramek has prior experience coaching middle school football, wrestling and baseball. 

The district is planning a day of recognition for the work that went into creating the school’s new nature case on Wednesday, April 22, which is also Earth Day. More information is to come at the boards next meeting. 

The board will consider including trap shooting as a letter sport and if approved would join districts like Black River Falls and Alma Center Lincoln that already include trap as a lettering sport. 

Vocal instructor Dean Witz presented the board and those in attendance to a rendition of a possible Blair-Taylor alma mater. Witz said he thought of writing the arrangement because the district is nearing its 30th year as a joint district but still doesn’t have an official school song. Witz said that while he created the initial arrangement, he also had some help from friend Andrew Kinney, an orchestrator for a number of films including Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jumanji and Call of the Wild.