Schools

The Middleton-Cross Plains Area Board of Education on Monday night voted unanimously to move ahead with plans to expand Sunset Ridge Elementary.

The current estimated cost for the project is about $1.39 million, but the  figure won’t firm up until construction bids come back to the school board for review in the spring.

The proposal, which is intended to alleviate overcrowding, calls for a total of four new classrooms, including one for art, one for music, and two for core curriculum.

While a successful referendum in 2012 allows the district to exceed levy limits and spend just under $60 million to expand and upgrade Kromrey Middle School in the City of Middleton and Glacier Creek Middle School in the Village of Cross Plains, the Sunset Ridge project in the Town of Middleton will come out of the district’s existing fund balance.

Members of Middleton High School’s Key Club on Monday night appeared before the Middleton-Cross Plains Area Board of Education, laying out their ambitious plans to host a Relay for Life event from 6 p.m. April 20 to 6 a.m. April 21.

For some local students, the toughest question they’ll ever face isn’t on a test, and it doesn’t come from a teacher. It comes in the form of a single word, followed by a colon and a daunting blank space, on an enrollment application.

Nearly 500 Middleton High School seniors will learn about the dangers of texting and driving and be encouraged to sign a pledge to never text behind the wheel during an event at the school on Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 8:40 a.m.

Middleton High School is teaming up with AT&T, AAA and the Wisconsin State Patrol in a public awareness campaign to urge the school’s students, and all Wisconsin drivers, that text messages can – and should – wait until after driving.

The school assembly will feature AAA’s distracted driving simulator, where seniors will have the chance to experience firsthand the dangers of texting and driving.  Students will also be shown an AT&T documentary called “The Last Text” that shares real stories about lives altered by someone’s decision to text and drive.

Two young brothers took home silver and gold from a recent spelling bee in the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District (MCPASD).

Colin Butler, an eighth-grader at Glacier Creek, won the District Spelling Bee, which took place at the Performing Arts Center.

More than 100 students competed in the bee, which lasted approximately three hours. The event is organized by the MCPASD advanced learning team. It is open to all elementary and middle school students in the district.

“We have some great spellers,” said Ruth Bachmeier, who attended most of the event and works in the district’s communications department.

The championship became a family affair as Graham Butler, Colin’s younger brother who is a fifth-grader at West Middleton, earned second place. Anders Burck, a sixth-grader at Kromrey, took third.

It was a record-setting day for the MHS DECA students at the District 3 Conference on Saturday, Jan. 12 in Sun Prairie.

Seventeen MHS students were named series champions, DECA adviser Bob Hutchison said. For comparison, five students were series champions a year ago. In all, 38 MHS students competed.

The students performed role plays based on scenarios they would encounter if they had a job in marketing. The students also took multiple choice tests to measure their knowledge on marketing and economic concepts.

Students won medals based on their performance on the tests and role plays. The judges gave medals to the top two students in each role play, while medals were given to the top 20 percent on tests.

The MHS series champions were:

When a lion cub stalks a fallen tree branch, it’s actually honing skills it will need to become an efficacious hunter. When two puppies wrestle, they are developing a physical vocabulary that will allow them to successfully interact in an adult canine hierarchy.

The U.S. Congress could learn a thing or two from MHS students.

MHS students passed 10 of 15 bills that they voted upon during two legislative sessions held in December. The bills were part of the new semester-long U.S. Government and Politics class.  

The course was developed by a team of social studies teachers as part of the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District curriculum renewal process and has been three years in the making.  

“I was very pleased with the job the students did,’’ said David Piovanetti, one of the class instructors. “They took their roles as lawmakers seriously and acted professionally.’’

For three months, students studied the legislative process, researched issues and drafted their own bills. On Nov. 15, more than 300 students participated in the inaugural Hearing Day. The session simulated the U.S. legislative committee hearing process, Piovanetti said.

When authorities began tracking a Mexican national suspected of killing 19-year-old Antonio Perez, they didn’t know the fugitive’s whereabouts.

In fact, they weren’t even sure if the suspect, a Middleton High School student, was a teenager or a man in his early 20s. The person they sought also went by three names: Ivan Mateo-Lozenzo, Alberto Ramirez and Arain Gutierrez.

The two-and-a-half year investigation that followed culminated December 28 in the arrest of the individual now known as Arain Gutierrez. He was captured in Cancun, Mexico.

His real age is yet to be verified, according to authorities.

Gutierrez was awaiting extradition as of this newspaper’s press time, but the incident long ago prompted local school officials to reexamine how they verify the identities of their pupils. (A law enforcement agent familiar with the case said extradition of Gutierrez could take as long as a year.)

Several MHS biology students found out what it's like to work in the field last month.

Jeff Erickson and Dan Drangstveit took 18 students to the Sandhill Wildlife Center on Dec. 13 and 14 to work with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources biologist Dick Thiel and a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student.

The students explored research techniques used to study timberwolves, porcupines, and bison, Erickson said. They also studied the natural history of these animals.