WLVA and Sac School Boards educate citizen who lacks knowledge of ESC school life

SAC CITY, IOWA – FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Following is a transcript of the conversation regarding Jerry Volkert’s concerns about the inadequacies of East Sac County School. Everything between brackets “[ ]” is inserted by the editor. If the editor encountered a portion of the conversation that was not intelligible, he inserted [UNINTELLIGIBLE] in place of the words that were spoken. All stammering was removed for readability.

SHIRLEY PHILLIPS
New business: public request to address the board, and that would be [UNINTELLIGIBLE] Jerry Volkert. You’re on.

JERRY VOLKERT
All right.

Well, as some of you know, I taught school here in industrial arts for [UNINTELLIGIBLE] years and I have always maintained that a very strong feeling towards the school and I just want to make some comments that, ( I think others feel the same way,) that we want to have the best education for our children that we can have and if nitpicking and arguing about where this goes and who gets this and so forth is going to detract from the students and their education then I think you as a board need to come together and say is this the right thing to do.

Now one of the things that I have asked to be on here right now is because it isn’t going to be long before you join as one and I would like to see, (and I think others would,) I would like to see balance between the towns and the school, the school buildings and the school activity centers per se. I think that things have been dropped that were very, very good for the students and I don’t know why.

I have some very good friends in Nemaha, Early, Schaller and one of the things that I found in talking to them is that is that they emphasized a balance when the two schools came together, (or the three schools actually,) came together so that each community could feel that they had a fair share, if that’s the right terminology. Everything didn’t go one place or the other and if you get one, I get one and so on and I think this is something that, (and I know the people, many of the people in Sac City,) that feel that our school’s activities primarily are going south and I’m not absolutely certain it is entirely true, but I have a gut feeling, just like several people have that this is happening; that we have lost several things that, while I was in school, I thought were very, very good and I’ll give you some examples.

One of the things that, (I guess Brent is the only one I can address on this because he was the only one that was there at the time this early discussion was made, but,) was there any discussion as to where the high school and the middle school would be located?

BRENT WILHELM
When? I mean, when are you talking about, there were lots of discussions that happened about locations.

JERRY VOLKERT
When this process began.

BRENT WILHELM
Yes.

FEMALE
Yes.

JERRY VOLKERT
How about balance? Was there any discussion about keeping things in balance, as even as possible?

BRENT WILHELM
Yes.

JERRY VOLKERT
Okay. Do you feel that-

BRENT WILHELM
Absolutely.

JERRY VOLKERT
Okay. Then I think some people have, I won’t go into that.

One of the things that has really bothered me and that is last, (I don’t remember now whether it was,) November or December a petition was presented around the town, and I don’t know how many signatures, but a lot of signatures were on this petition and I have copies of this that if you want to see it and my question is, what happened to it? I don’t believe it was ever discussed in a school board meeting to the point where it was never in the paper and so I’m wondering if there are things on here that I think are quite important. I’ve highlighted some for myself.

One of the things that was requested was to establish a separate voting districts for the school district and school events and activities would be shared and rotated to each school. I don’t know if that’s part of the plan. To ensure representation will be shared by all those that are involved in the communities and not located in any area, the voters should establish two members from each of the school boards and one at large, which I know that hasn’t happened.

Things such as, (and these are the things that I remember,) homecoming coronation should be returned to the traditional evening for the coronation. I don’t know how many of you, (I know Mike and Frank, Jack,) some of you know what Skit Night was, and when we were in school, (when I was teaching school,) Skit Night was Thursday night prior to homecoming and each class, high school class, was given an opportunity to put on a skit and it was in the theme, but it was put on by the students, there was a sponsor but the sponsors were not to do-

VIDEO CUTS FOR A FEW SECONDS AT THIS POINT

-the inflammatory things that go on and I tell ya that Sac’s auditorium was packed by six thirty and it didn’t start till seven thirty and people thought it was tremendous. I think it’s a shame we don’t have that again. I think that we need high school and middle school dances because this is a chance for these kids to socialize and get together. Valentine’s Dance. Commencement, prom, middle school. I think It’s gotta be more than just athletics, I think it’s gotta be more than who gets the football field and who gets the basketball court and who gets the this and who gets that. I think it’s all these things combined, and I think a lot of it is that the students themselves are getting short changed because we’re not allowing them to have these activities again and I think it’s a shame.

KEVIN FIENE
Jerry have you, I’m sorry, are you basing that on your opinion and your experience or because you’re talking to the kids and have any data to support that. Is that, do you understand the question?

SHANNON MAHANNA
There was a middle school dance.

JERRY VOLKERT
Pardon?

SHANNON MAHANNAH
There was a middle school dance.

CHRIS RODMAN
And there’s another one coming.

MARTI HUSER
There’s one tomorrow night.

EVERYONE TALKING AT ONCE

KEVIN FIENE
Well I don’t want to get bogged down in details, but you’re making that statement, is that based on discussions with kids or your perception of how it has been.

JERRY VOLKERT
It’s more my perception

KEVIN FIENE
Fair enough.

JERRY VOLKERT
Right.

KEVIN FIENE
Thank you.

JERRY VOLKERT
And I think that all of you feel that what’s best for the students is what your job is and it’s got to be all encompassing, it can’t be just who has the best team, who has the smartest math student, It’s everything. I will tell you this that I am absolutely sick to my stomach that the Industrial Arts Department that I had is no longer there because it was the best shop in western Iowa. [UNINTELLIGIBLE] Jack will go along with it, I think Mike will. It must have had something, that we got some of my former students that have done very well so I really, I just want to say that I’m concerned that we add emphasis to everything and not just a few things, that’s what I want, and I appreciate your time.

MARTI HUSER
Can I ask you a question Jerry?

JERRY VOLKERT
Yes you can.

MARTI HUSER
Have you gone to, in the spring they have a Industrial Arts art show at the high school and the projects they show that the kids have made in industrial arts are amazing. I went to the last two years.

JERRY VOLKERT
And I agree with you, it’s just narrower. By that I mean, we had welding, we had drafting, we had electronics, we had foundry.

MANY SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS SIMALTANIOUSLY
We have all of those.

CHRIS RODMAN
You should talk to Larissa Rupnow, she was so excited one time, she came and talked to us about welding. She’s like five foot two, weighs eighty pounds and she teaches these kids how to, she teaches these kids how to weld and she was so excited about it. I couldn’t believe it.

JERRY VOLKERT
And I, and I think that’s wonderful, and I didn’t know that, but we had a machine shop. We had three machine lathes. We had two milling machines.

SHIRLEY PHILLIPS
there is a lot of equipment sitting there at the middle school that isn’t used and that perhaps, you know, we’ve talked about it a couple of times, maybe some of those things that need to be used.

JERRY VOLKERT
And that breaks my heart that it is just sitting there and it could be used.

DENNY OLHAUSEN
Well that has been done on a lot of occasions. Mr. McCollough has been up for things that have, you know, that can be used at the industrial Tech program down at the high school. Well let me say this, Jerry, when I came, (it was in oh two,) and Sac City was doing absolutely nothing with Wall Lake View Auburn at that time. Our Industrial Tech program was down to two classes a day. That was the first year that I got here. All that [UNINTELLIGIBLE] was done before I ever got here. Our Industrial Tech program for our students if we’re talking just Sac City students, (and we’re not anymore,) we’re talking East Sac kids is flying higher than what it was when I first came here. I think we got a lot more opportunities , (speaking as a parent as well,) at our high school for our kids together than what we ever had apart. Far and away.

Again, not getting bogged down in details, because we can go along all night with this, I fully agree with Brent that when we started having discussion about where things were, you know, the high schools only going to be in one place, okay? That’s either the location north or the location south. The middle school needs to be at the other location. If somebody wants to take a look at well, we win or we lose, my perspective on that is we gained a middle school at Sac City. We didn’t lose a high school, we gained a middle school. It’s how you look at it. But everything else we tried to do as fairly as possible, but also within the best interest of kids.

Again, you can get bogged down in this whole thing, this whole thing and we knew tally marks were being made as we went along, but we tried to make things as fair as possible and again, speaking as a parent, the opportunities for my kids and, far and above, what they were nine years ago.

JERRY VOLKERT
Well-

CHUCK BROTHERTON
Another thing I would point out too is that prior to these two districts agreeing to get together; you had a green house which is part of an Ag program that had fallen into complete disrepair and misuse. That thing is coming back to life.

JERRY VOLKERT
I agree with you. I built the greenhouse, so I know about it but I also will say, and I don’t want to get into a pissing contest, but, the Industrial Arts Department, from the time I left, (and I’m not putting myself on a pedestal,) but it went down, down, down, down, down because of the instruction that was offered, and I will say the same thing, Chuck, about the greenhouse. The person who wanted that and got the grant and got the money for that, really, really worked it, and after he left, nobody took any interest in it.

BRENT WILHELM
Well, his job was eliminated in eighty seven so-

JERRY VOLKERT
pardon?

BRENT WILHLM
His job was eliminated in eighty seven, so I supposed that [UNINTELLIGIBLE] else would take it because the board at that time [UNINTELLIGIBLE] so that was a big mistake, and we’re trying to make sure that doesn’t happen-

JERRY VOLKERT
I hope it doesn’t, because I think it’s a wonderful thing to have because there’s a great deal of [UNINTELLIGIBLE] opportunities that, in a different area, totally.

KEVIN LITTERER
And I think one of our strong points is our [UNINTELLIGIBLE] educational programs. I mean we were excited that when we had our site visit last year that our Ag program, our Industrial program were cited as, what we call, pillars of our school, and I think it’s broadened a lot from woods one and woods two to biotechnologies is integrated, we’ve got computer aided drafting, mechanical drafting, we’ve broadened the horizons to the point where, (I’ll give you an example,) Woods one has seven or eight, nine girls in it now they’re participating in, (this’ll sound bad but,) a once male dominated class-

JERRY VOLKERT
Oh yeah.

KEVIN LITTERER
and those are integrated because we’ve broadened the horizons and a lot of that is because there are opportunities out there for ‘em, and you know, and a lot of them watch our Ag programs and what they’re doing and how they’re – Kids are, I don’t know how may kids are in FFA now, over a hundred kids, I believe, are involved in FFA but getting involved in that, and those CTE programs are a pedestal at East Sac County High School and truly it starts in middle school . Larissa Rupnow continues to build that Ag program up here and they just filter right into the high school.

JERRY VOLKERT
Good.

KEVIN FIENE
[UNINTELLIGIBLE] Thank you Jerry for sharing your perspective, we may not agree a hundred percent, but it’s nice to hear, and I would like to offer to you and anyone else that would like to, call me at some point, I’ll come pick you up, we’ll take you down and show you actually what the building’s looking like, because some of the concerns that you have will be alleviated when you get to see what we’re really doing, especially in the areas that you discovered. I would gladly pick you up, take you down, let’s tour it and let’s get your head around what we’re doing, and I’ll offer that to anyone else that has those concerns.

JARRY VOLKERT
Okay, I appreciate that.

SHIRLEY PHILLIPS
And I thank you too, Jerry, and I think as we talked about some of these things like the homecoming activities and stuff and they keep assuring me that we’re setting up new traditions, but as we do this, I keep saying, we need to keep the community connected with the school and we haven’t done a very good job of that in the past few years and we really do need to do that again and by taking activities and putting them in the middle of the work day, it doesn’t help. It certainly doesn’t help, and if anything, and I behoove you, when you talk about your shop classes, I’m thinking about all the people that we need in our workforce today that need those skills so we can continue some of those occupations, it’s like good lord we just don’t have enough of it, so it would be nice to start it in pre-school, so thank you.

JERRY VOLKERT
Thank you.



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