W-MU deals with resignations, whooping cough, Legos

A confirmed case of whooping cough, hirings and resignations and a presentation from the Lego club highlighted last night?s Winfield-Mt. Union school board meeting last night.

?The most pressing issue when I wrote my report for the board was whooping cough. As you all know we did have a confirmed case in the school,? said Pat Coen, W-MU superintendent. ?Brooke (McArtor, school nurse) did an absolutely wonderful job. None of our track athletes are showing any symptoms, so we get to go to the state track meet and compete, so that is good.?

Coen explained to the board that the staff at the school is ready and able to handle the situation and take care of problems as they arise.

?What we will do is we will continue to monitor students and look for symptoms and be aware of those things and send people home and into treatment if need be. The State sets the standard at 10 percent. If we get to 10 percent ratio of students with whooping cough we could have to close down. If that were to happen, my suggestion to the state is that we just call it a year. I hope and pray that we do not have to make that decision.?

In the hirings and resignations portion of the meeting, among the resignations was elementary principal and curriculum director Aimee Wedeking. Wedeking has been at W-MU for four years, beginning in the 2009-2010 school year.

Other resignations include Shaylena Barcus, cheerleading coach; Nikki Gerling, assistant golf coach; Cody Wolfe, physical education teacher and cross country and boys? track coach; James Missel, industrial arts teacher. The board accepted the resignations with regret.

The hirings at last night?s meeting included Rebecca Hobson, preschool teacher; Alex Klopfenstein, social studies teacher; and Shaylena Barcus, cross country coach.

During a presentation on the use of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) grant funding provided by Iowa State University, four of the seven members of the fourth and fifth grades? Lego club ?Way out Wolves? showed school board members their robots. The students created and programmed robots out of Legos. The robots are programmed to assist senior citizens with day-to-day tasks such as fetching medicine and turning on a computer. The club sponsor, elementary teacher Sally Naber, assisted the students with their presentation.