Oregon Observer The
We are the hand on your shoulder to help you graciously through these tough times. Stoughton • Madison McFarland Deerfield Sun Prairie • Waunakee www.cressfuneralservice.com
Thursday, May 23, 2019 • Vol. 134, No. 47 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
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Oregon School District
Village of Oregon
Genesis Housing gets fixup money Board approves $168K for 40-yearold low-rent project AMBER LEVENHAGEN Unified Newspaper Group
The apartment buildings across from the Oregon Area Senior Center have remained largely the same since their construction in the early 1970s. But that could change, as the Oregon Village Board approved $168,000 Monday night for Genesis Housing to renovate three of its buildings that are home to mostly rent-subsidized apartments. The $1 million project
comprises an $840,000 grant and a 25 percent match from the village, which was required by the other lender. The money comes from the village’s affordable housing fund and it’s the first time that fund has been used. The account was established after the village closed the business park tax-increment financing district in 2017, village administrator Mike Gracz explained at the meeting, and has a balance of about $485,000. The fund was established, Gracz explained, when the Village Board took advantage of a
Turn to Housing/Page 3
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Brooklyn Elementary School students Kaliyah Rynes and Charlotte Keenan write out positive messages earlier this spring, as part of the schools Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) programming. PBIS is used district-wide, but focuses on more games and fun activities at the elementary and intermediate school (K-6) grades.
Helping fight Staying positive, having fun against hunger Elementaries, RCI have different ways of teaching PBIS Oregon residents’ philanthropy supported by sports heroes
JUSTIN LOEWEN Observer correspondent
Dialing the number of a Green Bay Packers legend at three in the afternoon, Wayne Bisek received a “What do you want!” from the other end of the line. Undeterred, Bisek used the names of two former Packers who are on the Buckets for Hunger “celebrity board of directors” to try to get Ray Nitschke on board with his charitable intentions. Once he mentioned Jim Taylor and Jerry Kramer, Nitschke cooled down, Bisek said, and he asked
Bisek to call him back in a couple days after he’d had a chance to talk with his former teammates. The next time they talked, the former linebacker calmly asked, “What would you like me to do for you?” Bisek and his wife Vickie Carroll have been forging relationships like this for nearly 25 years, auctioning signed sports memorabilia to help them raise money for food pantries. Married for the past 38 years, the Oregon couple’s nonprofit “Buckets for Hunger” has collected more than $2 million for charity since 1995, and on April 30 Bisek and Carroll received a community volunteer award for lifetime achievement from the
Turn to Hunger/Page 5
SCOTT DE LARUELLE
Inside
Unified Newspaper Group
Prairie View has its “Three Big Expectations.” In Brooklyn, kids help drive the “Energy Bus.” At Netherwood Knoll, “Everyday Superheroes” show their powers through emotional regulation and spreading kindness, and at Rome Corners, students’ good deeds can earn a spot as a contestant in “Mr. Z’s ROAR Assemblies.” While they’re all done in a spirit of fun, the activities have become ways for Oregon School District educators to introduce and reinforce Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, part of the district’s long-term focus on students’ social-emotional learning. PBIS is a systematic method of a reward-focused, proactive approach to schoolwide behavior, and OSD began using it around a decade ago. Since then, PBIS has evolved independently at the schools over time – particularly
PBIS series
How each school teaches PBIS Page 13 when it comes to the younger grades like elementary (grades K-4) and intermediate schools (5-6). While there are more games and PBIS-related contests in the elementary and intermediate grades than there are at the higher levels, the foundations and concepts are similar. That helps the district coordinate the implementation of the concept as its students eventually funnel into OMS and OHS. It’s all part of a larger structure to help social-emotional learning, said district student services director Candace Weidensee. She said PBIS – which models and reinforces expected behaviors for students, rather
This spring, the Observer is looking at how the Oregon School District has used Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) at its various schools to help with student behavior and achievement. April: Series overview This month: Elementary and intermediate schools June: Oregon middle school and high school than focusing on incorrect behavior and punishments – is a “method of addressing those skillsets the child hasn’t come in with.” “We teach reading, math, academic subjects – the difference now from when we went to school is we’re also needing to teach behaviors,” she wrote the Observer in an email. “We probably needed it back then. We just probably didn’t do it.”
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