Thursday, January 10, 2019 • Vol. 54, No. 34 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
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Verona Press The
Verona Area School District
Elementaries add cameras Purchased with state DOJ grant SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
From left, Badger Prairie Needs Network volunteer Hanna Filutowicz, of Madison, serves rice pilaf to Joy Himsel, of Verona, during BPNN’s community meal on Saturday, Jan. 5.
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later months of 2018 because of the to Table initiative that encourages expansion being built on the build- prepared food to be “rescued” and ing’s west side. The addition of ware- repackaged for distribution. house and cooler and freezer space allowed BPNN to better store food – Kimberly Wethal and be a leading force of the Kitchen
Spring election
No local contested races on April ballot One new face each in both VASD, Town
Contested election
SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Verona-area voters won’t find many choices when they visit the polls this spring. With four open seats in the City of Verona, three in the Town of Verona and three on the Verona Area school board, there are no contested elections – though there are two new faces among the candidates. The only contested race
State Supreme Court Candidates: Lisa Neubauer, Brian Hagedorn
elections are for a Dane County Circuit Court judge, municipal judge for the Town of Verona and Court of Appeals judges. The primary election will be Tuesday, Feb. 19, while the general election is Tuesday, April 2.
VASD voters will see is statewide: the election for a state Supreme Court justice with appellate court judges Lisa Neubauer and Brian Hagedorn vying to succeed retiring Justice Shirley Abrahamson. Other uncontested The
Verona Press
The Verona Area School District has two incumbents and one newcomer running for three seats. Both Noah Roberts and Amy Almond are running for additional three-year terms on the board. Roberts
is the board president, and Almond is its longest-serving member. Verona resident Deborah Biddle is the new candidate, running for an at-large seat to fill the vacancy left by Russell King’s resignation in December. Her term would be one year on the board. In an email to the Press, the Westridge neighborhood resident wrote she is running to “be part of the effort to advance student achievement in Verona area
Turn to Candidates/Page 15
Turn to Cameras/Page 15
Charter choice could expand Change under review would not be before big 2020 switch SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Parents looking to choose something other than their neighborhood school might get to apply to their top two in coming years. But not this fall. Since the first two charters’ inception in the early 1990s, and as other choice programs like Two Way Immersion have been created here, the district has required parents to apply to only one. But school board members asked late last year if there could be a way to allow for two choices and have them be ranked.
While nothing will change for the current enrollment period, which begins Jan. 10 and ends Feb. 15, administrators and the board are considering how it would affect the lottery system and outreach. With several complicating factors, including charters’ struggles attracting diverse populations and the prospect of making the system more complex, the board directed administrators to come back with some potential solutions for further discussion as soon as February. Some schools have had trouble attracting enough enrollment to fill their open spots in recent years, and administrators who had analyzed the idea told the board Monday it could help fill those openings, with students not getting
Turn to Choice/Page 7
The Young Irelanders
Each year the Irish Cultural Academy brings its finest exponents of Irish traditional music, song, and dance.
Saturday, February 23, 2019 7:30 pm Verona Area High School PAC 300 Richard St.
Verona Area Performing Arts Series
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As of January, Badger Prairie Needs Network has returned to hosting two community meals a month on the first and third Saturdays. The food agency reduced the number of their community meals in the
If you’re visiting your child’s elementary school, smile! You’re on camera. It’s not “Candid Camera,” but each of the Verona Area School District’s elementary schools now has security cameras at various locations inside and outside to help monitor the daily goings-on. District Director of Human Resources Jason Olson said the cameras, purchased through a state Department of Justice grant awarded last year, are mostly helpful after an incident happens. The cameras cost $18,907 per school, totaling $94,535 of the $260,000 in grant money the district received. Other security additions
from the grant include secure entrances at Country View and Glacier Edge elementary schools, which now feature buzz-in systems like those at all of the other district schools. A visitor will find all of the doors locked, and must push a “doorbell” and be let in by an office secretary to sign in. Card access readers were added at five schools, as well, plus some shatter-resistant glass film at the entrances to all buildings. Olson said the camera installations took a bit longer than expected because it was a “from-scratch install,” given the lack of camera infrastructure at the elementary sites. Various people in each building have access to the camera footage, including administrators, school social workers and secretaries, Olson said. That allows
Tickets available at: www.vapas.org, State Bank of Cross Plains-Verona, Capitol Bank-Verona or 848-2787