Verona Press The
Thursday, November 22, 2018 • Vol. 54, No. 27 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
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Still no longterm plan for teaching Chinese VAIS will have 57 grads by fall 2020 SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
The first class of fifth-graders moved onto middle school from Verona Area International School in 2015 as a cohort of three. Three-and-a-half years later, dozens more alumni of the K-5 Chinese-language immersion charter school have joined them in middle school. Eight Mandarin learners are expected to be at Verona Area High School in fall 2019. The only plan for continuing their Chinese-language education is a before-school “zero hour,” which some school board members acknowledged is “not sustainable” as soon as next year given the use of a less-than-half-time teacher instructing students at various language skill levels. “You can’t just keep
going with what’s happening, because it’s not working,” school board president Noah Roberts said at a Friday morning committee meeting. “The question for the board is, is Chinese going to become part of the World Languages program or not?” The committee has talked with parents on an annual basis over the past three years about doing something beyond that zero-hour class, which faces logistical challenges of location and transportation. Before that, the district used an online program parents said was inconsistent. The Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment committee discussed how this decision fits into a broader conversation about the world languages program and resource allocation, a topic the board is reconsidering after passing its strategic plan earlier this year. But given how long this
Turn to Chinese/Page 13
Steve Barry places food items on the shelf in Badger Prairie Needs Network’s new warehouse.
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
Kitchen to table
Expansion allows for partnership in feeding more people KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
When Badger Prairie Needs Network expanded into a county building in 2015, it found itself with twice the space but still “bursting at the seams.” “From almost the day we moved in, we’ve been expanding our programs, and we are out of space,” Marcia Kasieta, executive director for the Verona-based nonprofit social services agency, told the Press last month.
Now, with an addition onto the western and northern parts of the facility, BPNN has the space to widen its impact on reducing food insecurity. A 576-square foot warehouse is already mostly filled up with dry goods, and a larger cooler and freezer area is expected to be ready for use the first week of December. Those additions will allow BPNN to have the space to turn over more product, which it will need after increasing its service area this year to include all of
the Verona ZIP code, Kasieta said. The new 1,000-square foot cooler and freezer space off of the back of the kitchen will allow for a new initiative to be rooted in BPNN’s facility. The “Kitchen to Table: Wisconsin Food Recovery Network” initiative will involve conducting “rescues” from cafeterias from places like Epic and UW Hospitals and Clinics and using BPNN’s facility to repackage and store it.
Turn to BPNN/Page 12
Silent Street Pond Ending the stigma around mental health dredging starts next week VAHS grad leads ‘Bandana’ awareness movement at UW-Madison Goal is cleaner water, less algae growth
as well as the connected pond north of Cross Country Road, will result in hundreds of truckloads of sediment being scraped off the bottom of Silent Street KIMBERLY WETHAL Pond, Marty Cieslik, public works construction Unified Newspaper Group manager, told the Press Silent Street Pond might this month. It’s part of a $100,000 look a little bit different as maintenance project called soon as next week. Pumping of the pond Turn to Pond/Page 12 across from the library, The
Verona Press
KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
Verona Area High School alumnus Conlin Bass is on a mission at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to make sure no one feels alone. The Bandana Project, an initiative Bass started as a freshman in January 2016, has members with lime green bandanas around
campus to alert other students they have mental health-related resources. It provides the students who volunteer the opportunity to be a resource and an ally for their classm a t e s w h o Bass are struggling with mental health
issues, while working to end the stigma around the topic. “At its most (basic) level, I hope that people see the bandanas and know that it means that there are people out there that care,” the 2015 graduate told the Press earlier this month. “They’re not alone if they’re struggling or their friend is struggling … it’s nothing at all to be ashamed
of to seek help.” The concept of The Bandana Project is simple: If a student agrees to carry between three to five resource cards detailing mental health and suicide prevention resources – available on campus or beyond – they tie a lime green bandana on their backpack or bag as a
Turn to Bass/Page 14
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