By Rich Palzewic
Staff Writer

DE PERE – At the Monday, March 15, school board meeting, West De Pere Superintendent Dennis Krueger presented board member Tom Van De Hei with a plaque and certificate for his years of service.

“It’s time to let someone else fill the position,” said Van De Hei. “Twelve years is a long time to serve on a board.”

The position will be filled by Jamie Kinjerski or Ryan Van Den Heuvel after the April 6 election.

“We’d like to thank Tom for his years of service and his support for the district,” said Krueger. “As Tom said, 12 years is a good amount of time to spend doing this. He has been a voice on our board. Congratulations to him.”

Norby’s Buddies

The school district was contacted by St. Norbert College about a new pilot program called Norby’s Buddies.

It involves education students from the college who meet virtually in the evenings or on weekends with local elementary students to work on both social-emotional and academic needs.

“It was an open invitation to all elementary students,” said Amy LaPierre, director of curriculum. “We have the highest participation of any of the local school districts – it’s going well. The contact at St. Norbert told me our kids are doing a great job. They’re showing up when they need to and participating well.”

Bellin partnership

Krueger said the school district has partnered with Bellin to offer rapid COVID-19 screening at the district’s on-site clinic.

“It’s a free, rapid test,” he said. “Why would we do rapid testing when we already have testing here? Bellin said, ‘Hey, do you want to add the rapid testing?’ So, it’s for peace of mind. People can go here possibly before a gathering or travel and get tested. If it’s negative, they have peace of mind they are negative. If they test positive, then they’d get the PCR test, which has a turnaround time of about a day and is more accurate.”

Krueger also said on-site COVID-19 vaccinations for staff have begun.

“Our staff has been signing up with other medical facilities around the area already,” he said. “We’re not requiring staff to tell us if they’ve gotten vaccinated, but we’re encouraging them to. To my knowledge, about 80 percent have gotten both shots or at least one. We also opened it up to Lamers bus drivers.”

Spelling bee champ

Sixth-grader Navya Malik recently won the Green Bay/Kewaunee Regional Spelling Bee competition.

Malik proceeds to the state-level competition to be held March 20.