A Challenge Day program cancelled late last month in the West Bend School District is now back on, but will not involve students. “I’m still working with the people from Challenge Day to determine what services they’re going to provide us because we are obligated for some contractual pieces with them,” said Assistant Superintendent Ted Neitzke. Challenge Day was initially slated at the West Bend High Schools from Feb. 16 to Feb. 18. Staff from the San Franciscobased Challenge Day company was scheduled to present a workshop with a goal to “successfully address some common issues seen at most schools during our school programs including cliques, gossip, rumors, negative judgments, teasing, harassment, isolation, stereotypes, intolerance, racism, sexism, bullying, violence, homophobia, hopelessness, apathy, and hidden pressures to create an image, achieve or live up to the expectations of others,” according to the company's Web site. The program was cancelled on Jan. 25 after parents raised some concerns and Superintendent Pat Herdrich said approval of Challenge Day did not follow normal protocol. Despite that decision, the West Bend School District had already signed a contract with Challenge Day. According to the contract, there are no refunds. A state Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse grant for $12,800 will pay for the program. “In the contract, if you cancelled within 30 days of the event you had to pay the contract,” said Neitzke. “So we’ve been working with them on what other services they can provide for staff development with guidance counselors, school psychologists, social workers, teachers or something else with non-student contact. “Our stance was ‘if we’re going to pay you, we’re going to ask you to provide a product, we’re not just going to lose money,’” he said. The district initially wanted to see if it could hold off a year, re-study the program, bring it back and go through the proper steps. According to Neitzke, the Challenge Day organization said it “could not carry over the funds from this year to the next.” Kathy Zarling, the district’s administrator of pupil services, is developing a program with Challenge Day staff, who will fly into West Bend for the four-day program. Regarding the issue of failing to follow normal protocol, Neitzke said that’s been reviewed. “What ended up happening was Challenge Day is an event that was part of overall grant dollars,” he said. “The board approved acceptance of the grant and it was never brought back to the board of instruction.” A large committee made up of parents, students, and staff members from the district made the decision, Neitzke said. He qualified the grant approval process as “kind of a gray area.” “In reflection, we would not move forward with any type of full-day event for students without ensuring that our board understood what it was for, where it was coming from and what it was about,” he said. Morning Glory to re-open Morning Glory Coffee & Conversation is going to reopen next weekend. “Until last Friday we didn’t know totally what we were going to do with the coffee shop,” said owner Tina Thull. The coffee shop, 403 S. Main St., closed last month as Thull pondered selling the business. Her manager was leaving for college and customer traffic over the summer had been rough with a down economy and road construction in front of the store. Plus, Thull had other irons in the fire including a full-time job as a hospice director and her family’s ownership of an assisted living center in Kewaskum. “I love the coffee shop as a hobby, but I can’t physically be there during the day,” she said. Prompted by a slew of phone calls, Thull is moving forward. “We’ve had so many calls about being closed and I love it so much, I can’t see letting it go right now,” she said. Thull has hired a new manager, Lisa Bratten of West Bend. Their target opening date is 8 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 14. Acadec misses state Mother Nature is being blamed for playing a cruel trick on the Slinger High School Academic Decathlon team. A Jan. 8 snowstorm prevented the nine-member team from traveling to Green Bay for a regional tournament, thus ending the season for the Owls. “We got ripped out of the competition because of the snow storm,” said Slinger Acadec coach Kurt Luedke. Slinger was one of 60 teams across the state that earned the right to advance to regionals. The morning the team was set to leave Washington County was hit with heavy snow and classes were cancelled in the Slinger School District. “The snow kept on coming and Principal Daren Sievers made a real judicious decision and told us we couldn’t go,” said Luedke. “The rule in the district is there will be no co-curricular events if school is called off.” As the ramifications of the decision set in, so did reality for a team that made it to the state finals last year. “We were all disappointed, we were looking forward to the competition; by not going our season was over,” Luedke said. Academic decathlon teams normally study six months in hopes of advancing through sectional and regional competition with a goal of the state tournament, to be held March 11 and March 12 in the Wisconsin Dells. This year’s Acadec theme is the French Revolution. “We covered so many different areas including music, literature, history, economics and no doubt it was frustrating for the kids,” said Luedke. “We have one sophomore, Lydia Garlie, who took the cancellation hard. She had the highest score at our qualifying round in November and was ranked one of the top students going into the Green Bay Regional. “You can imagine she was truly stung by the weather snafu,” he said. “I'm confident she would have indeed been a major player at the Green Bay Regional.” The Slinger Acadec team includes Garlie, Whitney Thomas, Erin Dornacker, Alice Anderson, Auston Fies, Matthew Fehring, Andrew Simek, Alexander Ekberg and Christian Walding. Tidbits A grand opening/open house is slated next weekend at the new Pleasant Valley Tennis and Fitness Club on Saturday, Feb. 13, from 1 to 4 p.m. and on Sunday, Feb. 14, from 3 to 6 p.m. The fitness area will have tours and offer 20-minute program previews for visitors to participate or view. The tennis courts will be staffed, encouraging everyone to take a swing and join the fun. Drawings will be held for prizes. Truck Outfitters is a new business moving into 1347 S. Main St. The location was formerly home to Urban Motorsports and prior to that, Krause Automotive. The city of West Bend has an opening for a water utility operator. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 10. The opening was created by the retirement of Dave Schlieter. West Bend Art Center Framing & Illustrations has a new storefront sign at 125 N. Main St. The sign looks like a framed painting, featuring a woman with long black hair painting a red and orange flower. A similar sign hangs at the back of the building on 6th Avenue. There’s a new tattoo banner hanging over the entrance to Northern Lights Tattoo which opened last month at 347 S. Main St. Integrity Log homes and Design for Style has moved out of the Baird building at 111 N. Main St. Michael Mullennix of West Bend won $10,000 in Badger 5. He bought his lottery ticket at Station 33 on West Washington Street. Next Saturday the sturgeon spearing season gets under way on the Lake Winnebago system. The harvest cap for adult females is 740, up from 630 last year. Wings Over Wisconsin Kettle Moraine Chapter holds its annual sportsman’s rummage sale today from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Amerahan in Kewaskum. Salon Fusion has been sold. Pam Boldt of West Bend is the new owner of the five-chair salon at 1019 S. Main St. Boldt bought the business Jan. 1, 2010 from Laura Graefe. West Bend Youth Football will be hosting its annual beer tasting on Friday, Feb. 12, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at West Bend Mutual. Tickets are $25. The obituary for Milton Edward Bliss in last Friday’s paper was interesting. Bliss died Wednesday, Jan. 27, just six days after his 100th birthday. Bliss was born on Jan. 21, 1910 when William Howard Taft was president of the United States, the refrigerator and zipper were invented, the dance craze was the tango, and Boy Scouts of America and Campfire Girls were founded. Achbishop in West Bend Here are a few behindthe-scenes glances at Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki’ visit to West Bend last week. First in line: Dianne Dirmeier of West Bend arrived at 5 p.m. to claim a front-row seat for the 7 p.m. service. “It’s just an important occasion and we wanted to share it with our 10-yearold granddaughter, Adrienne. I wanted to sit where she could see him,” she said. Dirmeier, a member of St. Frances Cabrini for 10 years, said when she heard Archbishop Listecki was going to be in town she circled the day on her calendar. “I’m really looking at getting to know him; something different than the television interviews. To see him as a real person,” she said. Dirmeier was well prepared to pass the time; she came armed with reading material, “The Life of Christ,” a small plastic bag of pecan cookies and a can of Diet Cherry Pepsi. Menu change: It was a bit of a scramble for Cabrini hospitality director Phyllis Green who was in charge of preparing a meal for Listecki. Green planned a traditional Polish menu but found out Listecki already had Polish fare while visiting St. Alphonsus in Greendale. “My menu was going to have golabki (stuffed cabbage), sweet and sour cabbage, and pierogi; a true Polish meal,” said Green. However, two weeks ago she found an article in the Catholic Herald Citizen that said when Listecki visited St. Alphonsus in Greendale, they served him a true Polish meal. Green didn’t want to duplicate the effort so she went to Plan B which featured pork loin roast marinated in orange juice and maple syrup, mashed potatoes and green beans almandine, a vegetarian pasta dish and as a token for all the priests that weren’t at St. Alphonsus there was a large plate of golabki. “This was a great honor to serve the archbishop,” said Green admitting she lost a little sleep over the process. Green acknowledged the terrific help and support from a “cooperative and hard-working group of people.” Judy Steffes is a West Bend resident. Her column runs weekly in the Daily News.
