Vows Exchanged at Episcopal Church
Cross Country Teams Finish High at Section Meet
Longtime Belle Plaine Letter Carrier Mailing It In Page 14
Page 13
Page 2
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND YEAR
75¢ SINGLE COPY
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, OCTOBER 30, 2013
NUMBER 44
Voters Will Decide New Half of Belle Plaine School Board
Working together, volunteers with the Belle Plaine Area Food Shelf, Thrivent Financial and Oak Crest Elementary School are starting a program to help provide healthy food and snacks for children in need over extended holiday breaks. Pictured above is Pat Ollhoff of the food shelf, Liann Hanson, Oak Crest principal, Karen Borresen-Berg, a Thrivent associate, and Laurel Miller, a para-professional at Oak Crest.
Backpack Program Aims to Help Needy Students Over Breaks
Pat Ollhoff, the operations manager at the Belle Plaine Food Shelf recalls a teenage boy stopping by the food shelf during a recent weekend. The family had almost no food in the house and the boy was looking for help. There was no school lunch breakfast or lunch program to provide the children with a healthy meal. In Belle Plaine’s public schools, just over one-fourth of students’ families qualify for free or reduced cost meal service, a number that’s slowly grown over the past five years. At Oak Crest Elemen-
tary School, that means about 130 of the school’s 500-plus students qualify for free or reduced price meals. While students needing healthy, balanced meals have access to the school district’s food service Monday through Friday, that service is obviously not available weekends and during extended holiday breaks, like Thanksgiving and over Christmas. Starting at Oak Crest Elementary, the Backpack Program will provide students and families in need with healthy food that will bridge the gap during extended holiday breaks. It will start this
year over the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. “Having enough food is just so basic,” said Liann Hanson, principal at Oak Crest Elementary School. She noted children who don’t have enough food are far less likely to succeed in school. With donated food collected via food drives run by the Oak Crest Student Council, school staff will discreetly provide students with food and healthy snacks for the breaks. Once the program is established, it can
Backpack Program (continued on page 8)
School Board Reaches Tentative Agreements With Two Unions
Last Tuesday was a productive day for negotiators on the Belle Plaine School Board. The school district reached tentative agreements with the unions representing its teachers and support staff. Members of both unions will be reviewing the details of the proposed contracts this week. They’ll vote on them later this
week or next week. If approved by the two unions’ rank-and-file, the school board plans to include them on the agenda for a special meeting Nov. 11. Negotiators reached the agreement that evening after approximately 90 minutes of proposals and private discussions. The tentative contract agree-
State Berths on Line for Football, Volleyball Teams It’s possible the Belle Plaine High School football and volleyball teams could qualify for state tournament berths this week as both are No. 1 seeds in their respective tournaments and both won last week’s playoff match-ups convincingly. It’s been decades (if ever) that Belle Plaine qualified two teams for state in fall sports. Although the volleyball team has made it there on multiple occasions in recent years, the football Tigers have not been to state in 20 years. In the first round of the 1993 state playoffs, Belle Plaine loss to St. Cloud Cathedral on a cold and mixed-precipitation-filled night at Tiger Park in Belle Plaine. St. Cloud Cathedral went on to win its second-straight state championship that season, but like Belle Plaine, has not been back to the state tournament since that year. Coincidently, St. Cloud Cathedral, like Belle
Plaine, is one win away from breaking its 20-year drought. It will play Pierz for the Section 5AAA championship this Friday night in St. Cloud. The Tigers overwhelmed last year’s defending Class 3A state champion Blue Earth Area 33-7 in the Section 3AAA semifinals Saturday at the Belle Plaine Athletic Complex. Belle Plaine will host No. 2 seed Fairmont for the section title 7 p.m. this Friday. More about Saturday’s game against BEA and this Friday’s even bigger game against Fairmont appears inside this edition of the Herald. The Belle Plaine volleyball team, which swept Le SueurHenderson in the opening round Thursday night, was heavily favored to defeat Norwood Young America in the semifinals of the
State
(continued on page 8)
ment for 2013-14 and 2014-15 with the 110 teachers, members of the Education MinnesotaBelle Plaine Education Association, reflects a 6.55 percent increase over the current contract. It represents about $15.5 million in spending on salaries and benefits over the next two years. Details of the proposed pact include an additional $800 per cell on the steps (experience) and lanes (additional education) schedule in the first year and an additional 2 percent increase the second year. Teachers leading teams and groups in co-curricular activities will also see a wage increase – 2 percent the first year and 2½ percent the second year of the contract. The final financial piece of the proposed contract with the BPEA is a 3 percent increase in the district’s contribution to health care the first year of the agreement and 1½ percent increase in the contribution the second year of the deal. The final hurdle in contract language was the number of
School Board
(continued on page 14)
Fall Back Saturday Night Daylight Saving Time ends early Sunday morning (Nov. 3), meaning you should set your clocks back one hour before going to bed Saturday night.
Voters will provide the Belle Plaine School Board with a potentially distinctive different look Tuesday when they elect three new directors to the sixperson board. Votes can be cast Nov. 5 at the Belle Plaine Government Center, 218 Meridian Street N. in downtown Belle Plaine. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. With no other elections on the ballot, a light turnout is expected. None of the incumbents – directors Judy Nagel, Mike Daly and Gary Steinhagen – are seeking re-election. The five candidates for three school board seats, each with a fouryear term, are Dan Gardner, Dan Giesen, Larry Kiewel, Aaron Provancha and Joe Vandermark. Gardner is a retired Belle Plaine School District activities director and junior high dean. He also served a year as the interim principal at Our Lady of the Prairie Catholic elementary School. He is currently the executive director of the Minnesota River Conference. He has three adult children. Gardner wants to help shape the district and make a positive impact on education as the district faces changes now and in the future. Giesen and his wife have three school-age children. The director of operations at Video Guidance, a video conferencing solutions provider in Bloomington, he is running to serve his community and give time and energy to shape its devel-
side looking in. Provancha is a physics teacher and a substitute para-profesThe candidates particisional. He is married to a Belle pated in a Q & A sesPlaine School District teacher. sion with the Herald and He is hoping to bring a fresh School District Candiperspective to the board along dates’ forum. Details of with his experience in education for the betterment of the both are on the Herald’s community. web site -- www.belleVandermark is married with plaineherald.com three school-age children. He works in the information techopment and growth. nology profession and is seekA retiree, Kiewel and his wife ing election to the board to have two adult children and four grandchildren. He is seekVoters ing a seat on the board to help (continued on page 11) play a role in important decisions rather than be on the out-
Online Info
Pine City Girl, 8, Killed in Crash on Highway 169 Sunday A girl from Pine City, Minn., was killed in a crash along Highway 169 near Blakeley Trail Sunday just after 2 p.m. Laura Maloney was a passenger in a 2008 Ford Super Duty truck driven by Walter Grewe of Brooklyn Park. They were heading north on Highway 169 when Grewe, 62, had to slow down quickly to avoid a 2008 Honda Civic that had slowed down, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. The truck rear-ended the Honda driven by a Mankato man, Timothy Adams, 48. Grewe lost control of the truck
and entered the ditch. The horse trailer the Ford Super Duty was towing landed on the truck. The girl’s mother, 35-year-old Erin Maloney of Pine City, was also a passenger in the truck. Like Grewe, she suffered nonlife-threatening injuries in the crash, according to the state patrol. The crash and rescue efforts prompted the Minnesota State Patrol, Belle Plaine police and firefighters to close Highway 169 and reroute traffic through Blakeley and Belle Plaine for over three hours.
Business Trick-or-Treat Thursday The Belle Plaine Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Halloween Business Trick-orTreat this Thursday from 3-5 p.m. Many downtown businesses and a number of others throughout the community are participating, just look for the pumpkin cutout in the window. Also participating is The Lutheran Home, where residents from 3-5 p.m. will gather in a circle to hand out treats in the home’s Chapel. Participants can enter through The Lutheran Home’s main entrance.
Public School Halloween Events
Chatfield Elementary School students will hold their annual parade of costumed participants at the “high school” gym starting at 2 p.m. Thursday. The event is open to the public and doors will open at 1:35 p.m. Oak Crest Elementary School is not having a costume parade this year. Instead, each class will hold its own Halloween observance in the classroom. Belle Plaine High School’s annual Halloween Dance at the school was held this past Friday night.
First Presbyterian Church Sloppy Joe Dinner
First Presbyterian Church on West Main Street downtown will hold its third annual Halloween observance from 4-6 p.m. this Thursday. The event will include trick-or-treats and a sloppy joe dinner.
(Wednesday)
This is just one of the creatures that will be greeting trick-ortreaters in Belle Plaine Thursday night. Just one hint – it’s located north of Highway 169.
Rock Church invites all kids up to sixth grade to its annual Community Kids Harvest Party in the Chatfield Elementary School gym from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Costumes are encouraged. There will be a special prize for the best Bible character River costume. This Harvest Party
Kids Harvest Party
Today
Waiting for You
includes fun games, a bounce house, lots of free candy and door prizes. More information can be found at www.riverrockchurch. com or by calling the church at 952-873-5453.