New Buffalo school board hears update on middle school sports merger, elementary school happenings

SCHOLASTICS

New Buffalo school board hears update on middle school sports merger, elementary school happenings

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA

Action by members of the New Buffalo Area Schools Board of Education with regards to forming a possible co-op with River Valley School District for middle school football and wrestling may take place at the end of this month.

At the board’s Monday, April 11, meeting, superintendent Dr. Jeff Leslie said that he spoke with Dr. Steven Disney, superintendent at River Valley School District, and said that Disney said that members of the River Valley School Board would likely be voting on the matter at their next meeting, which is April 25.

“He didn’t seem gung-ho about having a joint meeting with us - so that’s kind of where we’re at,” Leslie said, adding that he would “ideally like to get everyone in a room and go from there.”

He said that New Buffalo’s school board will probably vote on the middle school co-ops at their April 25 meeting and “go from there.”

New Buffalo Elementary School Principal Adam Bowen gave an update on the elementary school.

Among the goals this year is to focus on Positive Behavioral Supports (PBIS). Bowen said that, while the school has been a PBIS school for many years, it’s recently been revamped, and the focus is now on letting students know their expectations: to be respectful and to be safe. Students are rewarded for following these expectations, such as by being given tickets where one half goes into a bucket for special drawing every month (one student per class).

Another goal is integrating social studies into the school’s ELA (English/Language Arts) learning.

This was the first year the school has had a full day of prekindergarten. Of the 22 students, 18 are full day and four are half day.

The school has received new book vending machines thanks to the New Buffalo Parent/Teacher Organization, the Rotary Club of Harbor Country and The Pokagon Fund, during which each student will receive five books this year: one when the vending machines first arrived in November, one before winter break, one for their birthday, one during March is Reading Month, and one before summer break.

Teachers have also been utilizing Bloomz (which Bowen likened to Facebook for schools), which is an elementary platform where they’re required to make weekly posts and specials teachers are required to make monthly ones.

Bowen also gave an update on some test scores, including mid-year NWEA scores for reading and for math. The national normative score for this past winter for kindergarten in reading was 146.28, and New Buffalo’s score was 155.33 – which Bowen said is “very consistent within each grade level.” The scroe has improved since before the pandemic, as it was at 153.6 in 2020.

Board members did a second reading of and approved the following board policies: 1616 - Staff Dress and Grooming, 3216 - Staff Dress and Grooming, 4160D - Bus Driver Qualifications-Diabetes, 4216 - Support Staff Dress and Grooming, 5511 – Dress and Grooming, 6110 - Grant Funds, 6114 - Cost Principles - Spending Federal Funds, 6325 - Procurement - Federal Grants/Funds - 0142.3 Term.

Board members approved the request to relinquish federal funds for Title III (Immigrant, LEP, Immigrant Carryover, LEP Carryover) for the current fiscal year. Leslie said that since the amount of money they’d receive is so small and the district would need to go through an audit for those funds, it wouldn’t be worth it to go through the effort to accept them.

Board members approved the request to relinquish federal funds for Section 41 (Bilingual Funds), for the current fiscal year.

Business manager Pano Arvanitis added that the district spends a “lot more money” than what they’d be given on bilingual supports; however, they spend it through the general fund.

After reading a resolution, board members approved the change from BD of EDUC BERRIEN CO, to the legal name of the school district, New Buffalo Area Schools, P.O. Box 280, New Buffalo, with the Internal Revenue Service.

Leslie said that 20 of advanced Spanish students and five chaperones spent spring break in Seville, Spain.

The robotics team, Bionic Bison, has qualified for the state competition and will be heading to Saginaw this week. If all goes well, they could be heading for Houston next week.

NEW BUFFALO LIBRARY TO PRESENT PROGRAM ON LA SALLE’S LOST SHIP

New Buffalo Township Library will host a program at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, about Le Griffon, French explorer La Salle’s lost ship and arguably Lake Michigan’s first shipwreck.

Shipwreck hunter and author Valerie van Heest, a popular speaker at the library, will tell the story of the holy grail of Great Lakes shipwrecks and the many false discovery claims that have emerged since its disappearance in 1679. She will share her ideas of what really happened to Le Griffon, formed as she set out in search of the legendary ship with the Discovery Channel’s Josh Gates to film an episode of “Expedition Unknown.”

Van Heest has spoken previously at the library on a range of subjects, from the mysterious crash of a Delta Airlines flight to early passenger travel in the Great Lakes. Her program is part of the Friends of the New Buffalo Library’s Community Forum series of presentations, which is now in its eighth year.

All are welcome to attend this program and, as with all Community Forum programs, there is no charge for admission. New Buffalo Township Library is located at 33 N. Thompson Street in downtown New Buffalo. Use of face masks is requested at this event. — STAFF

SPORTS

From the Bleachers

COLUMN BY KURT MARGGRAF IN CHICAGO

Finally, I made a prediction

that came true. I said that Kansas had a little bit more firepower than North Carolina and as it turned out, I was correct. North Carolina dominated the first half and at the intermission they led by fifteen. I was happy that while my prediction was bad, at least I didn’t bet on it. The second half was a totally different story. Kansas dominated N.C. and when the horn sounded to end the game, Kansas had prevailed by a score of 72-69.

The Major League Baseball season got underway this week and the Chicago teams got off to good starts. Both the Cubs and White Sox have won 2 out of three and are tied for first place in their respective divisions. The White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers and the Cubs handled the Milwaukee Brewers, both opponents they need to beat in order to win their divisions. The two biggest Cub free agent acquisitions, pitcher Marcus Stroman and outfielder Seiya Suzuki both got off to good starts and it appears that the Cubs may be better than the experts thought. The White Sox also have a couple of free agent acquisitions. Infielder Josh Harrison and outfielder AJ Pollock who are both seasoned professionals who should help the Sox reach the playoffs again this season.

Being a Cub fan, I can’t help but follow their recently traded players. Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, pitchers Yu Darvish and Craig Kimbrel, and almost Cub Carlos Correa, have all been tearing the cover off of the ball and leading their teams to victory. After doing a bit of research, I discovered that the eight players just mentioned are making over 163 million dollars this season. The entire Cub teams payroll is 141,800,000. The White Sox payroll is a bit over 190 million. These numbers are mind blowing and make it easier to see why the Cubs moved on from players who haven’t been near a championship for five seasons. I guess it’s time to ove on from the old guard and embrace the new.

I’ve never been very good at golf, seldom play, and stopped following years ago. Most of my friends completely disagree with me and even I must admit that the Masters is a special tournament. Having Tiger Woods make a comeback added to the excitement. Scott Scheffler, the number one ranked golfer in the PGA, ended up winning by three strokes and took home the green jacket and a cool $2,700,000 in prize money. Tiger started strong, but his injuries were too much to overcome. He made the cut, but withered in the final two rounds ending up 13 over par and in 47th place.

English author Neil Gaiman said, “You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Talk to you next week. Peace, love, and happiness.

Emergency declared to fix bleachers prior to fair

BY STAN MADDUX

There would have been no acts in the grandstands during the LaPorte County fair this year had emergency action not been taken recently to replace the old wooden bleachers.

LaPorte County Commission President Sheila Matias and LaPorte County Council President Randy Novak signed an emergency declaration setting aside funding for the close to $600,000 project.

During the April 6 meeting of the LaPorte County Commissioners, Novak said the declaration saved precious time in getting the bleachers replaced before the July 9 start of the fair given the worldwide supply chain difficulties.

Time was saved by short cutting the process of waiting for the entire LaPorte County Council to meet and vote on the funding request.

Some council members like Connie Gramarossa expressed anger that most council members were not informed right away about the need and emergency approval of the expenditure.

“We are elected just as you are,” she said.

Novak explained it wasn’t until March 11 when the findings of a visual inspection revealed the bleachers in the grandstands were a safety risk.

He said county government’s insurance carrier threatened to cancel the policy if the already scheduled events during the fair were held without new bleachers due to the liability risk.

Novak said several contractors were approached about replacing the bleachers and all of them reported they wouldn’t be able to receive the materials and complete the work on time.

Fortunately, Novak said a contractor, who promised no delays in getting the materials and completing the job before the fair, was found.

“I’m sorry feelings got hurt because they didn’t know about it ahead of time. It was an emergency. It wasn’t our intention to hide anything,” he said.

LaPorte County Commissioner Rich Mrozinski said cancelling acts lined up to perform during the fair also would have proven costly.

“We’ve sold a lot of tickets for the various acts coming to the fair. We would have lost a lot of money,” he said.

Larry Levandowski, director of facilities for LaPorte County government, said the wooden bleachers were rotting in spots and showing other signs of long-term exposure to the elements.

He said the bleachers are believed to be the same ones that were put in when the fairgrounds moved to its current site along Indiana 2 just west of the LaPorte city limits in 1962.

“It’s just work that should have been done probably years and years ago and it’s just come about,” he said.

He said the new bleachers will be made of aluminum.

The existing steel structure is going to be sandblasted to remove rust and repainted.

The plans also include a new lighting system.

“It’ll be a nice new looking grandstand once it’s done,” he said.

BY STAN MADDUX

It was a rough start to the season for the young New Buffalo High School baseball team.

The Bison lost 18-2 to River Valley at home Tuesday, April 12.

With starting pitcher Braden Huffer on the mound, New Buffalo trailed just 1-0 after the first inning but the Mustangs broke open the game with nine runs in the second inning.

After hit by a pitch, Alex Patton, and Aiden Coy, who drew a base on balls, scored the first runs in the second inning on a crisp single to left field from Jaren Christ.

Two more Mustangs batters were hit by pitches and walked before Chris Israelite hit a run scoring single to right field.

Patton then drove in two runs with a double rolling to the left field fence.

Huffer was replaced by Andrew Flick, but the scoring for that inning by the Mustangs wasn’t over until Coy, while trying to score on a wild pitch, was tagged out at the plate by Flick racing in from the mound.

After scoring a run in the second inning, the Bison, who were now trailing by 13 runs, started the bottom of the third inning with Neal Johnson getting hit by a pitch and Hagen Davis drawing a walk.

However, Johnson was thrown out trying to reach third base on a wild pitch.

Ethan Lijewski then struck out.

Davis later scored on an infield single down the third base line by Huffer and a bad throw in an attempt to tag him out at home plate.

Sam Wendel then hit into a force out at third base to end the inning.

Lijewski took the mound for the Bison in the fourth inning but, due to control problems, was replaced by Wendel.

Patton laced another run scoring double to the left field fence to finish the scoring by the Mustangs.

Wendel looked impressive, though, in recording a strikeout and retiring two other batters on a routine pop-up and ground out to the third baseman.

Head Coach Wayne Butler said it’s just a matter of time before the team of mostly freshman and sophomore players after losing every game last season begin winning.

Butler said the talent, effort and enthusiasm are there but not the experience or physical strength that comes over time.

“I’m very optimistic about the future. They play with a lot of passion,” he said.