Chaska_102011

Page 1

Introduction to the stars

Room for debate

Finding pictures in the night sky

Fledgling team has competition talking

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Page 27

www.chaskaherald.com

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

CHASKA

$1

HERALD

What technology would the levy buy? District has several plans if funding is approved BY CHUCK FRIEDBAUER friedchu@yahoo.com

JOIN THE CHAT

W

hen Sa m Doolit t le sits at the back of his second-g rade Jonat ha n Elementary classroom, he sometimes has a hard time hearing his teacher. “But when she wears her microphone, I can hear her real well and I don’t feel left out,” he said. The microphone Sam spoke of is part of a sound reinforcement system used in many District 112 classrooms, an example of the items district officials plan to fund if the technology referendum is approved by voters on Nov. 8. An approved referendum would provide approximately $1.98 million a year for 10 years to be spent by the district on technology. The district has a 10-year plan to use those funds in a wide range of ways, from student response devices and computers to the wireless infrastructure to support their use.

JOIN THE REFERENDUM DISCUSSION AT

www.chaskaherald.com SOUND REINFORCEMENT The sound reinforcement system is an example of a device the district has but would like to roll out to more classrooms. The system includes a microphone worn by the teacher to amplify his/her voice throughout the room, along with a handheld microphone students can use. With an approved referendum, the district plans to spend $210,000 each year for the next five years to get the systems in most classrooms. While most classrooms in the elementary schools and Chanhassen High School already have the systems, Chaska High School, all three middle schools, Chaska Elementary and the Kindergarten Center do not have many.

Levy to page 2 ®

PHOTO BY CHUCK FRIEDBAUER

Jonathan Elementary School media specialist Gwen Valiant helps from left, Gavin Erickson, Isaiah Yin and Ryan Melquist with exercise on individual netbooks.

Recipe for the spook-tacular

11-year-old wins $1,000 scholarship BY MOLLEE FRANCISCO mfrancisco@swpub.com

Katie Goodman is no stranger to the brightly colored book shelves at the Chaska Library. “My friends and I come to the library to do homework,” she said. “And of course, I check out lots of books.”

Location: 7410 Highway 212 E., Chaska Ages: Recommended for 10 and up Tickets: $20 ages 14 and older, $15 under 14 More info: www.screamtown.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF DARYL JAMES AND JOHN BISHOP

MEET SOME OF SCREAMTOWN’S RESIDENT LOONIES INSIDE ON PAGE 10.

Chaska resident Tim Meyer’s Screamtown character is “Karl Blood” who was “recently terminated from my position as a janitor from the Circus Asylum due to ‘unacceptable behavior.’”

Screamtown in the Corn,” “Oak Blood Forest,” and “Rabid Alley,” Screamtown is not for the faint of heart. “People are coming here to be scared,” said Dunn. And scare them, he does. “I like to think of it as old pranks we used to play on people ramped up,” said Dunn. “We ramp up the old classics and make them wild.”

Screamtown to page 10 ®

Screamtown

Carver Pkwy.

Bookworm reads way to college cash

One could say that Matt Dunn has a thing for Halloween. At just the tender age of 9, Dunn began constructing elaborate Halloween attractions at his parents’ home in Plymouth. He drew visitors from all around the neighborhood and then some. “Each year it got a little bigger until news crews were showing up in the front yard,” recalled Dunn. These days, Dunn’s parents can breathe a little easier come fall. That’s because Dunn has g raduated to his own place – more than 362,000 “scare” feet in a cornfield just west of Chaska. It’s a little place he calls Screamtown. Now in its fourth year of operation, Screamtown is an everevolving outdoor attraction built to thrill. In the last year alone, Dunn noted, they’ve expanded to be 25 percent bigger than 2010. “There are a lot more visuals,” he said. “A ton of change.” With attractions like “Terror

Time: Gates open 7 p.m., gates close at 10 p.m., event shuts down nightly at 11 p.m.

212 Jonathan

PHOTO BY MOLLEE FRANCISCO

Katie Goodman earned a $1,000 college scholarship through a summer reading program.

Dates: Oct. 20, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30

Co. Rd. 43

BY MOLLEE FRANCISCO mfrancisco@swpub.com

Screamtown

Kelly Ave.

Screamtown Puts the “EE!” in Halloween

To Cologne

N

Graphic by Traci Zellmann

Screamtown is located on Highway 212 between Chaska and Cologne, roughly two miles west of Jonathan Carver Parkway.

Reader to page 12 ®

INSIDE OPINION/4 OBITUARIES/6 VICTORIA/7 SPORTS/13-15 CALENDAR/17 CLASSIFIEDS/28-31 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6683 EDITOR: (952) 345-6574 OR E-MAIL EDITOR@CHASKAHERALD.COM.

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