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Stoughton
We are the hand on your shoulder to help you graciously through these tough times.
F AMILY O WNED & O PERATED S INCE 1869 Stoughton • Madison • McFarland Deerfield • Sun Prairie • Waunakee
Thursday, April 5, 2018 • Vol. 136, No. 37 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.25
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Spring election
Swadley elected mayor BILL LIVICK Unified Newspaper Group
Stoughton voters have chosen Tim Swadley as the city’s next mayor. The Common Council president and District 3 incumbent defeated challenger Bob McGeever by a 5 percent margin Tuesday, winning 1,837 to McGeever’s 1,630 for a four-year term as mayor. A group that campaigned as a bloc for Common Council also turned out victorious, with Dist. 3 incumbent Regina Hirsch
defeating Dorann Bradford 506310, Nicole Wiessinger besting Dennis Pince in District 4 (498-356), a n d P h i l Swadley Caravello easily beating Franklin James in District 2 (499-191). After the results were in Tuesd a y n i g h t , McGeever Swadley,
Psychologist, deans avoid ax SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
After several meetings of discussing the merits of keeping (or adding) psychologists or hiring new staff to assist with discipline, the Stoughton Area school board opted for a compromise. After more than an hour of discussion, the board voted Monday night to adjust the staffing recommendation of the district’s
Willie Morgan, of Stoughton, fishes in the Yahara River at Viking County Park Saturday, March 31. Morgan was one of a few people out fishing around noon on a breezy 48 degree day. Temperatures dropped sharply this week back into the 30s and the Stoughton area was threatened with a few inches of snowfall early in the week.
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Stoughton Area School District
Board: Discipline help outweighs budget issues
Reeling in spring
Photo by Kimberly Wethal
Stoughton Area School District
Safety issues still evolving Active shooter training, cameras, trauma kits part of ongoing improvements SCOTT DE LARUELLE
Inside
Unified Newspaper Group
Onsager gets contract extension Page 12 administrative team, restoring a district psychologist position that was proposed to be eliminated. The vote was 8-1, with Steve Jackson dissenting. The move will increase the district’s staffing costs by $45,000 for the 2018-19
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It’s not a subject educators or school board members like to talk about, but after the Feb. 14 mass school shooting in Florida, keeping Stoughton schools safe is once again a hot topic. Board members listened to an update Monday night from district safety coordinator and building and grounds supervisor Calvin Merath, who talked about proposed and ongoing measures the district has been taking since 2015 to protect the people in its buildings. Those include upgrading the district’s radio system, adding secure vestibules to all schools and signs to keep visitors entering and exiting in the correct areas, issuing ID badges for staff and visitors, and adding the RAPTOR system to conduct background checks
demonstrations with “active scenarios,” Merath said. In November, around a dozen parents attended each of two informational sessions about the program. “We got very a positive response from parents who attended, and in emails and responses, they were very happy we were moving forward with an active shooter response here in our district,” he said. Merath said a recent survey sent to all staff got some very positive responses about the program, with 155 people responding. “They were overwhelmingly positive, and that was really nice to see staff thought it was valuable training,” he said. “It’s a tough thing to sit and talk through … this is a very different approach to a tough subject.” Merath cited a high positive response rate to the question of whether staff felt the training would be useful, either at work or in daily life. More than 99 ALICE training percent responded affirmatively, with L a s t s u m m e r, s t a ff a t t e n d e d 90 percent labeling it “very useful.” two training sessions, including Turn to Safety/Page 12 on visitors and volunteers. And in the case of a worst-possible scenario, the district has also implemented ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training for staff and students to deal with active shooter situations. “We have worked diligently on implementing ALICE,” he said. Training for staff is ongoing, with the next session set for April 13 for the district’s 4K providers. The process to update those policies started in 2015, Merath said, when an audit identified “multiple layers that needed improvement.” The board also discussed adding dozens of additional cameras to Stoughton High School, trauma kits for classrooms and bars or stoppers for classroom doors to prevent entry in case of emergencies, and continued training in case of an active shooter at a school.
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Alders backed by Dems prevail