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Stoughton
Thursday, June 14, 2018 • Vol. 136, No. 47 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1.25
(608) 873-4590
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Stoughton Area School District
Principal takes blame for grad confusion SHS revises protocol for including transition students’ names in program KIMBERLY WETHAL Unified Newspaper Group
When it came to printing the names of special-needs students graduating into the 18-to-21 program, Stoughton High School principal Mike Kruse told the Hub his mindset had always been to play it safe. He’s since changed that approach. After the outcry from the June 3 graduation ceremony resulting from those students’ names being omitted from the printed program, Kruse told the Hub in an email he takes the blame
and has pledged to ensure it’s fixed. The “hurt” that resulted and the school’s “inconsistent” approach resulted from policies not being written and communicated clearly, he wrote. Kruse also apologized “if I have given the impression that anybody except me is responsible” after his predecessor, Jerry Movrich, told the Hub that practice did not exist when he was leading the school. Last week, after a Facebook post garnered hundreds of responses and parents spoke to the school board, district spokesperson Derek Spellman told the Hub the practice of omitting the names of students with special needs who
Photo by Amber Levenhagen
Jeanne Schwass-Long checks the pantry shelves at the Stoughton United Methodist Church Food Pantry.
30 years of giving Volunteers support SUMC’s pantry
Turn to Graduation/Page 16 AMBER LEVENHAGEN Unified Newspaper Group
Stoughton Opera House
Bach Dancing and Dynamite to close Opera House season Troupe returns with guest singer Emily Birsan
If You Go
BILL LIVICK Unified Newspaper Group
The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society is planning to have a little fun at this year’s closing performance of the Stoughton Opera House’s 2017-18 season. The chamber orchestra’s creative directors, flutist Stephanie Jutt and pianist Jeffrey Sykes, have put together a program they’re calling “Rubber Ducky,
What: Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 22 Where: Stoughton Opera House, 381 E. Main St. Tickets: $43 Call: 877-4400 You’re the One,” which features pieces connected to ducks and other waterfowl. The idea sprang from the fact that playing chamber
Turn to Bach/Page 5
Courier Hub
Virginia Lunde has been a member of the Stoughton United Methodist Church for over 70 years and a volunteer with the SUMC Food Pantry for the entirety of its 30-year run. That’s at least as best as she can guess, because it’s not easy to put a point on exactly when you started with a program that has taken up three days a week for a such a significant portion of your life. “Over the years we’ve gotten to know people,” Lunde said of the relationships she’s made at the pantry. “We give hugs; if somebody is having a bad day, we listen. People talk to each other and everyone is friendly.” She was gathered with a group of nearly a dozen volunteers early Monday morning, who together helped unpack and sort food for pantry clients to choose from during the Tuesday and Wednesday morning pantry hours. The room was full of laughter, with brief pauses for conversation, and together the group efficiently unpacked dozens of boxes in just a few hours that came with a donation from Second Harvest Foodbank in Madison. The pantry is open every Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and clients
‘We give hugs; if somebody is having a bad day, we listen. People talk to each other and everyone is friendly.’ – Virginia Lunde
are invited to shop once a month. It’s affiliated with - though financially separate from - the church, and has been operating in its basement at 525 Lincoln Ave. since the church relocated in 1990. It had operated on a much smaller scale for a few years prior.
Modest beginnings Lunde and pantry director Lori Olson helped start the program out of a closet in the group’s former location on Main Street. “They got a call from the secretary upstairs that someone needed food, so they made a bag and it was given away. From there, we’ve come to here,” said Jeanne Schwass-Long, motioning to the expansive room full of volunteers and tables of food. She has been volunteering with the pantry with her husband, Francis Long, since around 1994 when they sold their herd of dairy cows.
They help coordinate food deliveries, among a slew of other duties, and Francis even takes it a step further to help Stoughton residents make it out to the pantry to help get their donations. “When you have dairy cows, you don’t have time for anything else,” Francis said. “So all of a sudden I had all kinds of time and nothing to do so that’s when I started volunteering.” The pantry supplies basic goods like canned vegetables, soups, meal kits and cereals, but also dairy, produce and meat products. Several large freezers hold items like pizzas and ready-to-eat sandwiches; all maintained by “refrigerator woman” Jo Doyle, who has been with the pantry since moving to Stoughton three years ago. “Comfort is really important to us,” Doyle explained while giving a tour of the pantry. “We’ve been told (by clients) that they really enjoy the space and being able to pick out anything they want, as much as they want, and that we don’t follow them around and dictate what they pick out.” Clients are able to fill up a paper bag with whatever products they want, and only a few specialty items are limited, like coffee and snacks.
Turn to SUMC/Page 11
Chamber Music with a Bang Home Savings Bank is proud to sponsor the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society concert at the historic Stoughton Opera House on June 22 at 7:30 pm. Purchase tickets at the door or overture.org
608.282.6000 · 400 W. Main St. Stoughton · home-savings.com adno=577499-01