Stoughton
Thursday, December 14, 2017 • Vol. 136, No. 21 • Stoughton, WI • ConnectStoughton.com • $1
Dirks won’t seek re-election Cites changing role as assistant Rock County DA SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
The Stoughton Area School Board will lose one of its longest-serving members in April, as president Scott Dirks Dirks announced he won’t seek another three-year term. In an email to the Hub on Dec. 6, Dirks said a shift in his role as a Rock County assistant district
attorney eventually led to the “difficult” decision not to run. “Several months ago, the Rock County District Attorney made me one of the three people in my office who prosecute the vast majority of the child maltreatment cases … (necessitating) a fair amount of additional training on my part in recent months,” he wrote in an email to the Hub. “This new caseload consumes much more of my time and emotional energy than what I had been doing before.” Dirks said while he “very much enjoyed” his time working on the board, he ultimately realized “something has to
Turn to Dirks/Page 14
Hub seeks to grow editorial board JIM FEROLIE Hub editor
For the past four years, the Stoughton Courier Hub has held semi-regular meetings of an editorial board. This group serves as a crucial link to public opinion in matters involving the Stoughton community. We discuss current topics, recent issues o f t h e n ew s p a p e r a n d potential additions to coverage. The Hub is looking for new members to add to the number and diversity of voices within our board. We need people willing to get involved in discussions about issues affecting Stoughton, the surrounding towns and the Stoughton Area School District. The wider
your range of interests – schools, city government, business – the better. The board comprises members of the community and Hub staff. There are no requirements for serving on the board, other than an interest in community affairs. The goal of the board is to foster discussion and community engagement and represent as broad a cross-section of Stoughton residents as possible. We have generally held between four and six meetings per year, but our goal is increase that to eight to 10. They are generally small-group discussions that occasionally lead to editorials or columns written by our staff members or news
Turn to Board/Page 8
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Allie Lee, a senior at Stoughton High School with the SHS group Heartstrings, tunes her viola.
Photo by Amber Levenhagen
Reaching out
SHS musicians bring music to the people for therapy, connection AMBER LEVENHAGEN Unified Newspaper Group
When Stoughton High School senior Ellen Cook learned about the Madison Symphony Orchestra community engagement program, she knew she wanted to bring the same experience to Stoughton. So Cook partnered with her music
teacher, Rachel Shields, and introduced the Heartstrings – a group of orchestra students that performs around the community. “I had the idea of re-creating that program at the high school because I was interested in taking music to people who didn’t have the opportunity to listen to it elsewhere,” Cook said. The group’s title is a reference to a
much larger music therapy program – the MSO Heartstrings – which performs classical music for nearly 3,200 individuals annually. The SHS Heartstrings group, with a much smaller reach, adapts the same principles of music therapy – connecting directly to audiences by encouraging individual participation during the program.
Turn to Heartstrings/Page 7
1892 estimate: $4.6 million UW team evaluates old high school for extensive renovation SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
For years, people have pondered how to bring new life and purpose to the former Stoughton High School “1892” building. Last week, a design team of University of Wisconsin engineering students brought forth specific plans – and numbers – after spending the past several months studying the building’s potential. They came up with three plans,
school district and city have both indicated they can’t afford to invest any money in the building. The six-member “Heritage Consultants” team, led by Madison preservation architect and UW engineering professor Charles Quagliana, focused on the 125-year-old building for its 16-week senior “capstone” design course. At a Dec. 5 meeting of the Stoughton Area School File photo by Amber Levenhagenim District facility committee, Quagliana said he hopes the The historic 1892 building, near River Bluff Middle School results give district officials and the district Administration Building. and residents “some ideas ultimately recommending a or more before any decision on what it’s going to take to $4.6 million renovation into is made on the future of rehab the school.” a community center. the property. Structurally, Turn to 1892/Page 5 It could be several months it remains stable, and the
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