Lake Benton School gears up for the 2010-2011 school year

By Dan Kuss
lbnews@itctel.com

Cody Bach and Tyler Schindler, two summer helpers, test out the rock climbing wall at Lake Benton School. This is the first time in two years the wall will be available for students since they tore down the old school building. - Photo by Dan Kuss

The floors at Lake Benton School shine. The entire school building is clean and ready for another school year.

“We’re about ready,” said Steve Bennett, Head Custodial Engineer at the school. “We’ve got a few odds and ends to touch up, but we hauled everything out of each classroom, cleaned it and put it all back together.”

One added feature that has been missing for the past two years is the rock climbing wall. “The kids are going to like that,” said Bennett. “We haven’t had it up since we tore down the old building.”

The rock climbing wall used to be in the small gym in the old building. This summer, the crew built a wall in the visitor’s locker room to store the records that were kept on the stage.

Now that the space on the stage has been freed up, it was the perfect opportunity to set it up again.
Bennett and his summer crew of Tyler Schindler, Cody Bach and Megan Bach, sanded down the gym floor and resurfaced it. “We really just roughed it up and got the ground in dirt out, so the new coating would stick,” said Bennett.

“It used to take about two to three days to dry in the humidity, but now it takes two or three hours with the air conditioning.

Bennett explained how the schools two year old geothermal heating and cooling system works.

“The school is cooled and heated from the underground well field out beyond the parking lot,” said Bennett. “You set it at one temperature and the coil heats or cools the building. There is a reversing valve, so when it gets to a certain temperature, it just switches and it reverses or extracts the hot air.”

Geothermal heating and cooling takes advantage of the natural warmth stored in the earth. Normally the earth temperature is around 55 degrees at depths of 10 feet.

In climates warmer than 55 degrees, this can be used to air condition a building and in colder climates, those under 55 degrees, it can be used for heating.

“We have a unit in each classroom, so they can be controlled separately,” said Bennet. “The ones by the office are located in the ceiling.”

A geothermal heat pump uses the extracted water or transfer fluid, such as water mixed with antifreeze, as a heat source in winter and a heat sink in summer. Some geothermal heat pumps provide heating and cooling via forced air distribution, and others through the heating or chilling of water for radiant type systems.

With a closed loop system, the fluid circulates continuously inside the buried pipe, absorbing heat from the earth during the winter for use inside the school. In warmer months, the fluid takes heat from indoors and transfers it back into the earth.

“The system is two years old and will pay for itself in another two-and-a-half years in energy savings alone,” said Bennett. “I remember a few years ago we had at least three tankers deliver 21,000 gallons of fuel oil and at $4 a gallon, that isn’t cheap.”

Not only is the geothermal system less expensive and eco friendly, it is clean and much safer for the occupants of the building.

Over the summer, the crew also replaced the pea rock in the front playground with wood chips, making it less hazardous to walk on the sidewalk.

“We also had lots of mowing this year,” said Bennett. “I’ve already got to get back down to the football field again, but it will be nice when the high school plays their games here this fall.”

Elkton takes second place finish in Region 2B Varsity VFW Tournament

by Brent Beck
Ivanhoe Times

Elkton took second place in the recent Region 2B Varsity VFW Baseball Tournament.

Coached by three South Dakota State University (SDSU) baseball players, pitchers Mike Robinson, Kirby Moresching and Sam Pieczhinski, the Elkton Varsity VFW Baseball Team ended up with an overall win-loss record this summer of 9-11, including the Region 2B Tournament.

The tournament was double elimination and included five South Dakota teams from Clark, Clear Lake, Elkton, White and Wilmot.

The Elkton team ended up as the only team with two wins in the first two rounds and ended up in the championship game with an undefeated record in the tournament. The Elkton team consists of players from Elkton, Lake Benton and Ivanhoe.

In the opening round of the tournament Elkton escaped with a 4-to-3 victory over Clark, behind a solid performance from Beck, who got the nod to start on the pitching mound.

Beck pitched a complete game, striking out six Clark batters, giving up five hits and walking two batters. In all Elkton’s defense left six Clark base runners on base.

In the top of the first inning, Clark scored two runs to take a 2-0 lead. In the top of the first inning Clark’s first baseman, Jeff McBraw, gained first base after being hit by a pitch, then Clark’s number four hitter, catcher Lane Hovde, got a base hit, putting base runners on the corners.

Hitting in the number five spot, Clark’s third baseman, Tyler Jenkins smacked a single line drive into right field and scored McBraw from third base.

Clark’s next batter, Skyler Flatten, got on base on an error, allowing Hovde to score from third, as Hovde advanced to third on Jenkins’ single, as Clark took a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

The score remained 2-0 until the fourth inning, when Taylor Rolf got on base on a walk and Alex Schwing got to first base on the second walk of the inning.

With two Elkton base runners on, Elkton’s right fielder, Braden Carmody, smacked a single on line drive into right-center field after taking a 3-2 count, scoring from third base after gaining second base on a balk. Schwing scored after Rolf crossed home plate on an errant throw by Flatten, who was playing center field.
So, after four innings, the score was tied at 2-2.

In the fifth inning, Elkton scored two more runs after Jake VanDyke and Rolf were walked. An error on Clark’s pitcher, Colin LeBeie, who overthrew second base on an attempted pick-off play. With the error, both VanDyke and Rolf each advanced to base. So with base runners on second and third, Schwing was hit by a pitch to load up the bases.

With bases loaded, Carmody came up to bat and laced another single into right field that scored VanDyke and Rolf, as Elkton took a 4-2 lead at the end of five innings of play.

Clark came back and scored one more run in the top of the sixth inning after Jake Karber hit a double into left center field that rolled back to the fence. Karber then scored after Clark’s center fielder Clay Guffin got on base on an error, as Elkton was out in front 4-to-3 after six innings.

In the top half of the seventh inning, Elkton’s defense held Clark scoreless as Elkton went on and advanced to the second round of the winners bracket with a 4-3 victory over Clark.

Against Clark, Carmody went two-for-three with two singles and both Beck and Nathan Krog went one -for-four and one-for-three with a single and double, respectively.

Clark’s starting pitcher, Colin LaBeie, struck out nine Elkton batters and gave up four hits and walked eight and hit two Elkton batters.

With their 4-3 victory over Clark, Elkton advanced to the semifinals of the winners bracket, where they faced Clear Lake on Tuesday evening, Aug. 3. Clear Lake ended up winning two games against Elkton, while Elkton won one against Clear Lake for second place. Clear Lake now advances to state this weekend at Clark, S.D.

School board budget plan discussed at committee meeting

By Dan Kuss
lbnews@itctel.com

The Lake Benton School Board held a budget planning meeting on April 14 at 6 p.m.
Superintendent Loy Woelber said he had been communicating with the teachers and staff about the items on the agenda for the April 14 meeting.

The following items will be acted upon at the next regular meeting of the school board on April 21 at 7 p.m.
Shifting the responsibilities of transportation supervisor to the building principal would save $1,500 on Gary Serie’s stipend. Gary is aware and okay with this.

Continue reading »

Lake Benton sixth graders attend Living History Day in Marshall

By Dan Kuss
lbnews@itctel.com

Sixth grade students Morgan Carmody, Hailey Ulrich, Brandon Bortnem, Marissa Bressler and Anna Tiedeman took their exhibits to the Living History competition in Marshall. The “Impact of Fast Food in America” exhibit by Marissa Bressler, Brandon Bortnem and Anna Tiedeman received an honorable mention ribbon. Not pictured is participating student Nick Krog. - Submitted photo

The sixth grade students participated in National History Day in Marshall on Monday, March 29. The students were given the theme of “Innovation in History: Impact and Change.” They were required to choose an item in history that is an innovation and research the history, the impact it has had on people and the changes that the innovation has caused.

The students were allowed to choose from one of five categories to present their research. The categories were exhibits, websites, play, documentary or a paper. I had three different groups and all three chose to enter the exhibit category.

Hailey Ulrich entered her exhibit into the individual category. She chose to do her research on the impact of wind turbines in Lake Benton.

Brandon Bortnem, Anna Tiedeman, and Marissa Bressler entered their exhibit into the group category. They did their research on the impact of fast food in America.

The last group was Morgan Carmody and Nicholas Krog and they entered their exhibit into the group category. Their research was on the impact of the telephone in America.

The students took their exhibits to the competition and the “Impact of Fast Food in America” exhibit by Marissa Bressler, Brandon Bortnem and Anna Tiedeman received an honorable mention ribbon.

The students were also asked to present their exhibits at this month’s Historical Society meeting. They will be presenting them on Tuesday, April 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the Heritage Center.

Learning what’s right and wrong

By Dan Kuss
lbnews@itctel.com

Jeff Spoo, portraying Vandy the bystander, left, hangs his head as Dana Thompson, who portrays Gusty the target, far right, finally stands up to Wheels the bully, center, played by Jenny Andacht. CLIMB Theatre presented a live play to Lincoln County third through sixth grade students at Lake Benton School to educate them on what bullying looks like and how to handle a situation when a bully is involved. - Photo by Dan Kuss

Lincoln County third through sixth grade students from Lake Benton, Lincoln HI and RTR elementary schools gathered at Lake Benton Elementary School on Thursday, March 4 to watch a live performance presented by one of the CLIMB Theatre troupes.

The topic of Thursday’s play was bullies. Three live actors presented scenarios, at a level that students could understand, demonstrating how to recognize a bully, how to react to a bully and what to do to stop a bully.

The program was sponsored and paid for by the Lincoln County Child Abuse Prevention Council using part of the grant funds of $5,000 given to each county and specifically set aside for training for parents or programs such as this and presented at Lake Benton School, due to its central location.

Sharon Rasmussen of Lincoln County Family Health Services said that bullying is more prevalent at the fourth, fifth and sixth grade levels. Rasmussen said, “We are a group of parents, community members, businesses and professionals who have a common goal: to prevent child abuse.”

Gusty, played by Dana Thompson, is a girl who is being bullied constantly by Wheels, played by Jenny Andacht. Wheels gets a charge out of being mean to Gusty, who tries to get her to stop, but seems to just egg Wheels on, making her conceive ever more clever ways to pick on and bully Gusty.

Jeff Spoo plays Vandy, a new kid in school who claims to be a mere bystander and doesn’t want to get involved. Vandy seems to know a lot about bullying and what to do about it.

As it turns out, Vandy was bullied at his last school and it became so bad that he had to move away. Vandy just wants to make some friends at his new school and not be bullied anymore.

Read the whole story in the March 10, 2010 edition of the Lake Benton News.

Morgan Carmody represents Lake Benton School in Regional Spelling Bee

By Dan Kuss
lbnews@itctel.com

Fourth, fifth and sixth grade students at Lake Benton Elementary School hold up letters to spell the word ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ at the pep fest held for spelling bee winner Morgan Carmody. Carmody stands in the middle of the group and was asked to pronounce the word once all 28 letters were called out by Marissa Bressler, standing far left, and held up by schoolmates. - Photo by Dan Kuss

Lake Benton School held a pep rally for sixth grader Morgan Carmody on Tuesday afternoon as she prepared to represent her school in the Regional Spelling Bee in Redwood Falls on Wednesday. Each grade presented Carmody with a poster of support which the whole class participated in working on.

In a humorous skit, the fourth, fifth and sixth graders presented a cheer in which each student held up a letter resulting in the spelling of ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ and asked Carmody to pronounce the 28 letter word.

Sixth grade girls Marissa Bressler, Anna Tiedeman and Hailey Ulrich led the entire school in a cheer for Carmody in which the student body shouted “Morgan” very loudly after each prelude, such as “You can do it Morgan,” “We are proud of you Morgan” and so on.

The pep rally ended with Principal Ryan Nielsen congratulating Carmody on her accomplishment and wishing her the best of luck as she advanced to regional competition. The whole school shared Mr. Nielsen’s sentiments.

When asked how she felt standing alone in front of the entire student body as they cheered her on, Carmody said, “I was really excited, kind of nervous and even a little embarrassed being in front of the whole school.”

Carmody said, “They gave us a list of words to study for the local competition, but there is no list for the regional event. I’ve been studying the local list in preparation for the next level.” She went on to say, “I looked at the words and said each letter out loud, then my mom quizzed me.” Carmody said she had no idea what they might ask her to spell in Redwood Falls, so she plans to wing it.

The next day Morgan, her mother and Mrs. Larson traveled to Redwood Falls for the regional competition. Carmody placed 16th out of 28 students from Southwest Minnesota. When asked if she was nervous, she said, “No, I wasn’t nervous. After several rounds, I misspelled the word touché’, which is touch with an ‘e’. It was fun and I met a lot of people.”

Lake Benton School and the entire community are proud of Morgan Carmody’s representation for our city in the spelling bee.

FCCLA takes a grasp of greatness

Ashely Sixta, co-chair of the FCCLA Week committee, gives awards to the freshman girls who were winners of the Steal a Heart Day. Pictured above from left to right are Marquette Nelson, Ashley Sixta, Nicole Schwing, Katlyn Stuefen and Shauna Kuehl. Virginia Gebhart was the overall winner with the most hearts collected. - Submitted photo

The week of Feb. 7-13 was designated National FCCLA Week with the theme “Grasp Greatness.”  The Elkton-Lake Benton FCCLA chapter started its celebration off the week before by holding a cancer walk at the school and raising money for the Children’s Miracle Network. A fun skating and pizza party was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, but due to weather, it had to be postponed.

During National FCCLA Week members of the Elkton-lake Benton FCCLA chapter were busy doing several activities which included Steal a Heart Day, Mix It Up At Lunch Day, a diversity activity, breakfast for members on Thursday and delivering the traditional Valentines on Friday.

The Elkton-Lake Benton FCCLA chapter has “Grasped Greatness” for several years by completing many service projects in the school and community and competing in STAR events at the district, state and national levels.  Members have shown outstanding leadership by running for local, district, state and even national offices. Since Mrs. Remund has been the adviser, the chapter has had three to four members elected to state peer education teams. The chapter has  also had junior high district officers, Sr. high state officers and state junior high offices. Past and current state officers were  Kimberly Landsman, Jr.  high State Officer; Tina Mathis, State  Sr. High officer; Heather Mathis, State Junior High Officer; Ashley Burlage, State Sr. High  Officer; Rachel Remund, State Junior High and State Sr. High Officer; Abbi Sudtelgte, State Junior High and State Sr. High Oficer; Megan Krogram, State Junior High and this upcoming year a State Senior High Officer. The Elkton-Lake benton chapter has also had four national officers who served the following years:  Tina Strau (Mathis), V.P. Peer Education, 1995-1996; Ashley Burlage, National President, 2001-2002; Rachel Remund, V.P. of Peer Education, 2007-2008 and Abbi Sudtelgte is currently serving as the V.P. of Programs for 2009-1010. These national officers have then their leadership gained from the local chapter onto their national roles and roles today in their families and careers. Tina has two young boys and works as a physical therapist in the Brookings, S.D. area.  Asheley Burlage received a business degree from the University of Minnesota and worked for AMP Stock/Huron Health Consultant and is now attending the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she is in medical school. Rachel Remund is attending college at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb., where she is majoring in Biological Systems Engineering and will be doing an internship with Cargill in Iowa starting in May and going through December. Abbi Sudtelgte is currently serving and travels for the National organization doing workshops and presenting motivation speeches at meetings. Abbi plans on going to college to become a lawyer.

The Elkton-Lake benton FCCLA chapter has “Grasped  Greatness” and  continues to get new members involved in chapter and leadership activities where they will use the skills they have gained in FCCLA to help in their future families, careers and communities.

Elkton FCCLA Chapter hosts local cancer walk

Abbi Sudtelgte, right, President of the Elkton-Lake Benton FCCLA chapter and chairperson of the Cancer Walk is pictured presenting Norman Remund, left, with the award for being the oldest walker. He also traveled the farthest, from Wilmot, S.D. - Submitted photo

Thursday, Feb. 4 the Elkton-Lake Benton FCCLA chapter hosted a local cancer walk to raise money for the American Cancer Society and the Children’s Miracle Network. The night was filled with activities for walkers of all ages to enjoy.  Registration began at 5:30 p.m. in the school lunchroom and the walk kicked off at 6 p.m.

Throughout the night walkers had the opportunity to enter their names in a drawing to win door prizes and baskets. Baskets, door prizes and raffle items were donated by the Elkton-Lake Benton FCCLA chapter, Elkton Locker, Linda Kampmann and Mary Remund. We thank all of those who donated a raffle basket and everyone who purchased a ticket to support the Children’s Miracle Network. Around 7 p.m. walkers had the opportunity to hear from two cancer survivors, Deborah  Kinner and Linda Kampmann. They shared with us the experiences and hardships they went through while overcoming cancer.  Other events taking place throughout the walk were volleyball games, dance wars, a duck pond, tattoo station and a luminary station. While walkers made their way around the school hallways they could see various cancer awareness posters on the wall made by members of the Elkton-Lake Benton FCCLA chapter.

The walk concluded around 8:30 with the drawing of raffles and the distribution of prizes.  Prizes were given to the largest team, the Senior-Freshmen-Friends with 45 people; the team that walked the most laps, the Little Elks Basketball team with 1,209 laps walked; and the members who recruited the most walkers, Ashley Sixta and Rachel Krogman. Prizes were also given to the oldest walker, Norman (Bud)  Remund; the youngest walker, Matilyn Jensen; and the walker who walked the most laps, Bobbi Huber with 106 laps walked. Winners of the raffle baskets were Lisa Gebhart, Mirista Bushman, Jessica Blum, Norma Krogman, Brooke Kuehl, Linda Kampmann, Kim Huber, Donna Weekes, Maddisyn Thompson, Maya Jensen, Melanie Kuehl, Susan Sudtelgte, Mary Remund, Dawn Boltjes, Bailey Thompson, Karen Stoltenburg, Janice Kampmann and JoAnn Mathis.

It was another successful year for the cancer walk and we thank everyone who walked, donated items and the businesses for their generous donations. The walk raised a total of $2,305 to be donated to the American Cancer Society and the raffle baskets and raffle items raised $253.88 for the Children’s Miracle Network, which is the National FCCLA Outreach Project for the next two years. Once again this year the FCCLA Cancer Walk was a success with the tremendous support from our community businesses and members who took the time to donate their time and money.    Thanks again to everyone for your  help!

Submitted by Abbi Sudtelgte, Cancer Walk Chairperson Elkton-Lake Benton FCCLA Chapter

School board says fitness center at Lake Benton school is on track

The Lake Benton School Board met in a regular session in the Media Center on Jan. 20. Loy Woelber gave a brief account of activities at the MMBA convention as good networking and good camaraderie. He hopes to bring other members of the board, staff and faculty with in the future.

Due to school being let out for weather, the spelling bee was postponed until Wednesday, Jan. 27.

There is an issue with the automatic lights going off where students and teachers have to wave their arms or move around and still have a hard time getting them to come back on at times. Custodial staff have checked the IR sensitivity and tried relocating them. They will try repositioning them again before replacing with passive switches.
The fitness center is coming along nicely, the board said.

Carpet will be added to create a warm environment, the board said.

Commercial equipment such as elliptical, treadmill, etc. will be added and dumbbells can be used without the added insurance risks that free weights bring, the board said.

The posters will be put up and the school is still searching for equipment donations. Membership is up to 29 members, bringing in enough to support the program and hopefully hire an athletic trainer for individual and group consultation.
School technology is bolstering and it is time for some upgrades. Ryan Nielsen is looking into remote clickers for Smartboard technology to provide instant feedback. He will report more on it in the near future. He asked the board to consider purchasing 30 Netbook laptop computers using a grant specifically for technology and curriculum.

The money to be used to purchase the Netbook computers, software and possibly a new science curriculum will come from a Federal program called REAP.

REAP stands for Rural Education Achievement Program and falls under Part B of Title VI and is designed to, “help rural districts that may lack the personnel and resources to compete effectively for Federal competitive grants and that often receive grant allocations in amounts that are too small to be effective in meeting their intended purposes.” www.ed.gov/nclb/freedom/local/reap.html.

There are three initiatives that can be found by clicking on this link. The goal of this program is to continue to improve the twenty-first century skills of the students at Lake Benton.

The Netbooks are compatible with the computers purchased by the Elkton School, making transition for elementary students to junior high more transparent.

The school board also made a motion to recognize the school’s paraprofessionals and appreciate the work they do for the students in the district.

Spreading holiday song

by Dan Kuss

On Dec. 21 the fourth, fifth and sixth grade classes from Lake Benton School walked through the falling snow to the Senior Center Meal Site to go caroling and bring holiday cheer for those in attendance. Students brought band instruments with them to play or sang Christmas songs while their music director, Marijane Borresen accompanied them on piano.

Most of the songs performed were excerpts from the school Christmas program performed for the public two weeks ago in the gymnasium.

When the planned portion of the informal caroling expedition was over, the audience was asked if they had any special requests.

What transpired was an impromptu sing-along in which everyone joined in.

Some standard Christmas songs came to mind and everyone participated with a request or by singing and the session ended with an old favorite, Jingle Bells.

There is nothing that warms the holiday spirit quite like children performing for their elders. Seniors especially enjoy when youngsters sing or play their instruments for them. When the requests came to an end, the students, their teachers and administrators made the walk back to school for the remainder of the day, while the seniors broke out the playing cards to continue an afternoon of fun and relaxation down at the Lake Benton Community Center.