Page 8 The Advocate News (Wilton-Durant, Iowa) Thursday, May 10, 2012

OpiniOn
Are you smarter than a Wilton Elementary student?
n April 27, the Advocate News got to take part in Business Day at the Wilton Elementary School. Business Day is a product of the Partners in Education (PIE) program at Wilton Elementary and once every three years, local business leaders take time out of their busy schedules to spend a day with children in third through sixth grade. The Advocate News has been a PIE partner for many years with Wilton Elementary and this was my second experience with Business Day. There were 14 businesses in attendance and the event takes place in the elementary gym. On April 26, the gym floor was open after school for businesses to begin setting up and Friday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., around 230 kids moved around, from table to table, learning a bit about local businesses. The reach of our product doesnt start and stop with covering monthly school board meetings. It doesnt stop with covering our local band programs or sports teams. Business Day provides a great opportunity to meet our future generation where the coverage starts. Our staff here at the AN, particularly Paulette Theobald, put hard work into some very informative and entertaining poster boards for me to put on display, to teach the kids about all aspects of the paper. Of course, we Daryn Clark, a fourth grade student at handed out ink pens that were a hit. In fact, Wilton Elementary School, reads his most businesses bring a little something for birth announcement in the Nov. 22, 2001 the kids and Community Bank provided nice issue of the Advocate News at Business bags for them to collect their goodies! Day April 27. Id have to say the hits of the day were colorful wands that lit up from Temp Associ- of two companies. Other than WTC, what is ates of Muscatine and the suit that Gerdau the name of the other company? employees wear that was on display for 5. Community Bank asks when did Comstudents yes they were able to try it on, munity Bank first come to Wilton? gloves, helmet and all! 6. What was the banks name before it was In preparing for this event, I always like to Community Bank? bring a couple copies of our bound volumes. 7. Stanley, Lande & Hunter asks what year Instead of bring the most recent papers, I like was Stanley, Lande & Hunter founded? to estimate a year range that may fall along a 8. Temp Associaties asks in 2011, which timeline in which some of the kids Ill be meet- anniversary did Temp Associates celebrate? ing with were born. 9. The Wilton HistoriSure enough, with cal Society asks what around an hour left year was the current of Business Day, I Wilton Depot built? received a visit from 10. White Pigeon InDaryn Clark, a fourth surance asks how did grade member of Susie White Pigeon InsurShirks third and fourth ance get its name? grade multi-age class. 11. RIA Federal Credit By Derek Sawvell Upon learning of his Union asks what does Nov. 8 birthday, I asked KARS stand for? him what year he was born. I had books from 12. Gerdau asks how many tons of scrap 2001 and 2002. When he said 2001, it only does Gerdau Wilton recycle (on average) per took us a couple of minutes to flip to the Nov. month? 22, 2001 edition of the AN to find his birth 13. Wathan Chiropractic says the human announcement. body has seven cervical vertebra. How many To say he was shocked and excited was an does a giraffe have? understatement. He read it over and over. Then 14. The Advocate News asks what year did he brought Mrs. Shirk over to look at it. Later the AN go from being a broadsheet publication he brought some friends over to show it off. to the tabloid (smaller) size it is today? It was then when a friend of his put his arm Give up? The answers are below: around Daryn and said wow, youre a part of 1. The library opened in 1935; 2. Steel and history! Its in those precious moments when aluminum; 3. $20,100; 4. ITPIntegrated a couple of 10-year old elementary students Technology Partners; 5. January, 2006; 6. can help put our product in perspective. Wilton Savings Bank; 7. 1957; 8. 25th; 9. One of the key tools of any newspaper is to 1898; 10. White Pigeon Country School; 11. provide a public record. Our many volumes of Kids Are Rewarded for Saving; 12. More than newspapers provide quite a historical record 25,000; 13. Seven; 14. 1980. of our wonderful communities. Little Daryns On behalf of the PIE board, I can say it is discovery brightened my day and you can see always a pleasure to present and partake in a photo of him within this column. Business Day. My hope is to grow from 14 Another key ingredient to making Busi- businesses to 20 or more in coming years. ness Day run so smoothly are the list of trivia Also in this weeks issue (pages 17-24), questions that each student has to find answers you can see our annual project that we do in to sort of like a scavenger hunt. collaboration with our PIE partner, Sheryl Want to play Are you smarter than a Wilton Lenker, art teacher at Wilton Elementary. Elementary student? What follows are the She kindly helps us with our Newspapers in trivia questions: Education ad campaign, where sixth grade 1. The Wilton Library asks why does the students design ads for local businesses. The Wilton Library stamp each book on page ads are great once again this year! 35? I must also say a big thank you to Bennett 2. C.B.M. Trading asks what is telephone Elementary School and Durant Elementary wire made of? School, namely Bennett sixth grade teacher 3. Central State Bank asks how much money Leslie Nebergall and Durant sixth grade has Central State Bank donated to Wilton High teacher Beth McKinley, who kept their stuSchool since the start of the Beaver Nation dents on track while producing ads for our Program in 2007? program. 4. WTC Communications actually consists

Wilton fourth grader Emerson Drake and third grader Meggan Hook show off their $100 bills from Community Bank during Business Day in the Wilton Elementary gym April 27. Photos by Derek Sawvell

'This has divided us'

Editor: Im writing this letter because Im tired after 2 1/2 years of reading about our school problem. Some will say at your age why do you care? Ive lived in Durant for 57 years and settled here because of the quality of the school that was here. Now Im not very proud after what is happening. As I write this letter, I know I will lose friends but Im at the point that I dont care. I think we need to think about what has happened in our school district. This has divided us. People have taken sides and friendships have ended. Children have listened to parents talking at home, expressing whatever side theyre on. Im sure some childrens friendships have changed because of this. If I had children and was looking for a place to live, it wouldnt be here. Why did this happen? Because in my opinion, people could not work together. Could this have been avoided? I think so had the superintendent (Duane Bark) told the school board about this issue first. Why didnt he? Because if he had told the board about this before walking the principal (Monica Rouse) out, they could have addressed the problem before the court system got involved. If the board knew about this and didnt take action, we had a poor board. Why do I say that? Look at all the time and money that has been spent and how we as people have reacted. Some of you may think she (Rouse) is guilty. The school went through the court system and lost. What our opinion is doesnt make any difference now. What Im going to tell you Ive known since May 4, 2010. I hoped that I would not have to tell but our problem has not gone away. Everything Im writing Mr. Bark and I have discussed. We had many meetings. On May 4, 2010, I went to Muscoda, Wis., where Mr. Bark had been before he came to Durant. The reason I made the trip was because of all the things I was hearing on the street in Durant. I hoped I could stop them because I thought they were untrue. In Wisconsin, I talked with a number of people but did not go to the school. I found the community had been divided when he (Bark) left. Things were similar to what we have but no lawsuit. I will tell you I visited with two women, one was an elementary principal and the other a past school board member. The patterns were similar to what happened here. The board member said Bark was a controlling person. The principal had been recommended to replace him as superintendent when he left for Durant. A group interviewed the applicants and had recommended her. She was notified she had been chosen and came to the board meeting. When the spokesperson told the board their recommendation, Mr. Bark said to table it and think it over. The next meeting, the same thing happened but Mr. Bark told the president of the board they should hire another person. They hired that person. In the next school board election, a number of board members were voted out, including the president. Sound familiar? You dont need to believe me, but I have a few persons names and two phone numbers you can call. Most people dont want to give names because theyre glad its in the past for them. Im not happy what I hear is happening at school. This is the first time Ive seen a person that has won a court case treated as a criminal. This should get the school in another lawsuit which will make the attorneys happy. I hope the school board stops letting the attorney run the school. We need to work together to get this behind us. I say this because the only thing we hear about the school is what the attorney tells the news media. By now I should have a number of people angry. If nothing else, I hope I have given you all something to think about. If we continue the hate we have, the problem will never go away. I know there are two sides to every story. I know I have heard that she (Rouse) had issues at Tipton. Mr. Bark told me this but I dont know if there is proof. I suppose if there are more court appearances, we may learn more about both people. I think maybe we should attempt trying what the administrative law judge proposed on the last page of his 86-page document that he used to explain why he ruled the way he did. If you havent read this, you should. He recommended a panel of persons, including teachers, staff, school district personnel and when appropriate, students, to identify issues that take place in our school to solve problems. When I first read this, I thought he doesnt live in the real world. Now I think maybe we have to look at something like this. Maybe this would get people involved in the education of their children. I would welcome hearing from anyone in the school district. I would like to hear your opinions (785-4745). I hope we can talk civil to each other. Im not angry but disappointed with how this has been handled. Wayne Lincoln Durant

Case in Point