Tuesday, April 30, 2019

7th Grade Political Convention

The 7th grade Social Studies classes with Mr. Gentilli and Mr. Swenson held their annual political convention this morning (4-30). Students met in the auditorium for two hours to elect a People's Choice Party president and debate twelve different topics. The two most hotly debated issues included border wall security and therapy pets. The 24 "states" of students split each of the 12 topics to look at both sides of issues. Students made videos for every topic to sway and persuade the vote. It was a great way to learn about our country's political process!

Monday, April 29, 2019

Request for Outside Host Families

Dear Families,

There are 2 groups of students from Spain looking forward to local Midwest families to invite one into their hearts, homes, and everyday routines for 28 days this summer. The July group is here June 28-July 26 and the August group will be here July 29-August 26

Each participant comes with all proper legal documents, full medical insurance, their own spending money for all activities, and simply look forward to being a part of your everyday routine, whatever it may be! It is a great experience for kids of all ages. 

Here's the website to learn more about this wonderful experience for all: www.InternationalFriendship.com   

It is International Friendship's intention that ALL of their students from Spain are each matched with a wonderful family by May so that they are able to get to know each other well before the summer experience begins.  

For more information, please contact the program's director, Krissa Hinzman at email: krissa@internationalfriendship.com or call tel.(608) 843-6933.

Friday, April 26, 2019

Next Year's Youth Apprentices

Today (Friday, April 26), four (Max Bourquin, Edwin Erksine, Tyler Fahey, and Mitchell Mussehl) of seven students accepted into the Youth Apprenticeship Program for the next school year spent the afternoon at the Dane County School Consortium in Monona to attend a workshop entitled, "Getting the Apprenticeship." The workshop was lead by DCSC Director Josh Fassl who taught students career essentials such as:
  • Career preparation.
  • How to build skills for the career they are seeking.
  • Best practices for completion of job applications.
  • Preparation of a resume.
  • Writing a cover letter.
  • Asking for an interview.
  • Techniques for the interview and its follow-up.
As our new participants work with Mrs. Gartley, STC Coordinator, to secure paid positions, the information covered will improve the students' chances of being hired and starting their apprenticeship. [Submitted by Mrs. Gartley]

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Youth Apprenticeship Banquet

On Thursday, April 25, the Dane County School Consortium celebrated seniors who have participated in the Youth Apprenticeship program in a banquet at Monona Grove High School.

Our senior Youth Apprentices include:
Hayden Askey (Year 2) in Manufacturing  with Cate Machine & Welding
Joshua Bowers in Information Technology with the School District of Belleville's IT Department
Jade Halvensleben in Architecture with Mead & Hunt
Cole Kleiboer in Architecture/Construction with Another Choice Construction/Property Services of Madison
Julia McNamar (Year 2) in Mechanical Engineering with Federal Industries
Jared Schulting in Civil Engineering with KL Engineering

Congratulations on their accomplishments in getting started so early on a career path! Thank you to these employers for providing real-world experiences for our students!

These Wildcats also got to hear from one of their own. Sara (Campbell) Kuehl was the guest speaker for the banquet and helped recognize 25 years of the Youth Apprenticeship program, as a student in the first class in 1994.

Friday, April 19, 2019

Capitol Conference Art Show

The 2019 Capitol Conference Art Show opened on Tuesday and will run until its closing reception and awards ceremony on Sunday, April 28. Check out some of our fantastic student work on display at the Pyle Center (702 Langdon Street, Madison):
     
                                                               Risandi Bartle                          Catherine Booth
     
                                                           Natalie Brown                              Callie Everson
     
                                                      Luke Kelly                                                 William Kramer
     
                                                        Bella Miller                                        Madalynn Weber
Here is where you can make a difference. Use the QR code below or this link to vote for the Viewers' Choice Award. Last year, Wildcats helped Cade Kelley win this award. Let's keep the award in Belleville again this year! Be sure you vote for you favorite piece of Wildcat art today.

Thursday, April 18, 2019

NHS March Madness Food Drive

Congratulations to Mrs. Jenkins and the Belleville High School Chapter of the National Honor Society. At the conclusion of their March Madness food drive competition between the grade levels, the organization collected 602 items that have now been donated to the Belleville Food Pantry. The winning class will be released early for lunch on Friday (4-26). That announcement will be delivered on Monday. Thanks to all the students who chipped in!

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

1-2-3-4 We Declare a Penny War

Starting on Monday, April 22 and lasting two weeks (until Friday, May 3), the Middle and High Schools will take on the Elementary School in a fundraiser for the Belleville PTO. If the Middle and High Schools win the friendly competition, a student at each grade level (7-12) will have the opportunity to "pie" a (volunteer) teacher in the face. Let's show the kindergartners through 6th graders how we do it in our building! #WildcatWay

Alexandra Steckelis - Dane County Board Representative

On Tuesday, Freshman Alexandra Steckelis was notified that she had been selected for the Dane County Youth Governance Program. She will represent the youth of Dane County at board meetings. Just twelve students from different high schools were chosen for the program last year. Alex is the first applicant from Belleville to be selected. Jess Guffey Calkins, the Community Youth Development Program Coordinator commented, "Our selection team was impressed with your interview and application and believe that you will be a fantastic addition to our program. We look forward to working with you throughout the next year to build skills and relationships around local government." Alex will be assigned to a committee and attend an orientation session on May 23. Congratulations to Alex for making all Wildcats proud with this accomplishment!

E-Cigarette Parent Forum

Please mark your calendars for Wednesday night, May 1. Nina Gregorson from Tobacco Free Columbia Dane County Coalition will present on the increase in teen use of e-cigarettes and Juuls. This will take place in the high school library at 6pm. The night will begin with a review of Belleville's Dane County Youth Risk Assessment results on the topic from last spring. The Belleville Area Cares Coalition will then host a question and answer panel to conclude the evening. We hope that you can join us for this educational event and assist the school and community in addressing this growing problem among our students!

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Project Lead the Way Day at the Capitol

On Tuesday, April 16, just 12 school districts from across the state were invited to the Capitol rotunda to participate in Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Day. Seventh grader Aidan Cook, sophomore Logan Niesen, and senior Julia McNamar were invited to present as part of the program. They joined Mr. Neumann and Mr. Farrar in displaying some of the curriculum and projects that recently led to Belleville Middle and High Schools receiving PLTW Distinguished Schools honors. Thank you to 80th Assembly District Representative Sondy Pope for visiting with our students and teachers today!

State Forensics Results

Congratulations to Mrs. Alsteens, Mrs. Jenkins, and this year's Belleville High School Wildcat Forensics team! They performed spectacularly at April 12th's state meet on the UW-Madison campus.

Seven different Wildcats received perfect scores (25 out of 25) for their performances. These gold medalists include Emily Flick, Rylee Hubbard, Grace Jaramillo-Hoffman, Mason Schwoegler, Anna Nolden, Gary Salmela, and Abby Winterburn.

Nine more Wildcats received scores between 23-24 out of 25 and received silver medals. This group includes Jenna Blask, Mya Enerson, Miles Fahey, Mili Julian, Mitchell Mussehl, Claire Patrow, Andrew Remy, Karena Simmons, and Jordyn Thomas. 

All our Wildcat Forensics students scored 20 points or higher this year, with another nine students receiving bronze medals. What a way to end a successful season!

Friday, April 12, 2019

High School Students-of-the-Month for March

On Friday, April 12, Belleville High School staff recognized students-of-the-month with a Tano's pizza lunch. Each department nominates a student. Students receive a personalized certificate from their teachers. Teachers noted that these students have positive attitudes and are intellectual leaders in the classroom. Students also received movie passes courtesy of Marcus Theaters' Student Motivation Program. Congratulations to these students for showing the Wildcat Way!
Sean Hagen, Danny Enloe, Daniel Covarrubias, Cameron Kleiboer, Claire Patrow, Madelyn Winterburn, Isamara Gomez, and Elizabeth Case

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

CNC Haas Mill

Mr. Neumann's Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) class began testing their programs out on the new CNC Haas mill in the STEAM lab today (April 10). Mr. Neumann took the students through a demonstration. They will complete five projects/jobs on the mill. Students can test their programming on two simulators in the shop before taking up the machine time. In the end, the students will create a custom playing card case that they will be able to keep.

UW-Whitewater Band Clinician

On Wednesday, April 10, Mrs. Meir brought in Dr. Glenn Hayes from UW-Whitewater to work with both the middle and high school bands. This was made possible from a grant from "Awesome" Mike Treder.

Before leaving for the day, Dr. Hayes stopped in to the office to thank the entire staff for being flexible with his visit (with the students missing some of their regularly scheduled classes). He wanted me to know that the students were "beyond well-behaved" and noted that Mrs. Meir is a "gem" and a "fine educator."

School Board Representatives

For the 2018-19 school year, seniors Connor De Lorme and Peyton Morgan served as student representatives to the school board. They met with the principals before each monthly meeting to plan what they wanted to present. Then they attended the Monday night school board meetings and informed the board members and audience what had occurred in the last month, as well as upcoming events at the the high school from a student's perspective. Thanks to Connor and Peyton for taking on this responsibility this year!

Friday, April 5, 2019

STEM Field Trip to Local Manufacturers

Mr. Neumann and over 30 BHS students visited four different manufacturing facilities on Friday, April 5. Students toured Madison-Kipp Corporation in Sun Prairie before traveling back to Belleville and visiting Federal Industries. Later in the afternoon, students were on-site in Monroe at both Precision Drive & Control Inc. and SK Plastic Molding.  Students were able to see how some of the skills that they are learning in Trades and Project Lead the Way classes apply to real word job settings. In addition, employers discussed the attributes (like accountability and responsibility) and skills (communication, reading, and math) that they need to be successful on-the-job. Finally, students were exposed to numerous careers in addition to manufacturing such as engineering, human resources, maintenance, management, and sales at these types of plants and businesses.

Middle School Students-of-the-Month

On Friday, April 5, Belleville Middle School core teachers, along with Project Lead the Way and Art teachers, recognized students-of-the-month for April. All 7th and 8th grade students gathered in the auditorium at the conclusion of lunch to recognize their peers. Students received a certificate from their nominating teacher, a Catty Shack buck from the school store, and the opportunity to put their handprint up on the walls of the Middle School Commons. Congratulations to these Wildcats for starting out strong after Spring Break!
Front Row (L-R): Jacob Jenkins, Coral Kramer, Kariya Harris, Emilee Ehlert, and Lindsay Kittleson
Back Row (L-R): Kyle Hansen, Cayden Betts, Josh Ommodt, Raymond Homme, Michelangelo Dohm, and Vanessa Sarbacker

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Middle School Math Team


On Wednesday, April 3rd, Belleville Middle School took two teams with a total of eight 7th-graders and eight 8th-graders to the 2019 regional Math Meet competition in Mount Horeb. The Math Meet consists of five events that include: problem solving without a calculator, problem solving with a calculator, mathematical reasoning with a calculator, mental math, and team problem-solving. The 7th and 8th grade Math Teams placed 7th and 8th overall. Each district’s top two scoring individuals were also recognized with a certificate; 8th-grader Ali Zimmerman placed 2nd for our district, and 7th-grader Brady Mousseau was Belleville’s top scoring individual. Congratulations to all! [Submitted by Krissy Killerlain]

Forensics Night

On Wednesday, April 3, members of the Belleville High School Forensics Team had the opportunity to perform in front of their parents, staff members, and the public in the auditorium. Their performances often occur in front of a judge in a small-group setting, so it was fantastic to give them a larger stage from which to show their public speaking talents. The state Forensics meet takes place next Friday night, April 12, at UW-Madison. Last night's performers included Jenna Blask (Farrago), Miles Fahey (Impromptu), Emily Flick (Prose), Alexis Walker (Poetry), and Alan Woller (Impromptu), along with Mili Julian and Jacob Kean. Congratulations to these Wildcats on their success this season, and good luck to them next week at state!

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Belleville Middle and High Schools: PLTW Distinguished Schools

Before Spring Break, Project Lead the Way (PLTW) notified both Belleville Middle School and Belleville High School staff that the schools had received 2018-19 PLTW Distinguished School designations for their programs. 

The PLTW Distinguished School recognition honors schools committed to increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in their PLTW programs. To be eligible for the designation, Belleville Middle and High Schools had to meet the following criteria during the 2017-18 school year:

  1. Offer at least three PLTW courses. 
  2. Have 25% (or more) of it students participate in PLTW courses, or of those who participated in PLTW, have at least 33% take two or more PLTW courses during their high school career.
  3. Have 70% (or more) of its students earn a "proficient" (or higher) score on PLTW End-of-Course Assessments.
Belleville High School offers five PLTW courses- Introduction to Engineering Design, Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Engineering Design and Development, Principles of Engineering, and Computer Science Principles. Seventeen of our students completed two or more PLTW classes.

For the 2018-19 school year, Belleville High School was the only area school to receive this distinction! BHS is one of just five public (non-charter) high schools in Wisconsin to receive the designation and one of only 426 PLTW schools across the country to receive this recognition.

Belleville Middle School joined a slightly larger number of distinguished schools- 21 in the state and only two others in the area (Evansville and New Glarus). However, besides the four distinguished districts in Wisconsin, BELLEVILLE WAS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN THE STATE RECEIVING THE DISTINGUISHED SCHOOL DESIGNATIONS AT BOTH MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL LEVELS!

A HUGE thank you goes out to Mr. Ed Neumann for leading this effort in just four short years!  He is joined by Mr. Farrar, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Putnam, and Mrs. Swenson teaching Gateway and PLTW courses at the middle and high schools. Thank you as well to the school board and the voters for funding this initiative and creating a learning environment for this to occur.

Check out the congratulatory message from Project Lead the Way: