×

School board looks at new programs, equipment

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Board of Education took a tour at the High School of new programs and new equipment at a Thursday work session.

The tour began with a stop in the High School weight room. New weight room equipment was brought into the school over Christmas break.

“It really is something to be proud of and take ownership of,” Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Derek Leiser said. “Kids are excited about it. The hope is we continue to utilize it in our classes and over the summer.”

The weight room has enough equipment for most athletic teams to work out at the same time.

The hope is the new equipment will help translate to exercise outside of school and being physically active after school.

Leiser said they are also excited to offer a female-only strength and conditioning program. The high school girls were asked if they would be more likely to take a strength class away from the boys and several said they would prefer a separate class. The idea is, everyone will benefit from the equipment.

Next, the board visited the career/technical education (CTE) classroom for an update on the Eagles Enterprise program. Eagles Enterprise is a school-run manufacturing business that began this year at the New Ulm High School.

In the CTE room senior Faith Nachreiner works as the finance director keeping track of the various manufacturing projects, the cost estimates, billing, labor and bill collection.

Senior Amara Addy serves as the marketing manager for Eagles Enterprise. She updates the various social media sites for the company and runs other campagins. Addy demonostrated equipment used to make heatpress shirts for sale. They recently made shirts for Washington Learning Center.

Eagles Enterprise uses both the wood shop and metal shop to manufacture products. In the woods shop, senior Brody Baldwin discussed some of the project highlights. He said their first finished project was a deck completed for a client.

In the metal shop, Russell Hellendrung was working on welding a new bottom onto dumpsters for Riverview Sanitation. Eagles Enterprise has replaced the bottoms on 12 dumpsters.

The students are considering creating signs and other products for possible wholesale at local businesses.

Most of the contracts Eagles Enterprise receive are through social media advertisements or word of mouth.

Principal Mark Bergmann said the students of Eagles Enterprise are only limited by their imagination or the imaginations of their clients.

Money generated by Eagles Enterprise goes back into the program and scholarships for the students.

Superintendent Jeff Bertrang said this CTE program is linked to workforce develepment in the community. This has been a focus area since the Visioning 2020 confrence held in 2016.

The annual reorganization/regular board meeting will be held Thursday, January 23, at 6 p.m. in the District Offices, 414 S. Payne Street. The next study session will be held Thursday, Feb. 13, at 5 p.m. in the River Bend Confrence Room, 1315 S. Broadway.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today