The June 2nd meeting of the Wagner Rotary Club began with a prayer from Rotarian Laurie Kidd. She gave thanks for the blessing of such a beautiful day and asked that we be blessed to walk with joy in our community and to serve each other as Rotarians. She also asked that, if possible, we could certainly use some rain!

Laurie went to the piano and led the group in singing “You’re a Good Old Flag” and the song “The 4-Way Test”. We also sang Happy Birthday to Rotarian Kara Frei who had the only June birthday.

Ken Cotton talked about the International Responsibilities of a Rotarian in his Membership Minute presentation. As an international organization, Rotary offers each member unique opportunities and responsibilities. Although each Rotarian’s first responsibility is to uphold the obligations of citizenship of his or own country, membership in Rotary enables Rotarians to take a somewhat different view of international affairs. In the early 1950’s a Rotary philosophy was adopted to describe how a Rotarian may think on a global basis. Here is what it said:

“A world-minded Rotarian:

*Looks beyond national patriotism and considers himself as sharing responsibility for the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace.

*Resists any tendency to act in terms of national or racial superiority.

*Seeks and develops common grounds for agreement with peoples of other lands.

*Defends the rule of law and order to preserve the liberty of the individual so that he may enjoy freedom of thought, speech and assembly, and freedom from persecution, aggression, want and fear.

*Supports action directed toward improving standards of living for all peoples, realizing that poverty anywhere endangers prosperity everywhere.

*Upholds the principles of justice for mankind.

*Strives always to promote peace between nations and prepares to make personal sacrifices for that ideal.

*Urges and practices a spirit of understanding of every other man’s belief as a step toward international goodwill, recognizing that there are certain basic moral and spiritual standards which will ensure a richer, fuller life.”

That is quite an assignment for any Rotarian to practice in thoughts and actions!

Rotarian Jerry Henke once again had the opportunity of trying to draw the Queen of Hearts but this time he drew a 10 of spades. There are 14 cards left in the deck.

Rotarian Rachel Woods introduced her program for the day which was Superintendent Shad Storley. Storley is finishing up the 20-21 school year as well as his educational career as an administrator. He gave an interesting recap on the year and dealing with COVID. About a year ago in June faculty and administration became aware that the coming school year was not going to be just another year.

They began meeting in June to discuss how the coming year would affect them and the students. They met with officials from the two hospitals and other relevant participants and later cut the planning sessions down to about 12 school people just because the preparations that people were taking did not always fit into an educational system. They tried to concentrate on making learning possible with the restrictions that COVID was forcing them to deal with.

They started the year with 197 students doing virtual education and ended the year with only 38 doing remote learning. The system worked well until about four days before Thanksgiving when 17 staff tested positive; and without being able to provide enough staff the decision was made to temporarily close schoolroom learning. After Christmas things got better and January, February, and March gradually became more like regular school.

There are no plans to start the 21-22 school year with virtual learning. There will be a new administrator, Mr. Yost from Parkston. Storley commented “life is short, and I want to try doing some different things. He has been in education for 29 years. He was asked how much different education is today from years past and he felt that too much time is spent on testing. It takes at least two weeks to get everyone tested according to the standards set by Washington DC.

Some of the projects and improvements made at the school during his term and ongoing into the next year are locker improvements; changing group showers to single stall showers; classrooms added in the shop area; a new ceiling in the shop; and the big project is the track and field complex. They are going with artificial turf for the football field which is usually guaranteed for 10 years but he noted that Sisseton and Groton have had turf fields and they are going on 20 years old.

They are also adding six new staff, two in preschool: two in elementary, and two intervention staff. One of those will be in elementary for the 4th grade because of its large size. They will be hiring 9 paraprofessionals to help in special education, and they are always short of bus drivers. It takes about six weeks to get a CDL license and in case any readers are interested please contact Mr. Storley.

Wagner gained around 20 students last year in open enrollment. Mr. Storley had high praise for the students at WCS. “They are a great bunch of kids who want to be in school and want to learn.”

The club recited the 4-Way test and adjourned.