District dress code is approved

Principal Beranek says school code is “almost unenforceable”

The Marathon Board of Education last week Wednesday approved a dress code that will apply to all three district schools, while understanding that enforcement of the code remains a challenge for school principals.

Board members adopted a dress code with 18 specific prohibitions. The code bans excessively short skirts, wallet chains, gang colors, racially motivated graphics, tops that show cleavage, shorts that do not totally cover bottoms and other things.

Board president Jodi De-Broux said she wanted a district- wide dress code, rather than have different codes at different schools. She said a single code would be easier to enforce.

Board member Lia Klumpyan said she was frustrated with the clothes that students wear at school. “I don’t like the way the girls dress,” she said.

Klumpyan said her greatest problem was not so much with the dress code itself, but that the code adopted by the school board was not enforced.

High school principal Dave Beranek said school dress codes were “almost unenforceable” not just in Marathon City, but in other area schools.

He said that “as a male” he was at a distinct disadvantage at enforcing a dress code that applies to female students. Beranek said some high school students were unable to adhere to school dress codes given their body type and available fashion in stores. Beranek said that strictly enforcing a school dress code would be a time consuming process. “It would be all you would do,” he said. Board members said they understood the difficulty of enforcing the dress code, but wanted to see school officials make an effort.

Beranek said he would publish the adopted school dress code in the hopes that parents will purchase school clothes that follow the new code. In other school board business:

n Administrator Rick Parks said he will present at a Wednesday, Aug. 10, district annual meeting a 2022-23 budget that will feature a $3,108,044 tax levy, a 16 percent reduction from the current year.

Parks said district spending, pegged at $10.5 million next school year, is up 4.3 percent over the current year, but that the district can expect to receive over $5 million in general state aid, an increase of 14 percent over the current year. The district will also get $374,679 in in ESSER federal aid. That compares with $76,108 this year.

Parks said the school board will have an option of paying down school district debt, further saving on interest payments.

n Board members discussed canceling two teacher inservice days in order to shorten the school year and not graduate, as has been demanded by members of the public, on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

After a lengthy discussion, board members tabled the issue.

n Administrator Parks said he is researching installing three outdoor classroom pergolas with two sided solar panels at Marathon Area Elementary School (MAES)as an alternative to an outdoor classroom near the school pond. Parks said the new proposal would require less materials and be less expensive.

n School board members said they hope to meet with members of the Marathon City Village Board to discuss housing projects and student growth sometime before the start of school in the fall.

n High school principal Beranek said school registration is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 2 and 3.

n MAES/Marathon Venture Academy principal Ryan McCain said all district music classes will take place at Marathon High School next school year. His students will also travel to the high school for fitness center classes, he said.

n Board members agreed to increase compensation for the school athletic director to a range of $5,500 to $7,800.

N School district nurse Lara Beranek reported that in 2022 her health office had 1,997 visits, handled two 911 emergencies, administered 1,620 daily medications, referred 26 students for vision concerns and eight students for hearing concerns.

n Board members approved a list of fall 2022 coaches: football, head coach Ryan Winkler, 80 percent assistants Jeff Schneider, Rob Love, Brad Bernarde, Vince Dinkel, Chad Thurs, volunteer Connor Ellenbecker; volleyball, co-head coaches Nicole Schneider and Lynelle Love, junior varsity coach Paige Kock, JV2 coaches Paige Koch, Rhianna Sweno, Danielle Jacobson, junior high coach Kayla Laher; cross country, EJ Otto, assistant coach Tera Fieri, junior high coach Matt Hessel.