Stratford K-12 hires coaches, reviews report card results

By Casey Krautkramer

The Stratford Board of Education approved the following list of new hires at last Wednesday’s meeting: Marissa Hoernke as elementary school paraprofessional, Drew Spaeth as head varsity baseball coach and Bill Coker and Curt Schmidt as assistant baseball coaches.

The school board also accepted the resignations of Jason Tubbs as head varsity football coach and Ryan Bloom as assistant baseball coach.

Other business

■ Parent Becky Stueber spoke on behalf of herself and other parents during the public comments period about wanting to know what the school district is doing to help students who have low scores on the standardized tests.

Later in the meeting, Stueber was pleased when Stratford Middle/High School principal Jeff Bell provided further information on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) school report cards. Measurements from past years show that the middle school actually has done better since last year.

Superintendent Nathan Lehman and Bell also explained plans on how teachers of science and English discussed the outcome of the testing to ensure that the curriculum in all areas are meeting the state standards.

Lehman also highlighted that Stratford High School’s Class of 2025 seniors had the highest ACT scores in the Marawood Conference when they took the tests as juniors.

“The class of 2025 had an average score of 21.4, which was not only the highest in the Marawood Conference, but the highest score we have ever received since the DPI mandated we give the test to all juniors in 2015,” he said.

■ Lehman reminded district residents that the deadline to file papers to run for school board this spring is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. School board members serve three-year terms. He said interested candidates for school board should send their information to the school. Incumbent Kitty Guyer will be up for re-election if she decides to run for another term.

■ The board approved minor revisions to the board policy dealing with student harassment complaints filed by parents or school staff. The policy was changed to make it clear that the elementary and middle/ high school principals are the compliance offers for handling reports of harassment. The names of the current principals were removed for future reference.