Eleven students from Peetz School recently competed in the annual Golden Plains BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Challenge held at Northeastern Junior College on Nov. 6 and while it didn’t go the way they wanted in the end, they still learned a lot and had fun.
One of the school’s robotics coaches, Brian Kurz, and several students spoke to the school board Tuesday about their experience and demonstrated how their robots work. For this year’s challenge, there was a two-foot-tall building full of things like wire, nuts and bolts, and copper, and students had to build a robot that could push the building over to the corner or knock it down and carry it over to the corner. The biggest point-getter though was the autonomous aspect, which involved programming the robot to move by itself to a corner, go retrieve a pipe bundle that was sitting there, bring it back inside the mat and put it onto a trailer.
At the high school level, they were never quite able to get the autonomous and the robot to see eye to eye, “we had it this close to working the way we needed it to, but we were up against some pretty mean teams from Yuma, Haxtun and Sidney. Proud of what (the students) got done and we’re going to get them next year,” Kurz said.
The coach went on to say one of the things he’s always loved about robotics is the collaboration required, the engineering and design required, and then having it fail and having to start all over again. Kurz shared that the high school team built three different robots this year trying to find one that worked the way they needed it to.
Students said they learned about time management and that it takes more time to do things than you might think. They also learned how to work together and how to keep their heads up when facing difficult changes, especially when they had to finish their autonomous on the day of competition.
“We did learn a lot from doing this and I think that it will continue to be a good experience for us, those students who don’t do sports this is their sport,” one student said.
This year Peetz sent a high school team with five students, including one junior high student, and an elementary team with six students. It was the first time since they started competing about six years ago that the school didn’t have a junior high team, but coaches are hopeful more students will join again next year.
In other business, the board reviewed policy IIB, which they decided to revise at their last meeting to increase maximum class sizes to 25 students. Right now, class sizes are capped at 22 for 9-12 grade, 16 for 7-8 grade, 16 for 5-6 grade and 14 for K-4.
The policy states that every effort shall be made to ensure optimal learning experiences in every class setting regardless of class size. However, when the class size exceeds the stated guidelines, the board will consider the use of additional professional assistants, implementation of an elementary multi-graded concept, distance learning options, and/or acquisition of additional staff. Options will be considered only if adequate financial resources are available to effectively support the concept.
Board member Darrin Fehringer asked about the high school math position and if the district has started recruiting to fill it. This year Ken Bretz agreed to come on board when the school was unable to find anyone. Superintendent Jeff Durbin told the board he is a firm believer in not switching teachers in the middle of the year, so Bretz will fill the position for the remainder of the year, but behind closed doors, there have been some conversations with administration looking at that position and what it might look like in the future.
Durbin and Peetz Principal Mike Forster have had a conversation about a possible candidate that might be a good fit for the district. The superintendent has reached out and asked if they would be interested in the position and they are definitely considering it, but haven’t given a yes or no answer.
“All options are still on the table, we’re not closed to anything, we’re definitely looking at what’s best for the district, the students and where they fit into our staff,” Durbin said.
Under action items, the board approved November payroll and expenditures, the final reading of policy GBI and a contract for a dishwasher/custodian in the kitchen who will start in January.
They also heard a report from the District Accountability Committee. At their last meeting, the DAC was informed that there is a teacher who would like to start a drama club and there are 24 students interested. Interested students wouldn’t necessarily have to act in the productions, they could do behind-the-scenes work like the set design or help with scripts.
The plan is to start the club after Christmas break.
During his superintendent’s report, Durbin shared that the audit has been completed and it went very well. He also spoke about attending the Northern League Schools meeting last month and their decision to realign patches to match the number of teams participating. Durbin believes that if a student is selected as an All-Conference player their team needs to have played for the whole season and that didn’t happen for Peetz’s volleyball team, they had to end their season early this year due to one of its five players suffering an injury.
