WHITEHALL — Whitehall superintendent CJ Van Wieren shared his excitement about January's successful Vikings First tailgate fundraising event during Monday's regular school board meeting.
The purpose of the tailgate, which invited the community to support Whitehall student-athletes, was to raise funds to help decrease the cost of participating in school sports. This also alleviates the pressure of students having to fundraise for their own teams individually.
Van Wieren reported that around $35,000 was raised, adding, “That’s huge for that program.” Through the Vikings First program, which is in its third year of operation, sports camp costs have been reduced and has allowed students free admission to all school sporting events.
The goal is to expand the service beyond student athletes, eliminating similar “pay-to-play” structures for other extracurricular activities such as band, choir, and theater.
“[We want to] really make it a true Vikings First, because it incorporates all the Vikings,” Van Wieren said.
Board secretary Paula Martin and president Rachel Fekken discussed what they’d recently learned from several online classes taken through the Michigan Association of School Boards. These classes primarily concerned aspects of connecting and communicating with the public, collecting and analyzing feedback, navigating political situations, and collaboration between the school board and superintendent. Fekken encouraged the rest of the board to take advantage of these classes, as she and Martin benefitted greatly from participating.
The board unanimously approved having Brian Hosticka continue as the district's representative to the White Lake Community Library board. The school board tabled the nomination last month to see if others may be interested and received a letter of interest from one other candidate, but chose to continue with Hosticka.
The board also reported that Whitehall police officer Travis Bolles will be leaving his role as School Resource Officer, moving into the position being vacated by retiring Whitehall officer Derek Sova. Another officer, Makayla Gibson, has shadowed Bolles in the past in the interest of taking on the SRO role and will have her first day in that position Feb. 23.
