GREAT HOMECOMING TO REPORT AS WELL AS UPDATE ON MASCOT PROCESS
The Murray County School Board met on Monday, October 11th. Present were Tony Clarke, Sue Streff, Robin Gilbertson, Lauren Biegler and Maddy Robinson. The meeting minutes from the September 13th meeting, along with the monthly financial items were all discussed and approved. Post experience reflections were submitted and approved. The personnel recommendations, which include: the fall musical director, Issac Harms and assistant director, Christie Gergen, fall musical director, Michael Helgeson and leave of absence for Caitlyn Harmsen with Kent Heck doing the long term leave for her, as well as, the hiring of Melinda Bose (paraeducator), Deb Onken (food service) and the acceptance of retirement for Della Haupert effective the end of year, were all approved.
Todd Burlingame, Elementary Principal gave the Board his monthly update. The afterschool care is at around 11 students a day. The after-school homework help started on October 4th for students grade 4-6 from 3:15 to 4 Monday thru Thursday. Homecoming week was GREAT!! The Orton Gillingham Training has been successful with 5 additional staff being trained along with 2 paraprofessionals by the end of December. There will be no school on October 21st and 22nd for MEA break.
Secondary Principal, Jacob Scandrett also provided the Board with an update. Students and teachers continue to work through the COVID hurdles with some being working from home while being quarantined. A big thank you goes out to everyone for a successful homecoming week. It was refreshing to get back to traditional activities pre-covid. High School conferences will be Monday, November 1st from 3:30 to 7pm in the new gym. The American Education Celebration and Veteran’s Day programs are being planned. Nov. 11th at 2:00 pm will be the Veteran’s Day Program and the Education Banquet will be Thursday, November 18th with social hour at 6:30 and program at 7:00pm. The CEO program continues to move forward and they are now in search of business investors to be part of this program. We have teamed up with Marshall and they are also looking for investors.
James Wajer, Athletic Director was not present but shared with the Board this: “Rebel Pride. Over the last month I have got to witness what Rebel Pride truly is when we talk about Murray County Central. After a big rival win against TMB there were 4 MCC players that did a random act of kindness after shaking hands with the opponents and singing our school song with our fans. These 4 players went and picked up the end zone pylons and yard markers for the away grounds crew. I am not sure how many people saw that but I did. At a home junior high volleyball match the players picked up all of the stands, chairs, nets and tables without being told to do so. At our home cross country meet the runners picked up all the cones on the course at the conclusion of the meet. Again, after a big win last Friday, our football players could have easily ran through our community tunnel, but instead waited for their injured teammate to get into his wheel chair so he could experience the homecoming victory tunnel. Before homecoming started, we had two students who knew our cheer team needed help decorating the school for homecoming and without instruction they decorated the school. TWO STUDENTS DID THAT BECAUSE THEY HAD THAT MUCH PRIDE IN THEIR SCHOOL. If you have attended any home volleyball games you will notice our football team picking up the chairs and stands after a game. The best way to explain the pride our students have for Murray County Central is when they sing our school song after a game. The hair on the back of my neck stood up watching everyone in our stands clap along as our boys of fall and our cheer squad sang their school song! There are numerous other stories that I have personally witnessed that overwhelm me with pride for our district and community that only someone who has been here would understand. Congratulations to all our teams on their victories during homecoming, not only on the field but more importantly off the field.”
Joe Meyer, Superintendent reported that the 2021 audit has been completed and will be presented next month. ESSER III fund applications have been submitted. The Central Building COVID numbers are slowly coming down from the 3% or above. West Elementary has stayed below the 3% threshold. Compared to last year, our cases numbers do appear to be higher right now this year. They will continue to monitor the cases as the weeks and months move forward. As of right now, on Thursday this week (10/14) they will reevaluate the mask mandate. The Board agreed that the 3% number appears to be a good factor to use for deciding when to mask or not. Meyer has spoken with Brett Muecke and Kevin Nelson regarding the snow removal this winter. Nelson is willing to lease a skid, large bucket and blower to the school if we decide to manage the snow removal ourselves. Muecke is interested and will get a proposal together to submit to the school, he just needs to confirm that he has employees to do the work. Meyer did state that Muecke wasn’t interested in the sidewalk portion and did feel the school should sign the agreement for the rental of Nelson’s equipment based on the sidewalk need alone. The Board agreed with moving forward with Nelson’s agreement and made a motion for that.
They next discussed the Mascot topic. Meyer had reached out to get information regarding changing the mascot from Neff and Jostens and their marketing pricing. At this point he hasn’t heard back from them. This is the history that Meyer shared with the Board regarding how the Rebel Mascot came about back in 1992:
In the formation of the new school district (Murray County Central) by combining the Slayton School District and the Chandler-Lake Wilson School District after the F5 tornado in 1992, students voted on a new mascot choosing “Rebels”. The name and mascot (Rudy) was tailored after the University of Nevada Las Vegas mascot, “Hey Reb” and for the popularity of UNLV’s “Runnin Rebel” basketball team. The Hey Reb character was drawn and developed by Mike Miller in 1982, a celebrated Las Vegas artist. Miller stated that his inspiration for the cartoonish character figure came from and was modeled after the Western trailblazers of the 1800’s who ventured into uncharted Nevada to discover resources and build communities. “Pathfinders were severely independent people who went all around the West looking for new trails, agriculture, gold mining and everything.”
As listed on the UNLV website, the “Rebels” nickname reflects the tenacious attitude and relentless spirit of the school and a community that dares to be different. Rebels are independent, resilient, and at times unconventional. Rebels aren’t tied to the past, and they’re not intimidated by the future. The Rebel spirit lives on through a community imbued with a purpose and motivation that’s greater than the individual, a community of Rebels not afraid to take risks to make things happen.
In 2016, MCC’s mascot image was changed to the current Rudy that eliminated the gun and flag from the original frontiersman’s uniform. This came about from concern about the image of a gun in school with the rise of school shootings at the time.
The first item of new business was to approve the transfer of funds to cover the deficit in the community service fund. The Board needs to approve this before submitting the request of the Department of Education Commissioner. This was approved. The next was to approve the finalized strategic plan that needs to be submitted to the state. They lastly approved the donations for the month from the following: Southwest Health & Human Services 1111.59 2nd Grade Flexible Seating, Minnwest Bank 200.00 Little Rebels, Kiwanis 1,100.00 Scholarship, Wayne Onken 1,000.00 Scholarship, Hergert 1,000.00 Scholarship, Tommeraasen 1,000.00 Scholarship, Huyink 1,000.00 Scholarship, Reedy 1,000.00 Scholarship, Konkol 1,000.00 Scholarship, Erlandson 1,000.00 Scholarship, MCC Staff 975.00 Scholarship (jeans day), King Turkey Day 500.00 HS Band, Farmers Agency of Avoca 100.00 Homecoming and RA Muecke Sand & Gravel 25.00 Homecoming. Thank you to all those who donate to MCC.
The next meeting will be November 8th at 6pm.
