By Laura Wright
At Su Valley Junior and Senior High School the new school year is underway with 177 students in attendance. 59 of those are 7th and 8th grade Junior High students.
According to secretary and registrar, Deb Maynard that is about the same number as last year but there are five new students. While there are no new teachers there is a new schedule, a new class, a new sport and a new club.
The school district required seven classes a day, instead of six periods as in prior years. Last spring, science and math teacher, Mike Matthews asked kids what other classes they would like and they said a cooking class. As he said, “I cook a little bit,” so he took it upon himself to offer a Culinary Arts Course. Twelve students are enrolled. They plan a menu, shop for the menu at Cubby’s, cook the meal and eat it. So far they have had grilled salmon served with rice and low bush cranberries picked by the students. They’ve made twice-baked potatoes, a yogurt parfait and cranberry pecan muffins. Nutrition and budget is also a part of the course. Matthews said that if a student misses a class they have to bring something they baked from home when they return to class. There is a lot of planning and preparation involved and Matthews is hoping that the students will take over more of that.
The new club is the Moose Club, an extracurricular activity being led by Physical Education teacher, Steve Harrison. It is just getting off the ground but the purpose of the club is to teach kids how to handle moose from the area road-killed moose program. The students will learn safe food handling techniques and how butcher and process the meat. There has been a lot of interest from students and it should get going by October. The processed moose meat will be donated to the local food banks.
The new sport is high school wrestling. Wrestling was offered several years ago for a short time. There is interest to start it again and a willing and able person to coach it– Bryan Kirby, who teaches Industrial Arts. The two other sports offered this fall are cross-country running coached by former Su Valley student, Caitlin Hunt. There are four students on the team. High School volleyball is just getting underway with long time coach Chad Valentine overseeing 29 girls. This season he’ll have help from his daughter Noelle Valentine, also a Su Valley graduate and former player.
As for the administrative department…if you’ve tried to phone the school using 733-2241 then you know that number is no longer in service. The number is 733-9300 and it has been that number for three years. The old number would still connect you but as of this week that is no longer the case.
