Activities during this time period include playing games, sitting and chatting, working on a homework assignment or reading a book.

Parents are encouraged to stop by and observe the program at any time.

According to the national office of Big Brothers, Big Sisters, children who meet with a mentor for at least a year demonstrated the following:

*45 percent less likely to use illegal drugs
*27 percent less likely to begin using alcohol
*52 percent less likely to skip school
*33 percent less likely to hit someone

During 2006-07 Manchester area mentors noted the following:
*90 percent of the students improved their self confidence
*70 percent improved their ability to express feelings
*70 percent developed trust with their mentor.

Area teachers also observed some positive results noting that 22 percent of the children mentored got along better with their peers and 67 percent of the children mentored improved their grades.

Following are the thoughts of two currently active matches in the West Delaware School District.

Match one is Big Sister Joanna Demkiewicz, a high school junior, with Little Sister Kiana who is a 4th grader at Lambert Elementary.

This is what Big Sister Joanna has to say about being involved in the program.

“I have been in the program for two years. It is something different than being around adults all day. I did not have the opportunity to grow up with a “little sister”. However, I was and still am very close to my own brother. I learned so much from him. I want to pass the positive values on to a child that I learned growing up,” stated Joanna.

When asked why she thought that other students should get involved in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program she responded. “It’s a fun program for little kids. You know you’re doing something good for a child.”

Joanna’s Little Sister had this to say. “I like it because it’s fun. My Big Sister, Joanna and I play lots of games together., we play basketball and color together. I like my Big Sister, we have fun together.
Kiana has been in the program for three years.

Another current match is between Big Sister Maranda Mack, a high school junior and Little Brother Edmund, a third grader from Lambert.

Maranda has participated in the program of a year and had this to say regarding her involvement with the program.

“It is a good experience and it doesn’t cost anything to get involved. It is a way to spend one hour of your time every week making a difference in the life of another child.”

Edmund says the thing he likes about the program is playing games and enjoying the pizza party along with playing outside on the playground equipment.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is and has been a very successful program in and around West Delaware.
It is one of those programs where people need to get involved so they can know that they have made a difference in someone’s life.

For more information regarding this Big Brother Big Sister program call Mentor Coordinator Ellen Krogmann at 563-927-5148.

The West Delaware School Board held its regular meeting on Monday, Nov. 12 at 8:00 p.m.

School Board president, Gary Johnson started the meeting by informing all those present that the board has a policy in place for handling the emergency situations they are currently faced with.
Sue Daker (Director of School Improvement) will take the lead in performing administrative duties; Ron Goerdt (Director of Finance, Board Secretary and Treasurer) will handle all the financial duties while Ron Swartz (Head of Building, Grounds and Transportation) will handle finishing the current construction project and the starting of the Phase II.

“This plan will run for however long that it runs. It may run this way until July 1, 2008. We are certain that there are issues that would have gotten done this year that may well not get done this year,” said Gary Johnson.

Tammy Schnieders, head of the West Delaware FFA department, made a “Spotlight on Education” presentation regarding a past student.

Jessica Tekippe has been recognized as a Star of America, one of only 16 nationally to receive this recognition.

Jessica wants to become a professional dairy judge.

Following the Spotlight on Education presentation Lorraine Boffeli addressed the school board with nearly the same presentation that she had made in front of the City Council several hours before.

Boffeli wanted to know why the school had not done their part in an agreement that had been signed with the city, namely constructing a detention pond.

Board President Johnson was quick to respond. “Mike Ryan, Ron Swartz, Rick Hilbert and I have met with representatives of the city regarding the construction of a detention pond on school owned property. We had a bid for $9,200; however, the city said that that was not enough money.
We asked how much money do you want, but nobody has ever said.”

Ms. Boffeli countered with this question. “Can you force the issue?”

To which Johnson replied. “The issue will come up again as we are getting ready to build again. We are willing to do whatever it is to make this thing work, within reason.”

The board heard from several other parties concerning the recent flooding problems related to the dry run.

Local resident Larry Childs blamed much of the problem on the landscaping around the new auditorium. He also commented on how things were going to get worse once the old Annex Building was torn down and a new parking lot was constructed.

As with the City Council meeting there were no real resolutions made on how to stop the flooding problem from happening again.

It was the consensus of the board that they would do whatever they could to help alleviate the problem; however, they did feel that the ball was in the City of Manchester’s court at this time.

The Board also carried a motion approving an early retirement package for this year.

Last year there were 20 employees that could have taken advantage of the early retirement offering, only two did.

The reason given as to why more didn’t take advantage of the incentive as that the time frame that they had to decide in was just three weeks. That time frame was deemed to short.

By making the offering for early retirement available now persons wishing to analyze their situation before having to make a decision will have nearly six weeks to do so.

The cut off days will be January 3 and 4 of 2008 with the Board accepting or rejecting early retirement applications by January 14, 2008.

In other Board business they
approved and agreement with Piper Jaffray as Financial Advisor for the Phase II Construction Project;
approved an agreement with Ahlers & Cooney Law Firm as Bond Counsel for Phase II Construction Project;
approved the PARITY Electronic Bidding Authorization;
Approved MSRB-23 Consent Letter Allowing Piper Jaffray to submit a bid for the General Obligation Bonds;
Set a special meeting date for November 26th at 12:00 noon to approve a Resolution Authorizing Piper Jaffray to Distribute POS (Printed Official Statement) to Prospective Bidders.

In separate action the Board approved a motion setting December 10th as the date for public sale and directed the secretary to publish the Notice of Sale and approval of electronic bidding.

Three new hires were also approved. Kamille Werner, Elementary Media Para educator; Joyce Tucker, Elementary Special Ed Tutorial Para educator; and Troy Tutton, High School night custodian.

One resignation was accepted, that of Adam Nyland as bus driver.