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Five WHS Students performed in the Wisconsin Choral Directors Association Honors Choirs on Saturday evening, January 15.

Marco Wence sang in the Bass Clef Choir under the direction of Dr. Christopher Peterson. Anders Clarksen, Lauren Rollette, Skylar Staebler, and Haley Street sang under the direction of Dr. Frank Watkins.

Students in each choir were nominated by their school choir director and selected by the WCDA Honors Choir committee. The students who were selected prepared several songs in advance and then rehearsed the pieces with the conductor and the choir for two days before the performance on Saturday at Bader Hall on the UW-Milwaukee campus.

The students gave a beautiful and inspiring performance. Congratulations to them all! 

Article and Photos Submitted by Karen Tordera
Whitewater High School Choral Director
ktordera@wwusd.org

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.,^[1] and sometimes referred to as MLK Day) is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year. Born in 1929, King’s actual birthday is January 15 (which in 1929 fell on a Tuesday). The holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The earliest Monday for this holiday is January 15 and the latest is January 21.

King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

Text and homepage image from Wikipedia.

Editor’s Note: This information was provided by the League of Women Voters-Whitewater Area.

The League of Women Voters-Whitewater Area invites its members and the public to participate in “A Conversation on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI),” on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 6:30 PM.

Since its founding in 1920, the League’s reputation as a trusted source for voter information has rested on its Nonpartisanship Policy, which states, “[League] does not support or oppose any political party or candidate.” Likewise, the League’s relatively new DEI Policy, protects the League’s good name as an organization, “fully committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in principle and in practice.” These two policies represent our core values. But has our League fully internalized what it means to be a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization? This meeting is designed to answer that question.

Furthermore, the program will not only conclude with actionable takeaways but also the exciting announcement of our new Book Club, designed to continue our exploration of the meaning, impact, value, need, and urgency of DEI.

This event will be virtual via Zoom. To attend live, please join the meeting by using the URL: https://bit.ly/lwv-ww_membership_dei

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Visit our website at https://my.lwv.org/wisconsin/whitewater-area and like us on Facebook!

On Saturday, January 8, members of the Whitewater High School FIRST Robotics Team Ferradermis gathered in the library at WHS for the worldwide reveal of the new game for the 2022 Season, Rapid React. The scoring opportunities in this year’s game are modeled after an airport, as the game is sponsored by Boeing, and revolves around a theme of transporting cargo. Robots must shoot oversized tennis balls (cargo) into the “hub” during both the autonomous portion of the game and during the driver-operated portion of the game. Robots may retrieve additional cargo from the “terminal,” and during the end-game, climb across a series of rungs in the “hangar.”

The team will now have approximately six more weeks to finish planning, designing, building, wiring, coding, and testing their robot before leaving for their first regional competition. To make this happen, they will meet at WHS four nights each week and all day on Saturday. The team currently has 28 members, over half of them new to robotics, and is led by a trio of seniors, each with four years of experience on the team, Elijah Grall, Shane Kinson, and Andrew Rollette.

For the first time this season, Ferradermis will be participating in three regional events, instead of their typical two. This will give our seniors a chance to experience more events since so many were cancelled in their sophomore and junior years due to the pandemic. After a practice event at Sussex Hamilton High School on February 20, the team will compete in Duluth, Minnesota, at the Lake Superior Regional from March 2 – 5. Then, over Spring Break, they will compete at the Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee, defending their 2018 and 2019 titles. (The Wisconsin Regional was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID.) Finally, the team will compete at the Seven Rivers Regional in La Crosse from March 30 – April 2. A win at any of these events as an alliance captain or an alliance’s first pick during selections will secure an invitation to the World Championships which will be held in Houston this year in late April. This is a tighter set of qualification requirements than a typical year in order to reduce the number of teams at the championship event.

The team is supported by a large group of adult mentors including professional engineers, professional programmers, metal workers, teachers, entrepreneurs, school staff members, and college students who participated in FIRST Robotics as high school students. Among the current full-time mentors for the team are Ferradermis alumni Zach Brantmeier and Sam Meyer. The students of Ferradermis are forever grateful to the Whitewater community for their support of their endeavor.

The team will hold its annual open house on Saturday, February 12, from 9 am until noon. Community members, family members, and sponsors are welcome to come check out the workspace and learn more about the team and this year’s robot.  

You can follow the team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ferradermis or learn more about the team that is open to all Whitewater High School students at www.ferradermis.org.

To learn about the rules of this year’s game, watch the Game Animation below:

Article and Photos Submitted by Laura Masbruch
Whitewater High School Robotics Advisor and Banner Volunteer
lmasbruch@wwusd.org

By Al Stanek
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com

Whitewater is searching for a solution to problems providing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) because of increasing service demands, higher costs and the decreasing number of available volunteers. It appears to share that problem with neighboring communities.

The City’s current arrangement with Whitewater Fire Department, Incorporated (WFD, Inc.) has been under review in closed door sessions for several months. The largely volunteer organization last year provided over 1600 calls for medical services averaging over four calls per day.

WFD Inc. voted earlier this month to issue a “Letter of Intent” indicating their interest in both Fire and EMS functions becoming city operations, citing the difficulty of recruiting part-time Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) along with a dwindling number of paid on-call volunteers. That change would likely increase costs considerably. WFD, Inc. is funded by a roughly $250,000 contribution from the City of Whitewater, contracts with surrounding communities and fundraising. Its annual operating budget has been roughly $1 million.

In Fort Atkinson the ‘Jefferson County Daily Union’ reports that the city will be scheduling a referendum in April to authorize hiring cross-trained EMTs/Firefighters along with additional police officers. They currently contract with a private EMS provider. Communities like Fort and Whitewater that take on expanded services without a positive vote on a referendum authorizing the additional costs face a likely financial penalty in the form of reduced state “shared revenue.”

In nearby Milton, ‘The Gazette’ reports that the Fire Department intends to formally pursue merging with the Edgerton Fire Protection District. They had been in talks with the City of Janesville. The proposed merger would include the Towns of Harmony, Johnstown and Lima. Both Johnstown and Lima currently have services agreements with Whitewater’s WFD, Inc.

Milton, like Fort Atkinson, is in the process of formalizing a contract with a communications firm to prepare the required referendum and provide advice on how successful referendums have been conducted.

WFD, Inc. today provides fire and EMS services to the Jefferson County Townships of Cold Spring and Koshkonong and the Walworth County Town of Richmond along with the two Rock County communities that are approaching Edgerton in partnership with Milton. They also maintain mutual aid agreements with other nearby communities.

“The ability of communities to provide an appropriate level of fire and emergency services is in jeopardy and may soon necessitate an emergency response…”, according to a recent report by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum (WPF). The report indicates that over 92% of Wisconsin’s fire departments are volunteer or “mostly volunteer.”

WFD, Inc. is currently advertising to fill several paid “on premise” part-time EMT positions whose wage rate will increase to $22 per hour from the previous $18 per hour rate. “We are in a very competitive field,” explained EMS Assistant Fire Chief Ashley Vickers.

The WI Policy Forum report references a state EMS Association analysis that “even with higher rates of pay staffing shortages are a problem at most departments.” Part-time positions generally do not provide the full array of benefits that highly trained EMTs often consider important in making employment decisions.

The report also points out that Wisconsin local governments’ reliance on “shared revenue” compounds the problem. “Shared revenue” is often the only source of supplemental funding for municipal services that are not tied to an existing state program. Fire and EMS services fall into that category. The “proportional share” of communities’ annual expenditures for Fire and EMS have been “lagging” according to the WPF report. The report states that “Fire/Ambulance spending is starting to trend down” as a percent of total community budgets as the costs of other services increase.

The WPF report points out that long-term solutions that could ultimately result in changes to service areas will require careful planning that “could take years to effectuate.” “In the shorter term,” the report concludes that “… greater financial assistance from the state or adjustments to financial constraints on local governments could be helpful.”

The City of Whitewater’s reaction to the WFD, Inc. proposal is likely to be a subject for the February 1 Common Council meeting..

City of Whitewater Equal Opportunities Commission – Monday @ 5:00 p.m.
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City of Whitewater Common Council – Tuesday
This meeting has been CANCELED. The next Common Council meeting is scheduled for February 1.

Whitewater School Board – Wisconsin State Education Convention – January 18-21, 2022  Whitewater School Board members and other Whitewater Unified School District officials will be attending the Wisconsin State Education Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 18-21, 2022. A quorum of the School Board may be present; however, the Board will not be conducting any business during the trip or at the convention.

Editor’s Note: The following information was provided by the Dwight Foster Public Library.

The Friends are once again hosting this popular program bringing travel experiences to the community. Area residents will share a variety of travel locations with our community. Due to the increase in Covid cases in Jefferson County, the first programs on January 27 will ONLY be available remotely. ALL of the travel presentations will be available that way; we may return to in-person as well. To join in on any of these travel programs from your home go to www.fortlibrary.org/friendstravel/ and click on the link to join at the time of the presentation.

The first destination will be on Thursday January 27 at 1 p.m AND 7 p.m. Jess Clayton will discuss “Traveling by Train in Europe … with Kids!”  Traveling by train is perhaps the most convenient, relaxing and enjoyable way to travel around Europe. This presentation will discuss the advantages of European travel by train, especially for people who are interested in traveling with children or with multiple generations. It will describe the logistics of European train travel, including how to book rail passes before leaving the US as well as how to take advantage of the flexibility offered by train travel. It will also provide examples from the presenter’s 2019 trip to Europe with her 9-year old twin boys.

This program is free and everyone in the community is welcome.  The program last between an hour and an hour and a half.  The next program will be with Pat and Ken Belt talking about Norway on February 10^th at 1 PM and 7 PM.