Students at the Sturgis Composite School were greeted with significant changes when they walked through the doors on September 3 for kindergarten to Grade 9 and September 4 for students in Grades 10 to 12. The projected enrolment for the kindergarten to Grade 12 school is approximately 180 students.
The biggest changes saw the placement of a new principal, Kipp Bayer and a new teacher, Kody Rock.
"Most of the renovations have been completed in the school that included an upgrade to the computer room and this year will see Heidi Paterson instructing a Science Distributed Learning program via the computer to interested students," said Bayer.
"We strive to provide a balance between athletics and academic programs in a small town verses big city programming.鈥�
Bayer is originally from Kipling and received his Bachelor of Education at the University of Regina in 1995. His first teaching position was at White City where he taught Grade 3 students for one year. He continued to teach at Balgonie and Balcarres for one year, followed by Endeavour School for one year before he moved to Preeceville School where he taught Grade 6 students for four years. From Preeceville School he moved to Sturgis Composite where he taught for 14 years. He was at the Preeceville School as vice-principal for one year before taking the principal position at the Sturgis Composite School. He and his family are long-time residents in Sturgis since 1999.
Bayer will be responsible for the sports program at the school with coaching junior and senior boys鈥� volleyball, junior girls鈥� basketball, the National聽Archery聽in the Schools Program (NASP), track and field and badminton.
Kody Rock is originally from Canora and will be responsible for teaching elementary phys-ed and health to Grades 7 to 9 at the Sturgis School. He was hired for a half-time position which means he is only available on certain days. Rock will be subbing in the area on his other days. He received his Bachelor of Education from Mayville State University in North Dakota and majored in physical education. He interned at Melville and has subbed throughout the area. Rock has a passion for baseball and throughout his career he has played ball as pitcher with the Yorkton Cardinals for two years and after graduation from university he played professional ball with the Milwaukee Brewers organization for two years.
"I will be offering assistance to the sports programs at the school but unfortunately can not commit to any full responsibilities as I am only here on a half-time basis," he stated.
Other staff members include: Terry Zawislak, administrative assistant; Nathan Hrynchyshyn, Michael Andrusko, Meghan Hurlburt, Sherry Lesser, Carla Lewis, Carla Olson, Kristen Peterson, Tara Romanchuk, Lisa Serdachny and Kelsey Newman, all teachers. Nathan Seghers is the band instructor.
Katrina Wasylenchuk is the library technician.
Educational assistants are: Bev Kardynal, Sheila Meroniuk and Cecilia Sliva.
Karen Boen and Adeline Mills are the caretakers.
