It was an exciting school year with lots of changes to personnel, groups and people reaching achievements and atudent/athletes pursuing higher education.

 

 

In January of 2018, 12 Becker High School band members and 13 choir members attended the Granite Ridge Conference Honors Festival at St. Cloud State University. 

 

Sierra Vilmo, Kaitlyn Woehrle, Kaitlyn Novitsky, Michelle Johnson, Grace Brown,  Evan Schafer, Holly Rowland, Sydney Denekamp, Alli Hendrickson, Austin Seavert, Kyle Goenner and Kenny Meyer were the band members who attended.

 

Macy Eigen, Sydney Bordson, Mary Goenner, Hannah Bengtson, Emma Tweten, Grace Jacobson, Samantha Pounds, Danny Solsvig, Jacob Drury, Andrew Reed, Ian Kimmerle, Jake Smith and Rhiley Larson were the choir members who attended.

 

 

Allison Hendrickson and Blake Paulson were selected as the 2017-18 Becker Triple "A" (Arts, Athletics, and Academics) Award recipients in February. 

 

The Triple "A" Award recognizes and honors high school seniors who have excelled in the classroom, on the athletic field and in fine arts. 

 

 

The Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) named Jean Duffy, assistant supt. of curriculum and instruction of Becker Public Schools, the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Central Office Leader Award in March. 

 

Duffy received this award for exhibiting a willingness to risk, possessing strong communications skills, being a progressive change agent, and having high expectations for herself and others. 

 

 

Former Becker Bulldog and current Aurora University Spartan Jackson Fluck was named the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Men's Golf Student-Athlete of the Week for events of April 2-8, as selected by the league's sports information directors.

 

Fluck played the first event of the spring for the Spartans in frigid conditions and shot a one-over-par 73 to finish tied for ninth in the highly competitive Illinois Wesleyan University Invite that had 100 competitors.

 

 

Senior BHS student Jalissa Johnson worked towards her goal of gaining a Gold Award through the local Girl Scouts program last April.   

 

Johnson created a couple”quiz boards” to help educate children on the aspects of farming. 

 

Following her career in high school, Jalissa went on to attend the University of Minnesota-Morris to major in biology with a pre-vet focus.  

 

 

Young adult author Alan Gratz delivered one hour presentations to each of Becker’s three grade levels in the PAC in late April. He then signed books for students over lunches from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and met for a special session with selected student for one hour at 2 p.m. until the end of the day. 

 

Gratzes books have been popular reads the kids of Becker Middle School  have been checking out from the media center and ordering online.

 

 

Director Joe Rand tackled a very sensitive subject when he and his drama group decided to put on a play entitled, “The Laramie Project”, based on Matthew Shepard’s kidnapping and death in Laramie, WY.

 

Rand’s play featured monologues and video excerpts surrounding Shepard’s hate-crime death.  Twenty-seven students played the roles of 70 individuals including reporters, teachers, friends and men and women of faith.

 

 

Five Becker students were honored as Students of Excellence at the 31st Annual Award & Recognition ceremony April 25.

 

Allison Hendrickson, Emily Kotten, Blake Paulson, Evan Schafer and Allison Schmidt received plaques for their achievements amongst family, friends and school staff.

 

 

Thirty-nine sixth graders at Becker Middle School were treated to a fun field trip in early June to Liberty Paper International.  

 

In March and April, sixth graders were challenged to read environmentally-themed books, and some students chose to write essays about what they learned from that reading and enter them into a contest, judged by staff at LPI.

 

Students were awarded $25 and $50 gift cards for their efforts. 

 

 

Four teachers were named Teacher-of-the Year for each school (high, middle, intermediate and primary) and others were recognized for their many years of service June 4.

 

Natalie Geier (middle school), Maggie Maine (high school), Karen Landsverk (intermediate school) and Erika Snook (primary school) were recognized.

 

 

Beloved teacher and friend of many, Sandy Lundberg, succumbed to cancer in June at her home in Apache Junction, AZ. She was just 53. She left behind a husband, Bill and two daughters, Melissa and Maggie, aged 18 and 12.

 

Lundberg was a former  Becker music director before moving to Arizona in 2010 and eventually taking a principal position at Casteel High School in 2015. 

 

 

A new organization, called Becker Education Foundation (BEF) was birthed in July by 2012 graduate Nathan Ernst and 2009 graduate Nick Crowley.

 

The BEF’s mission is to cultivate the educational experience of all students within the Becker school district through the connection of alumni and the support of the community, families and businesses.

 

Ernst and Crowley plan to focus on two main causes: 1). Focusing on providing grants and scholarships to classroom teachers and students; 2). To serve alumni through a variety of ways including networking and alumni events. 

 

 

Four young ladies from Becker took to the pool at the University of Minnesota last August to participate in a relay for the summer Minnesota State Championship Swim Meet. The event was held at the U of M’s Aquatic Center.

 

Scarlet Urick, Adele Changamire, Laila Cook  and Gracie Mork were the swimmers.  

 

 

The Becker Area Chamber of Commerce hosted their annual New Teachers Welcome luncheon in the Becker High School Media Center in August to introduce 13 new teachers to the public schools.  

 

The new teachers include Rebecca Hackensack, BHS special education teacher; Corinne Lyon, kindergarten teacher; Kathryn Jespersen,  BHS counselor; Breanna Totzke, sixth grade teacher; Regina Beaudry, BPS special education teacher; Katie Schmidt, BIS special education teacher; Daniel Rooney, BPS special education teacher; Joy Hausmann, BMS special education teacher; Kaitlind Anderson, BIS special education teacher; Abby Wenzel, BHS social studies teacher; Phil Johnson, BHS math teacher; Lisa Nygaard, third grade teacher and Brett Knudsen, BHS math teacher.

 

 

At October’s Becker School Board meeting, Dr. Stephen Malone submitted his resignation as superintendent at Becker High School — citing his desire to retire after 34 years in education.

 

Malone will stay on through the 2018-19 school year and end his tenure June 30 of 2019.

 

 

Evan Schafer, Becker High School Class of 2018 and current student at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire was awarded a $3,000 Union Plus Scholarship in November through the American Federation of Teachers for the 2018-19 school year. 

 

One hundred and fifteen students of union members nationwide were awarded scholarships. 

 

Evan is currently studying government at Dartmouth and is the son of Erich and Lori Schafer, Clear Lake.

 

 

A parent organizational meeting for the commencement of a Becker Bulldog Archery Club occurred Nov. 19 at the Becker Middle School Media Center.

 

Becker Middle School physical education teachers have begun to instruct the National Archery in Becker Schools Program (NASP) in the curriculum and the goal of the program is to expand the school archery curriculum and offer archery to Becker  students in an out-of-school activity format.

 

 

Becker High School National Honor Society leaders and executive board members — junior Alana Berger, senior Liz Moeller, senior Megan Nelson, senior Braeden Beutz, senior Brady Gruenhagen and senior Amber Vogl — attended the 2018 MAHS/MASC (Minnesota Association of Honor Societies and Minnesota Associate of Student Councils) Leadership Forum at Cragun's Resort in Brainerd in November. 

 

The leadership forum is an opportunity for student leaders to receive training and skills to use throughout their upcoming school year and beyond.