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Student artwork planned for new UWPlatteville dorm
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The inclusion of student artwork at the UW–Platteville’s Rountree Commons residence hall was so successful that additional student artwork is planned for Bridgeway Commons.

The newest residence hall is on schedule to open this fall.

“When we were building Rountree Commons, I wanted to incorporate a way to connect the building to the campus, and I thought there would be no better way than to have students from the university provide artwork to give that connection,” said Bill Kloster, director of the UW–Platteville Real Estate Foundation. “It’s been very well received by the students who created the art and the students who live in the building. It just made sense to continue this on to our second project in Bridgeway Commons.”

Students in the Studies in Art I: Art for Public Places course, taught by Prof. Bruce Howdle, and students in Carole Speli?’s Crafts II: Fibers and Fabrics course are contributing artwork to the project.
After the Rountree Commons artwork project, Howdle had been thinking about how to start a program that would teach students how to get their work out into the public sector by allowing them to gain experience with submitting an idea, relating it to the space, and estimating materials and cost. “If you give students the opportunity to excel, they will,” he said.

The team of students, who are currently enrolled in Howdle’s course are Austin Glendenning of Darlington, Jacklyn Baumgart of De Pere, Corey Jenny of Platteville, Robert Jinkins of Rewey, Brandon Marteny of Milton, Michael Prohaska of Pewaukee, Michael Ward of Camby, Ind., Cameron Doerr of McFarland, and Erik Schlicher of Platteville.

Speli?’s group of 15 students was divided randomly into five groups of three. Each team is in the process of producing a piece of artwork for Bridgeway Commons. “Their ideas are terrific and very adaptable to the setting,” said Speli?.

Students in Speli?’s course include Carissa Wolf of Lancaster, Holly Brimeyer of Dubuque, Elizabeth Tanner of Gays Mills, Searra Maas of Dubuque. Rebecca Kinstler of La Crescent, Minn., Alex Brueggeman of Sparta, Emily Haverland of Potosi, Lynea Axelson of Oregon, Ill., Nicole Bieniek of Sparta, Haley Hurst of Mayville, LaRonda Ingham of Avoca, Blair Lingk of Dodgeville, Kyle Martin of Reedsburg, Abigail VanOrden of Butternut, and Sara Zinkle of Platteville.

The students toured Bridgeway as it currently stands and Speli? noted there is a massive amount of wall space available for the students’ imagination. “They are doing great stuff,” she said.

Kathrine Gailloreto, an art education major from Milton, is in Howdle’s course and is helping to coordinate the project. She recently completed an internship at the Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago.

Each of the artists submitted a statement outlining their vision for their artwork. “I have chosen to create a sculpture that has captured the essences of UW–Platteville,” said Baumgart. “This sculpture will be a pedestal piece that stands approximately four feet tall. The location will be in the south main entrance on top of the stairs.”

“It’s an interesting juxtaposition through the art object, new students who are going to live and experience that space will have a connection with the people who made the work when they were at school,” said Speli?. “It is very personal.”

The UW–Platteville Pioneer Academic Center for Community Engagement funded last year’s project and has contributed a grant worth nearly $9,000 to this year’s project.

“We would like to be able to sustain this program,” said Howdle. “There is no reason it can’t continue.”
The College of Liberal Arts and Education Alumni Board is sponsoring one of the art pieces and has donated $1,000. The College of LAE has provided $1,000 and the UW-Platteville Real Estate Foundation has set aside $2,000 for the project.
C.D. Smith Construction Services was very helpful with last year’s project and has again offered their assistance for the Bridgeway art project. “They loaned their equipment to the artists to assist with the installation,” said Kloster. “They were also flexible when it came to rearranging their schedule in order to accommodate the art installations.”

“We appreciate the Real Estate Foundation for allowing us the opportunity to think on a large scale,” said Speli?.
Donations may be coordinated through Stacia Nemitz, UW–Platteville Foundation development officer, 342-6122, nemitzs@uwplatt.edu.

Bridgeway Commons, which is located adjacent to Southwest Hall and close to Engineering Hall, will be home to approximately 440 students. It will also include a 500-seat dining area.

Boland retires from Seneca
After decades
Seneca School District

Seneca School District Administrator David Boland’s resignation from his position was accepted by the Seneca School Board at their meeting on Monday, following a closed session discussion.

David Boland has had a long career at the school including serving as a teacher, athletic coach, principal and district administrator. Boland will formally retire from his current administrator position effective June 30, 2025.

During the public input portion of the meeting, Seneca Director of Food Service Michelle Updike requested that the board consider a change to graduation. She proposed letting staff members hand diplomas to students at graduation. Updike is also the parent of a high school student.

Updike explained that staff members could be chosen by individual students because of a special impact that staff member may have had on that student.

The current policy is to have designated school board members hand out the diplomas at graduation.

Seneca teacher and parent Shelly Davidson agreed with Updike’s idea. She added that the staff member need not be a high school teacher, but could even be a kindergarten teacher.

Board member Britany Joy asked if coaches could be included as eligible to hand out the diplomas as staff members.

Seneca School District Administrator Dave Boland said if the designation was staff members, it would include not only teachers, but paraprofessionals, coaches and anyone else who works for the district.

Updike told the board that she would poll the senior class to see if they favored having staff members, as well as school board members, be eligible to hand out their diplomas.

Boland emphasized that if the change was made it would include a list on the back of the program denoting what person was giving a diploma to each student. To accomplish this, the board would have to decide by April, so that information could be gathered in a timely fashion for inclusion in the program.

The next item discussed impacted the date of the next meeting. The third Monday next month is April 21. However, because of spring break and family plans, four board members indicated they could not make the meeting. After some discussion, it was agreed that the next Seneca School Board meeting would be held on Monday, April 14.

The school calendar was explained and discussed. Phy ed teacher and volleyball coach Shelly Davidson asked if the parent-teacher conferences could be changed, because the date chosen means she can never attend a parent-teacher conference, because they are held on the same dates as the state high school  volleyball tournament, which she attends every year.

In a discussion, the board considered moving the date of conferences back two weeks. The calendar approval was tabled for more study.

The senior class trip expenses were also discussed. Teacher and senior class advisor Michele  Updike said that the senior class funds are used to pay for the substitute teacher for class advisors, who are often teachers. The cost can range from $700 to $900 if both class advisors are teachers. Updike pointed out that can be close to 10 percent of the funds raised by the senior class, which are often around $10,000.

Updike asked that school district to consider paying for the substitute teachers when needed, to replace teachers acting as class advisors on the school trip, creating more funds for the senior class to use.

Shelly Davidson asked if it would be possible to use professional development funds from the missing teachers to pay for the subs.

District administrator Dave Boland explained switching those funds would not be possible.

School board member Crisse Reynolds suggested that perhaps the district could share the cost of the substitutes with the class.

After more discussion, Seneca School Board president Shawn Lenzendorf said she had no problem with the cost of the substitutes being paid by the district. Lenzendorf moved to pay costs of any substitute teachers hired to replace teachers because they were acting as class advisors on the senior class trip. The motion was seconded by Adam Green and passed unanimously by the board.

During the discussion, Green had said he was shocked when he learned the senior class was paying for substitute teachers for the class advisors going on the trip.

In other business, the Seneca Area School District:

• approved the 2025 CESA #3 contract to provide specialized services to the district with a 2.5% increase that was well explained by the agency’s director Jamie Nutter

• learned that the district had chosen a Skyward automated time sheet program that was less expensive than the alternative and fit with other Skyward programs already in use by the district

• learned roof leaks around drains in some previous heavy rains were fixed under warranty

The Seneca Area School District’s Monthly Recognition Award was given to the Royals’ boys and girls basketball teams and to the North Crawford Seneca Wrestling Team’s Seneca wrestlers; Jaren Grimsled, Thomas Sprosty and Sawyer Swiggum for wrestling in the sectional and to Grimsled and Swiggum for wrestling the WIAA State Wrestling Tournament.