Governor Tony Evers Tours Montello School District

Governor Tony Evers visited the Montello School District on Friday, September 6th, as part of his annual Statewide Back-To-School Tour. When he arrived early that morning, he was greeted by several members of the district’s administrative team, including Montello School District Administrator Elizabeth Calnin, Montello Jr/Sr High School Principal Yedda Olson, Director of Special Ed. & Pupil Services Barbara Beyer, and Assistant Principal Jeremy Fritz.

They led him on a tour of the facility, showing off several classrooms in Forest Lane Community Elementary School. Students and staff throughout the building, along with Governor Evers himself, were decked out with their finest Packer team apparel in celebration of that night’s Packers game.

First, Governor Evers visited Mrs. Kozlowski and Mrs. Barton’s combined 6th grade classroom where Mrs. Koz was busy teaching a math lesson on numerical data. Students had chosen their favorite subject, and they were visualizing and analyzing the data using different types of graphs. Governor Evers was asked what his favorite subject was, and he chose Science at first, though after sitting through the lesson, he later changed it to Math!

Next he visited Mrs. Larson’s Kindergarten class to assist them with their math lesson. Governor Evers first joined the Kindergarteners in a quick game of Popcorn in the Popper to get some energy out. He then helped the students while they practiced counting to ten and recognizing numbers in all sorts of tricky ways! He also answered questions from the Kindergarteners, explaining what his job as Governor entailed, describing the “house” that he lives in, and that his favorite cartoon is “Popeye.”

Governor Evers then went to his last event in the high school LMC where he held a tougher question and answer session with 11th grade students from Ms. Ehrler’s American Government class. After a brief introduction from the Governor, the students asked several questions about state and local issues, including college affordability, future employment opportunities, and voting.

When asked what is the biggest issue facing the state, he answered that it is public school funding from the state. He felt that the state could do a better job to help prevent so many schools from going to referendum for needed facility construction projects or even just to stay open. He also expressed concerns over the early childhood crisis and said, “If we don’t do a good job with our kids, we’re failing, period. We can’t allow that to happen.”