Orono Alliance
The mission of the Orono Alliance is to preserve and enhance the quality of student education by significantly increasing the revenue and other resources available to the Orono Public Schools.

Orono Alliance was formed 12 years ago by parents in the school district who believed that the school district was in need of more money.

The Orono district ranks 330 of the 337 school districts in Minnesota, for General Fund state formula funding. The school receives $613 per student, less than the state average. Our district is not eligible for many state and federal funding grants given to other larger districts.

Orcutt and other members of the School Board have all stressed how thankful they are to have this group of people and that the school district has benefited immensely because of the things that the Orono Alliance does.

The Alliance began in 2000 as a collaboration between the Orono community, the school board, and the administration in an effort to preserve and enhance the value of an Orono education in an environment of decreasing state funding.

Since 2000, the Alliance has provided over $3,000,000 to the Orono school district to maintain reasonable class size and enhance curricular options for students.

“I am so happy that we have as many parent volunteers as we do. Not only do people in the community support our schools, but they have given additional money to further our progress and education,” said Dr. Karen Orcutt.

There are new changes happening for Orono Alliance including a possible name change and a new motto.

OHS Receives Red Quill Award
Originally, “ACT” stood for “American College Testing.” In 1996, however, the official name of the organization was shortened to simply “ACT.” This change in the official company name was made to better reflect the broad array of programs and services now being offered beyond college entrance testing.

Orono High School was recently awarded the Red Quill Award by the ACT. The award recognizes, “that we are a district that gives the Explore, Plan and ACT test, and that we have greatly improved our ACT scores with these tests,” said OHS Principle David Benson.

The ACT is one of the things that students need in order to be accepted into colleges. Orono High School’s average ACT score has gone up by 1.7 points from 2004-2011.

92 percent of all Orono juniors and seniors have taken the ACT test and have an average score of 25.7 out of the possible score of a 36.

“This is such a wonderful award to receive because our ACT scores keep climbing and our trend line for ACT scores just goes straight up,” added Benson.

Orono High School has higher scores than at the state and national level. Taking all three tests shows that, “we use the data as a measure of our own performance,” said Benson.

The plaque given to the Orono School District will be held in the District Awards Case in the District Office.

Elected School Board Members Volunteer Their Time
The Orono School District exists to deliver exemplary education while promoting high expectations for all learners, with a vision that all students will maximize their potential in life because of their experience in Orono Schools.

Orono School District is the only public school district in which all of the people on the school board have unpaid positions.

“It is an honor and privilege to serve the people of our district on the school board,” said Bob Tunheim, School Board Director. “My parents instilled in me the mantra that ‘to whom much is given, much is expected’ and frankly, I thought it was an unpaid position.”

People who fill the roles at the Orono School District Office have the drive to make this district succeed through intelligence, decision making and strong policy makers driven by data that is based on what is best for students in the district.

“Having volunteer school board members shows that they are incredibly loyal, dedicated people living up to the public trust. They watch the expenses to insure the bulk of the dollars go to the children,” said Superintendent Dr. Karen Orcutt.

District Increases Digital
Communication
The communications department of Orono Schools has been continuing to make efforts to further communicate with the public.

Communication has been established through the Orono Today newsletter, which comes out every two months. It has been re-designed with more copy and pictures. It features more of what is happening throughout our district and beyond to a legislative level.

The communications department is trying to express to the community the activities that we are doing as a school, the new and enhanced public resources, and the new programs and classes offered to the students.

The school website is a major target of the development for communication.
Gary Kubat, the Director of Communications for Orono Schools, is currently working on a new user friendly home page for the district to help enhance communication from the school to people in the community.

“We are using technology to meet the needs of our twenty-first century students, and to do that, we have incorporated Smartboards, iPads, and new laptops into classrooms due to the supplied enhancements in our community.”

Allowing students to bring their own technology has been a new element implemented in the school district which has helped student learning.

“Behind the scenes we have worked extremely hard to get the bandwidth increased over time so that things can be accessed on campus for students. [Students and teachers alike] depend on the integration of technology into the classroom especially in the last five years,” said Superintendent Dr. Orcutt.

OHS Hosts Tri-M Competition

MADDIE MAYHEW
Online Editor

The 2012 Tri-M talent show, dubbed “Orono’s Got Talent,” was hosted on Friday, Mar. 9 by the Tri-M Music Honor Society. Orono teachers Robbie Smalling and Michelle Neal emceed the event, and the Drew Casey Kazoo Choir won the competition with their unique rendition of George Handel’s “The Messiah.”

If Eye May played a few songs during the voting period, when the audience texted their choice to vote for a winner. Sundby and Schmitt took third place, Steadman took second, and the Kazoo Choir won first place. “We put in a lot of effort and we got a big win,” said Casey.

“I think that Orono’s Got Talent was just a really great opportunity for the members of Tri-M to come together and do something as a group which…promoted music in the community,” said senior David Williams, a student leader of Orono’s Tri-M.

Taylor Peterson is the Layout Chief for The Spartan Speaks.