The Daily Tribune from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin • Page 1

CO. 1.M 3EE a UrMls mm Committee: Board members unresponsive to Nekoosa's needs ers took early retirement because of the situation. Scarpino, at a superintendent's conference in Madison, said he is proud of what the district has accomplished, attributing the success to a combination of his leadership, school board and staff. "I have full confidence in the current school board members, and I am proud to say in the past five years, student achievement and stu- dent learning have increased in all areas." he said. "I believe that as a parent and a community member, I would want to see student learning and achievement increase.

"If people are upset with increased student learning and increased student achievement, then they are free to voice their opinion." Wayne Freeman, school board president, said he heard rumors petitions were circulating Wednesday but had not seen one yet. According to state law, an elected official can't be recalled if they are in the position for less than one year. Freeman and Roger Harris are protected from recall by this statute. Both received more votes than Brost in the spring election. Among the issues brought up during the election was Brost's suspension See RECALU2A on the committee.

"There were promises made that weren't kept," Brost said. Among Brost's concerns are how certain finances are used, the lack of a clear explanation of school legal fees and the process for getting items on the agenda. He said in the past three years, the district has lost 45 teachers. Brost feels some teach- Goodness said the board was threatened with recall in January and is not surprised by the current effort. According to Brost, the committee was formed about two months ago because they felt changes needed to be made.

He said about 20 to 25 people including parents, teachers and community members from Rome, Nekoosa and Saratoga are school board members failed to respond to inappropriate actions and management by Supervisor David Scarpino, among other charges. The petitions also state those members were unresponsive to the district's needs. Brost, a marketing and business teacher at Adams-Friendship High School for 15 years, was defeated by 32 votes in the April election. By DEBI CLEWORTH Daily Tribune Staff NEKOOSA A group planned to circulate recall petitions Wednesday for three members of the Nekoosa School Board. Cathy Goodness, Jerry Nash and Roy Taylor are on the petitions, according to Nekoosa Recall Committee President Jon Brost.

The petitions state those id-State remodels Freed man turns focus to his family to meet area's needs 1J Need a vehicle? Special section inside today's paper. continued to have contact with her father while he was incarcerated at the Stanley Correctional Institution in Chippewa County She was there when Avery walked through the gates to freedom last Thursday Avery. 41. said he was most worried his relationship with his youngest children. 18-year- 11 old twins "3 CtmM nfl 1 i MILWAUKEE -Financial compensation can wait.

For now Steven Avery is focused on repairing relationships money cannot mend. While Wisconsin legislators met Wednesday in Madison to prepare for hearings into how the Two Rivers man could have spent nearly 18 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Avery worked to get his car running again and regain the driver's license that lapsed while he was in prison. With his license and transportation, Avery said he can more easily visit his five children. The priority after a week of freedom was "getting back with my kids," he said. Seeking compensation from the state Claims Board or taking legal action for his wrongful imprisonment was down the road.

Avery said. Jason Mathiesen, 22. and Rachel Avery: 20, live on their own in the Two Rivers area. Jennifer Avery 19, lives with her mother in Two Rivers. She jlucji aiiu William Avery, who were just days old when Avery was arrested in 1985.

"I guess they hate me njw- yTr" iji jpuhib Whitman wjjmmjy mi npsapptw I -J il I I V'fei ii -rr 1 v- 3zr i 1' 'i r'' f. -1 A I Steven Avery Driver back on the field Donald Driver returned to practice Wednesday, but it's questionable whether he will play Sunday. See Sports 1B Close to 10,000 square feet of space added By KAREN MADDEN Tribune Staff Writer GRAND RAPIDS -Mid-State Technical College is finishing close to $2 million in renovation and new construction projects to improve services to students and residents. The construction and renovation includes expanding and upgrading the nursing and criminal justice facilities, said Sue Budjac, vice president of academic affairs. The projects created 9,600 square feet of new space and 15,000 square feet of remodeled space at the Grand Rapids campus.

This year, a record 18 of the 42 programs are full, Budjac said. The number of unemployed people in the Mid-State area has made the college more important to the community, she said. The nursing program's area went from 2,500 square feet of space to 8,000 square feet, said Craig Hjelle, facilities director. "When we hit our maximum of 160 graduates from the program, we knew we needed to expand," Budjac said. "We need it to accommodate the needs of students who accommodate the needs of employers, who accommodate the needs of an aging population who need more health care." A large part of the space for the nursing expansion used to be occupied by food service programs, Hjelle said.

"We try to take exist- now. I guess it will take some time," he said. Based on the victim's identilication of her auack-er, a Manitowoc County jury convicted Avery of beating and sexually assaulting a woman as she jogged near N'eshotah Beach the afternoon of July 29, 1985. See AVERY2A Asian, Hispanic populations up Inside Records 2A Movies 2A Opinion 6A State 7A Nation 7A Advice 3C World 8A ClassifieOC Horoscope3C Sports 1B CrossworcL7C 4 sections, 34 pages A Gannett newspaper DOUQ ALFTOaily Tribun Sue Budjac, vice president of academic affairs, describes some of the changes made to Mid-State Technical College's nursing program classrooms. This room was modeled after a hospital room complete with "patient" dummies to tend to.

doctor's office. It also includes hospital wards where nurses can work on special patient mannequins and practice on each other, Budjac said. The criminal justice programs have been con ing space and remodel it from programs that no longer need it," Hjelle said. The new nursing classrooms include examining rooms, which give students the feel of being in a solidated in one area. Hjelle said.

The facilities also have been improved to give students more hands-on experience in a classroom setting. See REMODEU2A "51 1 29' 1 tv.K Old salts don't fear Isabel death and international and internal migration rates. Census Bureau demographic statistician Katherine Condon said. Immigration advocates and analysts said the estimates reflect trends in Asian and Hispanic migration where immigrants settle in, set up a base and invite extended family members to join them. Thai Vue, executive associate director of the La Crosse Area Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, attributed the Asian population increase to estranged families reuniting in Wisconsin.

Family members who came to the state first haw finally acclimated and are inviting extended family members, he said. "People are settling down, buying homes, beginning to intermingle into the mainstream system," Vue said. "Families have reunited over the last 20 years." The state's other big draw is work, said Maria Monreal-Cameron, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee. For example, immigrants can still find manufacturing jobs in Milwaukee, she said. High birth rates among Hispanics also have contributed to the population increase, Monreal-Canieron said.

MADISON (AP) All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The number of Asians and Hispanics in Wisconsin increased be-tween 2000 and 2002, continuing trends from the last decade, according to estimates the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday Wisconsin's Asian population increased 11.9 percent over that time to 99.952 people, according to the estimates. That increase was the largest of any ethnic group in the state.

The state's Hispanic population increased 7.3 percent to 209.074. making them the state's second largest minority group behind blacks in 2002. the estimates said. "The story here is the estimates simply confirm Wisconsin's population changes revealed in the last decade are continuing." said University of Wisconsin-Madison demographer Paul Voss. "Latino and Asian migrants are coming to the United States.

We're getting a share of what is a national phenomenon. There isn't much change from trends well established be-tween 1990 and 2000." The Census Bureau calculated its estimates by using data from the 2000 Census and adding in two years of birth, 1 i "(l t'tV f)" SEA LEVEL, N.C. (AP) In 35 years with the merchant marine, Mike Kowal has stood on deck in 40-foot seas off Cape Horn. He has lashed himself down to keep from sliding out of his bunk. He has watched an iron ore transport go down.

So a little thing like a Category 2 hurricane was not about to chase the 86-year-old seaman away from the retirement home where he and other old salts have earned a reputation for fearlessly riding out big storms. "I don't worry about a hurricane," Kowal said Wednesday at the Snug Harbor retirement home as Hurricane Isabel barreled toward him with winds of more than 100 mph. "Never did." The home, 30 miles northeast of Beaufort, sits right on Nelson Bay with little but salt marshes and some spits of sand between it and the patch of ocean known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of all the ships that have gone down there. Among men who have taken the worst the sea could throw at them and lived to tell about it, Isabel was seen as a little more than an inconvenience. "I've been here eight years and rode out three or four of them, so what's another one?" said 82-year- old Roy Brooks, who ran freight up and down the East Coast for 42 years.

"The only concern I have is that a tree will fall over my truck out in the parking lot." Sipping tea in the home's cozy library, retired seaman Czarnowski, 87, was having a hard time getting excited about Isabel. He was off the coast of Pusan just after the Korean War when his ship was raked at dock by 162 mph winds. "There was 125 died in town that night," he said. "You're safer actually out on the seas on a ship than you are on shore." Th Associated Press Retired seaman Mike Kowal, 82, spends some idle time in the library of Snug Harbor, a retirement community for aged sailors in Sea Level, N.C. Kowal said he has no fear of Hurricane Isabel, which is expected to hit the North Carolina coast today.

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