Miami East hosts 15th annual VikingFest

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By Matt Clevenger

For the Miami Valley Today

CASSTOWN — Members of the Miami East Education Foundation hosted their 15th annual VikingFest on Saturday, Feb. 19, drawing one of the biggest crowds in the event’s history.

“It was a great event,” Miami East local school district Superintendent Dr. Todd Rappold told Miami East Board of Education members during their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, March 21. “They’re not quite ready to release their final numbers; however, I will tell you the most tickets they’ve ever sold for games had been 15,000 tickets, and they sold over 25,000 tickets this year.

“It was fantastic,” Rappold said. “This year, we probably had more high school students working the games then we have in a very long time.”

“The high-schoolers did great with the little ones,” he said.

Organizers start planning the event in the fall. “The foundation usually starts working in the month of October,” Rappold said. “We’re giving some consideration to maybe moving that off of Presidents’ Day weekend, when a lot of families try to get away for a three-day-weekend, to the following Saturday.”

In other business, board members also approved their inter-district open enrollment policy for the 2022-2023 school year. Open enrollment is available for students residing in a school district that borders the Miami East local school district.

“Applications will be available in the months of April and May only,” Rappold said.

Board members also approved the receipt of a $2,571.27 donation from the Athletic Boosters to the HS Athletics Girls’ Softball Program to help pay for a pitching machine. “Thank you so much to our community overall, and our support organizations like the athletic boosters and the music boosters,” District Treasurer Lisa Fahncke said. “The students who participate in these programs; these programs are very, very important to them, and it may not be possible for us to move forward and do all the things that we do without the support that we get from the boosters. Thank you very much; we appreciate it.”

Board members also approved the acceptance of K-8 custodian Jeff Staudt’s letter of retirement, effective May 31, 2022, and the hiring of several new bus drivers for the 2021-2022 school year. Board members also approved the annual non-renewal of all fall and winter supplemental contracts for personnel other than teaching staff. “Contractually, we non-renew all of our supplementals at the end of the year, and then all of these candidates are more than welcome to re-apply,” Rappold said. “It’s just a contractual obligation each spring; we non-renew anyone else besides full-time teaching positions.”

Board members also announced they will resume their annual tour of district facilities this spring.” For years, we would give the board of education a campus tour in the month of April,” Rappold said. “In the past 24 months, that did not occur.”

“It’s been a positive experience, and unfortunately we just have not been able to do that,” he said.

Board members also announced dates for kindergarten screenings. “Kindergarten registration and screening will be April 28 and 29,” Rappold said. “We’ve already begun the registration process through FinalForms. FinalForms will be open throughout the rest of the spring.”

“Applications for the Miami East Common Scholarship are now available,” he said. “That is also online, on the high school website.”

Board members also announced the athletic boosters will hold their annual spring Fish Fry on Saturday, April 23. Board members’ next regularly scheduled meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 18 at Miami East High School.

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