The crowning of the new Brown County Dairy Princesses will be held March 8, 2024 at 1:00 pm in New Ulm, MN at the Farm City Hub Club Farm Show. The Dairy Princess Program is sponsored by the dairy promotion check-off, which helps to build demand and sales for dairy products.
Koozie Group has entered into an agreement with Canon Solutions America to install two digital inkjet presses in its Sleepy Eye, MN, location. The new equipment will be used to produce components of the company’s stock calendars along with small-quantity custom calendars.
St. Mary’s Catholic schools’ students had a lesson in faith and STEM with the visit from Colonel Mike Hopkins. He is a retired Air Force and astronaut; Hopkins started his career in the Air Force in 1992, he was assigned to the Kirtland Air Force base in Albuquerque New Mexico, where he worked on advanced space system technology. Throughout his career, he attended pilot school and spent 5 years testing aircrafts before working at the Pentagon with the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. In 2009, Hopkins was selected to be one of nine members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. He went to the International Space Station twice, once in 2013 and once in 2020 for a total of 333 days in space and conducted 5 spacewalks totaling more than 32 hours “outside” the International Space Station.
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The River Valley speech team competed in two tournaments this past week. On Thursday, February 22, the junior high speakers competed in the RTR Junior High Invitational in Tyler. Christina Reindl (creative expression), Sophia Simon (prose), and Levi Johnson (storytelling) earned first place champion titles in their categories. Jozie Pingeon (extemp reading), Kyla Peichel (great speeches), and Trenton Johnson received second place runner-up in their respective categories. A third place finish in great speeches was awarded to Aiden Grausam. Sixth place finishes went to Randee Dombeck (creative expression), Ryker Schmidt (discussion), and Ezri Mathiowetz (drama).
Kids Heart Challenge (KHC) started at Sleepy Eye Elementary on February 11. Through the program, students will learn how to care for their hearts and brains along with acquiring lifesaving skills. Students’ lives are positively impacted by the program as they are empowered to improve their own lives while positively impacting others.
The Region VI FFA interviews were held on Tuesday, Feb. 11 for State Degrees, Region Star Awards, Proficiencies, and Region Office.
The Sleepy Eye Public School school board meeting was held on Wednesday, Feb. 12. SEPS draft 2026 budget was presented to the board by Amanda Boomgarden, she made the budget reflecting an ADM of 504 which is down 16 from the current year’s budget and the 2% basic education inflation factor for 2026. Boomgraden has calculated the projected revenue at $8,390,275 and the projected expenditure at $8,999,231. Key points to the projection she presented were local revenue anticipating an increase with the shared superintendent agreement with Cedar Mounting Schools and an increase of the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP), which the district knows will increase by $4,116. Key points of the expenditure projection were plans to accommodate hiring an elementary school principal which would increase the expenditures, regular instruction will see a decrease due to a reduction of one teaching position and removal of one-time curriculum expense of $100,000.
Alexandria Technical & Community College announced Jaci Domeier of Sleepy Eye was named to the Dean’s List for achieving a GPA of 3.5 or higher for Fall Semester 2024.
Each year Bridging Brown County names a Bridge Builder of the Year. This award is given to someone who exemplifies the organization’s mission to strengthen our communities by bridging relationships of understanding and communication in Brown County. This year’s recipient is Kurk Kramer of Sleepy Eye. Kramer served on the Bridging Brown County Board for several years and was president of the board. Kramer is the Economic Development Coordinator for the City of Sleepy Eye.