She’s a bit on the hairy side, makes clicking noises as she walks on the tile floors, enjoys exploring life through her nose and is one of the best listeners ever.

Her name is Lady and she’s a goldendoodle, a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle.

Lady will be living with Allison Davis, the district’s business manager. She’s currently getting used to her surroundings.

“We’re getting to know her before going into the buildings,” Davis said. “Eventually, there will be a handler in each building that will be able to take her.”

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Lady, the new Manson Northwest Webster therapy dog, checks out the strange device making odd clicking sounds while spending the day with her human, district Business Manager Allison Davis. The photo session only required cleaning off a Lady nose print once.

Lady’s job is to help the students cope.

“She can help with anxiety or if somebody is having a bad day, or a good day,” Davis said. “She’s very sweet, very caring. She loves people. She always likes to have her paw on you or her head resting on you.”

Each building principal will serve as Lady’s handler and treat dispenser while she’s there.

Lady will meet the students when she’s in a building in one of several ways.

“She’ll greet students in the hall,” Davis said. “Lady will also come to the classroom and go desk to desk or if a kid is having a really bad day, they can ask to have one-to-one time with Lady.”

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Manson Northwest Webster High School student Madison Kuhlmann, 14, uses one of the new smart boards in Julie Tague’s classroom.

Kevin Wood, junior and senior high school principal, is not only glad to have Lady available for the students, he’s also excited about several other new things in his school.

“The Advanced Foods Class kids have been able to grow herbs and lettuce,” Wood said.

The hydroponic grower, called a Garden Tower, was purchased with a grant. It’s under the careful green thumb of teacher Julie Tague.

He said that the herbs and produce grown in the tower are incorporated into recipes prepared in class.

The school has also gotten Promethean Boards, which are interactive touch screen white boards.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Manson Northwest Webster High School students visit with some of the colleges and businesses during the annual College and Career Night.

“They’re essential for math and talented and gifted programs,” Wood said. “It’s an advanced smart board on wheels. It’s really pretty advanced tech we’re doing in the classroom.”

Bret Larson, the principal at the elementary school, said their focus has been on literacy, math, science and making sure the emotional and social needs of their students are being met.

They’ve also finished adding the Project Lead The Way modules so they’re in every grade from pre-K to sixth. The curriculum teaches science to the students.

“The students are presented with a problem,” Larson said. “Students then work hands-on to solve it.”

Each grade level has a different focus. Third grade works on flight physics. Fourth grade teaches the students how collisions effect people. Sixth grade finds the students working on computer science and basic coding.

The PLTW modules help establish consistency for the students as they move up through their grade levels. In the middle school years, a similar curriculum called Gateway is used and in high school a variety of courses are offered for students who want to continue with science, technology, engineering and math.

The students are able to expand beyond just science in the PLTW modules. “We work hard to incorporate literacy right into our modules,” Larson said. “It’s not only doing the project but we’re also reading and writing about them as well. They flow together.”

Superintendent Justin Daggett said the district has been working hard to improve the overall wellness for the students and staff.

They’re implementing a program called Suite 360.

“It provides a curriculum for kids to process their own emotions, to learn why they react,” Daggett said. “It puts a mechanism in place for them to develop their own skills to better handle stressors in place.”

He also said the whole district’s staff has been trained in youth mental health first aid.

“It teaches them to recognize the signs of someone struggling and how to respond appropriately or get them help,” he said.

It also includes staff who might be struggling.

“We’re creating a wellness program for our staff,” he said.

He’s also proud of the district’s efforts to make sure each student’s education experience is geared to their individual needs.

“We have a college/career team to better define pathways for our students to get them to the vision they have for transitioning after high school,” Daggett said. “We want to best prepare them for that end. We really engage the students and the parents in developing that pathway.”

One of the projects they’ve nearly completed is a working partnership with Iowa Central Community College and a local building contractor. The students would get college credit and building trades experience.

The district also hosts an annual career fair for the students and the public.

Josh Seltz is in his first year as principal at the North Central Consortium School. The school provides a general education program for students who have been suspended or otherwise had problems in their own school. It serves 23 school districts. There are currently 64 students.

“Our main goal is to return them to their public school,” Seltz said.

He said they’re getting the mechanisms in place to fully implement a Positive Behavior Intervention Supports program.

He said they work with the students to address the issues that the student was experiencing that got them suspended. They have a web-based character development program also.

“They were struggling,” Seltz said.

He said they identify the problem and then help the student work on meeting their goals.

“Once they show ongoing progress,” he said. “Then we figure out what form the transition is going to look like for them.”

The project to get Lady into the school district was coordinated by Manson Police Chief Jerry Frick. Dr. Steve Leppert with the Manson Veterinary Clinic will see to her health, and Nestle Purina PetCare will provide her food till she retires.

Davis asks anyone who wants to pet Lady to please ask first.

For the record, when she says OK, Lady really likes scritchies under her chin.

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