Mercer School names Kopka superintendent

By TOM LAVENTURE

tlaventure@yourdailyglobe.com

MERCER, Wis. — The Mercer Public School Board approved contracts for the superintendent and special education director on Monday.

Sheri Kopka, who has served as the interim school superintendent since June 2019, accepted a two-year contract offered from the board that is effective July 1 through June 30, 2022. The decision follows the resignation of former district administrator Erik Torkelson in June after a year on long-term medical leave.

The board reached an agreement on a contract with Kopka to become the district administrator going forward, said Robert Davis, school board president, via phone on Wednesday. Kopka received her school district administrator license just as Torkelson went on leave. She had served as the school science teacher since 2008.

“Miss Kopka is no longer the interim and she is now the district administrator,’’ Davis said. “I think the board was very confident in her capabilities to move education to the next level for the school.”

The board also approved a new contract for Deirdre Wells, the special education director.

“She was an excellent addition to the staff last year, so we want to continue that relationship this year,” Davis said.

The special meeting was also to keep the public up to date on the school reopening and sports program plans as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, he said.

“We talked for quite a while about: ‘Can we, or should we open up the fall sports programs this year?’” Davis said.

There were a lot of great comments from concerned parents who have children in football or who want to play football, he said. The idea going into the meeting was to make a decision based on the latest information from the state and the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association — but it still remains unclear, he said.

“Everyone is waiting for them (WIAA) to release the next phase of guidelines indicating how do you do this and how you do it safely,” he said. “They just haven’t done that yet and no one wants to be the first domino if that’s the way it’s got to go.”

Kopka is in regular communication with the athletic director and coaches, he said. The board tabled any action until the next regular meeting on July 27.

“That will give us a couple more weeks here to try and see if they can gather data and do some networking to figure out if there is a way to do it safe,” Davis said.

There are schools in the conference that have started by doing skills development without competition, he said. That would disappoint the players and so was tabled until there is more information and befoore it won’t be too late to coordinate a season, he said.

A recent Ashland hockey tournament was an example about how one infected person can impact so many people and so it’s a genuine concern, he said. It is also not inconceivable to have competitive play with adjustments, he said.