Nohner excelling in an unexpected role

The November 17 regular school board meeting began with Superintendent Eric Hudspith introducing Waseca Area Learning Center (ALC) director Mandi Nohner, who has been with the Waseca school district since 2005. “Mandi had the opportunity in September to step in and be the director of the ALC for this school year,” Hudspith informed the board, “which probably changed her plans of how the school year was going to start for her, since we had the conversation on August 31. But she has done, and continues to do, an exceptional job of leading our mission at the ALC.”

The Waseca Area Learning Center is a personalized alternative high school program designed to meet the needs of students who are not successful in the traditional school setting. The ALC currently serves 70 students from the school districts of JWP, WEM, and NRHEG as well as Waseca. To attend an ALC, students need to meet one or more of a list of criteria as stipulated in ALC legislation. Among items on the list are being behind in completing credit for graduation, experiencing physical or mental health conditions,  and having truancy issues. “Our goal is for students to either go on to postsecondary education or to get gainful employment to be a productive citizen,” Nohner says. “Our students have the option to get a Waseca diploma or one from their home district. Then we would go off of that home district’s graduation requirements.”  At the ALC, Waseca’s normal trimester schedule is divided into six “hexmesters.” Nohner says the altered grading periods give students more opportunities to earn their needed credits. “If they miss the start of one, they don’t have to wait as long before they can jump in and try again,” she says.  The ALC also offers independent study for students who demonstrate personal motivation, night school, summer credit recovery, and apprenticeship programs with area employers Cinch and Crystal Valley. 

Nohner presented performance measures, results, and data comparing last year’s first hexmester to this year’s. Based on attendance and credit recovery, “We’ve actually gone up twenty-one percent,” she stated. Nohner also highlighted innovative opportunities provided by the ALC: earning credits with work experience, Friday symposiums of martial arts, ice fishing, other community projects, and something she calls ‘forced family fun.’

“They don’t always want to do it, but they do it,” she says with a laugh. “We make ‘em do it. Next week we’re cooking a Thanksgiving meal together, and then we’ll sit down at a big long table in the hallway and eat. We really work on acceptance of others and their differences.” Board member Grant Scheffert commented that he appreciated the ALC lists “building relationships” as one of its top objectives. “It seems like that would be core to making your students be successful.”

Nohner agreed. “Yes, I’ve found that if you build a positive relationship with a student, they are willing to go above and beyond in really any aspect. Especially behavior.” Superintendent Eric Hudspith expressed “how fortunate Waseca is to be the host and the home of this program that just cares about kids, and about getting them to the next stage in their lives. We want to be known as an ALC that is innovative and forward-thinking.”

Other matters covered at the board meeting included financial and enrollment updates by business manager Elizabeth Beery, and recognition of the 2022 Waseca Education Association Teacher of the Year Dawn Skinner. Skinner teaches language arts and drama classes at the Waseca Area Learning Center and has been doing so since 2003.