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LISBON -- The Lisbon Exempted Village Board of Education and Superintendent Joe Siefke honored teachers and students during the staff and student spotlight portion of its regular meeting Thursday.
Certificates were presented by Board President TK Hiscox to David Anderson Jr. Sr. High School teachers Dan Votaw and Jim Watt, physical education teacher Lauri Sauerwein, long-term substitute teacher Judy Miller, and high school students Lorraine Korda and Riley Tice. All were present to receive the certificates except Tice.
"I want to make kind of a big deal about each and every one of them because why they're here is because they've done something pretty special in the district," Siefke said.
Both Votaw and Sauerwein recently successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on choking students, one in the high school and one at McKinley Elementary, to remove food lodged in their throats.
"I work at a school district that does these kind of things at in-service and I think it all worked together for this young man," Votaw said.
Siefke added that at the last district safety meeting, it was decided that LifeVacs would be purchased for the schools.
"The LifeVac is a suction cup that would go over a student's mouth who might be in a wheelchair or a walker, when the Heimlich cannot be administered," he said.
Longtime science teacher at David Anderson Jr. Sr. High School Jim Watt was recognized for being chosen as the outstanding teacher of the year for 2023-2024 by the Coalition of Rural and Appalachian Schools (CORAS), of which the Lisbon school district is a member. CORAS is an organization of "110 school districts and other educational institutions in the 32-county region of Ohio designated as Appalachia," according to Ohio University's website.
"He teaches high school biology, developed our anatomy course, implemented our STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) program, including the recent endeavours of two 3-D printers," Siefke said.
The two students, Korda and Tice, were recognized for their work in assembling and setting up the software for a new two-color 3-D printer and for their design work using the printer. Korda was present to speak about the printers, their capabilities, and the students' work with them.
"We were able to make nametags, which had the Lisbon L and names on it, and we were able to make a bunch of different things with the two-color," Korda said.
The long-term substitute teacher at the high school, Miller, was recognized for filling a long-term role for the past three months when a staff member unexpectedly became ill.
"Obviously, we appreciate all our staff, but the ones who are here today have gone above and beyond and we're surely appreciative of that," Siefke said.
The Lisbon Exempted Village Board of Education will next meet at 5 p.m. March 14 in the conference room of the board of education office at 317 N. Market St.