Agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Shane Austin started his 25th year of teaching this fall with all of those years at Stockton High School. Austin is truly a jack-of-alltrades and teaches classes that include Ag Mechanics, Animal Science, Plant Science, Welding, Agriculture Leadership, Agriscience as well as Exploratory Agriculture class for the eighth-grade students.

Raelyn Holmes with her father, Duane Fitts, own and operate Stockton’s Now-NThen Treasure Chest, a store that is overflowing with antiques, homemade treasures and vintage décor. You can tell it is a passion of Raelyn’s before you even open the door when you see the old mailbox hailing the address of the store (316 Main) and the items she displays in front of the building.

Stockton’s Pumpkin Patch was held this past weekend (October 1st and 2nd) and can only be described as a “smashing success!” Stockton Chamber Director Ravin States Leake, the volunteers and students worked tirelessly to set up the fall affair with the weather cooperating, maybe just a little too much with the temperature, but nonethe- less dished up a beautiful, sunny weekend for the event. The Hobart FCE announced the winners of their Pumpkin Baking Contest, which was held on Saturday.

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The Stockton USD 271 Board of Education members held a special meeting on Wednesday, September 28th. First on the agenda was reviewing and fine tuning the goals of the school, which focus on academic achievement, assessment data, social and emotional data and the five-year plan. The state has set the year 2030 for schools to meet the state standards with Stockton setting their goal to meet the state standards by 20262027. Wording was changed to read that Stockton will expand their opportunities to achieve goals before set time lines. They also discussed absenteeism at the school and the discipline structure, as well as recruitment/ retention and relationships of the staff and the upkeep of the facilities. After the goals have been reviewed and approved at the regular October meeting, the information will be put out on the District’s web site.

The Stockton students are pumping up the spirit every day of this Homecoming week before it all culminates with the crowning of the queen and king before the home football game this Friday, October 7th!

The 2022 Stockton High School Homecoming event is featured in this issue of the Sentinel. A special pull-out section is devoted to individual photos of the football, volleyball, cross country, cheer and dance teams, and Homecoming royalty candidates and their sponsors.

An alarming trend has begun following the release of enrollment numbers Tuesday, September 20, for USD 271 School District. For the second consecutive year, enrollment figures for USD 271 have shown a significant drop.

Cricket Schmidt from the Rooks County Health Center in Plainville was among the group of 33 students who graduated from the Kansas Hospital Association Leadership Institute on September 8. The event was held at the KHA Annual Convention Trade Show in Overland park, Kansas.

The one-cent sales tax to pay for the Stockton City Swimming Pool began on January 1st, 2017, with the new pool opening that summer on Tuesday, July 25th. It was figured that the generated tax increase would be between $13,500.00 to $14,500.00 a month, and would more than cover the bond payments for the pool.