by Joni Astrup
Associate editor
Two officials spent the night on the cold and windy rooftop of Kaleidoscope Charter School in Otsego, after students exceeded a school challenge.
Dr. Brett Wedlund, executive director of the school, and Chris Nordmann, principal, went up on the roof about 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, and stayed there until 8:30 a.m. the next day.
Nordmann described it as a test of endurance.
“We basically hunkered down between two air conditioning units,” he said.
The temperature dipped below 20 degrees, but the wind was the biggest challenge, he said. At one point it blew Wedlund’s sleeping bag off the roof.
The two men spent the night on the roof after the school’s 550 students met a challenge associated with the PRIDE program, which stands for personal responsibility, respect, integrity, discipline and excellence. Under the PRIDE program, when students exhibit those traits, they are given a Comet Card.
Nordmann said they set a goal of 3,250 Comet Cards for October, and if students met it, the two school officials would sleep on the roof. Students ended up earning a total of 4,098 Comet Cards last month, and the rooftop sleepover was on.
Nordmann said he and Wedlund had sleeping bags but no tents, as there was no way to stake them down on the roof. They also had a laptop and a projector and watched a NFL game by projecting it on an air conditioning unit.
The school community was able to follow the rooftop adventure via Twitter.
By morning, word of the event found its way to the Jason and Alexis Show on myTalk 107.1 radio, and Nordmann was interviewed.
Nordmann said the PRIDE program is new to Kaleidoscope this year, which has students in kindergarten through grade 11, with a 12th grade planned for next year.
“The whole program has been a successful effort,” he said.
Teachers are doing a phenomenal job presenting the information, he said, parents are following through and students are buying into it.
“Without any of those elements, it’s not going to be a success. Our community has just really rallied around this,” Nordmann said.