School can wait when you have a village to run

Saukville Elementary School students Olivia Kluessendorf and Sammy Silverthorn got to take a break from school last week because they had more important things to do — like run a village.

The fourth-graders served as honorary community leaders on May 29 during the inaugural Village President for a Day event intended to give students a first-hand look at how local government works.

Olivia and Sammy started the day by reporting to Village Hall for a high-level meeting with Village President Andy Hebein and Village Administrator Dawn Wagner to learn about the administrative side of running a community and how boards and committees function.

Then it was off to the Saukville Police and Ozaukee Central Fire stations to be briefed on public safety services.

A stop at the Department of Pubic Works gave the students a chance to inspect village equipment and learn about how infrastructure such as roads is maintained.

Olivia and Sammy then returned to school and introduced Hebein and Wagner to their classmates. A proclamation declaring the students village presidents for the day was read and students had the opportunity to ask the real village leaders questions.

Piggly Wiggly in Saukville donated doughnuts for the class and Hollander Chocolate in Port Washington provided lemonade.

The program was initiated by Kirsten Coenen, who as a Port Washington resident is familiar with the city’s Mayor for a Day program. Her children attend Saukville Elementary School, so a year ago she approached Wagner and Hebein with an idea.

“I said, ‘They do Mayor for a Day in Port. How about doing Village President for a day in Saukville?’” Coenen said. “They were super excited about the idea, and a year later we kicked it off.”

Being village president for a day was an auction prize at the Saukville Elementary Parent Association’s Winter Wonderland fundraiser in January.

Whatever the winning bids were, they were worth the experience Olivia and Sammy had leading Saukville for a day, Coenen said.

“They absolutely loved it,” she said.