Iowa now becomes the center of the world for M-W ‘OMers’

By Nancy Kriz CENTRAL VALLEY — Five teams representing the Monroe-Woodbury School District have advanced to world competition after winning first and second place status in the respective divisions at last Saturday’s Odyssey of the Mind state competition at SUNY Binghamton.

The five groups represent a record-breaking number of teams representing the district in the 32 years it has participated in Odyssey of the Mind competitions, according to Debra Garling, the district’s Gifted/Talented Program and Odyssey of the Mind coordinator.

They now advance to world competition at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, to be held May 23 to 26, to compete against hundreds of other national teams and about 25 countries worldwide.

“A program like Odyssey of the Mind teaches high order thinking, and that’s the future of education in this country,” said Edward Mehrhof, Monroe-Woodbury School District superintendent. “I see programs like Odyssey of the Mind becoming standardized and integrated into curriculums.”

Mehrhof added while district sports teams have traveled to regional contests, and art, music and drama students have equally participated in regional competitions, OM is the only national competition the district is a part of and has won the right to compete in.

In the next weeks, teams will be reviewing judges’ scores and looking to see where they may be able to improve their skit performances.

New challenge: $ But they’ll also have one additional challenge to find an “out of the box solution” to: Raising part of the cost to attend the competition.

While Monroe-Woodbury’s policy of covering the costs to send any first place team to world competition is longstanding, having four first place teams is unprecedented and puts a strain on finances, Mehrhof said.

The superintendent said preliminary estimates indicate it will cost approximately $30,000 to send four teams to compete, which covers charter bus transportation, food and lodging and entry fees.

This means, he said, that for the first time, first-place teams will need to raise some of the funds to make their participation a reality.

“We did not budget that amount of money,” he said. “We have to look at where we can pull that money from. We never anticipated having four first-place teams. I’m so proud of these kids; I wish we had more problems like this. They are going to have to do some fund raising. We just have to determine the percentage.”

Currently, administrators are reviewing budget line items to see where they can pull some funds to help cover those costs. Mehrhof said he would know next week how much money the district will be able to provide and what percentage teams will need to raise.

Not included in this funding is the middle school team which won second place for its “Weird Science” performance. It will need to raise 100 percent of the costs to make the trip.

In past years, second place teams representing North Main Elementary and the middle school successfully raised all the funds they needed to participate in world competition. National OM policy includes all second-place teams in world competition.

‘Spontaneous’ Garling praised the efforts of all six teams participating in the state competition.

“Perhaps the most impressive outcome of this year’s state level tournament is the fact that every participating Monroe-Woodbury team captured the highest rank in the ‘spontaneous’ portion of the competition,” said Garling. “This is likely a result of the district’s high standards for excellence in fostering both critical and creative thinking.”

These students, also known as “OMers,” are characterized as those kids able to work together to create an original solution to a problem, Garling said, noting all six teams who participated at the state competition “dazzled the judges with their stylized sets, unique story lines and captivating stage presence.”

Garling believed OM enriches the academic, social and emotional lives of the district’s most creative minds.

“With the commitment of dedicated Odyssey coaches who never falter in enthusiasm and consistently push their OMers to stretch their thinking beyond their comfort zone, these students were almost guaranteed success,” she added. “The team members thrive on all opportunities to practice divergent thinking, set very high expectations of success and show remarkable resilience when overcoming obstacles.”