Gov. Evers helps celebrate student “citizens” at La Crosse’s North Woods International School

Kindergarten students at one La Crosse public school spent a little time with the governor of Wisconsin on Tuesday.

Gov. Tony Evers was the invited guest at North Woods International School, during a Citizen of the Month celebration honoring specific students there. The visit comes a week after the governor was in town highlighting new legislative maps at UW-La Crosse.

After sitting in on a class Tuesday, Evers, a former educator and state schools superintendent, was impressed by “having the students and teachers describe when they were honored as special kids in a classroom throughout the year, and hearing what they, the teachers and the other kids felt about each other,” he said.

North Woods kindergarten teacher Kate Hooper finds important guests for the monthly citizen event, and recalled taking a chance on inviting Evers to the school.

“I don’t know how, or if I saw something, whatever, filled out the request for Governor Evers,” said Hooper. She argued that she didn’t think the governor would come to La Crosse for an event such as this, “but here’s what we do, if you happen to be in La Crosse sometime, we would love to have you as one of our Citizen of the Month guests.”

Hooper says previous guests for the Citizen days have included the school superintendent and local government officials.

“They’re doing well for kindergarteners,” said Evers . “They really understand, some of them know how to read very well, and obviously, they’re all good at playing outside.” Evers taught at Tomah early in his career, before becoming a principal, and later state superintendent of schools.

The governor has also paid visits to UW-L, Western Tech, and Holmen High School in recent months.