You're listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 AM 975 FM.
I'm Melissa Kay bringing you news in our community.
During this interview, I'm talking with Superintendent Ron Rasmussen on Friday, March 27th, 2026.
Thank you for joining me today, Ron, to bring the community an update from the Wisconsin Rapids Public School District.
Glad to be here, Melissa.
Thank you.
And you've brought several guests with you today.
Terry Thomas, please give me your title and where you work
because I've messed it up several times now.
Hi, Melissa.
I'm Terry Thomas, and I am the principal at Pitcherly Learning Center, and I also oversee the 4K program in the district.
OK, wonderful.
Well, we're going to start with Kelly Bluel, who is the gifted and talented coordinator from the district.
Welcome, Kelly.
Thank you
so much for having me.
So you have brought several students with you today.
We're going to start with you, Kelly.
And these students participated in the Math 24 competition, which happened on February 24th, followed by the regional competition against other schools on March 5th.
So gentlemen, I would ask each of you to introduce yourself.
What grade are you in and what school you attend?
My name is Kayne Jensen and I go to Washington and I'm in fourth grade.
My name is Jacob Barse.
I go to Grant Elementary and I'm in fifth grade.
My name is Jennings Davis.
I go to Grant Elementary and I'm in fourth grade.
Wonderful.
Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all and glad you're here today and I'm excited to hear about this math competition.
I personally am not real great at math.
I did learn my multiplication tables in school, so I know a little bit.
But Kelly, why don't you start and tell us a little bit about this competition and how these young people got involved.
Absolutely.
We brought in the Math 24 competition a few years ago into our school district as a way to get students excited about math and created a competition out of it.
Our fourth and fifth grade students throughout the district are invited to participate as a part of the competition.
Each school that we have is allowed to send a team of four students from fourth grade and four students from fifth grade to the district competition to compete against one another for those top places of first, second, and third.
as a part of our district competition, if a student makes it into the championship round, which would be the top five players, they automatically qualify as a participant in our regional competition that happens against other schools from our area.
Okay, so we're all of you able to make it through to that second round of competition?
Yeah.
All right.
Well, let's start with you, Kane.
Tell me about your experience with the competition.
And where do you feel your strongest in math?
What I feel strongest in math is probably division and multiplication.
OK.
Do you have your multiplication tables memorized?
Mm-hmm.
Good.
Because you're not allowed to use calculators for these competitions, are you?
No, you're not.
OK.
So what was the competition like?
It was kind of scary with all the people in the audience.
It's not, it's my first time being in the audience doing something like I've never been on stage.
Okay, did you have family members there supporting you?
Yeah.
Did it feel good to look out and be able to see your family out there supporting you?
Yeah.
Cool.
And then, um, so what happened in the competition?
How did you place and you have a little coin with you?
What is that?
So you would go over three people in the first round there would be four people and five rounds and One of them will go to the third round automatically and whoever lost would go to second round
Okay, and what does the coin mean?
Second round you grab you use the coin like you would grab it out of a bag and Whoever has the same color you would go first.
Oh, so it's so it
determines who you're
working with or who you're competing against?
Yeah.
Okay.
And then we've also got Jacob here.
Jacob, tell me about your experience
there.
It was hard.
The people I was competing against were very good.
What was your favorite part of the competition?
Like math or it's all math, obviously, but division multiplication?
I
really like...
Division and multiplication.
Yeah.
Well, the two kind of go hand in hand too, don't they?
Yeah.
All right.
Is there any particular problem that you solved that you were really proud of?
Um, 144 divided by 6.
Yeah.
Do you know the answer on the top of your head?
Yeah.
What is it?
24.
24?
Yeah.
Oh, that's some mental math I just can't do.
All right.
So then
Jennings, tell me about your experience.
My experience?
I'm very nervous before but once I'm at it and like doing it and I get my first card I feel really good about myself and I know I can do good.
Okay what is the card?
The card is four numbers you have to use all the numbers and you have to make twenty four and you and you have to use the numbers once.
Okay, and you brought in cards as an example can one of you explain a little bit more what the cards do?
So the cards you have to answer with all four numbers you can only use them once and using multiplication division addition and subtraction and You have to try to make the number 24 with them.
Oh, okay There is a variety of different cards one dot two dot and three dot with three dot
being the most challenging 2 dot being the middle and 1 dot being the easiest.
Okay, so on this particular card that we have here I see the numbers 9, 3, 2 and 14.
How many dot card is that one?
That is a 1 dot.
A 1 dot card.
So tell me how you would solve this.
I would solve it by first doing 3 minus 2 equals 1 and then 9 plus 1 equals 10, 14 plus 10 equals 24.
Wow.
Impressive, right?
Yeah!
I wouldn't have even known where to begin with that.
So then each of these cards is different and it's basically just a game you play to solve reaching the number 24.
Correct.
Every card's answer is 24.
So the students are actually thinking backwards, trying to come up with how do we actually get 24?
They're given the answer to every math question instead of the question itself.
And what does that do to help them build their math skills?
It is an incredible way for them to build their facts in math.
for their calculations.
They use common factors of 24 and common adding pairs to get 24.
It requires a lot of work and effort on their end to do well in this game.
I think we could ask the three gentlemen here how much they practiced and where they practiced to do as well as they did.
Maybe you gentlemen could share how much you practiced and also where did you place in the different competitions.
Let's start with you,
Kane.
I practice around 30 minutes every day of the week, and I took first.
You took
first place?
Congratulations.
And you, Jacob?
I practiced every day.
I went through the whole deck, and I got second place in... No, I got first place in the district.
Okay, and how long did it take you to get through the whole deck?
At first, like 45 minutes, but then...
It started getting smaller and smaller until I got to like 15 or 10 minutes.
Oh wow, so you could really see the effects of your practicing getting better.
Wow.
Okay, and Jennings, how about you?
I got second place in the first one, but in regionals I got first.
Woo hoo, nice job.
And how often did you practice every day?
I practice 30 minutes at school and 30 minutes at home.
So an hour a day on math outside of
math class, right?
Yeah.
So how does this help you in your math classes in school?
It helps me like learn like different math facts and like a combination of numbers.
Okay.
For all of you, how many of your fellow classmates were also involved in this competition?
Were there a lot of people?
Only two.
Only two for you?
There were four fifth graders and four fourth graders.
In total?
In from a school.
Okay.
From the different schools.
Okay.
So what happens, Kelly, I'm going to ask you this question then.
What happens next for these young people in their math journey with this competition?
Well, fortunately enough we have an amazing support system with our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers that
We have our fourth graders can compete again next year as fifth graders.
The deck for fourth grade is single digits and there's a separate deck for fifth graders that's double digits.
And we've also added on a math 24 competition at Rams for our sixth grade.
So the students get to keep upping their math skills and calculation skills throughout fourth, fifth, and sixth grade and can join in on the fun of the different competitions at each grade level.
Do all of you plan to participate next year?
Yes.
It's that much fun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, I'm really glad you all came in to talk with us today and share with our listeners.
Is there anybody you want to give a shout out to out there?
Go ahead, Cain.
I have a shout out to my dad.
All right.
Jacob.
I just want to say thank you to my mom for making sure that I practiced every day and my dad for practicing with me.
Cooper for practicing with me and Nolan, Emmeline, Jackson, and Zoe for my team.
Awesome.
You had sounds like you had a great support system.
And the most thanks of all, Ms.
Bluewell, for being a great host.
All right, awesome.
And how about you, Jennings?
I want to give a shout out to my classmates and the other class for giving me support and telling me I can do a good job and
pushing me forward and giving me tips and like giving me presents when I do good.
Awesome.
Well congratulations to you all for being such wonderful math students and continuing your journey in math.
We're actually going to take a short pause here to hear from our sponsors.
I'm Melissa Kay and I've been speaking with Cain Jensen.
Jacob Barsi, and Jennings Davis, along with Kelly Bluel.
Thank you all for joining me today.
Thank you for having us.
And we will be right back.
You're listening to Perspective on 1320 AM, 97.5 FM WFHR.
Welcome.
You're listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 AM, 97.5 FM.
I'm Melissa Kay bringing you news in our community.
been speaking with staff and students from the WRPS school district and where we left off we were talking with the the three young men who had just competed in the math 24 competition and Ron why don't we now dive into what some of the recent district updates
All right, yeah.
So it's a busy time, obviously, with the spring season coming in.
And we just got off of spring break.
So this is the first time that we've had spring break that early in March.
This was a new transition for us to match up with some of our neighboring K-12 districts, as well as UWSP.
And luckily, I did not have to cancel school with the big snowstorm.
So that was a good thing.
So yeah, it's an exciting time.
We're entering the spring season, where sometimes
you know, a little rambunctious occurs, especially in our elementary areas in our high school.
It doesn't matter, I guess, what level it is, just with a nice weather.
Everybody wants
to get outside.
Everybody wants to get outside and
get a little rambunctious
too, I think.
And we end up with 70 degree days.
And then like today, when we're recording, it's about 30 degrees outside.
So it's always a little interesting.
But it's an exciting time for us with our students, obviously, continuing their education for the year.
And some of those are wrapping up, but also some of those are just beginning.
We're entering testing season as a district.
March and April end up being testing season for us for required state assessments.
So we like our students to showcase their talents that they've gained throughout the year.
This past weekend on the we had Annie with the children's theater program So that was exciting at our PAC to show those students to showcase their talents as I always feel that as a school district We're much more than an educational institution It's a lot of those other things that kids learn their past their passions what they want to do and and the fine arts is an important part of that and for us to be able to Grow and I have the children's theater program has been impressive for us
and provide those opportunities.
Spring athletic seasons are starting as well.
So last week we had our first games with our softball at Eau Claire and I know we had baseball scrimmage on Saturday over at the quad at Lincoln as well.
So those opportunities are there as well for our student athletes.
And then just continuing on April 7th, we have our local referendum that will be part of the process as
well.
Okay.
And we're going to get into that a little bit later here,
but
I want to jump over to Terry now to talk about 4k registration and the opportunities coming up for you in your position and at pitch elementary.
Yeah, this is a busy time of year for 4k as well, because while we're continuing everything as usual in our current 4k classrooms and sites, we are already getting ready to welcome next.
for K students.
So registration is active.
We have quite a few families that have already put in their requests for their preferred sites.
And we do have two locations that we'll be offering full day options at Meade Elementary as well as Grant Elementary.
And this is a new thing, correct?
This is a new thing.
Yep, we are responding to just feedback we've received from parents that that's something they were strongly interested in.
So we will be opening that up starting next.
fall and registration is still open.
We're working to get all of that figured out as far as the sites and the students and where they'll be placed and families will be finding out probably sometime soon this spring as far as where their child will be placed for the following school year.
Okay, and then let's jump back to you Ron.
Let's talk about the referendum because this is kind of a big deal You and I were just recently at the legislative breakfast here in town and heard from our local representatives and leaders and then several school board members that were in the audience with concerns about about funding schools
Yeah, I think school funding if is one of the pre-minute issues across across the state of Wisconsin This is just not a local Wisconsin rapids issue or a central Wisconsin issue
Our expenses are continuing to increase just like everybody's expenses are increasing with inflation over the last four or five years and what that looks like.
And for us to provide the best education possible for the students that walk through our doors every single day.
As a district with some declining enrollment, that impacts us financially according to the state funding formula.
But we're a rather large district, so if we lose...
let's say 50 students less per school year just because there's less students available within our area that may only be one student in every other classroom across our district so our costs pretty much stay the same but some of our state aid reimbursement is less and so that really plays into the impact on the monetary revenue that we have available for us via state aid and local property tax.
Our district is a state aided district which is about
out of our budget about 70 to 73% of our budget estate aid and 27% comes from local property taxes.
And so the impact of the referendum as we look at that for the future is a continuation of the $2 million referendum the voters gave the district the approval for in 2021 expires with the 2526 school year.
And so we're asking to go above that 2 million by 1.8 million for a total of 3.8 million for the next five school years.
Okay.
And that referendum is, how is that going to be utilized within the district if the voters approve
it?
The referendum question asks for use on curriculum technology and maintain existing programs.
For example,
We've implemented a new English language arts curriculum at our elementary level and we paid for that out of district funds as well as one-time COVID ESSER funding.
That will be up for renewal in 2027-28 and just the expense of that curriculum itself is $650,000.
And so that adds up pretty quickly when you're looking at your district budget.
Technology.
We all think about our own cell phones.
You may replace your cell phone every four or five years.
We're in the same aspect with just general technology and technology seems to be ever increasing and the use of, and how it impacts your systems, the use of AI and memory and all that.
So that's that part and maintain existing programs.
As I talked about earlier, the importance of fine arts and visual arts within our school buildings, our career and technical education programs.
Many of those programs itself run a little smaller class sizes.
because they become more specialized as you work through the secondary level.
And so in order to maintain those smaller class sizes or offer those opportunities, that's what the referendum dollars will be used for.
And one of the things that you brought up during the legislative breakfast that you asked of the legislators is about the school choice vouchers
and
how the funds for that are then taken out of the
district.
property tax levy from the district last school year is about 25.7 million dollars.
Our budget's roughly 100 million to make it easy so if you say the 27 and 73 percent.
About 4.7 million dollars of that 25.7 never comes to the school district.
That is to fund the Wisconsin's school choice program or the voucher program depending upon what it's referred to easily or commonly throughout the state and that equates to about 18 cents of every
dollar that is paid for by local property taxes never comes to the school district.
There's 363 students the last time DPI gave me numbers that participate from that from our school district and we have great partnerships with our local institutions, Emmanuel Assumption.
We have great partnerships with them and continue to have those but we have a variety of those.
that go outside of our school district.
So anywhere between one and 1.3, 1.4 million dollars that is taxed locally does not get invested back into those local and educational institutions in our area.
So this morning I just asked the legislators if there was something that they could be looked at because it's a virtual charter and some of the scores of where our students do attend from our physical geographic area.
Those report cards for that school or school districts are lower than ours.
And if that could be something that the legislature could look at in the future.
And as far as that goes, private schools have different requirements or not necessarily any of the same or any requirements as do public school institutions.
Yeah, there are differing requirements and I'm not really abreast of what their requirements are versus my requirements.
I want to make sure I'm abreast on ours.
But yeah, but once again, we have great partnerships when we're working with, you know...
Assumption or Emanuel at Deacon Pipitone or Brian Betts at Emanuel.
Those are great partnerships between our districts because we all want our communities to thrive and survive.
And so, good
education
is a foundation for that.
Great education is great education and we know many of like many of those students will be at Lincoln just provided because of the educational opportunities that are at Lincoln.
As I mentioned earlier, part of the referendum task is to look at
continuing those educational opportunities.
So last year we had almost 3,000 college credits earned at Lincoln.
either through Mid-State Technical College or UW-Green Bay.
And that saves those families about $725,000 if they had to pay those tuition figures.
And those are the courses and we talk about maintaining small class sizes, not only in our elementary buildings, but maintaining those smaller class sizes because we are able to offer those opportunities first.
Expanded opportunities for students.
Expanded opportunities.
I know we have two graduates that graduated last year that have 51 credits from Lincoln and 47 credits from Lincoln.
Wow.
And that's, if you think of that,
It's a chunk of change.
Nearly halfway through their college of their general eds that they've earned at Lincoln.
And those instructors at Lincoln have to do additional coursework to get certified to offer those courses.
So when we talk about the expenses of the referendum, those are the things that we're hoping to maintain and grow within our community, not only to benefit the students, but overall our community.
We want those kids to come back to Wisconsin Rapids after they go off to school and have a great successful life here in our community.
And if people have more questions about the referendum before the April 7th election day, where can they go to find that information?
If you go to our website, it'll pop up as a banner right away.
So to make it easy for folks when they come to our website, it will take you.
So
don't ignore the banners.
Don't ignore the banner.
Yes, it's not a pop up ad.
It's not a pop up ad.
We wanted to try to make it easy to find it on our website.
So you can click that banners for planning our future program.
If you missed that, you can just scroll about.
way down the home page and there's a referendum tab that will take you to that and we have the presentations all the
budgetary information, all of that laid out for individuals that go to the website.
In addition, we continue to have two information sessions and one is on March 31st at Lincoln High School at 630 and the Kiwanis Club on April 1st at 630 at the Kiwanis Club out on 80th.
In addition, I can always be contacted as well.
Right now, we anticipate the financial impact to be 10 cents per 100.
excuse me, $0.10 per thousand of assessed value or $10 per hundred thousand of assessed value.
So an average median household in our district is $231,000 of assessed value.
So $23.10 a year is what we anticipate.
I'm going to say quotes in the worst way that the referendum, but that's assuming zero property value increase.
And I do guarantee property values are probably increasing this year.
So we know that impact, that mill rate impact will probably even be less than that.
Okay, and then Terry I want to come back to you.
Where can people go to register for 4k or find out more information on how to register?
Yeah, that's a great question.
So you can also look at the WRPS website for registration information.
And if you have trouble finding it, you can click registration.
There is a link that will take you right to the form that families would need.
They would also need to have a copy of the child's birth certificate and immunization record to upload.
And then we just verify that and complete the registration.
Otherwise, they can go to the former East Junior High where we have our enrollment center, which
is located near McMillan Library and they can just go in the front doors there and the office staff there would be happy to help them as well.
And they are very helpful.
They are.
I got to experience that with one of my nieces and it was wonderful how helpful they were.
Yep.
Well, I thank you both for talking with me today.
I've been speaking with Superintendent Ron Rasmussen of Wisconsin Rapid Public School District and Terry Thomas of the
principle of pitch elementary and many other wonderful things in charge of walking around the district.
Many hats.
Many hats.
But it's what we all need to, the community comes together to educate our children and thank you both for joining me today.
Thanks Melissa, it's
nice
to be here.
And thank you to listeners joining us for news in our community on perspective, 1320 a.m.
975 FM WFHR.
