Welcome everyone to Midday magazine for this November 29th, 2023.
Have your host, James J. Mayloff here, and we are welcoming into the studio some of our
favorite people.
We've got Superintendent, the Wisconsin Rapids public school systems.
Craig Braun with us.
Craig, good afternoon.
Hi.
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
It is not fair how good this man looks every time he walks in the studio.
I feel underdressed.
It's the haircut.
It's the haircut.
It goes a long way.
It does.
It does.
And Craig, you brought in a friend.
A principal of Grant Elementary School, Nikki Calto with us.
Nikki, thanks for being here.
Hello.
Thank you for having me.
Maybe one of the more important questions I ask.
Did I get your last name right?
You did.
Who did?
That's it.
You asked at the end, but yes, Calto.
I really appreciate you being here.
And we've had such a great time.
Craig brings in so many of our local principals and we get a chance to talk about these schools
that we don't always get a chance to talk to and have an end with us.
And ask these questions and find out what's going on with the kids.
How's it going over at Grant?
So, Nikki, let's talk a little grant.
How are things over there?
Grant Elementary is a wonderful school.
Love being there every single day.
We just have a wonderful community and we are out in Kelner.
So just across the Portage County line, so we are in Portage County, but it is a great
little school that we have many students, Kinder or 4K through 5th grade and so many
unique little features of Grant Elementary.
So one example would be our school forest, I would like to highlight that today and highlight
to the work of Mr. Joe Wondaleck who has worked at Grant for many years as a teacher and
as retired, but he has since taken our school forest and created an amazing space for
our students to work and play in and he has created a discovery zone in our school forest
where our students are able to go and make music and swing and play tether ball and he
is always adding different features and he just goes ahead and makes those changes and
the kids absolutely love that space.
Does he teach adults?
I'm just asking, just curious.
It sounds like a lot of fun, sounds like something I would like to do, but kids love going
out there and seeing what has been added to the area and we utilize this space in many
different ways.
There are three different trails that the kids can go along.
We do snowshoeing in the winter and it is just a unique feature to Grant Elementary.
Those are open to the community, not during the school day of course, but evenings and
weekends.
They are certainly open for community use.
They are also adjacent to the calendar ball fields where Rysa has their soft ball fields
out there and some of that infrastructure.
Another excellent opportunity highlighting community partnerships, so all that is school
district property, but with the intent that it is used by community partners and community
individuals and so it is awesome and then the other piece that I am guessing we will
talk a little bit about, but we did discuss, I don't remember how many weeks ago or months
ago, but about this four plus million dollar playground upgrades, so there is going
to be some pretty comprehensive things that happen over at Grant Elementary as well, which
is going to be super cool not only for the grand elementary kids, but keep in mind I just
said that there are nature trails over there in a school forest, but there is also the
calendar ball fields and guess what, that is on weekends and evenings and things like
that during the summer and so the use of those facilities in and around Grant School are
only going to increase over the next let's say 12 months.
Yeah, great information, that is really interesting to hear.
One of the things, Nicky, you use the word unique and it is such a perfect word for this
conversation and really when we are talking about our rapids public schools, we have gotten
a first hand kind of look at this when Craig brings in different principles and we know
these schools we pass them when we are going to work or some of us have attended some
of them, but we don't, especially the older we get, we don't see the uniqueness of them,
each one of these schools has something to offer and something different that they do
that maybe other great schools don't.
You highlighted some of the grant ones there with the forest in the back, is that something
that you continue to do at Grant, is look at ways to take advantage of the area, take
advantage of things that Grant has that maybe other great schools don't have?
Right, absolutely and that is something that we have looked at is how can we reach beyond
the walls of Grant Elementary and one of the ways that we have kind of implemented a new
thing for our students has been through our kindness ninjas, now kindness ninjas is
a fun name, but it's something that our kiddos that were able to create a club and we worked
with the Cool To Be Kind Club at Lincoln High School and we really wanted to mimic a lot
of the things that the Cool To Be Kind Club at Lincoln was doing and have it happen at
Grant at a younger age and make an impact beyond the Grant community.
And so last school year we spent, we ended up doing a fundraiser for the United Way and
they were able to fundraise to create fleece blankets for those in need and so many, many
different projects that our fourth graders were able to reach beyond the walls of Grant
and that I think has been also a unique feature of Grant Elementary in the last few years
that we've really established and the kids are currently working on different projects.
We just had World Kindness Day and they had many different ways that they were reaching
within our school building and building our school culture too.
So it was, it's always fun to see what ideas they come up with and it is completely student
driven ideas and that just helps with their own ownership of the club.
You know if my kid is interested in baseball I get them in the tea ball at a young age before
I start throwing fastballs out of them. You know we ease that our kids into these things as they
grow and get older. It makes sense to have this with the be kind of be cool of program at Lincoln
having a younger program to get them in it kind of get them in the ball rolling a little bit
getting in the brains get them used to this kind of stuff. That's a very smart idea.
It's a very cool way to do this and a way to spread kindness in our community.
Right and it's very powerful. They they take so much pride in the work that they've they've done
and they remember these projects for well beyond the fourth grade year that they're in the club.
Question for both of you and it kind of dawns on me the more I was listening to some other
interviews that Craig and I had done and I was just kind of going over some homework for this
interview and one of the things that I feel like and I don't know if this is the case or not but
it came to me it seems like at least in our area we're listening to our kids like we're doing
that more than we've ever done like it we it's not uncommon to hear a Nikki or any principal come
in and say well this is a student driven thing or student driven program and not saying that
hasn't always existed that we've had that around in schools forever but it feels like now in in
this day and age we are doing that more than we've ever done is that the case do you guys see
that as well Nikki I'll start with you. I believe so and I believe that it's really working on
those soft skills for them to to become a collaborative community member and reaching beyond
what the academics are saying in in the classroom of course that is our focus but also building
the capacity within themselves as people in the world and how do they see themselves as a
contributing citizen yeah correct yeah well so the answer to your question is 100% yes I think one
of the market differences would be that it's more intentional now so I we've always done that
right so the easiest thing to point to that I think of are things like student council right and in
some cases there's even student councils that are developed in elementary schools middle schools
high schools and and that's always been couched even back in the 80s and so forth when I was in
school of oh well this is a student led organization it's student council but frankly I in my school
career I don't recollect anything that student council enacted that was really from the students
you know it was more of a symbolic sort of thing yeah so now it be when I say it's more intentional
it's more intentional in terms of soliciting that engagement with kids like legitimately listening
to what they have to say and implementing those things but then also teaching aspects of kindness
of engagement of what it means to be a member a contributing member of society that are much
more intentional than they ever were and we can talk about why we think that is societally speaking
right but it's very clear that kids well I'm going to just say human beings are losing those
skills I mean you know go to the grocery store go to Walmart and just the number of interactions
you have that are negative versus positive are sometimes 50-50 which is shocking I mean back
not too long ago it was you know one percent of the time would be a negative interaction
and so understanding what the the context we're operating in and then being intentional about what
our expectations are for kids and teaching explicitly those things is a market difference than what
we had done in the past I think too you know kids kids have always been very good about no filter
like you you have funny hair like don't say that so you know what do you in my kids have done
that my whole life embarrassed me like that or whatever but one of the things that I've also
noticed too to me at least it seems is that kids are more empowered to speak up to talk which
has literally no downside like there is no downside to that as a child of abuse I will say that
I felt comfortable talking to my parents because I could talk to my parents about anything they always
wanted to know they always ask me questions and I've I had questions as crazy as they might be they
would answer them or or at least hear me out or whatever in a day and age where this is something
that we still deal with as a society when it comes to abuse and those things it is so vital
that kids believe that they have people they can talk to that they can trust
God willing they don't ever are never in that situation but if they are we want to be able to be
there for them as adults it's our job it's it's not just Craig and and Nikki's job or anything
like that every adult out there listening it is on you to be able to be there for a child if they
need and that's just with something on the extreme end of things there are other areas of this too
where I it feels like kids are more open to speaking up and it's on us as adults to empower
that I think is that something that you it seems like something that you've taken on as well
Nikki absolutely and I think one of the things that we do every single morning is a morning meeting
with our students and there are specific pieces of the morning meeting that help the student
transition from home to school but also gets them ready for the school day and creates a classroom
community that they feel safe and connected and they have a sense of belonging in our building
and I think that is something that has evolved throughout the the years from when I was in school
to now it just our focus on building that classroom community and having a voice
and having an appropriate voice and where to use your voice and what to say and how to
work on those skills specifically that is something that we do in our morning meetings and build
relationships among students and from student to staff and just continue to yeah support them in
that way where and how to use your voice that's beautiful that that is an angle of this I hadn't
really thought of but that is a really impactful way to reach kids especially at this age the
this is how we we counter the the current way society has gone with the misinformation and some
of these things I don't know that you really can handle much with our age ranges but the younger
generation says still a lot of hope there there's still a lot and I'd say that there isn't any
for our groups or anything like that but the kids what I think about when any of these kind of things
you know bog me down or or seem too much I think of kids and I think of the younger generations
and I begin to feel more hopeful about this stuff because they are not only are they more engaged
than ever but you look at the last political cycle and everything you've got 20 year olds running
for office you've got people like all over and it's only it's only happening more and more
where younger people there was an age where there was a time where oh I'll get into politics when
I'm in my late 20s or 30s or something like that some people would think it's not the case anymore
like kids nowadays are are in there you know barely teenagers and they're they know more about
politics than I do sometimes and things like it's it's a different age with that and it seems
as though our public school systems are embracing that encouraging that we're we're getting more
stronger thinkers better workers from this it's it's kind of cool to see but I'm not in the industry
you guys see this from from a great point of view is that something that you're seeing in these kids
as well yeah so that's an that's an excellent question there's no doubt that there's more
well even at an elementary school I'm a kind of shocked to say this but I like I said I graduated
high school in 1992 which frankly is a is a long time ago by some standards but not a super long
time okay it wasn't like 1950 right right but I didn't once talk about politics in a school setting
aside from my social studies course yeah yeah classes right um nor did I in college I mean my
focus was science so maybe that's why but it just wasn't a thing like I mean I I was I voted
every time that I could since I was 18 I informed myself of political matters you know what I'm
saying to the degree that you can yeah but it wasn't like it is now and so absolutely there's
elementary kids that talk about the presidential election and 10 years ago or I'm I guess five
years ago that kind of stuff didn't happen yeah you know what I'm saying oh yeah yeah so absolutely
but I'll be quite clear that's with the the caveat that you know we're supposed as a public
school be everything to all people right and so there's no ideology in what we're talking about
regardless of what do you want somebody to tell you right oh you're involved in public education
so you're clearly a liberal that's not the case no we employ 800 people I haven't done a survey
but I'm pretty confident that our demographic of employees is very similar to Wood County
yes and so if you think about that it's probably a 60 40 or 55 45 sort of county and that's likely
what our staff represent they might lean one way or the other but this idea that we're going to
utilize that to to our quote-unquote advantage yeah is laughable at best but it's something we
absolutely need to address because if we have a student saying something in an elementary class
and rainy class remove about politics political candidate ideology certain ideals that are either
incorrect or not super informed it's on us to ensure that the balance is out there right that there
is some intervention and and not to this you know weird indoctrination sort of level which arguably
and this is an excellent segue so I'm glad we got onto the topic because if our staff members were
able to indoctrinate kids into voting in a certain manner or in a certain ideology or
turning them transgender to whatever this argument is why wouldn't we start with coming to school
just kind of behaving yourself and maybe wearing deodorant once in a while why wouldn't those be the
things and that's tongue and cheek james but my god I mean use your brain yeah our people don't
care about the political ideology with kids they care about kids and they care about kids doing
what they're supposed to be doing because they want them to be part of a functional society so
yeah that's a it's it's much much different than it is now yeah but it's also more of the same
because that's our role as a public school in particular the job hasn't changed no believe what
you believe but here's how we're going to do it in this environment because we have to be cognizant
of the fact that we serve everybody yeah not just this small group of people that agree with 100
percent of what you're saying uh well said well said Nikki was there anything that we didn't
get a chance to get a chance to touch on about grant uh that you wanted to make sure we mentioned
yeah well um I would say that um recently we had something called playworks come out to our
building and I just wanted to um highlight that piece of it as our students have talked about it
at home I'm sure and um we have our coach coming back to us to run through some things but it's
a different way of thinking about recess and one of the pieces that I absolutely loved about playworks
was we implemented something called a tag zone and in that tag zone it is a space that is
merely marked out by paint on the grass and it is an area where students are able to go to
no matter what they don't have to feel the pressure of do I need to go and ask to play
do I need to what do I say to join this game if they are in the tag zone they are playing the tag
game of the day and everyone is allowed to play that it is their choice as to whether or not they
want to play the tag game but it is in a space that everyone is welcome and um that has been a game
changer at recess for us and the kids absolutely love the concept of having the tag zone they
know that it's there they don't have to play it at you know lunch recess but maybe their next recess
they can um or you know it's their choice so there's it's a different way of looking at recess
and helping students feel like they can find something positive to do yeah this speaks to that
intentionality James yeah I was mentioning before so something as simple as that like organizing
games or getting kids down the right path so that it is appropriate that it doesn't devolve into
fighting or screaming at each other um you know because that that's what happens when you don't
have proper parameters in place but not you know to the extent where it's like helicopter and the
adult is running the thing yeah because tag with adults sucks yeah let's face it adults are slow
in lacing you know what I'm saying yeah yeah yeah yeah you come over here and I'll tag you
go right yeah yeah yeah so it's that that that that's a perfect description of something that's
quite simple recess but providing intentionality and enough structure or framework around it scaffolding
that it's more effective than just go outside and play and don't you know don't kill each other
right right we you were touching on something the the previous question uh about teachers and
and what I think there's so many people out there that do not have any understanding of what it
is to be a teacher to be a principal or anything like that and I encourage those especially if you are
on the side of things of you have questions or you're questioning this and this and this about
the education system whatever reach out ask some questions and maybe even spend a day in the life
of one of these people on his individuals where do you think they have the time to do these other
things that you're saying they're doing are converting people are doing this or this or this
there's no time for that there's a I teach actors I teach like you know comedians and divas and people
like that and I ain't got the time for it I can imagine what it's like doing your guys's jobs
that it's I think it hopefully it would give you some perspective and some empathy and understanding
that this is this is a task that nobody does to be a next Rockefeller nobody gets into education
because you want to be rich or you want to create the next new cool invention or something you do
this because you're passionate you care about kids you care about education and right there from the
gate you have my respect and empathy I would think that most people out there listening would be
there ask questions reach out and I'll find out a little bit more about a day in the life you know
and we need subs yes and we're looking for employees so you know if these are things that you have
some interest in and certainly you just want to give it a shot absolutely reach out we'd love
to make that happen we got about five minutes left Craig what kind of headlines are going on in
the area as far in the district oh fantastic so we are nearing the end of the first trimester which
typically depending upon when see we're beholden the state statute around the start of school
yeah back in the old days they call it the Tommy Bartlett law that's right that means we can't start
until after honor after September 1st yeah well with the way September 1st landed this year
it was like a Friday I think and so it's like well we're not going to go to school one day
and so then you do the the holiday weekend and then start but what that means then is that shifts
then the days that you have because typically we like to wrap up try one right before things giving
break well we're talking to you right after Thanksgiving and we're just wrapping it up I think this
Thursday Fridays and in service day for staff and there's no no students in the building so that's
why we're transitioning a bit later this year and then we move into second second trimester which
for secondary kids means some different coursework and so forth but some changes in that regard
and also it is the the mark of new sports season so our the winter sports season is well
underway hockey swimming basketball wrestling and so forth and so on so that's huge I would
also mention that I'm sure many of your listeners recognize and remember coach Louis Bennett's
he clearly I still don't know the exact number but coached for over 40 years many many years here
in Wisconsin right 14 state titles I think it's like something like this or 17 17 to 17 to 17
and to not overstate what this guy did for the community and for the program and for the number
of athletes that came through his program and clearly there it's not without issue and I'm not
an idiot you know I'm not gonna try to sugarcoat these things but on the same hand
Louis I was a phenomenal human being and what he accomplished I don't believe will ever be
it touched again I don't think it's I don't think it's gonna happen and it's a shame the things
that did happen you know in the community it was it was hard on the district hard on the program
in very very hard on the community I think we've moved past that but we also still need to recognize
the the massive impact that that Louis Bennett's had on on the kids that were in the program
and the community because it's unmatched and like I said I don't think it'll happen again 17 I think
and that I think is the number might even be out there yeah yeah but 17 team state titles
and wrestling is unbelievable I mean it's just unbelievable there's no other way to describe it
one of the biggest challenges facing human beings especially kids going forward is being able to
you know you're you're meeting your heroes now you're you're learning more and more about individuals
and people than we ever have and there are no perfect people out there none of us are perfect outside
it may have been my mother everybody else not sure about them everybody judging you know it's
like this with artists all the time we hear about an artist there's a great artist we like their
songs but we may not like them that much as a person you know and engaging that and how can you
separate the two can you chew gum walk at the same time it's something that we're gonna have to
learn to do more more as a society local or you know nationwide I think we can do that more if we
do that with an open heart and an open mind absolutely and I would just quick mention to
that Scott Benets his son still is working for Lincoln high school and coaches wrestling yeah
as well as Leslie Benets is a teacher at Grant who is an in law she's married to Shane which is
another one of Louise kids and our condolences of course to to Joyce Louise wife as well as the
the kids and all of the family and grandkids because I know Louis had a massive massive impact on his
grandkids rightly so and so our sincerest condolences and sympathies to the family we are certainly
in holiday seasons we encourage everybody out there to keep an eye out for the kids understand
that there are days off coming up so the kids might be popping around in town when you know normal
normal times and stuff so keep a look out be watching out for them and certainly reach out to
the team here that they whether at Grant or Craig when it comes to volunteer opportunities are
different ways that you can help with our public schools and Nicky if if people that follow up
questions they want to know more talk with you a little bit about Grant how can they do that how
can they reach you sure they can absolutely call the school office or they are more than welcome
to send me an email and you can find my email information on the Grant Elementary website
thanks and thank you and really nice to meet you thanks a lot for being in today you all
Craig same question how can they get a hold of you yep 424 6700 is the district's general number
and that'll direct you via you know digital directory to basically any extension
and then all my contact information on the school website as well thank you both for everything
you do for our communities you put into our communities we appreciate you have a great holiday
thanks James thank you we'll have more midday magazine for you tomorrow right here at WFHR
locally grown radio
