Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Friday, August 23rd, 2024.
Have your host James with you today and we are welcoming into the studio some really
wonderful fun people.
We are looking forward to a new school year and we're going to kick things off by talking
with our good friend and new superintendent or new wish I should say.
Superintendent of the Wisconsin Raffles Public School System Ronald Rasmussen is with us
Ron.
Thanks a lot for being here.
Good morning James.
Always good to see you.
Thanks for the time sir and thank you for bringing in some friends.
We got some new people here with us and new positions.
I want to let you guys go down the line and introduce yourselves and we'll get to
know you after that.
We'll start right on the end here.
Morning James.
Steve there.
New building principal at how elementary.
Good to see you Steve.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for having me.
I'm Terry Thomas.
I'm the principal at pitch early learning center.
Thanks for being here Terry.
Nice to meet you.
Good morning.
My name is Ron Watson.
I'm the new principal Lincoln High School.
Ron, good to see you.
Thanks a lot for being here.
I should mention journalistically for integrity purposes.
I am a Lincoln High School alum.
So I am a little biased on that.
No.
I do appreciate you being here Ron and appreciate the time from you guys.
One of the things I like to do is get to know you a little bit more.
Let the audience get to know you guys a little bit more.
So I will start with you Steve.
What tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you to the position?
Sure.
Well one of the great things about me making this transition James is I'm not new to the
district.
So I've been in the district for five years.
The last five years at Lincoln High School serving as an AP there and now get to make
this transition to the elementary.
Prior to that I was a math teacher so don't hold that against me please.
We have a great time but I've been an education now for a while and I just love being there
alongside making new connections with families and getting now getting to lay some great foundation
work to help make kids successful and be prepared for middle school and puberty and high school
and all those things.
We're really looking forward to coming alongside families.
How is the shift going for you going and this is something I actually wanted to pick your
brain about some time Ron as well going from the positions you had as a teacher and that
to this position right now.
It's been great.
It has always been what I've wanted to do for my career and now moving to the younger
side of things really looking forward to getting involved sooner with families and being
more of a support as opposed to doing more of the troubleshooting stuff that Rod gets
to do to be able to get those final pieces in place and so it's really just kind of a
shift of mindset and area of focus and being able to get started rather than putting the
bow on top and getting that celebratory thing at the end.
Very cool and then thank you for that.
I appreciate it.
Terry how about you could you tell us a little about yourself?
Yeah I actually have been in the district now for 25 years.
Can you believe that?
Wow I didn't realize that long.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
I have worked in many different roles but recently I have been working at pitch early
learning center and the role that I had there was a student engagement facilitator so working
along students, staff and families and this year is just a little bit of a different
shift.
I'll still continue to work with the students, the staff and the families but as a principal
role.
So I'm really looking forward to that.
I'm looking forward to bringing the families in with it being a 4K school and early learning
school.
We really only have our students for one or two years so this is their first experience
many times.
There's a lot of nerves coming to school.
It's their first time away from home sometimes so we just really try to provide a nurturing environment,
a play based environment for the kids so that when they come to school they're having fun,
they're learning through play and just having a really good first experience with school.
How is the shift for you been going from your previous gig to this?
So far it's been okay.
Yeah.
It's only been a couple.
I've only been officially in the role for a couple of weeks now so a lot of the work
I've been doing is just the onboarding with different trainings and getting ready for
our staff to return, our professional development, reaching out to families through parent
square and getting everything set up on the front end so that when they do come for our
open house next week or even for the first day of school we're set to go.
Terry, you know this better than I do but it's so important for kids, those early days
in school, those early learning sessions, how much that can set the path for them going
forward and falling in love with educating and falling in love with learning.
I was really lucky.
I moved around a lot as a kid but wherever I landed I ended up having, I'd been fortunate
and having teachers that really sparked that interest in me and saw that's a kid that
likes to learn and really highlighting that.
I imagine that's part of the gig for you.
That's doing that kind of work and working with kids like that and seeing that and enhancing
that.
Right.
We want it to be a place where kids come and they love to be there and they really feel
like they are cared about and that their interests are considered and that they just
enjoy their time there because at pitch they're really learning foundational skills whether
it's social skills, learning how to regulate their emotions or with even the beginning
academics.
I mean this is where we're really laying that foundation and so we want it to be a really
positive experience for them and for their families.
That's great stuff, Terry.
Thank you very much for that.
Appreciate it.
Rod, how about you?
Yeah, so this is the fourth stop in my educational journey.
So I started here about a month ago and I'm still trying to find all the bathrooms.
So before this I worked at Pitzville at the principal.
Interviewing for this job was one of the craziest experiences of my life because I did it
while I was in the field for the National Guard on my Sergeant Major's phone in a pile of
poison oak.
So going through that was quite an experience.
Before that I worked in Shano as an associate principal and then down in the Chicago
I thought it was as a associate teacher which I'm still recovering from.
Right, right.
I mentioned.
And first off, thank you for the service, appreciate that, sir.
And one day we and I are going to have a conversation about that interview because I got to hear
more about it.
I'm still in shock about it.
I got like 20 follow-up questions.
That is awesome.
Rod, how is it going for you adjusting to the new position?
I have now more staff members than I did students last year and so it's a change in position
but also just in magnitude and trying to figure out the new systems and processes to make
a school effective for that many students, you really have to reexamine your role and
realize that you're working at a macro level and you're working with a team.
And so fortunately the team is outstanding and so getting ready for the year has less
to do with me trying to find the bathrooms more with them telling me what needs to be done
right now to make sure those kids can find their first class and get that locker opened
and all those things.
So it's going well.
I'm learning enough every day to eventually be good at it.
Very cool.
Very good to hear.
All three of you.
Thank you.
We had eight pluses all around.
Nice work all around.
I agree.
Don't occur.
I'm going to keep that in mind.
Ron, same question for you.
How it's going with this new position going from a principal at Lincoln to this job right
here?
Yeah.
It's actually been phenomenal.
Obviously I've been part of this community now entering my 13th year.
So it's an exciting community.
I think it's a community on a rebound and vibrant.
I think the district is taking a lead in a lot of that and what we're trying to do within
the community.
We're excited as we kick off hopefully four new playgrounds next week, which I know
last month when I was here.
We talked about the playground at MEDE.
So we're going to have those new playgrounds hopefully up and running here in the future.
Just provide that social aspect for students with all parts of our community.
It's been a little hectic.
We have about a 26-member team that I operate, including assist to principals.
And well over a third of us are new to the district or new in the positions.
So we still have a few hires out there in the district as well.
So that's a little hectic as we try to gear up to have our 800-plus staff members for
WRPS show back on Monday morning.
But overall, it's going really well.
Really good to hear that, sir.
Really good to hear that.
And one thing that you're talking about that as my oldest is I'm going to be a pop.
I'm going to be a grandpa.
And I'm just, I'm shoe-horning that in.
I hold on to you, man.
But I'm just very excited about that and everything.
And with that, you start thinking about when your little one was little and taking
them to school and some of these things.
And they both excitement and nerves that can be a part of that.
And I hear you guys all talk about this and it sounds very similar to your first day
of school.
It sounds like a little bit like that, which can only make a kinship with the students and
show a relatability that I think is really unique to not only the school systems, but
to our area here.
And you hit it on the head, I think, sir, Ron, when you said excitement to this.
And we're having, we have great teachers.
We've had great principals in this area.
The people in these positions, including yourself, did a great job, or rock stars, did
awesome work.
To be able to not only pick that mantel up, but put your own spin on it.
Be your own thing with this.
It's a really exciting thing for our kids and this community.
I just, in thinking about this, it's a very exciting and it's going to be a fun school
year.
Yeah, so one of the excitement we've had is Terry has worked with a lot of our new colleagues
over the last.
We've had approximately 30 new teachers come into our community that we worked with this
week.
So what was pretty awesome yesterday is we had all our new teachers over at Lincoln High School
yesterday, as well as Lincoln High School at their schedule pick up.
And so we had the same freshmen trying to open their lockers and teaching teachers where
they walk around and they're all nervous.
It doesn't matter what grade level you are, age level you are, you're all nervous.
You're new experiences, new areas, but to have that understanding that we're all here
for a greater purpose of education and to help people learn and grow is.
It's an exciting time for students to come back and staff also to come back and just
that excitement that not only students see when they walk into the building and those
nerves, but also that new staff and to see some of their passion in their subject areas
or their curricular focuses is really awesome to see.
Yeah, we're speaking with our superintendent and some of the principals of our Wisconsin
Surabics Public School systems.
And Steve is with how, what are some of the things you're looking forward to at how this
year and what are some of the events coming up?
Do you have an open house, anything like that you want to tell us about?
Yeah, well, one of the events that we just kicked the school year off with, we happened
earlier this week.
This last Wednesday we had popsicles with the principal.
And so we pulled a cooler out back and set up near the playground and we had almost a
hundred elementary school kids come in and come and meet me and introduce themselves.
And it was, it was a great first step for me and even realizing some of the connections,
the familial connections between some of my, my how kids and some of the families that
I've already had a privilege of getting to know at the high school level.
And so it was really neat to have that and to be able to then now welcome kids back this
upcoming Wednesday the 28th from 330 to 530 at our open house.
We're really, really looking forward to seeing kids back in the building and meeting their
teachers, dropping their stuff off and just really getting ready to start the school year
off, right?
It sounds exciting.
And popsicles with the principal just gave me a great idea, doughnuts with DJs, excellent,
excellent.
I am rare.
I am a great idea.
Maybe we can collab on that a little bit.
You can set up outside.
It's not far from here.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
I like that.
That's great.
Terry, how about for pitch, some things you're looking forward to your open house, anything
like that?
We have our open house scheduled for next week on Wednesday from 3 to 5 at the school and
families can just come and meet their teachers, drop off supplies and get acclimated to school.
We are hoping fingers crossed that the playground, the new playground will be finally approved,
final inspection so that our families can play on it because we are already thinking
about some kind of a ribbon cutting ceremony to thank the community for allowing this project
to happen.
However, we're not sure yet when that final inspection will be and so we just have to
wait until that all goes through and we can let our families and our students play on
it.
So, you and the staff, along with these kids, got to be really excited to hit that
playground.
Oh, yes, we have been watching the progress since June, the day after our students were
done at pitch, they already started breaking ground and all summer, it's just been a great
work in progress.
We've been able to see it come together.
That area has always had a good area for playground equipment and everything.
It feels like in going past it, I haven't been over there too closely, but going past
it almost every day, it seems like they've really made use of the space.
They really spread it out well and some really cool equipment over there.
Yes, and our playground is a little bit unique from the other elementary schools because
our school serves students that are three, four, and five years old.
We really tailored the equipment so that it would be inclusive for all of our students.
We have the poor and play rubberized ground so that our students that are in wheelchairs
or strollers are able to get to the playground equipment, along with ramps and just making
it a very inclusive setting.
And then you're right, James, there is a lot of green space as well for families or students
to run around and sometimes soccer teams practice there.
So it is a really nice space right in the center of a residential neighborhood.
When we were growing up, all of us, it's not a knock at the past or anything like that.
It's so easy to judge to pass.
That is not this at all, but I'm sure that all of us grew up and we're around somebody
or new somebody with a disability, possibly, that weren't able to do some of the things
that we and our friends were able to do.
It's such a cool, unique day where that stuff is just written in now.
It's just a part of these things.
I didn't even have to ask about that with the playground equipment and then different
playgrounds that Ron, you mentioned, are being built around here.
That's built into it.
I think that's just so cool and I don't want to normalize that.
I want to highlight that whenever we can.
Yeah, and another great feature of our playground is we have a communication board because we
have quite a few students that are nonverbal.
So when they are out with their peers, it can be difficult for them sometimes to try
to find a way to communicate with verbal peers.
And so the communication board just has pictures and visuals so that way when they, there's
something that they want, whether they need to go in for a drink of water or they want
to go on the swings or whatever the case is, they can point to the pictures so that the
adults or other kids are able to communicate with them.
It's fantastic.
That's beautiful.
That's beautiful.
That hit me.
That's beautiful.
I didn't know about that.
That is really beautiful.
Well, you need to stop I and see it.
I got it.
I got to take a tour.
Yep.
And not for nothing.
I mean, I have a hard time communicating sometimes.
It might be something like that.
That is pretty cool.
Thank you for sharing that with us, Terry.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Rob, how about for you over at Lincoln?
Yeah.
So we also have the schedule pickup and new student orientation next week.
Most students very got their schedules and most new students came through yesterday to
be entertained by Mr. Thayer and the link crew.
But they come in from 337-30 for anybody who hasn't a chance to come in yet.
And then we have a new student and parent orientation meeting from 536-15.
That's optional.
So we find that as students, they've already been in secondary school most of them for
a while.
And so we don't make them come in.
The transition from primary to secondary is far more challenging.
But if anybody has questions or wants to meet me or goes through a slideshow and that we
put on our website, wants to go in that deep more detail, we'll be in a lot of time by
336-15.
And then on Saturday, I'm going to go into the school and open up the doors and any parent
member or a community member wants to come in and meet me since I'm new to the school
can come in and talk to me all day long.
So I'll have that open up with that on parent square so students, parents know what
time that is.
Very cool.
I can remember former principal, Mr. Mancuso doing similar things like that and everything.
And I think that's a great idea.
It's always nice.
And even, you know, to be blunt, even if nobody shows up, having the doors open means
something.
Right.
I guarantee you people will show up.
But even if they didn't, I think that that's just especially for a high school.
And to be honest, one of our premier high schools and everything, it's important to be
able to do those things and have a literal open door policy to two people nowadays that
goes so much farther than I think we can put in the work.
That's right.
Knowing that the principal of your school is available to talk to if you need them is
important.
And also it helps me because I don't know enough people yet to really get a finger in
the pulse of what people are concerned about and what education feels like to the students
that are experiencing it.
So I need to find a way to keep those conduits active.
So that's what I'm hoping to do that day.
And if we don't get a lot of people, I got lots of emails to do anyway.
So we'll figure it out.
Right.
Right.
Right.
I really got to say, I appreciate that every one of you, while you might be new in these
positions, not only are coming in with plenty of experience and energy to this, but also
an idea of, hey, we are here to listen, like that is such a gift nowadays.
And it's something that, again, growing up, you would think it was just kind of common
and we just did that.
But it's new.
It's not new, but it's it's worth highlighting in this day and age that we have that.
I think one thing I've heard from parents is that with all the safety features that schools
have to have now, given the climate that we're in and with the way COVID really separated
us and kept more people out of the buildings, some people are feeling quite disconnected
from their schools.
And they don't need to be.
We certainly welcome community members to come in, but they don't always feel like that.
And so we want to make sure that we say that as often as possible that we, whenever
you get our parents in for things like, yes, we want to talk to you.
We need that.
You're welcome here.
Trying to, there's a little bit we have to shake off of what we've been through last
years.
Yeah.
A good point.
Thank you for that.
Ron, I wanted to talk to you about a little bit about Skyward.
I know we wanted to touch on that.
Yeah.
So we've made a transition.
We've used Skyward now for many years within our school district.
However, due to some security issues in our prior system, we've made it a switch in
our system to a former program in Skyward to a new program in Skyward.
That transition is not gone as smoothly as we had.
We had hoped when you're transitioning well over $6,000 to something technology did not
go smoothly.
I know.
Isn't that surprising?
So we've been working with, with Skyward, obviously, they're a great partner of ours,
transitioning in that we're one of the first schools actually.
I think we might be the first larger school district in the state to transition to their
new product.
So that's not gone as smoothly as we had hoped as an organization.
All of our school buildings are now open, so if parents are still having issues trying
to log in, trying to do their online enrollment verification, we just ask if they're having
that to please contact their school building.
There'll be some communication coming up from my office that may today at some point
Friday afternoon.
In addition, if they do have prior bookmarks in Skyward, bookmarked in their phone or
their computer or tablet, those bookmarks are no longer going to work because they're
for the old system.
So we ask parents to log on to our website, wrps.org, you'll see the Skyward icon right
at the top, and to use those new bookmarks for the new icon.
That generally has been one of the major issues, it's just prior bookmarks.
You might need to clear your cache a little bit or your cookies or all that, I don't
know.
Then we'll be donuts, but it'll be cookies, clear those out, but that's one of the things.
And the other part is that we've implemented a new communication system home to our parents
called ParentSquare, and what it is, it's actually a K-12 communication system.
We've had different schools use different services, different sports teams, different
clubs, activities, and parents only have so much screen size on their phone.
And so we had parents, you'd have five, six, seven different apps for things that your
kids were involved in.
So we've now moved everything into the school district into one app called ParentSquare.
It's where all your school communication will come from, your communication from coaches,
advisors.
So hopefully streamline that process as well and give parents that one stop resource.
So that link is on our website as well at WRPS.org.
You can go to the Google store or the Apple store and download ParentSquare.
Now the ParentAlive doesn't love the idea.
I only have to make one stop, not eight, and that seems like a great idea, whether it's
on your phone or in real life or anything like that.
Exactly.
So we're excited for that future rolling out once again.
Integration between Skyward and that, a few hiccups, but we're excited to have that
simplified communication tool for parents moving into the upcoming school year.
And I think of two, my Nana used to have this phrase all the time.
You want to make God laugh, make plans.
It is one of those things where we all, I think most people, especially in the community
of this time of year, are certainly understanding that there are bugs to work out.
There are kinks.
This is all, you know, a year from now probably won't even be thinking about some of that
stuff and everything.
So the one thing about making plans is the other thing that we get a lot of concerns about
this time of year's transportation, busing.
And with this is a little delayed because of the transition in the new system and making
sure all our busing systems, ever they integrate, we're hoping to have busing information
posted in Skyward family access sometime on Monday.
That communication will go out in parent square when it is live in Skyward family access.
So parents obviously want to plan when their students getting picked up, dropped off,
et cetera, about what bus route are they on.
And so that hopefully will be out in the Skyward family access on Monday, but that will
be posted in parent square and on our website when it's done.
And we'll also put that on our social media, our Facebook, our Twitter feed when those
are posted.
I know in the recent years, Ron, one of the things that has affected our school systems
is needing bus drivers.
How are we doing on that front?
Yeah, so I met with our bus drivers on Wednesday.
We still need bus drivers for safeway and neighbors who are all looking for bus drivers
to assist.
And they have most of their school routes covered.
It's also our after school routes.
It's important for our kids to participate in activities if they have a basketball game
or soccer game or field trip.
So especially those trip drivers are needed as well.
So you're not, you're a little bit more inconsistent, but you're doing those cool trips
that you might be going to the planetarium or whatever.
So we do need some of those drivers with it in safeway or neighbors.
So I'd encourage if you're interested to contact safeway or neighbors.
Yeah, not only I've had friends do this and not only a good job, but a very rewarding
job that, well, not every one of us can necessarily be an educator.
So you are a integral part of that process to be able to help with that.
They're the first person to student season the morning in many aspects and that starts
that students day off in a positive light.
So excited about that.
I think our bus drivers, as they said, they are integral to our operation.
Also want to throw a shout out to our custodial staff and our building and ground staff
because they work overtime in the summer to get our buildings ready and they look spotless.
So very happy for maintenance and custodial staff.
Thank you for a new school year for all of our students and families out there.
And a very, even more excited after talking with all of you.
Have a great start to the year.
Enjoy yourselves.
Don't be strangers.
Door is always open for you and your schools and your students.
And thank you again so much for the time.
Appreciate all of you.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Yeah, yeah.
Hey kids.
Bedtime's 9 o'clock a year if you're school.
It's a great remote.
No, Rob.
It's great.
No.
Appreciate you all.
Thank you so much for the time.
What about our public schools at WRPS dot org WRPS dot org and every one of these schools
has an individual website and Facebook page encouraged you to search those out.
Bookmark them.
Keep up to date and all the good things that is going on in our public school system.
We'll have more midday magazine for you next week.
We want to send a big thank you to the soul of this station Pam Hilke.
Nice job, Pam.
We appreciate the work.
Have a good weekend.
Everybody will talk to you soon.
A little later right here at WFHR locally grown radio.
