Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Monday, August 26th, 2024.
Have your host, James Jamail, off here and joining us right now.
Another sort of James.
We're going to go by Jim here. Jim Bina is with us right now.
District Administrator and Ed Heuer Elementary School Principal.
Jim, it is good to see you. Thanks for being here.
Thanks for having me back, James. It's always nice to speak with you.
And we are excited for the upcoming school year.
We are, too, around here. We live vicariously through all of you,
principals and different administrators in the public school system.
We greatly appreciate all the work that you guys do.
Really shaping our future and helping our future out so much
and putting so much time into these wonderful kids.
And we're going to get right into that right in the new year,
new school year, new things going on.
What's new over at the school, Jim?
Yeah, absolutely, James.
Well, there is a lot of excitement in the Port Edwards community
as well as in the Port Edwards school district.
A lot of new things, a lot of exciting things going on.
The first thing I would like to speak about is the new addition
at Ed Heuer Elementary School.
For the 24-25 school year, we have added our 4K
as well as a wraparound daycare at Ed Heuer Elementary School.
The 4K program was housed for many, many years
over at the Southwood County YMCA.
The decision was made in May to bring the 4K program
over to the elementary.
You know, for a number of reasons, James,
but one of the primary reasons was so that it would
for convenience for our families.
So those families that may have a child in 4K,
as well as in one of our other elementary grades,
were kind of all in one location.
So it's much more convenient for our families.
So we've added our 4K program at the elementary school.
You know, James, I also mentioned that the wraparound daycare program
would be in our building as well.
A difference between our 4K and the wraparound daycare.
The 4K is going to be part of our school.
They'll be housed under the Port Edwards school district.
The wraparound daycare is still being managed
and facilitated by the Southwood County YMCA.
I want to put a plug in for the wraparound daycare.
There are several students enrolled there, several young children,
but there are still openings at the wraparound daycare,
at Edhoyer Elementary School.
If parents are looking for daycare for the upcoming school year,
children age three and four,
they can contact Tracy Vernwink at the Southwood County YMCA.
And I've got her email address here.
Sure. Okay.
Tracy can be reached at VRUWINK at SWCYMC.
She's amazing.
The program is amazing what they do over there.
They've joined us a couple of times in the air.
We're greatly appreciated.
Jim, I'm glad you brought this up because I know that this is something
that I've heard from people in the Port Edwards area.
They're excited about.
They're very happy about this.
I've heard all the good things about the idea of this.
And I've heard a lot of this about being about convening for parents.
And God knows if we can do one thing for parents to make
anything a little bit easier.
It always seems like a good thing to do.
And I've heard a lot of this about convening for parents.
And God knows if we can do one thing for parents to make
anything a little bit easier.
It always seems like a good call.
No question.
One of the other sides of this, one of the added bonuses to this,
to me, is also for these kids getting familiar with the school.
And having that much sooner, they're able to get that much more
familiar with the stomping grounds and how to get to school
from their home or any of these things.
It seems like a wonderful win-win kind of situation.
You could have said it any clearer, James.
It is totally a win-win.
It's a win-win for our families.
It's a win-win for the students.
And for the school as well.
So we're very happy to have them coming into our building.
More kids in the school, too.
Bark, does it?
Absolutely.
It's always a good thing.
Oh, it's a fun thing, too.
Absolutely.
So that's one of our big positives.
One of the big updates, one of the big changes.
James, this time last year, I was sitting in this chair,
and I was talking about our operational,
our capital referendum, which was going to the voters in April.
So very excited to share this news.
It's been spread far and wide, both our operational
and our capital referendum's past.
That is great news for the families of the Port Edward School
District and our village.
So the operational referendum being passed meant that
we are able to continue our operations and provide
outstanding programming of wide array of programming.
You know, keep our teachers, keep our faculty fully staffed,
keep our support staff fully staffed,
and keep some really robust operations that you don't see
in other small school districts here in Port Edwards.
So that operational referendum being passed was huge.
And I want to say thank you to the voters of the Port Edward School District
for seeing that need, identifying that need,
and really stepping up at the ballot box
for that operational referendum.
Jim, I agree with you.
I second what you said there and thinking the voters
and thinking the community on this one.
I will make as a side note to this,
we have all seen, even our own area,
let alone around the country,
schools not getting these amendments
and not getting some of these things.
The fact that you guys were, did get this,
is not only a credit to the community,
but a credit to you and the staff over there
and the good work you guys are doing.
So a big tip of the hat to you guys as well,
because it doesn't happen lightly
and greatly appreciate this being done.
So thank you for bringing that up.
Yeah, thank you very much, James.
You know, just a quick peek behind the curtain.
There is a lot of work that goes into a referendum.
There's a great deal of planning.
There are many meetings.
It doesn't just happen, like you said,
and then we have so many good people on our team,
business managers, principals, building and ground staff.
We've worked very closely with CISA-10,
out of Chippewa Falls as well,
who helped to, they kind of co-coordinated
the referendum process with us.
So many important members on our team made it a success.
Myself, our audience.
We love being able to look by on the curtain.
I appreciate you touching on that,
because that's something we don't really think much about
until we see the referendum on,
and voting day and everything.
Yes, it's a good note about that.
Many, many months in the making.
So yeah, thank you to everyone who contributed.
Got some new staff members over there to kick off the new year.
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah.
I want to circle back to just a little bit more
about the referendum.
Please, yes, yes, please, yes.
So that was the operational referendum.
Just a little bit more about the capital referendum.
The capital referendum was money that goes directly
toward our building and grounds.
And our building and grounds updates are going to happen
over about a three to five-year span.
This summer, the big changes and the big updates
that we use that capital referendum money for
was a big TechEd upgrade.
The TechEd department, it's several rooms in our,
in the southern part of our high school building,
needed new flooring, needed asbestos abatement.
Just needed several upgrades around that whole TechEd area
and the paint room and the welding area and the woods area.
So asbestos was taken out,
the flooring was updated, just a lot of improvements there.
So that was a massive project,
and I want to say thank you very much to our building and ground staff
or they had to get everything out of that TechEd area.
They put it in storage for about two months.
Portable storage units outside of the building.
Then they had to haul it all back in.
So a big thank you to our building and ground staff
and our TechEd teacher, Steve Bernow,
as well for all the help that he gave
and the guidance during that process.
So that was really big.
And another major project we're working on is technology
overarching theme as technology.
We are getting upgraded CAT6,
internet cabling, and both of our buildings.
We now have updated security cameras
at the front doors of both the high school and the elementary building.
So that will improve with enhanced security,
faster, fiber optic network.
So we're just continuing to try to keep our eye on what our students need,
what our families need in terms of safety,
and we're working hard at that in Port Edwards.
Yeah, school learning is life, learning is fun.
It's such a great thing no matter what age you are.
But school is so much also about preparing these kids for the future
and getting them ready for it.
The future is technology.
And hearing that we are school in Port Edwards
is getting up to date on some of these things.
It's only the betterment for our community and for these kids.
It's wonderful to hear.
That's really cool to hear.
Shout out to those teams as well.
That is some tough work they did over the summer.
Good on them.
No question.
No question.
So thank you very much to those, you know, again,
the billion grounds and Mr. Bernow and the team that all, you know,
lifting out heavy equipment and getting that stuff out
in just a matter of days and then having to get it back in.
So thank you very much of that crew that did that.
We got some, now we got some new staff members we'll talk about.
And let's go ahead and introduce them and welcome them to the area.
Absolutely.
It's very exciting.
It's a time of change in the Port Edwards school district.
I want to start with our administrative team.
You know, it goes without saying we said so many thank yous
to Mrs. Donna Shrota this past spring.
And I certainly want to continue that.
Mrs. Donna Shrota, she retired as our middle and high school principal
after many successful years.
Mrs. Shrota has left the office.
And our new principal is Mr. Shane Steltenpol.
He's the middle and high school principal.
I believe this is his seventh year in the district with us.
He has previously served as a middle school teacher
and our athletic director.
Shane Steltenpol comes with a lot of positive characteristics.
I would say number one is he is student and family centered.
Shane is going to make sure that our students get what they need
and our families are communicated well.
So we're very excited to have Shane as our new high school
and middle school principal.
Mrs. Jody Waltenberg is taking over as our student services director.
Specifically special education.
Jody was also an internal hire and she has worked in special ed.
She has worked in middle school language arts.
And she has had an outstanding summer as well.
I'm getting acclimated to special education administration.
She is going to do a wonderful job for us.
In addition to that, we do have six new teachers hired as well
that have come in.
We are course bringing in our new 4K teacher
over from the Southwood County YMCA.
A new third grade teacher.
A new fourth and fifth grade ELA teacher.
A new elementary fire ed teacher.
A new elementary special ed teacher.
And a new middle and high school special ed teacher.
Now those staff members were hired primarily in the spring.
They've been coming in throughout the summer,
getting their classrooms ready.
They've been assigned mentor of veteran teacher.
And those mentors have a real specific program
that they follow throughout the school year.
And they teach them all the little details
up to the major details of what it means to be a teacher
in the Port Edward School District.
We welcome all of these new faces.
And some of these faces that are kind of being repurp or removed
or moved around to a different spot and everything.
When it comes to that, especially with the education system,
we appreciate anybody no matter where you're from,
coming to town here, coming to our area,
and bringing that wonderful brain of yours
to our area to help our kids and stuff.
It's unique and it's always fun to be able to see people
kind of brought in from the organization itself and move up,
or just find a different spot, similar to yourself, sir.
You know that I do this.
I know how good the community feels from these things.
We had a great superintendent in the town.
The guy that everybody liked was very well received by the community.
Yes.
Bringing in Dave who already has a kind of built in, you know,
base here, an understanding of the area.
Ron?
Ron, right.
That's okay.
I just saw him Friday.
I thought you were talking about it.
Thank you.
A lot of people I see.
A lot of people I see, Joe.
A lot of people, Joe.
I'm joking, Jack.
I'm joking, Joe.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
No, I'm not.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
I'm not going to mess up your name.
How do you scripture do this?
I have a connection with the walleters who have been actively displaced.
To franchise необходимо studies.
My knowledge today it's to leave.
I'm so glad you're gonna come record in my Italian legend.
I love removable
We realize that these individuals that we're hiring,
we're placing children's lives in their hands.
Their decisions, how we work with them, how we mentor them, how we teach them.
We want to bring in the best people possible
and then train them to the best of our capabilities as well.
We want to have the best school system that we can
and we know that by being thorough and choosing the best candidates for these positions
we're going to do our best to do so.
It is back to school time of course.
It's a good time to remind everybody not only about the school you're starting up here
and keeping an eye out for kids when they're getting to school and leaving school and some of that
but there's some other notes for your particular school
that we wanted to note as well about going back to school.
Absolutely.
Yeah, well really we are starting off this week.
We have three days of in service this week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,
the 27th, 28th and 29th.
That is for our staff.
We have full days of a lot of mandatory important trainings and getting reacclimated for the school year.
For our families, I do want to mention that we have our open house at both of our buildings.
We have our elementary open house on Wednesday the 28th at the elementary,
330 to 530 and at the middle and high school from 430 to 630.
We've staggered those start times a little bit James for those families
that have children at both buildings.
We really encourage our families to come, meet their children's teachers,
see the hallways, see our beautiful buildings, see the desks in the classrooms.
And in addition to that, we are providing families at both buildings with a meal.
So kind of a back-to-school tailgate type thing.
Yeah, at both buildings.
So again, Wednesday the 28th, 330 to 530 at the elementary,
430 to 630 at the high school.
We look forward to seeing our families.
That's going to be great.
It's such an exciting time of year.
I know for the staff, for us as a community, for these kids, everybody involved, especially the parents.
It's a really great time of the year, but no kidding, I'm joking.
But it is an exciting time for everybody involved.
Absolutely.
When it comes to back to school year, we are actually talking about this with Ron
and some other principals in the area last week.
I do want to put a shout out to our bus drivers out there and how much we appreciate them.
We're always looking for other good bus drivers.
Keep that in mind, everybody.
It's not only a great paycheck, but it's also one of the so rewarding.
I've talked to a lot of bus drivers over the last couple of years about doing this type of work.
And how every one of them, the first thing out of their mouth is how rewarding it is,
how they get to start their day and end their day.
The amount of time their day is taken up.
It's a really rewarding position and encourage people to reach out to our
to laymers and some other of our local establishments find out more about that and getting on that.
Absolutely.
Just a quick plug for that as well, James.
When it comes to mind of how do we influence children and what's our career path,
people think teaching right away.
Well, certainly teachers have an immense, immense role that they play in the lives of children
and shaping them.
Our bus drivers, our custodians, our cooks, our support personnel.
And since we're talking about bus drivers, they are the first school staff that our children see.
And how they greet them, how they interact with them, the relationship, the bond that they build with them.
It can go a really long way in the success of children.
So never want to underestimate the importance of our bus drivers.
And there certainly is a shortage of bus drivers.
And I know we have incredible success with the laymers.
We work closely with the laymers bus company.
And they are nothing short of miraculous at times, James.
We are so thankful for Teresa and the team over at laymers for the flexibility and the professional work that they do.
So thank you, laymers, for the work that you've done for us for many, many years.
Big, thank you to them.
Big, thank you to them.
We appreciate them.
And by local support, local everybody.
At the start of the school year also means the start of high school sports season.
You guys, I've got a great calendar ahead of events and a fun fun of events going on too.
Oh, absolutely, James.
Shout out to our new athletic director as well.
As Mr. Steltenpole went up and he is now our middle and high school principal.
His position as an athletic director.
The interview individual, excuse me, who interviewed and was provided with that position is Mr. Max.
And Max is an alumnus of John Edwards High School.
He is our varsity football coach.
He's coached varsity softball for a number of years.
And Max is very excited.
Anyone who knows Max knows how energetic he is, how passionate he is, how much he cares for our student athletes, all of our children, all of his students.
So we're very excited to have Max as our new athletic director as well.
Big congratulations to him.
I can't imagine what it must mean to him to be in this position, especially, you know, not just his ties to the community and everything, but his passion to go along with that.
That is going to be a really good match.
Absolutely.
It will be, you know, Max and not to just single him out because there's so many others that do a lot behind the scenes, but just a lot of great things he does for our children, for our student athletes.
He's a member of the Lions Club as well.
And just there's a lot of great people in the school district that really, really support the community as well.
So we're very excited for Max and his leadership.
Talking a little bit about the start of the, you know, the WIA season is coming up.
Looking at our fall sports, you can start with volleyball tonight.
Tonight on August 26th, volleyball senior high has a triangular at Nicosah High School.
It starts at three o'clock for our volleyball fans.
Cross country runs their first meet on Thursday the 29th.
That is at Pittsville, Thursday the 29th at 415.
And the first football game, those Friday night lights that we talk about so much, which is very unique and poor Edwards.
We love our afternoon games at four o'clock.
We play our first game is a road game.
We play Washburn because Washburn is such a drive for us.
We're meeting them part way on the Wisconsin Highway.
We're playing Washburn at Phillips on Thursday, August 29th.
So the first game will be in Phillips against Washburn at 7 p.m.
Excellent.
And we're looking forward to covering and following along with that.
We'll be talking about it on playmakers and be sure to cover the Port Edward's School throughout the whole season long
with all the great things that their athletes are up to.
Jim, before we let you go, I did want to wrap up with your newsletter.
You guys have a great newsletter of the Black Hawk Bulletin.
I was able to do a bunch of homework for the interview here today with this.
I just wanted to shout it out. You guys do a great job with this.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
We definitely want to maintain strong communication with our community.
You know, communications are two way street and we try to get out pertinent updates.
Things that are happening week to week, month to month, as well as throughout the school year via the Black Hawk Bulletin.
And that can be found online on our website.
Is it Benna or Bina?
What am I saying it wrong here, man?
Bina with a long name.
It is Bina.
Okay.
Well, Jim, thank you so much, Mr. Bina, for being here.
Appreciate the time as always.
I appreciate the opportunity.
You know, this whole interview has been about the Port Edward's School District.
And I can't think of a better place for our families to send their children.
We are a small school district that gives one-to-one individualized attention.
And we have, as I mentioned, we have robust programming, James.
We have a wide variety of programming, extra curriculars, athletics.
It's a great place for families to settle down and a great place for families to send their children.
If people have felt questions, would like to know more about some what we talked about today, how can they reach you?
Absolutely.
My direct line is 715-887-9000-extension-102.
I am very happy to speak to anyone about the Port Edward's School District.
Looking forward to talking again soon, sir.
Have a great start to the school year.
Thank you so much, James, you as well.
Well, at more Midday Magazine coming up for you at 97-5 FM, 13-20 AM, WFHR, locally grown radio.