Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Friday, January 10th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here, still being proud every time I say 2025.
I've been a little surprised, I remember every time, but we are going to have fun today
at 4.30.
We're going to welcome in our friends from the Wisconsin Rapid Swim Club.
Thanks to our friends at the Wisconsin Rapid Visitors Bureau.
We're going to be talking about the crackings and some other stuff with Amy and Dawn and
Dave will be with us looking forward to that.
In studio right now, we have our friend of the school district of Nacusa, Nathan Black
Page, the district administrator, Nathan, it is good to have you here.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Enjoy coming back always.
It's always good to talk with you and just catching up on our kids, especially to start
the year.
We have a lot of fun talking with Ron Rasmussen and Superintendent of the school district around
here and everything.
Being able to have this connection with you guys really helps our community.
How many members of our community out there have kids in school, of course, but there
are plenty that don't, and I think that it's great to keep them up to date on so many
of these things as well.
So really do appreciate the time, know how busy you are.
And I thought a good place to start would be talking about highlights of the school year
to date and kind of a recap of the wrap up of 2024 in some ways.
So it's been a great year to start off, you know.
There's been a couple of things that we've really enjoyed.
The thing about starting the school year is love is great being around students.
One of the things I love about a district our size is I spend a lot of times in the buildings
and happened to know a lot of the students for my time as a principal in the middle school
and those students are now high school students for a lot of them.
And just being able to hear the excitement that's coming out.
Like one of the things that we added new this year is we have a class called geometry
in construction.
So basically what it is is we have a class that's taught by a geometry teacher and a tech
head teacher and they'll learn a geometry principal in the math class and then they'll go
ahead and they'll have their second class where they go in and they'll make something using
that principal.
And so there's a lot of, it's basically applied, you're seeing projects that are coming
out.
But it's the same geometry teacher who teaches all of our other geometry classes too.
And so he makes sure that as this first coming up this year but it's been really exciting
to sort of watch the students themselves just sort of that light bulb go on and having
the connections of not just something that's abstract but it makes sense in a real world
and sets you up for real world area.
That particular class got featured recently by the DPI as they were doing a review of best
practices and it's really some exciting stuff that's going on there.
I know our own Melissa Kay also used community story segments on this too and was talking
about it.
It's something too that there's so many layers to this for me.
Now certainly the advancement in tech and getting kids up to date on some of those things
and being more familiar with those.
There's no different than we were kids and we were first getting computers and PCs brought
into our classrooms and some of that.
It's very similar to what I think.
But there's also the idea of, and we're seeing this more and more with the education system.
Where some kids learn better this way, some kids learn better this way.
The idea of, hey, if you are a learner that learns better by seeing somebody do it and
then you do it.
Or maybe you learn better by actually just reading about it and then putting into action.
We're covering all bases here, I feel like, in the education system much more.
I'm not saying that we didn't do a good job at this when we were kids or anything, but
it just feels like we've fine toned it and tuned it to the point where almost every kid
is getting that opportunity now where they're having the way that we learn and teachers
adapting to that so well are teachers out there doing such an amazing job at this.
And what's exciting for that is having grown up in the system where there generally was
a one size fits all and watching now to be able to do it differently and see a lot more
engagement when that happens than when I was as a learner myself.
I remember my typing experience was on a good old electric typewriter where I had to
go ahead and white out my mistakes and all that type of stuff.
But seeing what now are the same type of typing stuff that I did in high school is done
by our fifth graders on there.
But like a case in point one of the things we have knew this year in our eighth grade
is our district librarian teaches a digital literacy course of being able to say, okay,
you're going to be doing a lot of research, you're going to be studying, what can you trust?
What are the possibilities?
But doing that early front end load that and it's kind of fun to see where the students
take that.
Like over this last Christmas break my son came home, he's at college and he brought
his fiance home.
So we got to know her too.
That was fun.
But one of the things he wanted to say is, hey, I want to take her on a tour of the schools.
I want her to have a see what I grew up with in the area.
And I remember him walking into the tech ad room at the middle school and Melissa K is
also featured that one.
But we've got 20 3D printers that are in there, the students are working on it.
He looked at the boy and he says, they're learning tinker cad in here.
You have any idea how useful that's going to be to him says, yes, actually, we do.
But the fact is they're not worried about that.
They're worried about doing something cool with it.
And it's just kind of fun to watch those light bulb moments go on.
And that's kind of the purpose of what we're really looking at.
Like you mentioned, different people learn differently.
So we try to create different on ramps for different people.
It might be the same thing, but we're going to have to find a different approach and keep
going till you find the right approach.
That's teaching.
Yeah.
Well said.
And thank you for, I got that mixed up.
That was the story that Melissa featured and everything and did a amazing job and it was
really nice work.
Well, maybe we can cue that one up for too.
Give them both in there.
She'll love it.
She'll love that.
One of the other things we wanted to talk about as well is kind of how the following
through on the priorities coming up in the spring, getting leading into spring that you
have for the school board, for the school district in general.
Yes.
Now, as about one of the things that we're always working with and having to take a much
more active role is school finance and sustainability and how we're being able to manage all the
things to make sure that these are great things to be able to do, but we've got to be able
to do that in sustainable way that is especially respectful of our taxpayers and we're representing
our community.
And one of the notes of that is this April we're moving to a referendum.
Now, the backstory on that and some people are saying, we went to a referendum five years
ago.
And at the time, one of the, then there's a lot of reasons for that.
To do a, I'm not going to do a huge old segment on this, but just a real piece of this is
that when the state aid formula is basically based, the way that they fund school districts
is very heavily based on property values.
And as all your listeners know, our property values of skyrocketed over the last little
while.
It's actually since, since 2008, property values in the Nacusa school district have increased
over 73% on those areas.
And so the state looks at that as a major area, they're funding formula and they sort of
say, okay, you've got a lot of your property rich
district, even though we're 53% free and reduced launch in the district, they'll say, okay,
you're a rich enough district where the state aid formulas is you're going to, we'll be
taking money from your district and give it to other ones.
And so basically what that means that we have a higher percentage of our budget that's
done by local property taxes than by state aid because of that funding formula.
Is it fair?
Is it nice?
It is what it is.
We work with that.
And five years ago, our taxpayers supported a $2 million referendum to be able to help
not just balance the inequities of that, just to be able to help us support it.
But they basically said, there's a few things we want, like for example, we want more
tech ed.
And so what we were just talking about, some of those opportunities came as an opportunity
because of the investment five years ago of our taxpayers to help us do that.
There's some additional things like at the time we have a district social worker now
who helps us work with students in crisis and families in crisis.
This is pre-COVID.
I just can't even think what we would have done working through that and still in how
do we deal with a lot of the mental health issues if we didn't have somebody on deck to
be able to help work alongside families and teachers.
So one of the things that this up, now, referendum's run about five years.
And so that means that this April we're going back on the ballot for referendum.
Some people have asked, hey, why do you need another referendum?
A lot of it is the bulk and the vast majority of that million of those millions that we're
talking about are towards teacher salaries.
And those are areas to be able to beat.
And so one of the things that this last in November, we sent out a community survey basically
to sort of say, hey, let's take basically what we're, we explain to our group that saying
here's what we need to move to referendum again.
What is your comfort level of various levels of funding?
And we had a great response.
Probably we had 875 people respond about an 18% response rate, which is really, really
high in the industry.
Absolutely.
And with that, it was helpful, but basically they let us know that over 65% of respondents
were in favor of renewing that $2 million referendum again.
And our school board has talked about this one and they've decided that we're going to,
because there are a lot of financial hardships, because there are a lot of changes.
Basically, even though the costs have gone up in the last five years, we're going to
go to referendum for that, we're just renewing the same amount.
In other words, for every $100,000 of taxes, people will pay $2.
And that's what's more, that's the same amount they've already been paying for the last
five years.
Right.
Right.
What's five years?
Well, other things have risen, that is staying the same, that is no worthy.
Right.
We're asking our taxpayers to say, hey, you really invested us, we're grateful for what
you've done.
Let us keep doing that.
Yeah.
And that's going to be our message.
And just let's, we want to share our gratitude.
We want to share the great things that are happening.
And then let us keep doing it.
Let's keep working on that.
So we're going to be talking about that with our, with everybody over the next several
months as we're leading up to April.
But a lot of that message is, hey, you've invested us, it's made a huge difference.
Let's keep doing it.
I started talking about this.
It's interesting that we just said Terry Johns, the United Way in earlier because it
started for me with her and talking to the United Way and learning more about our nonprofits
in this area and being in this chair doing this show.
I realized really early on that while donation is a great word and it means what it does,
what we're really doing here, whether it is with our nonprofits or it is with our school
district and something like this and our tax dollars, that $2 is an investment.
That is an investment and is one of the greatest investments you will ever make in your life.
You're investing in the future.
All the things that we're just being told that you were just going over Nathan and so many
other things that we don't even have the time to cover probably are a big part of that
$2.
Our big part of what these referendums are about.
When you're doing this, you are helping the kids of today.
You are certainly making an impact, but what you are completely doing is investing in
the future and investing in the greatest resource we will ever have in our kids and the people
that are trying to raise them up, are trying to build them up and make sure that they have
great futures, which means we have great futures, which means better taxes and et cetera, et
cetera.
It's all we are all connected and this whole thing is a big part of that.
I appreciate the detail, the rundown that you give us with this, I really respect the
idea of walking into this and saying, look, what happened?
How many things in life are the same as they were a couple of years, five years ago?
Not just price-wise, but just in general, let alone to do something like this.
It's noteworthy and I think that it's noble in many ways and I don't use that word lightly.
But I also, this is a part of me that aches at this, too, because of all the industries
that need to do this, I would think our school districts have blasted, too.
If you guys were asking for more money as a taxpayer myself and as somebody who paid
taxes in Dekusa for a very long time, I'd be championing this, I'd be right behind it,
I'd be happy to do it.
In part because I know my kids are all older, my kids are out of school, that doesn't matter.
That has nothing to do with this.
There are still kids in school, there is still an investment to be made.
I appreciate the details of it, I appreciate the feedback on this so much and the feedback
from the community on this and it's great to see that so many people are behind this.
I hope that nobody ever loses sight that whatever is on that bill, that is the overall
goal here of all of us.
We all got lives and we all have importances in our life.
But the goal of every one of us as adults is to build the future, is to make sure that
there's an investment in the future and these kids have it.
One of the things that I so appreciate being in public education is this is a public service.
When I'm able to walk alongside and talk with the families about how their children are
doing in school or people come up to me at like a wrestling event we went to last night
or various ways that I'll see in the supermarket that just you can tell that this really matters
to them and the ways that we can help people watching these students grow and see things
in themselves that they didn't see before and watch that doesn't happen overnight.
We have gone out, especially our community is that last April, we really worked with
our community to identify our priorities and what direction we want to grow.
The fact of the matter is our schools are a mirror of our community.
They're a core that their meeting place, people come together around that and we respect
that's a trust.
That's a public trust of which what we do goes a long ways and we don't take that for granted
and we've so appreciated.
The things that you're speaking to and the events you're talking about being out there,
that's I would imagine a big part of the job.
Certainly there is so much to do in the office and in the building and that but getting
out there, being out in the public and talking to people, talking to the parents of the
kids or people that the taxpayers, any of the above, being able to get the really the pulse
of the community and understanding what is needed and the things that are important to
the community.
That is a key part of all of this too and I imagine a lot of where this comes from for
you, a lot of the data of going forward with this.
Absolutely.
Again, that's one of the things I love about Nakuza and just the size we are.
I grew up in Salt Lake City.
My graduating class is bigger than our entire high school population on that and I sort
of felt at times like here is a number, I knew my group that I would work through but
I didn't know much beyond that.
I love the fact that I can really now get to know each student as best I can and be able
to know the families over several years and the fact that that process, I wake up in
the morning not to say, hey, I'm excited to fill this report.
To wake up to be able to see what type of impact it has on kids, that's why we're in
public education and that's why so many people come to it because there's nowhere else
that you can make that type of build those relationships authentically and have that
be part of what you're doing and hey, I love what we do.
When it comes to, not only the referendum coming up or anything, looking forward to the
new year, are there things that are just fun that you're looking forward to?
There's some events coming up that are just exciting for the kids, for the teachers,
for everybody involved, that you're eyeballing, oh, that's going to be a fun one.
That's going to be good looking coming up.
Well, and a lot of the things that are sort of on the tap is there's certainly a lot
we're in the middle of our winter sports season and so it's fun to be able to see the
various wrestling tournaments.
We're talking boys and girls basketball, a lot of type of, it's just there's a type of
energy that's in that don't get me wrong.
I love a big stadium, but sometimes in a closed gym, just that energy really just sort
of comes right up and so that's fun to sort of watch those around.
But I also just excited to, one other thing is just as they're coming up, it's just,
for me, I guess, big events that it's a lot of the same ones each year.
I know, for example, our math teach, our math league is they are, we've got a bunch of
our students at the middle school and the high school who have math competitions that
they go to and so it's an academic competitions, whatever, and sort of fun to watch them and they're
boning up and getting ready for that right now.
It doesn't look like the same it is in a gym but it's the same process and a lot of where
the excitement is is just where is the energy for students.
We've got junior prom coming up.
That certainly has its fun energy that comes with it and so it's seen how, for me, the
things that you're looking forward to is really the contours of what's going on in student
life and there's a lot of professional type of things that are fun to watch too but those
are sometimes a little more inside baseball and out of general interest but stuff I'm excited
about that are developing and seeing how we're growing with that but it's just really,
so I'd have to say things looking forward to is just enjoying working alongside the students.
We're speaking with Nathan Black, district administrator with School District of Nicosah and
Nathan one of the things that I like to make sure to mention before we wrap up is certainly
the need for volunteers for, you know, whether it is volunteers for some events or different
events that go on where kids are traveling or anything, shaperoning or if we're looking
for maybe coaches or things for assistance and volunteers for some of the sporting events
or some of the other things that we've talked about today and certainly school bus drivers
or we're always looking for good ones of those too in the end of the district.
Absolutely.
Like one of the things that is a common factor that now anyone who's a volunteer we have
to go through background checks, we want all the security type of stuff but I love walking
through Humkey Elementary and there's often will have people who are out, we have volunteers
who come in and are reading to our students and having them a chance to have one on one
time that you can't get in any other way to see how that comes.
There's a couple of the volunteers that I'll run into who work for example at multiple
buildings and I'll run into them as I'm going between them and I'll sort of catch them
as they go and it's like hey we're on the same shift back, we're sort of passing along
and just the energy that brings and so people who are interested in doing that please
go ahead and contact their district office, someone 5, 8, 8, 6, 8, 0, 0, 0 and they will
be able to find a way if you have an interest on some of our field trips, some of them are
reading opportunities, we have some tutors who come and work with students.
Basically if you have some passion we have some needs and let's go ahead and put those
together.
It's a great opportunity to again impact your community to impact the future to be a
part of things and I have to say somebody who gets to work with kids a lot and acting
and teaching that and everything.
It's such a rejuvenating thing.
It's one of those things where there are grinds, there are days where you're grinding,
you're trying to get through or maybe the politics of the business can be get heavier
or something.
I get into that classroom and I get around those young people and them talking about
and their energy and I come out of it and I'm like I don't know what I was thinking
about.
I don't know.
I'm just completely rejuvenated.
It is something that you can feel too by volunteering, by being a part of things,
by just being around young people oftentimes that energy is palpable.
It is contagious and it is really something that you carry with you throughout your day.
It is and that's the thing that I know of the white teachers stay in the business because
you get you love watching growth.
You love watching people be more than they were before you started and you're saying hey
I was just a feeling of knowing I was part of that.
There's nothing like else at that.
That's what education is about.
And we're always looking for good people to volunteer to be a part of these things.
Nathan you did just mention it.
If you wouldn't mind again, if people have follow questions they want to know more about
some of what we talked about today, how can they reach you?
So you can always go ahead and look at our website that has a lot of our contact information
that's nacusa sd.net and then or always call our district office, Diana Martensen as
a wonder worker, our district secretary and she'll be able to set those up her numbers
and our number is 715-886-8000.
Appreciate the time as always to you, your staff, to everybody in the Nacusa area wishing
you all a happy new year's enjoy and we'll talk again real soon.
Thank you.
Well a more midday magazine coming up for you.
We've got our friends from the Wisconsin Rapids Swim Club coming up thanks to our good
friends at Wisconsin Rapids Visitors Bureau.
That is right around the corner coming up right here at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM WFHR.
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