Welcome, everybody, to Midday magazine for this Tuesday, January 21st, 2025.
Have your host, James Jamel, off here.
In part two today, we're going to catch up with CEO of your United Way of Southwood
and M's Counties, Terry Johns, looking forward to talking with Terry.
Right now we have on the phone our friend, Daniel Minter, president over at Assumption
Catholic Schools.
Daniel, thanks a lot for being with us today.
James, yes, you're welcome.
I'm very glad to be here and share some updates about the schools with your listeners and
appreciate all that the radio station does for us.
We, whether it is playing Assumption sports or just talking about Assumption, we love
talking to our local schools and always appreciate the time from you and know how busy
you guys are, especially getting back into the swing of things out of the long break.
How is that going, Daniel?
Well, you know, yeah, it's going pretty well.
Obviously, you know, it's always a quirk of the scheduling that because of the start
of the school, our semester ends, you know, usually about a week or so after we get back
from Christmas break.
So then we have that.
And then of course, you mix in a little bit of 40 degree below Windshell.
Yeah.
There is no moment in a school, but you're so right about that.
And we, that's a part of what we appreciate so much about not, not only, you know, people
like yourself in your position, but our teachers and our custodians and so many, our school
bus drivers, we wouldn't, none of this works without ever one of those individuals, really
do appreciate all of them.
Oh, very, very true.
Daniel, as far as events go, how are things going over Assumption, we get an update from
you about that?
Well, yep.
Sure.
So obviously our winter sports are ongoing.
In-house, we have our boys and girls basketball teams that are in the midst of their winter
season here.
We also this have a co-op boys hockey team.
We co-op with Pechelli and a couple of other schools for boys hockey this year.
We've had girls hockey, but we didn't have any that went out this year for the girls team.
And then we are also co-opping with wrestling.
We're co-oping with the Kusa and Port Edwards high school wrestling.
And we actually did start, our middle school wrestling program is in-house now.
So we're restarting the Assumption Wrestling program that had been such a well-received
of our athletic program in years gone by.
And we hope to eventually expand that up to the high school level, assuming that the
interest amongst the students continues to grow.
I know they have an event coming up, little school does in January.
We're going to be over at the old East Junior High School using their gymnasium for
a middle school wrestling meet.
I don't have the exact dates in front of me.
But if you check our website, AssumptionCatholicSchools.org, and on the Events tab, you can get to
the calendar.
And then from there, you can get to the athletic calendar and you can see all the details
on the different athletic events that are going on.
And I can't tell you how easy that is.
I was able to do it this week and prepping for the show here.
And it's a great website, very easy to navigate.
And you guys do a really nice job of keeping this thing updated as well.
Yeah, well, actually, we just actually, it went live in the last few days.
We revised, well, we re-did the site, we have a new web host now.
And so it's totally revised.
And I hope for people that are looking for things about Assumption, I hope that it will
both be informative and much easier to use than the old website was.
How you know if you're at the new website is, there's a little slideshow on the homepage
that goes across and there's a big pop-up and like the one, the pop-up that I just put
up there today talks about Catholic Schools Week, which will be next week.
So hopefully everybody can get to the new website, AssumptionCatholicSchools.org, and
you'll find it much easier to navigate and at least as informative, if not more informative
than the former version.
Yeah, and real quickly, just to talk a little sports with you, because that's my wheelhouse
now.
I can't help myself, especially for a very long time, along with one of my favorite people,
Randy Paul.
We've been covering Assumption Athletics.
That's been fun.
We've all seen our lady royals and then go on to do some great things.
You mentioned the hockey team and working with other schools on that and everything.
And I think that's so awesome.
I will admit, journalistically, I'm a hockey kid.
I grew up in a hockey family.
But the idea of having more sports and more availability for that for our kids, whether
they go on to play in college or in the pros or any of that, organized sports can give
such an opportunity for kids to meet other kids, to make new friends, let alone learning
responsibility competition, all these different things that could be so good.
Well, some kid might not be into basketball, they may be in the hockey.
So giving the opportunity for that even is fantastic, let alone that there's a team
together.
I think that's very cool, Daniel.
Yeah, it is.
You know, in our athletic director, he has Joe Berkhauser, long time athletic director
for us.
He has a lot to thank him for all his efforts with his coaches and the different teams.
But no, you're exactly right.
The athletic opportunities give kids an opportunity for other outlets for what they need to do to
stay mentally healthy.
And yeah, exactly like you said, too, not everybody wants to play football in the winter.
So by being able to co up with the different schools, we have opportunities.
Co-op teams don't always work out for opportunities because obviously we're a smaller school.
We have a little bit pool of potential student athletes.
So sometimes we're not able to co up every single sport because we just don't, obviously,
we don't have enough, there's just not enough student athletes to do that.
But at the same time, we look for opportunities where we can find them.
And you know, we've had a good partnership with the Kusun Port Edwards these last couple
of years on the wrestling program.
Still ongoing at the high school level.
We've had a good partnership with Pichelli in the schools on the hockey program in these
last couple of years.
So we're always on the lookout for opportunities, as I'm sure, all the schools in the area
are for different sports and different activities.
In sixth grade, I was in Intermaryls at Washington School.
And we didn't have enough players for a full team.
So we worked together with the Rudolph School, yeah, and a couple at one school, I can't
take the name of the school.
It's not there anymore.
But we, there was right next to Washington at the time and everything.
And we wouldn't have had a team without it.
And I made some friends there that I'm still friends with to this day.
And it was just a really cool opportunity.
And being honest as I had been with you in the audience before Daniel, I was a bit of
a knucklehead when I first moved to this area.
That basketball team and doing that really helped me, really, really did.
It helped me not only make friends, but helped me straighten out a little bit.
Athletics can do so many things for kids, not just athletics, but after school activities
in general.
Yeah.
No, you're true.
After school activities, athletics or any of the clubs that we have, band, choir, all
that, it all plays a role in making a nicely well-rounded student that ends up at the senior
kids or her senior year and then gone to have great memories into their adulthood.
So that's always what we're looking for.
Daniel, did you have any other events that you wanted to highlight today?
Well, sure.
Well, next week I'm actually starting on Saturday, the 25th is the start of the annual Catholic
Schools Week, which is sponsored by the National Catholic Education Association that's sort
of our cover group of Catholic schools in the United States.
And it's an opportunity for us primarily in-house to celebrate all that is good about our Catholic
schools and about the support of our parishes.
So one external event that we do have for those that are interested on Wednesday, the 29th
at 10am, all four in 20 students from Assumption Catholic Schools, so 4k through 12th grade, plus
the staff are going to gather over at St. Peter and Paul Parish for our Catholic All-System
Catholic Schools Mass.
So if there are any of our Catholic listeners out there that are looking for a Mass a week
from now, so Wednesday, the 29th.
Come on over to St. Peter and Paul at 10am.
Interestingly, even though there's a number of parishes in the Wisconsin Rapids area,
when we're talking 420 students plus another 100 or so staff members, pretty much Peter
and Paul is the only church that we have that's big enough to hold all of us at one time
without stacking the kids up on top of each other.
It's probably a good idea, that's a good call.
This is a really nice opportunity for the community.
Yeah, yeah, it's really good.
So there will be a number of the parishes that will be there, several usually come, and
we don't have the bishop this year because we just have a new bishop now in the diocese
of La Crosse since last May, but hopefully in a future year we'll have bishop come for
one of these Masses, which is always a lot of fun for the students to get the bishop,
but not this year, unfortunately.
And if I may too, this is an event that everybody can take some pride in too.
Yeah, yeah, they do a really good job.
So Father Weller, our middle school high school chaplain, he works with the teachers and
the principals and the other buildings, and there's a variety of different things that
require of us singing, there'll be obviously music and so on and so forth.
So they do, they really enjoy it.
And it's nice to get the entire system together all in one spot every once in a while because
we're scattered, you know, in different buildings throughout the city.
It's really nice every once in a while where we can come together all of us in one spot.
We are speaking with President of Assumption Catholic Schools, Daniel Minter, and Daniel,
before we get into registration and the mission over an assumption, I did have two other events
I wanted to highlight real quick, coming up in February.
In February, second, you have Royal Parent Bingo.
That sounds awesome.
What is that?
Yeah, so this will be the second year now for the Royal Parents, maybe it's their third
year.
And yeah, they restarted Bingo a couple of years ago and on the third Sundays of every
month from September through May, there's Bingo at the Assumption Building, the doors
open at noon and then Bingo begins at one and they have like 10 regular games of Bingo,
you know, where you have four quarters of diagonal, normal or called the normal Bingo type
things.
And then after those 10 games are done, they always do a progressive jackpot for the blackout
game.
And unfortunately, I do not know if this past Sunday did have a Bingo game on the 19th
and I have not heard if anybody won the progressive jackpot.
So I don't know the exact dollar value of that, so I'm not going to say a number.
But I'll just say that there is a progressive jackpot, so there's 12 open games that one
can play.
Usually last a couple of hours.
Fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon, you know, particularly if it's, you know, the
weather's not so hospitable outside.
And yeah, so first and third, first and third Sundays of every month.
Daniel, and I, please apologize if I'm at all putting you on the spot with these or
anything, but I did see snowball coming up February 8th from noon to 12.
That sounds like it's a fun one too.
Yeah, so snowball is one of the dances for the student's ed assumption.
And I snowball sponsored by the sophomore class, sort of a pre junior prom type situation
because the juniors do the prom traditionally.
But snowball is done by the sophomore class, and it's for the assumption students.
We do, however, have an event on February 22nd that is a fundraiser for the royal parents.
Second annual barn dance, they do some square dancing and line dancing, they have band there.
And I just posted the flyer on the website today about how to get tickets for the royal
parent barn dance on February 22nd.
So is that's an opportunity if some people in the community are looking at wanting to
do something and help support our Royal Parents Association, which in turn, they use their
money to help the teachers acquire various things for their classrooms or help underwrite
field trips like during Catholic schools week.
Each of the school buildings goes to some different activity, whether it be bowling or skating
things like that.
And so our royal parents do a lot to help out with extra activities beyond the academics
of the schools.
It's very noteworthy.
I appreciate that.
And good to hear about, we'll be sure to remind people about that one coming up the barn
dance happening February 22nd.
We'll let you know how you can find out more about that before we wrap up the show.
Daniel, we certainly want to make time to talk about registration as well.
Sounds great.
Sounds great.
So let's dive right into it.
All right.
So registration opens on Monday, February 3rd.
And again, all the details about how to register if you're new family looking at coming to
assumption.
The details are all on the admissions page of the website.
So assumption kept at schools.org.
Just click on admissions and a whole bunch of information there, the forms that you need
to fill out are all there.
And you know, if you're wanting to actually talk to a live person about registration,
Carrie Minnell is our enrollment coordinator.
And she could be reached at 715-420901 or her email address is on the website.
And Carrie is really good.
She gives the tours.
You know, so if you have, say, a 4K student, a kindergarten student, or even a 10-year student
wanting to come to assumption, Carrie can make arrangements for tours of the website.
The school for Saturdays.
So it's both our in-house registration that opens on the 3rd of February.
And then also the Wisconsin parental choice program registration also opens on the 3rd.
So, you know, we are one of the voucher schools in the state of Wisconsin.
And so there is an opportunity for families that are either new to our system or entering grades
or other system and meet the income qualifications that they can apply to receive the Wisconsin
parental choice vouchers to attend their students to assumption.
And that runs from April 3rd to April 3rd, February 3rd to April 17th.
And like most governmental programs, don't wait till April 18th to apply because if the state says it closes on April 17th,
it closes on April 17th midnight.
So, but that is a way for, you know, that started initially in Milwaukee back in the 1990s
and gradually has expanded throughout the state and, you know, a way to...
A way for some of the state tax dollars to help parents who choose to send their students whether it be to us.
And manual Lutheran is also a choice school.
I believe both the other Lutheran schools in town are as well.
You know, and Daniel, I think I may have mentioned this before, I'm not sure.
But my brother was in a situation like this where he was going to Lincoln and really liked and had a lot of friends that were at assumption
and liked what was going on there, wanted to transfer to over there.
But my family didn't come, you know, didn't have a lot of money or anything.
They were able to do this in a large part because of what you're talking about.
It's so beneficial to kids being able to, a real tip of the hat to everybody that has made that happen
where these things are more accessible for kids.
Yeah, and that's the whole point of the parental choice program.
That's why they're called parental choice programs because it gives the parent an opportunity to choose where they would like to send their children to school.
And it takes the financial for those that are meet the income qualifications.
It takes that financial aspect of sending the kids to a religious-based school.
It takes that off the table.
You know, our general philosophy at assumption is we will not deny enrollment at assumption to a student just solely on the basis of finances.
We'll make it work somehow or another.
And that's part of our mission is we are, that is an aspect of Catholic education.
But the state voucher program helps a lot.
And it does, it does work.
And you know, for those that are maybe a little concerned, it's like, what?
My Catholic dollars are going to support a religious school.
Yes, we are a Catholic school. We have a Catholic focus.
But we are heavily supervised by the state of Wisconsin, by the Department of Public Instruction, in terms of our teachers have bachelor's degrees.
They have subject matter expertise.
We are audited financially by the state to make sure that we are spending the money on the academic programs and on the programs that generally benefit schools.
You know, I can't use state dollars to send the kids to the shrine down in the cross.
That's a religious activity.
But I can use them to send them to the state historical society in Madison, for example.
I appreciate you sharing that, Daniel.
I feel for you that you, the need to have to share it, but I do appreciate you sharing it.
I think that's great.
And when we're talking about registration and enrollment and some of these things, I think it's great to kind of wrap on the mission, the vision of assumption Catholic schools.
Yeah, so our mission is to promote excellence and personal growth grounded in Catholic principles and tradition, which you summed up really well is we educate the whole child.
Mind body and soul with the purpose of having that child develop into a well-rounded after the turn 18 and graduate, well-rounded young adults prepared for that next stage of their life, whether that be going into the military or going into a career or going on for more education.
And so, and then we ground ourselves in that Catholic tradition, not just the religious tradition, but the idea of Catholic, we call it Catholic liberal arts education, but that basically means is, you know, we focus on reading and math and social studies and science.
And then we add in art and the whole of the whole of that, not just a strict focus on, you know, any one particular subject to try to get that well-rounded, well-rounded student, the door at the end of 12th grade.
And really, you know, again, this is coming from my brother more than anything. He felt very empowered. He felt very like that. He felt very like he stood out like the assumption didn't see him as a number or just another student, but as Nicholas as the person he was and I think that stands out too.
Yeah, I think it does. And, you know, and it is one of the features, you know, obviously, you know, we are a smaller school, you know, around 35 or 40 students per grade.
And just by virtue of that, it is more likely that the teachers will know the students as individuals, the principal will know the students.
And I might not know every school little student in the school because, you know, I have 420 of them. But, you know, my rebuilding staff, they know real well. And it's an opportunity for students who maybe wouldn't function as well as flourish as well in a large environment.
It's another opportunity for them on there.
Yeah, Daniel, I cannot thank you enough for the time now how busy you are over there and everything. So thank you very much for being able to call and join us today. If people have follow up questions, I'd like to know more about some what we talked about today. How can they reach you?
So my direct office phone is 715-422-0902. My email, you can find it on the website, dementor at AssumptionCatholicSchools.org.
And there's actually a form on the website. If you go on the contact us, there's a contact us form. You can send a message over and it will get routed to the proper person.
So if it's athletics, it'll go to Mr. Birkhauser, admissions to carry mine out, then somewhat to be depending upon the question or perhaps to one of the buildings that it's specific to a particular grade level.
So always check out our website, AssumptionCatholicSchools.org. That is where we try to keep the families in the system and the community in general up to date on everything going on in the royal world.
And you do a great job of it. A shout out to your team that does that and a big encouragement to everybody to follow AssumptionCatholicSchools on social media as well. Share their posts like the barn dance coming up and those things.
You never know who might see it that wouldn't otherwise. Daniel, say hi to the staff over there. You guys stay warm. Thanks so much for joining us.
Yep, you're welcome. Thank you. Have a great day.
You too. And we'll be back with more midday magazine coming up right here at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM WFHR. We are locally grown radio.