Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Monday, January 27th, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
In part two today, we're going to speak with Stephanie Hartman, Executive Director of the
Central Wisconsin Cultural Center, looking forward to that.
Right now we have in with us, James Bina.
He is the District Administrator and Ed Hower Elementary School principal.
James, thanks so much for being here.
Thank you so much, James.
It's always great to be here on WFHR and we always appreciate the opportunity to talk
about the great things happening in the Port Edward School District.
We got to have you more often and more often, one because we just don't cover Port Edward's
nearly enough.
And I would like to, I know that us here at the station would like to be able to do that
more.
Also so I can get your last name down better.
I apologize.
Did I get it even close or as I close there?
You were absolutely correct.
Bina, it's phonetic, B-E-N-A, I work at Ed Hower Elementary School, so that's one we only
hear a couple of times a year, but Ed Hower.
Yeah.
I appreciate not only as much as we can get that in and as much as we can have you on
the air.
Especially, you guys have some really great stuff going on over there.
Let's start with the State Education Convention.
Absolutely.
Before we get into that, a couple of things that I want to add, add James.
And as you mentioned, Port Edwards, we are a somewhat of a hidden gem here in Central
Wisconsin.
We are a small school district.
We offer small classes.
And we are talked right here between the Kusa and Wisconsin Rapids, but we offer almost
all of the great things that large school districts do in a very small school setting.
So we are doing amazing things, and I'm very excited about the opportunity to speak
with you here today, James.
Before we talk about the State Education Convention, there are two items that I do want to mention
since we have the opportunity.
The Port Edwards School District, on a serious note, we would like to send our condolences
to the family of Mr. Marshall Bueller.
Mr. Bueller was a pillar in the Port Edwards community for decades, born and raised in Port
Edwards.
He passed away late last week at the age of 98, known to many people as a village historian.
So Port Edwards School Districts, and speaking on behalf of the community, we send our condolences
to the Bueller family and the passing of Mr. Marshall Bueller.
Appreciate that.
And I appreciate so much that family and the work that he did.
I'm a history lover, and we talk with a lot of historians in this area, whether it's
at our historical society here in town or historic point boss, and even more individuals
like that and people to pick up the mantle when we lose people to keep this history alive
and going.
This is all of our history, and we should be proud of it, and Mr. Miller certainly was.
Mr. Bueller, he did a wonderful job.
He was absolutely an icon in Port Edwards, and I would say central Wisconsin when it came
to documenting and presenting the history of our area.
So Mr. Bueller, our condolences to his family for certain.
So now do you want to dive into the state education convention?
This was a pretty interesting one, and it just happened the past week, this past week.
Absolutely, James.
Yes, myself, a couple of members of, excuse me, three members of our Board of Education
and our business manager, we attended the Wisconsin State Education Convention, which
was held at the Beard Center in downtown Milwaukee, January 22nd through the 24th.
This is the largest education convention held in the state each year, always held during
the third week of January.
It's attended by hundreds of school board members and administrators statewide.
There are meetings that run from seven in the morning until late into the evening, and
we talk about all things that impact schools.
From school funding to business contracts, to different areas of curriculum, we talk about
textbooks, we talk about technology, building and grounds, school governance, and just a wide
variety of educational topics.
So we hear from schools that are doing innovative things, they're doing some of the best practices
in the state, and one of our primary goals in going down there is to learn some of those
best practices and bring them back home here to Central Wisconsin, James.
What were for you some of the highlights of the event?
Sure, absolutely.
Some of my big takeaways, James, was I learned some of the best practices about environmental
education.
We have a wonderful environmental learning center in the Port Edward School District that
we would like to maximize and utilize more.
I learned some information about successful all the 4K programs.
We learned some things about some of the technical aspects of business contracts, working
with outside vendors, which is very important for the Port Edward School District as I'll
be discussing our referendum projects in a little while.
And then also collaborating with outside companies and seeing what types of services we
can bring into Port Edwards to maximize learning and to maximize the overall learning
opportunity for students and our teachers.
One of the cool things I would think about something like this is certainly an opportunity
to get better at something that you're already good at.
I remember growing up my aunt and a cut hair, and she would leave for a couple of weeks
every year to go to a convention, learn new styles, techniques, and those things.
We always thought it was really interesting, but to her, that was how she stayed relevant.
That was how she stayed alive in the industry.
Every business is like that, and every industry is like that.
You can grow and get better at everything.
And then you have the idea of peers and peers being able to share information.
With all of that, Jim, was there anything that you took from this that was also maybe
something that we can't maybe it doesn't relate to Port Edward schools or even Wisconsin
schools, but you were kind of like, wow, well, that gives me some perspective about my
job or how we have it here.
Just in hearing some of these stories or anything, I was just a lot of shared stories, just
a lot of like kind of a lot of noticeable relatability.
Yeah.
I would say James, on that level and that question you arise, I heard a theme over and
over about the importance of valuing people, valuing our employees, valuing our families,
and doing real tangible things each day to show them how much we value them.
And I feel like we do a good job of that in Port Edwards.
We really try to reach out and appreciate our people, appreciate all levels of our staff.
At the same time, we can always do better, right, James?
We can always do better.
So I brought some ideas back about making sure that as an organization, we continue to value
all of our workers, all of our staff.
We are a team.
There is no job that's more important than anyone else.
We all make the Port Edward school district a great place and that was one of the themes
that I heard each day at the State Education Convention, the importance of valuing our staff.
And we want to do that the best we can in the Port Edward school district.
Yeah, I think that even if, especially if you haven't been in school in a while, you're
having kids in school.
Some of this stuff, when we're young, we don't think about where, you know, there's
a million other things going on for kids when they're growing up that they don't necessarily
think about so many of the layers and all the working hands it takes to make one school
just run, just from, you know, in the morning to at night, just all the different moving
parts and pieces it takes to do that, let alone multiple times a week, multiple schools
throughout the whole country, throughout the whole county, any of these things.
There are so many things that even working and talking with people like yourself all
the time that I don't even know and that I don't even think about.
So I think that something like this is also noteworthy in the sense of the sharing of information,
the growing and everything, but also, hey, just some people that understand a little bit
more of what you're going through.
I can have all the empathy in the world for a job and I'm appreciative of what you do
and are teaching your teachers out there and all that, but I can't relate to it like
another teacher can.
Even me who does technically teach, I teach acting.
It's not the same thing.
I value my fellow teachers and everything, but even they will admit it's not the same thing
as teaching math to third graders, there's a big difference here.
There's a reliability there for you and your colleagues to be able to just have that
even, it's got to be pretty helpful, I would think, in this day and age when we're trying
to get more and more people to get into teaching.
Absolutely.
When you can sit down at a table or go into a convention hall and talk common ground with
people that are going through the same experiences you are every day and you can relate to that
person and you can hear back some of the things they are doing to make their schools as
efficient as possible and as effective as possible and being the best stewards they
can for their families.
It's great to hear all that information and bring it back and see how you can customize
it to your school district.
Of course, it goes without saying, James, some of the schools that presented there, I heard
a school district of about 3,000 students.
They presented well, our school district is about 430 students.
You have to shape it to the size of your school, right?
Maybe you can't do everything they are doing, but if you can take some of their ideas and
adapt it and make your school district a little bit better, it was a worthwhile convention.
It's really good to hear, very good to hear and again, thank you for sharing it with
us.
Also wanted to mention the 2425 Peef Grant Award winners and this has been around for
a while for those that may have not have heard of this before.
Peef stands for the Port Edwards Education Foundation, which was begun in the mid 1990s.
It was initiated by former school district administrator, Mr. Ed Hoyer, and since 1998,
the Port Edwards Education Foundation or Peef, as it's commonly known as, it has awarded
grants each year to school district, Port Edwards School District teachers and these
grants are for the purpose of supporting additional classroom programming.
James, I'm going to maybe blow away our listeners a little bit with this number, but since
its first year of donations in 1998, Peef is awarded $393,154 to the Port Edwards School
District.
Now, that's over since the course of 1998, but that has supported additional programming
outside of the regular curriculum, things like field trips, additional curriculum, additional
products, additional machinery, things like that, and this approximately $400,000 that
Peef is awarded to Port Edwards Schools has helped make Port Edwards a unique place
to go to school.
It has made the programming that much better.
As I mentioned, we are a small school district.
We offer the small school, the advantages of the small school, but the additional funding
through places like Peef allow us to offer that robust programming as well.
That's one of the things that makes the Port Edwards School District really stand out.
If I may, James, could I point out this past year's Peef Winneries?
Yeah.
Awesome.
In the fall of 2024, we had nine school district teachers earn Peef grants.
They have to write out about a two-page grant.
It has to go through a review process, and nine different grants were given out totaling
$32,220.
Mrs. Frizel wrote a grant for a Spanish language immersion camp.
Mrs. Borts for CPR mannequins.
Ms. Parshesky and Ms. Anderson wrote two grants for the instrumental and the choral department.
Mrs. Peters for science, wrote one for a DNA gel electrophoresis.
Mr. Erdman wrote one for a strings orchestra program.
Mrs. Tuttle wrote one for standing to learn better.
Mr. Bernal wrote a grant for multimedia printer and cutter.
And Mr. Thomas wrote a grant for fitness assessments.
So again, those grants totaled $32,220 all awarded from Peef.
So thank you very much to the Port Edwards Education Foundation for supporting Port Edwards
schools.
That number is amazing.
It's a good story of the day hearing something like that.
That is an investment.
That is an investment in the greatest thing we can invest in in our future and our kids
and helping our teachers do that.
That is amazing.
I think what is also unique about this is hearing so many of these ways of a lot of different
areas.
These grants have helped.
A lot of different fields they've helped.
But all of them go to the same place of education, of furthering education, of getting these
kids more and more opportunities to learn more and something else that stands out to me.
Not only about this, but about the convention and the support.
Certainly the support for education, the support for, you know, I would like to think that
the majority of us all agree, kids are the future, we should all be investing in this.
But supporting teachers, supporting educators, I don't know, because I'm not in the industry,
but I feel, and from what I talk to people and from what I'm seeing in the last couple
of years, I feel like we're coming around on this a lot more and getting a lot more to
where, man, I really appreciate these people.
They're doing a job that everybody wants to do.
They're doing a job that everybody can do.
We should probably appreciate that, and putting more support to that, and putting more
and more, whether it is grants and funds or anything like that or a convention and sharing
of information, or just a community that is more supportive of the educators.
We're seeing more and more of this, I feel, and I'm very proud of that.
I'm very thankful for that, because it's important.
We need educators, we need good teachers, and if we're ever to have young people want
to do this for a living, we need to do this stuff now.
We need to be doing these things.
We need to be having these kind of conversations like you and I are having where they're
hearing this stuff, and they're saying, oh, this is a field I want to get into.
This is where I want to get my life and dedicate this to this.
These kind of things, I think, help with that.
As much as it helps the kids, and that comes first, to me, at least.
It doesn't hurt that these kind of side benefits, if you will, from this and stuff, and everything
are a lot of helping our education system and showing some support towards it.
I would agree with you, James.
You use the term investing in our future, and sometimes we hear, oh, I have to pay this
for the schools now, or I have to pay that for the schools now, and that is a term that
we heard at the convention, and that's a term I would hope that we can hear more and
more of, is we are investing.
It truly is an investment.
It's an investment in our local area, in our state, and in our country as well, if we
are investing in our children, and doing the best that we can for them.
We are investing in our future.
And another point that you mentioned, James, was supporting our school staff.
Working in schools is extremely challenging, and it does take a very unique skill set,
and it takes a very unique person, and not just our teachers.
Our teachers are incredible.
They are amazing.
But our bus drivers, our custodians, our food service workers, our clerical staff, they
all deal with challenges in doing the best thing we can for our students every day.
So it is extremely challenging, but it's also extremely rewarding.
And I certainly hope that we can remember that every day, how important of a job that
our school staffs do.
And I think a perfect segue from that is going right into a referendum update, if you
don't mind.
Absolutely.
As you know, we pass both an operational and a capital referendum this past year in
Port Edwards.
The operational is to pay for our daily services.
The capital referendum is to improve our building and grounds.
We have some capital projects that are taking place both during spring break and then throughout
the summer months.
In March, we are going to be removing our elementary gym partition wall in June when students
are out of the building is when some of our major projects start.
At the middle and high school, we are doing a bateman of asbestos from our masonry.
We are doing elementary school IT upgrades.
We are going to improve our internet cabling.
In July, we are doing some massive masonry repair at the middle and high school.
We are doing asbestos abatement from the flooring in the elementary.
And we are doing some ceiling work at the high school.
And then in August, this is a real schedule, it's a real progression.
We are replacing the elementary cafeteria floor and installing new cafeteria tables.
So we did find out through this work we were doing for the referendum james, we have
excellent buildings.
They are very strong.
They are very stable.
We want to continue to use them.
They are historical.
They are beautiful.
We just have to modernize them and keep them highly functional for the 21st century.
This is something we see in ball parks across America, where they want to keep the ballpark
around.
They just got to update it a little bit on the inside and stuff.
It's very similar to what's going on here.
It's also a good story of the day because I think this isn't noteworthy as well when
we see around the state, some schools closing down, some schools having to combine with
other schools.
And a lot of the time, that always, but a lot of the time that is because the building's
falling apart or something, there's no funding for it.
Here's a good story.
It's a really good thing that's happening and keeps our kids in poor Edwards, keeps
our kids in that wonderful building with those great people and everything.
These are all really cool things.
And as another thing, the jobs, it creates as well.
We have a lot of great construction workers in this community that are going to be working
really hard on those buildings and doing some great work over there.
This is a really positive thing for everybody.
And something I think we can all take a little pride in.
Absolutely.
It's a win-win.
We do have beautiful historic buildings.
I'm taking a look over at your laptop.
And if you look at the front page of our school district website, you'll see a beautiful
view of John Edwards Middle and High School.
Built in the 1920s, it is a gorgeous building.
And again, the bones of that building are extremely strong.
We are just updating it and keeping it the great building then spent for many decades.
And even though it may look similar on the outside, we are modernizing it for 2025 with,
you know, again, technology and we have new phone systems coming in and new PA systems
coming in.
And making sure it's got all of the benefits of a modern building with that beautiful
historic appearance.
Any other notes on this before we go to our final topic?
I would just like to mention, before we run out of time, James, if I may, a very important
note.
I wanted to discuss the YMCA daycare just for a moment.
This past year, James, the YMCA daycare, moved from the Southwood County Building in
Port Edwards into Ed Hoyer Elementary School.
We have the daycare as well as the 4K program there.
And I did want to mention to our listeners, we have open spots at our daycare.
There's been a lot of discussion in our area over the last few years about daycare openings
in a lack of daycare.
If anyone is interested in coming to the daycare at Ed Hoyer Elementary School, please contact
Tracy Verwink at the YMCA in Wisconsin Rapids.
Again, contact the YMCA Rapids.
There are openings at our daycare at Ed Hoyer Elementary.
That is really helpful.
Thank you for that.
Thank you for letting us know about that service.
You're so right about that.
One of the biggest topics I think in America, but especially in Wisconsin is child care.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And speaking of kids, let's wrap up with opera for the young guys.
This sounds awesome.
This sounds like a lot of fun.
Yes.
I'm actually going to try to slip in two great things, James, before we run out of time.
This Friday, January 31st, in the elementary cafeteria, the opera for the young program.
They travel around public schools in Wisconsin, and they perform well-known musicals.
They do a different musical each year.
This year they are performing the magic flute, this Friday at 1.30.
In advance of their performance, they share their song list with our elementary music teacher.
He teaches our children that song list, and then the opera for the young performers.
While they're the professionals up on stage, they invite some of our students to perform
different roles with them.
This is not, unfortunately, open to the public.
We don't have enough room for that, but we do invite some of our elementary families.
It is just an incredible, incredible, cool performance of these classical shows that students
might not otherwise see.
And you had some else?
Yes, absolutely.
This is coming at the end of 2025, but a very, very awesome opportunity.
In early December, the John Edwards High School Band will be marching in Hawaii.
They are joining the Lincoln High School Band.
They are marching at a Pearl Harbor Day parade.
So they'll be in Hawaii for about five days to perform as well as to participate in tourist
and cultural events.
So very cool.
I want to give some props to Ms. Emily Anderson, our band director, and the John Edwards
High School Band for that opportunity to go to Hawaii.
Congratulations to them.
That is awesome.
Great.
And just so many great awesome things going on over the Port Edward Square.
And it's thanks so much for updating us on all that.
We really do appreciate the time looking forward to talking again real soon.
Don't be a stranger, especially anything going on over there.
We can help promote or talk about doors open as always, okay?
Thank you so much, James.
I always love this opportunity to come and talk about all the great things happening in
Port Edwards.
People have follow-up questions.
One of the more.
How can they reach you, sir?
Absolutely.
My phone number is 715-887-9000, extension 102.
I'd be more than happy to share the good news about Port Edward's schools with anyone.
And we'll be back with more Midday Magazine coming up right here on 97-5 FM 1320 AM, WFHR,
locally grown radio.
