Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report for this April 25th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here.
We're speaking right now with our good friends from the Wisconsin Rapids Public School District.
We got super-intended Ron Rasmussen and with us, Rono is good to see you.
Hi James.
Thanks for being here and you brought in the new friend.
We got Bill Oswald in with us.
Bill is Woodside Principal.
First year principal over that Woodside.
Bill, thanks a lot for joining us.
Thank you.
Good morning.
I appreciate the time guys.
I'm going to dive into the schools around here in just a moment with Ron.
But Bill, I want to start with you and put you on the spot.
I mean, ask you some questions.
No, we love having first-time guests into everything.
So it's always fun to get to know people and Bill, I wanted to talk a little bit about
one of the things that is a passion for use.
It sounds like in just the brief time I've gotten no you in our pre-game about getting
not only the community more involved with Woodside, but Woodside getting involved with the
community.
Want to touch on that for me?
Yeah, absolutely.
Our school goals is outreach to promote the overall well-being of our students.
So we want to really showcase what you can do in the community, but also the community
involved with us.
So, one of our big events coming up is actually going to be next Friday and May 2nd.
From 5 to 7 pm, we are doing our family fun fest.
We have an absolute ton of involvement from our teachers, so shout out to them for putting
in all the extra work.
But also we're really looking at how do we get the parents involved in our school more.
We do have some involvement.
We have very involved parents at Woodside, but we're always looking to maximize that as
much as we can.
So that event is, like I said, our next Friday and May 2nd, we have tons of raffle baskets
each class has involved in that.
We have inflatables.
We've got silent auction items, like for an example, our school resource officer, we're
always very excited to partner with Wisconsin Police Department anyway that we can.
So he has an item in there too, where you can hang out with him.
We've got a principal for a day, which apparently I was told involves giving out a lot of extra
recess.
So I'm looking forward to that.
And then also to one of our other items, which is perfect timing for the NFL drafts,
we've got a sign pack or football, so there's definitely some things that are going on.
They create the excitement that the kids and the parents are interested in, but also
still showcasing what our community is all about.
That's awesome.
Certainly, I think this moment, you said family fun fest almost all of us had memories
of certain things that we did when we were in grade school like that and how much fun it
was.
And with that, I kind of want to piggyback on what you were talking about getting involved
with the community and the community getting involved with Woodside.
We could always use more of this in all of our local schools.
And I appreciate the initiative that thought of this even, just that you see this as something
to approach and everything.
And it's great for a lot of levels, a lot of levels that the audience doesn't need me
to explain to them.
They get the goodness of this and everything.
But one thing that I don't know that we focus on a lot that Ron and I talk about from
time to time is the idea that the kids that are attending these and watching this and
not just the event itself, but the preparation, the planning, the time and effort that it
goes into these, those brains are sponges.
They're taking all this in and they're seeing not only how to do in school arithmetic or
history or any of these things, but how to be an adult, how to work in your community,
how to be a part of your community.
Well, it's not necessarily you're sitting down and teaching them a lesson.
They are learning this lesson organically by seeing adults care about their community,
put into their community and seeing them come to this fest and all that work they put
into it and the rewards of good work and having a good work ethic.
The layers that go into these kind of things, the raffles are what get a lot of people's
attention and stuff and that's great, that's awesome.
But it's so cool to see these to me, these side stories that go on, these other ways
that kids are learning and taking in ways to impact our communities and be a part of
them.
When it comes to this event itself, is it exclusive for woodside parents and members or
students or?
Yeah, great question.
So it's primarily focused on obviously our students and their families, but we know that
we're going to have some other folks that are involved which are more than welcome to.
We have a very good working relationship with our other elementaries in the district.
We know we have some friends down the road that they shall not be named.
We know that we have some community schools that we love to be involved because they're
our kids as a district and I think we need to take that approach if we want everybody
to see all the things that we have.
So it's not just a woodside event, but we also want to support the other events in the
other elementary schools as well because they're our kids, it's our community and we want
to make sure that we can provide everything that we can to help them be successful and support
them in that.
We have Terry John, CEO of the United Way and all the time.
Terry puts up with me and co-hosts with me and all this and one of the things that I've
really learned and talking with her and a lot of our nonprofits about is like, that's
not just this area, but when I first moved to this area with my family, one of the things
we noticed was a lot of nonprofits kind of almost fighting for volunteer hours and dollars
and stuff and in less 20 some years I would say it's grown so much more to what can we
do together?
How can we work together?
And I don't believe it is a coincidence at all how strong this community has become
because of those things.
It's no different with our schools.
And then working together, I love the rivalries we all do and we all have our own little ones.
It's something that I think we do better than anybody in the country here in the Midwest
of walking that line of having those rivalries and everything.
Well, also, hey, that's my teammate, that's my community member or something.
It's a balance that we somehow have figured out here.
It's a really cool part of this and to hear that, to hear that these schools are working
together rooting for each other, you know, a rising tide raises all boats.
It's a really cool thing.
You mentioned the family fun fest, are there other things that you guys are doing to kind
of work with the community?
Yeah, we have a lot.
And as you go, as you mentioned too, like we have a lot of different businesses that like
to be involved.
There are a lot of different families, there are groups, there are nonprofits.
We really try to showcase that as well.
So like for, you know, an example, a shout out for Rocky's pizza community, stakeholder
for the long as I can remember who is always involved in stuff.
They are part of stuff that's happening at school and other very schools too.
They're everywhere.
There's a lot of other places as well.
A couple of the other things that we do have going on, again, besides our family fun fest
coming up, is we take a place of high value on making sure that our kids are active in
the community in terms of, let's go down to Newman's and check out Newman Gulf and support
a local business that our kids absolutely love.
He's phenomenal to work with.
Our kids are fourth graders today, visiting the Ho Chiang Nation in the Black River Falls.
So checking out what they are all about and learning more about different and just learning
more diversity, like what, tell me more about you and how do we understand and how can
we capitalize on those relationships and those conversations.
We've got Morning Jumpstart going on at Woodside through the Boys and Girls Club, which is also
phenomenal.
We have kids to get somewhere in the morning.
I was wondering about that.
I heard a little about this.
Yeah.
That sounds like a really cool program.
Yeah.
It's fantastic.
The kids come in, you just, you know, need because of some parent necessity, they got
to get to work whatever we provide a safe spot for them to come in the morning, interact
with each other, work on some skills.
The work is there, phenomenal.
And then, you know, we also have, again, utilizing our public building.
It is a space for people to come and to use and to enjoy and getting kids in there more
often, especially if we can help a community need is fantastic.
We always want to do that.
And then one of the other things that we have coming up is we have, we have adopted
grandparent for most of our classrooms.
We're expanding that next year and we actually have Renaissance is coming.
We're having a day where they're coming over.
So they're going to read a book and donate a book.
We're pretty excited about that because they've been doing a lot of activities with writing
letters back and forth.
And we really want them to come and see the kids.
And, you know, as you know, working with kids, you could be having a bad day and then you
get your first side hug from a four year old and all, everything turns around.
Everything.
Everything.
We want to capitalize on that as well and really partnership and partner with them.
And then again, just some local stuff too, like going to Baltimore, we do that often, food
and farm and plover.
Some of the conversations that that spawns is as far as I know, a little nuance as I believe
are the only school in the district that has a sandbox currently, which I did not know
about things you learned and find out.
Right.
So a family heard about that and said, hey, we'd love to refill this for you.
How can we help?
So that's just some of those organic conversations that once you're out and about in the community.
People start to, hey, I'd love to partner with you and obviously we would like to do the
same.
It's a great effort and great above and beyond, I think, from our schools, from you, from
your staff and everything, it's really encouraging to hear wonderful to hear.
And everything I was talking about before, about those side wins and those side stories.
It's so many of them and everything you talked about there.
I do want to thank you and the Boys and Girls Club and we know how vital childcare is in
this area and Wisconsin in general.
Every way we can help out parents with that, like well done by everybody.
That's really, really cool, Bill.
We're speaking of Bill Oswald, Woodside Principal and Bill, before we wrap up with you, I didn't
want to talk a little bit about the new playground over there.
I will say, when I first moved here, I got to go to sixth grade in Washington school and
I came from the city and there wasn't a whole lot that you could do in playgrounds and
those things.
I come to Washington and there's nothing but soccer fields and this cool dome and all that
stuff and everything and I don't even really remember the playground set over there.
I do know though that when I, I think I've been out there a couple of years, they put
a new playground set over there and the way that it just seemed like the community got
involved at Washington even more.
It was a really, really cool thing to see as somebody who loves that school and valued
my time there.
I've heard very similar things going on with Woodside right now with that new playground
over there.
Yeah, it's phenomenal.
Our kids obviously love it during the day.
There is community involvement constantly and I think what kind of spawns from that too
is it's a great opportunity for our community to engage with us there.
We're looking at ways currently like how do we kind of showcase what we're doing not
only as a school but as a district through that because if you're going to have people
that are there, let's take that opportunity to say, hey, these are the good things that
are happening and see where more of those conversations can take us.
We're hosting a lot of soccer practices.
I think it's a perfect union between, hey, I'm going to have my kids at soccer but I've
also got some younger or maybe even older kids that why don't we also use the playground
while we're here.
And I think it provides us a great opportunity again to showcase the different things that
we have and that playground is fantastic.
It's absolutely amazing.
It really did, the workers, everybody that put so much time into that thing, they really
put a lot of heart into that building, into that construction, nice work by them.
And really cool to hear.
Very encouraging.
Before we wrap up, Bill, I will find out your information if people want to reach out
to you at all.
But I'm telling you, maybe a rookie in your first year, you're playing like a vet, doing
great, man.
We really appreciate it.
Everything you're putting into the community and what you're doing.
Thank you.
Thank you, too.
Ron, you know me, you know, if I have an opportunity to talk about acting, I'm going to
do it.
Yes.
A little low my old stomping grounds at Lincoln High School and them, along with the theater
and music department, have Percy Jackson, the lightning thief coming up on May 1st,
wanted to touch on that a little bit.
Yeah, we're excited.
That's upcoming this week.
I know our students were in earlier this week, kind of forecasting what that is.
We're blessed.
We have such a phenomenal theater teacher and drama teacher in Sarah Dinky and just her
work with our kids not only at the high school, but also the middle school and bringing forth
a lot of different plays, musicals, want to acts, improvs all throughout the year.
And you know, where else can you come and get some great entertainment for just a few
bucks and have a great evening with our kids and be in a beautiful facility as our PAC.
And we're just excited to have that for the upcoming week.
So shows are on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
We'll be talking about it and making sure that the kids have a great crowd as we're promoting
it and everything.
I always like to take this note if I can for one that Wisconsin finished dead last and
funding the arts this last year.
And I know Wisconsinites, you guys don't like finishing last and anything.
Let's fight back on that one and support the arts on every single level.
We talk about this with sports all the time, but it's no different than with the arts.
We know the percentages of high school athletes to go on the college and the percentage
gets even smaller of college athletes to come pro.
It's the same thing with entertainment actors, comedians, singers, any of that.
One thing that they don't talk about with all of these kids is they are building confidence.
And no matter what they do in the next going forward, having some confidence is key.
And having people opportunities to speak in front of people, public speaking, all of
these things that theater and sports offer, funding them, putting into them is putting
into the future.
Yeah.
And Mrs. Danky will tell you when the seniors graduate or when they get to the end, she'll
have them do like a little one.
Do you think of your high school experience?
They also, I wish I would have done this sooner.
And so we really try to work with students as they come in for freshmen and we've instituted
a drama class at our middle school two years ago, just so they can get involved a little
sooner because those skills are invaluable for you moving forward.
Yeah.
The ability to perform in front of others, to have that conversation, to put your stretch
yourself a little bit out of your comfort zone.
We all do that at some point.
And so to develop that when you have support systems around you is really important.
I mentioned I'm an actor, I'm a screen actor's guild member and everything.
As you can tell, I'm not currently acting.
What I'm doing for a living is this right here, I'm 22 years in radio and I didn't go
to school from this.
It's because I was in plays in sixth grade at Washington School.
It's because I was at East and I was in plays.
That's what built what you have here.
And that's one little example of that.
There's a lot of better ones out there.
So it's just another reason to not only get to these, even if your kids are not in school,
come to these shows, support these kids.
There is no such thing as a bad kid's play.
There's no such thing.
It doesn't happen.
They're all great and all amazing.
You're going to have a fun one.
We'll be talking more about that throughout the week and build you up.
These kids are great crowd.
Yeah, some other things we wanted to touch on too, right?
Yeah.
So also when we talk about the arts, Tuesday night is, excuse me, Wednesday night is our
bandorama, which is our middle school and high school band concert in the field house
at Lincoln.
So once again, the importance of the arts is part of our community.
And it's an awesome thing about those nights and we also have an orchestra night coming
up in May as well and a choir night is the ability to see middle schoolers to see the
high schoolers and what they may aspire to when they move in that direction.
So that mentorship, it's a really good point.
Yeah.
It's really cool.
And it's already the years coming near the end.
I mean, we have five weeks of school left about and so all those end of the year, celebration,
ceremonies, graduation, scholarship night, all of those events are all coming up.
So I'd encourage people to follow the district on social media, on Facebook, for Wisconsin
reps, public schools and on Instagram.
And we are going to be making a few changes with our social media moving forward is our
individual school building pages will be really sunsetting at the end of the school year
and moving into more of a district page so we can get more communication out to more
people.
When you're in elementary school, you're just joining your elementary school Facebook
page and there's a lot that we want to show the continuity and the opportunities we
have for families and students K-12.
So we're moving to more of a centralized system with that.
So we encourage folks to join us on there and we get a bunch of exciting things.
So I've been in a bunch of buildings this week.
We have a lot of chickens hatching around our districts, a lot of, a lot of eggs that
have, are now becoming chickens so it doesn't matter the grade level from river cities
to elementary to third grade classrooms.
So you may have your, a child may have come home and said some chickens hatch in our
buildings.
So we have a lot of that going up and we have a few buildings doing plant sales as well.
So as people begin to do their gardens and lawns and landscaping, our central alks
for sure and the mead are doing some plant sales so that will all be available on our social
media as well.
And great stuff.
Thank you for all that Ron.
Bill, if people had followed questions and wanted to know more and get ahold of you, how
can they do that?
Yeah.
So as Ron mentioned, obviously getting connected through our Facebook page, that'll be
all kind of centralized after this point.
Content taking our main number at school would be good, email, everything is right in our
district website.
Shout out to Phil Bickahopton, his team, our technology team is outstanding.
They're updating that website constantly.
You can find all the district information on there.
There's a lot of great stuff on there.
Thank you, Bill, and again, good to meet you, man.
Appreciate you too, thank you.
And Ron, if people want to reach out to you, how can they do that?
Yep.
Over at Central Office, 715-424-6701.
Really appreciate the time you guys.
Thank you for everything you put into the community.
Say hi to your staffs for us, and we'll talk to you again real soon.
All right.
Thanks, James.
Thank you.
A big thank you to our guests all week long, and we've had a bit of a change up, go on
in the middle of the week here with this show going from Midday Magazine to Rapids Report.
And I wanted to take a moment to bring on our new producer of this show, Laura, and get
into a little bit of these changes, and just remind everybody not only how much we appreciate
this, these listeners, Laura, but where they can get the podcast from now on.
Yeah.
Well, new old producer, but sure.
Right.
Yes.
What?
Yes.
I'm really happy with switching over to the podcast format.
I think it's going to be really more flexible for everyone involved, interviewers and
interviewees.
And for the listeners, I think you're going to love the convenience of it.
So you can head to civicmedia.us slash shows slash Rapids, dash report, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
You can subscribe to it, and it'll just pop up in your whatever weekly daily podcast
box.
We both want to say, a gigantic thank you to Pam Hilke and the amazing works you did
on this show for so many years.
Oh, very long time.
And setting you and I up to succeed.
Yes.
And being able to have our audience and our guests too.
Those reoccurring schedules that we had, you know, the people who come on monthly, and
she already had it set up.
So they were coming on, you know, the second Tuesday of every month at the first appointment.
Like it's so nice to be able to still have that established, especially, you know, taking
over the scheduling for it that, you know, half of my jobs kind of already done.
So huge shout out to Pam Hilke for getting this ball rolling so many years ago.
And while I try very hard around here to not build up the egos of our staff, I want to
publicly thank Laura and the work she's doing on this show and how much fun we're having.
Really taking a show that's been around for a long time, Laura, long before we were here.
And, you know, just refreshing it up and making it really fun and interesting for our audience.
We've heard such good things from the guests and everything, and I really appreciate the
touches you've made to it.
Well, and it's really, really cool because we are really just going where the audience
already was.
And this is very much, you guys told us where you wanted this show and we did it.
We don't have to do twice the work so that it's also airing because you guys are just
streaming it anyway.
This is awesome.
It's so much better for everybody, and I hope you guys enjoy the product.
If you or somebody you know would like to be a part of the Rapid Support, please reach
out to us.
We're going to send you a quick message on Facebook or hit us up by email wise and info
at wfhtr.com.
And we'll get out other ways you can through the Civic Media app, of course, but thank
you so much for joining us.
And Laura, if you wouldn't mind reminding the audience one more time where they can get
the show.
You can get the show at civicmedia.us slash shows slash report or sorry slash rapids dash
report or wherever you get your podcasts.
And I really do mean wherever you get your podcast, Civic Media has all of our podcasts
everywhere.
Because Laura produces the show and does such an amazing job, she can keep that interchange
it if she wants.
She can go.
It's true.
They drop every day at two o'clock.
We appreciate you everybody.
Thanks a lot for joining us all week long.
We'll be back next week with more Rapids Report here at wfhtr.
