Hello all, welcome to WFHR's rapid support, probably brought you by Crockett Sceptic for
this June 20th, 2025.
Have your host, James here, which I'll welcome you into the studio.
Our good friend, Jim Venna, from Port Edward School District, Jim, is good to have you
with us.
How you been?
Doing really well, James.
Thank you for having us again.
Always appreciate the time, and I really do appreciate the newsletter you guys put out
there.
It's a great way for us to keep up the data on things, especially in the summer where
sometimes we get a little busy and can forget things, helps us put these things on our calendar
and all that.
And there is a lot going on with you guys, want to dive right into it.
Let's start with the Black Hawk Scramble and tell everybody about that.
Yeah, absolutely, James.
The Black Hawk Scramble is the annual fundraiser that the Port Edward's Education Foundation hosts
each year.
It's the day after Father's Day.
We had it once again this past Monday, June 16th.
We had a new venue for it this year.
We had it at Bullseye Country Club, I'd like to give a big shout out to Bullseye.
They did a wonderful job of hosting us.
We had about 80 golfers, this, again, as I mentioned, this is the primary fundraiser for
the Port Edward's Education Foundation, also known as Peef in the Port Edwards area.
Peef has donated through grants to Port Edward's Teachers over the last 29 years, over 300,000
dollars.
Wow.
And that grant money goes for additional programming, field trips, additional items for
tech ed, for drama, for music, et cetera, things that go above and beyond our regular budget.
So Port Edward's School District is greatly indebted to Peef and we would like to say thank
you to Peef and also invite everyone to participate in the Black Hawk Scramble.
Next year, in 2026, it'll be our 20th annual Black Hawk Scramble.
Once again at Bullseye, it'll be the day after Father's Day.
So look for information next spring.
And a great easy way to make plans for it, knowing that in mind, having that in mind going
forward and everything.
Absolutely.
A big shout out to everybody involved in that one.
All the volunteers, all the people that help in it, especially Bullseye, always appreciate
them.
Great people over there.
And really good to hear about the success of the program.
That's fantastic.
Absolutely.
And as you mentioned, James volunteers, as I showed up that day and I helped work that
day and had a great time golfing as well.
It's run completely by volunteers, you know, people giving up their days, taking time
off of work.
You know that a lot of time and effort and energy goes into not just that day, but months leading
up to that event.
So I want to thank everyone on the Peef board and everyone that took time, ultimately it's
for the students and families of the Port Edward School District.
So a big shout out to everyone that gives their time to Peef.
Where do you want to go next?
Absolutely.
Well, James, it's a busy time in the school house.
Our last day of school was about two weeks ago, but summer school is in full swing.
We have 58 elementary students who are enrolled for summer school enrichment programs.
We have 10 high school students who are also taking some summer school classes or having
a great time in summer school.
We're doing some fun classes, James.
We're doing gardening, we're doing clay creations, other art projects, fun with math and
reading.
So summer school runs for three weeks in the Port Edward School District.
We have two weeks completed.
Next week will be our last week, so a lot of fun.
That's all housed at Ed Hoyer Elementary School.
As a side note to me, I kind of blame the 80s for making summer school seem a certain
way.
Yeah, yeah.
I did summer school when I was in school and I enjoyed it.
Actually, I really had fun with it, but it was a computer class I took and it actually
helped me a lot as I got older and stuff with working with computers and everything.
That's great to hear and I'm sure they're having a good time with it.
Absolutely.
School is a great place to be and we learn our life fundamentals from September through
May.
Our teachers have so many exciting hobbies and interests and things like that outside
of the core academics and summer school gives them the opportunity to teach these skills
and these hobbies, gardening and clay and sculpture.
These extra things that our students may not, they may not be, you know, have the ability
to see otherwise.
And so summer school gives our teachers and our students that opportunity to have that
platform to learn those skills.
And getting the opportunity to maybe do things that during the school year, they're not
able to for them and the teachers and a big shout out to those teachers, you know, really
doing the extra great work for our community and our youth out there.
I appreciate that.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
There's a lot to talk about.
Where do you want to go next?
Sure.
Absolutely.
You know, here in the summer in the Port Edward School District and many other school districts,
we are doing a lot of building and grounds updates.
You know, James, I've shared this before on your program.
We passed our referendum last April.
We passed over a $7 million capital referendum and we are really starting to see some of
those projects get kicked off this summer.
Anyone who drives past John Edwards High School this summer will see a lot of scaffolding.
They'll see some big cranes outside.
We have a company out of Milwaukee that is inspecting every brick and every inch of
mortar on that building.
As anyone from the area knows, it was built in segments.
We have a 90-year-old high school.
We have other parts of the building that are 60 years old and it's brick and mortar.
Well, every brick is being inspected, every inch of mortar is being inspected to make
sure that that building stays sound and stays as it should.
It is getting sealed.
So that's a big project happening at our high school, at our elementary school.
In late July and August, we are getting a new gym floor poured.
We're going to have a hard rubberized surface.
We're getting glass backboards installed in our elementary gym.
At our elementary, we're also getting new CAT 6 internet cabling installed, a new PA system
and a new digital clock system.
So we have beautiful historic buildings in Port Edwards.
We are doing upgrades to them.
I compare it a lot to if you've got a beautiful historic home.
You want to keep its integrity.
You've got great bones.
You just have to modernize it and upgrade it.
And that is what our referendum monies are going towards.
So a lot of practical purchases to keep our buildings in great working order.
It's great to see not only to hear the breakdown of where the money is going and how it's being
used, but the encouragingness of this and excitement of this.
I know that I'm feeling that.
I know that a lot of talking listeners about it after the last time we talked about it
that they are too.
That's us.
I can't imagine how you and the staff, how the kids are feeling about this.
It's a very exciting thing.
I have to say, especially in this day and age, every voting season, we see bills on there
regarding our schools and they don't always go this way.
So a big thank you to the community, a big thank you to everybody that sees the investment
here, the smart investment here, maybe the greatest investment any of us can make in
our youth in the future.
And especially in our rural communities, in our communities that truly need this.
These schools, not only because of the beautiful history they have and the fun memories they
bring to many of the residents of the area, but the future, you know, and putting a focus
on that.
And it's so encouraging to hear that.
And just exciting.
Just exciting.
Like, I have to be honest, I was distracted by the new basketball court.
That really had that like, oh, that sounds really exciting.
It's going to be great.
Yeah, absolutely.
As we went through the referendum process, James, we were very diligent in speaking door
community members and we wanted to be ears.
We wanted to listen to them.
What do you feel is most important about our school district?
And overwhelmingly, we heard we want to stay in our buildings.
We don't want to look at building new.
We want to stay in our current historic high school building, our historic Edhoyer Elementary
School.
But we want to upgrade it and we want to modernize it and make it the best facility
that we can.
So through our community listening sessions, we, we gallery a list of ways to update those
buildings and we prioritize those.
And, you know, I think we are doing our due diligence right now to make sure that we,
we follow that prior, you know, prioritize list and are doing those upgrades over the
next several years.
We're speaking with Mr. Jim Betta from the Port Edward School District and open enrollment
is going on right now.
One of the touch on that, Jim.
Sure.
It is summertime and, you know, it's a time for families to reflect on their child's
education.
Families can enroll their students any time for the upcoming school year at our elementary
school.
Our elementary office is open during the month of June.
And if families would like to register their children during the month of July or August,
they should go to John Edwards High School on 2nd Street.
So anytime in July or August, they can walk through those white pillars, the doors right
there at the front door and go into our main office and registration will happen right
there.
As long as we're talking about registration, we do want to remind all the parents out
there about stuff to desk, the stuff to bus, our great event going on with our United
Way of Southwood and the Amps counties.
Terry John CEO of their brought, joins us once a week usually.
We've been touching on this, but just another reminder to all parents out there again.
Know how busy things can get, how crazy it can be.
Sometimes it, did I register yet?
It's just a good reminder to do that.
Enough the desk, the registration and opened on May 1st.
It is supported by the United Way of Southwood and Adams counties.
We are on that committee, the Port Edward School District with Nekusa, Rapids Public Schools
and of course in partnership with the United Way.
And for more information, you can visit the United Way website.
So that's the stuff to desk program and stuff to bus happens during lunch by the river
on August 7th.
And James, I'm sure you'll be promoting that more as we get closer to August 7th.
So there is a great need in the area for school supplies and there are all kinds of items
that need to be donated to the United Way.
Backpacks, notebooks, folders and all kinds of school supplies.
And again, you can visit the United Way website to learn more about stuff to bus that
will happen on August 7th.
Yeah.
www.wac.org is the website.
Go check that out, everybody.
Keep in mind if you have school supplies, you want to drop off, you can drop them off
here at the studios.
We'll make sure that they get in the right hands.
Look forward to getting more, collecting more and more supplies and getting these into
the kids' hands for the new school season.
But not too soon.
We don't think about too soon.
That's right.
Jim, what else did you have for us today?
Sure.
Absolutely.
Well, we kind of talked a little bit at the start of our conversation, James, about what's
happening right now.
What I wanted to talk about some exciting things that happened is we wrapped up the
school year at the end of May.
We had a very exciting event happen on May 29th.
For the first time ever, we had our John Edwards High School class of 2038.
They celebrated their graduation or commencement exercise in our high school gym.
This was the first year, first school year, that our 4K program was housed at our elementary.
Prior to this, they were at the YMCA.
Because our 4K program was part of the elementary school, we wanted to have those four-year-old
students replicate the graduation that they will be able to do in 12 years.
We had graduation in the high school gym.
We had 18 students walk through commencement, approximately four feet tall, wearing their
cute little orange gowns and hats.
It was just such a cool event.
I can't stop smiling.
I can't.
It was such a cool event.
So big props out to Mrs. Moldenhauer.
She is our 4K teacher and Mrs. Hamilton who assisted with that event.
So that was the class of 2038.
They had their 4K graduation.
I don't get this feeling very often.
Every once in a while that happens, though, and it usually involves talking to people
in our public schools and everything.
But I'm jealous.
I'm genuinely jealous of that.
That is such a fun, cool idea.
I would have loved to have done something like that in school.
One of the things that I thought about when you put yourself in the shoes of these
kids or something like that, and you think about these things, especially the older we
get and the more removed from school we get, sometimes it can seem like a long marathon
school.
It's not just the school year, but I'm in grade 5 and I got to go to grade 12 or something
along those lines and thinking about how long, especially when you're a kid, how long
that seems.
To us as adults, it's like, okay, well, that's, you know, I'm like, we'll get through
that.
But as you're a kid, it seems like forever.
Even these kind of benchmarks in mind, these ideas in mind, it gets them seeing that light
at the end of the tunnel.
And I don't mean that in a negative way or anything like that, just mean, you know, kind
of as you're a kid and you're dealing with that stuff.
It's also pretty exciting, I imagine, for them putting on those robes, even thinking about
this, who knows if some of these kids even thought about graduation, you know, yet and stuff.
You're so young, you're thinking about recess, you're thinking about other stuff and everything.
That's a really cool program for a lot of reasons.
It was, as you said, it gives them a little bit of reality that, yes, I will be graduating
from here in 12 years.
Some of them, as you said, it's hard to kind of conceptualize what 12 years means.
Some of them may have been to a graduation before.
It definitely gives them a feeling of pride that they've accomplished something and our families,
our parents, our grandparents, they absolutely are thrilled to see their children or grandchildren
walk down that aisle and move on to kindergarten.
So it's a real thrill.
It's a neat event.
Yeah.
Did you have anything else for us now?
Sure, absolutely.
One more end of the year event that I want to discuss.
We had the annual Ed Hoyer Elementary School and Port Edward's Parent Organization end
of the school year carnival.
That happened on Monday, June 2nd, and that was organized and led by the Port Edward's
Parent Organization, acronym is People.
It was an all afternoon event held on the campus at Ed Hoyer Elementary School.
Students, there were bouncy houses for them, there were water games, there were lawn games,
there were treats.
It was just a beautiful summer like day and we had about 15 parent volunteers and they
were leading all types of different stations and it was a great time for students of all
ages to play with one another to interact and celebrate the end of the school year.
And again, this was another event very similar to our Black Hawk golf scramble that was completely
led by parent volunteers.
So I would like to say a big thank you to the Port Edward's Parent Organization for
again organizing and hosting and leading the end of the school year carnival at Ed Hoyer
Elementary School.
Yeah, big thank you to all of them and really everybody all of school year long making
it such a successful school year for everybody in the area and appreciate them for that.
You can find out all this information and more and keep up to date on things in the
Port Edward School district by going to their website and catching up on that newsletter
pesd.org pesd.org go ahead and go over their bookmark that page and keep up the date on
everything and Jim, if people have other questions or want to reach out to you if they need
be, how can they do that?
Absolutely, they can go to the Port Edward School District website and if you click on
either district or elementary links, my phone number and email is right there.
If you have questions about the high school, Mr. Shane Stelton-Pole is our middle and
high school principal, he can be found under the middle or high school link on our school
website.
Really appreciate the time, I know we'll be talking again probably in the fall or something,
so have a great summer and thanks for the time, Jim.
Thank you so much, James, I always appreciate the opportunity to come on and tell the good
news about the Port Edward School District.
We'll talk again real soon, thank you to you and thank you to all of you out there for
joining us for another third edition of WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought you
by Cracket Sceptic here at 975FMWFHR.