Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, proudly brought to you by Cracket Sceptic
for this August 13th, 2025.
Have your host James here.
We're joined by our friends from the Port Edward School District right now, and I'm
going to let you guys introduce yourself so the audience can put a voice to the name.
Start with you, Jim.
Okay.
Well, thanks for having us very much, James.
Yeah, we are ready to start the 25-26th school year.
My name is Jim Beena.
I'm the district administrator and elementary principal in the Port Edward School District.
Thanks again for being here.
Jim, good to see you again.
You too.
My name is Max Harris.
I'm the middle school, high school athletic director.
Max, thanks for being here.
Max, you have two good of a radio voice.
That's all we're hearing from you.
I can't compete with that.
I don't want the audience here.
My voice compared to yours, man.
That's not fair to me.
Thanks for being here.
It's good to meet you.
Absolutely.
Thanks for having me.
We'll be putting you to work in a little bit here, Max.
But Jim, I want to start with you, and I'm excited too.
The school year is here.
We're excited for the kids, excited for the teachers, the parents, everybody involved with
this.
And we're excited for the kids to kind of get back into the routine of things.
Our brains need that, especially as the older we get.
But we forget sometimes when they're young, how much kids need that structure and how
much they, whether they realize it or not, they're looking forward to it.
You guys got things kind of in the last days here or the last weeks I should say, getting
ready for the school year.
How's that going?
Oh, it's going really well, James.
I couldn't agree with you more.
I think we all thrive off that structure, right?
We need our downtime.
We need our summer breaks.
But the structure is awesome.
In the school district, it's been a very productive summer.
The months of June and July, throughout June, we had three weeks of summer school at
Edhoider Elementary School.
We had a phenomenal turnout for elementary summer school as well as high school credit
recovery.
And then in July, we really started picking up some of our projects.
We put in a new rubberized gym floor at the elementary school, a new clock and PA system
at the elementary school.
Some major improvements at the high school that really you can't see it.
But if you would have driven past the high school, you would have seen the cranes, you would
have seen the scaffolding.
We did some significant masonry repair and brick replacement on about 60% of the building.
We're going to do the other 40% next summer.
We just ran out of time.
So that was the Holton Brothers Company out of the Milwaukee area.
So as anyone that knows, John Edwards Middle and High School is a beautiful, there's
different segments.
So anywhere from a 70 to 95-year-old building that brick and masonry needed some significant
repair to prevent water damage, and we are doing that work this summer and next summer,
we're preserving that historic building.
So I'm very excited about that, not a real glamorous project, you know, people won't
really necessarily see it, but it protects the bones of the building and protects that
building and that was very important.
Yeah, keeping the history alive along with all the memories and all the things that it
carries, and certainly the safety and best for the students, the teachers and everybody
involved.
That's really good to hear.
Absolutely.
So yeah, those are big projects.
Next summer, all of these projects I'm talking about, they were funded by the Capital
Referendum that was passed last April.
So that was just over $7 million, Capital Referendum passed by our Residence and Port
Edwards.
We are putting those dollars into very practical, needed projects.
Next summer, we are upgrading our heating and air conditioning units at both the elementary
and middle and high school, and we're going to complete that masonry work at the high
school.
Excellent.
A lot of good projects happening.
And certainly appreciate the update and the insight.
Thank you, Jim.
Sure.
Absolutely.
That takes us into the start of the school year.
As you know, James, here in August, we start to get staff rolling in and we have five new
teaching staff.
I thought I saw that five.
Wow.
Yeah, five new teaching staff.
We've had, you know, for a number of reasons, we've had some retirements, other people have
moved on.
So we are very excited.
We have quality individuals.
We have hired a new 5K teacher, two new third grade teachers, two new middle school teachers,
high school math and middle school, high school art.
That's actually seven, but two of them have moved on from our elementary.
We have four new support staff and two a person.
We are excited about all of our new hires.
We think they're going to bring a lot of energy and a lot of new insights to our district.
Yeah.
And looking forward to that, looking forward to maybe even meeting some of them or anything.
We like talking with teachers on the air here and everything, wishing them well, a good
start to the school year.
Thank you so much.
So some of the things that lead up to the start of the school year, we have our standard,
you know, traditional back to school in service.
That's August 26th through the 28th, you know, when the teachers talk about coming back
for in service, what does that look like?
Well, we do have, we do have some mandated meetings where we talk about the district's
business procedures.
We talk about special ed protocols.
We talk about the technology updates.
We talk about some new laws that have been updated regarding handling children and working
with children.
You know, when the kids come into the school house in September, we don't have much time
for meetings and training.
So that's why we have to have a few days in August where we talk about these legal updates
and all the new updates in the district.
During those three days, we do have an evening called back to school night.
On Wednesday, August 27th, we have back to school night.
That will be at the elementary school from 330 to 530.
And at the middle school and high school, from 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock.
Again, back to school night, that's on August 27th.
That's an opportunity for students and families to meet their teachers.
They can drop off their school supplies and their desks or their lockers.
They can see some of their friends they haven't seen since last spring.
And we're also serving a picnic-style meal in the cafeterias to families.
That's free of charge.
That's complimentary in the district.
So again, Wednesday, August 27th, 330 to 530 at the elementary, 4.06 at the middle school
high school.
I imagine most parents know this and understand it.
But when it comes to this part, in particular, Jim, I always like to jump in.
I had 10 different schools before I was 10.
I moved around a whole lot.
And that back to school day, that chance to meet teachers or get to understand the school
a little bit more was incredibly vital for me.
And just having a little bit of understanding, let alone some comfort and OK, I'm not walking
in completely blind.
Right.
I know this place a little bit and everything.
The older we get, we get so accustomed to walking into a new building like it's nothing
we do at all the time because we did it so much as a kid or whatever.
We forget sometimes how important that is for kids.
But a little bit of reassurance or some of that that takes a little of the anxiety out
that first night of sleeping before school starts or something like that, along with it's
great for the teachers.
It's great for the parents to be able to make face to face and say hi to each other and
get to know each other even a little bit leading into the school year.
You're absolutely right, James.
I see that every year going from classroom to classroom on back to school night.
And in particular, our new families, our new children, they really gravitate to the
teacher.
You know, it's human nature.
We want to build that connection.
We want to build that relationship.
And it really does ease a lot of anxiety.
So I really encourage our families to come to back to school night on the 27th.
I know one thing that you were really proud of last year and that we were excited to
talk about this time last year when we were getting together was the YMCA childcare site.
And you guys going into the second year with that?
Absolutely.
The childcare site is entering a second year at Edhoyer Elementary School.
We're very proud of having the opportunity to take the childcare from the YMCA center
over to Edhoyer Elementary.
And the good news is, James, it is up and running and there are still spaces available.
We would love to welcome more children to our childcare center.
If families are looking for childcare, again, it's right in poor Edwards.
It's about literally from downtown Wisconsin Rapids.
It's about an eight minute drive.
It's so close by and we've got a wonderful facility, we've got wonderful staff.
We have open spots for children three and up.
Contact Tracy Verwink at the YMCA and she can be reached at 715-818-9622 for the childcare
center at Edhoyer Elementary.
Tracy's amazing.
Just really good work.
And I know how much they also appreciate this program over there.
We certainly know how much the parents and the community appreciates this.
And any added childcare we can add to our community is always incredibly appreciated.
That's a great program to know about.
It is.
It is.
I also want to send a shout out to Bennett Cranberry Marsh.
And anytime when you shout out to Marsh, I like that.
But in particular, we wanted to talk about these guys.
Absolutely.
Asa and Stephanie Bennett and their team of workers at Bennett Cranberry Marsh, they've
stepped up.
I met with them myself and Mrs. Amanda Wilhorn, who is a second grade teacher.
Mrs. Wilhorn really helped to spearhead this.
And the four of us got together last week.
We walked through our old elementary school forest behind the school and we saw what had
been a great school forest and now needs some work.
So the staff from the Bennett Cranberry Marsh, they're going to be out here in late August
and they're going to bring in their machinery and they are going to clear our trails.
They're going to groom trails.
They're going to do some work on our bridge.
They're going to repair some benches.
So the Bennett Cranberry Marsh is really helping to restore the elementary school forest
behind Ed Hoyer Elementary.
So yeah, big shout out to them and their team.
Thanks very much.
That's above and beyond.
Absolutely.
That really is above and beyond.
That is awesome.
And it's not only how did this start, how did this come about?
Mrs. Bennett is part of our PTO with the elementary and we just started having some grassroots
conversations and it started with children to start with some children saying, hey, we
heard there used to be a school forest here.
Where was it?
What did it look like?
And then talking to parents, talking to our PTO, we just started having some dialogue and
they stepped up.
So yeah, huge shout out to them.
I don't like to pry, but I had to ask because I had a feeling that's where it was going
and everything.
And it's all the more why we encourage people to be on boards, to be a part of things
in their schools and everything.
I especially encourage people if your kids are out of school to do these things and be
a part of them.
You never know where you might have an opportunity to impact your community, to impact the future.
Absolutely.
Literally what we're talking about here is doing something like that and the good feeling
that comes with that, it feels good to do stuff already, especially when you're working
with your hands or something like that.
But when you get done and you know it was for a good cause, you know it was for something
like this, man does that feel good.
My father is still rolling on things like that for working construction for many years
and everything.
That's fantastic.
It's a really cool big shout out to the Bennett family.
That's very cool.
Absolutely.
Max, Max, did you ever go on to the trails in the forest being the elementary there when
you were a student?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean that was one of those things as an elementary kid where you loved those days
where you got to go back into the forest and whether it was just explore, whether it was
racer friends down some random little area or even Mr. Martin used to take us fishing
in the back and he'd show us all these different things and whether it's trees, fish, random
insects on the ground, whatever it was.
Those are the days you really look forward to and I'm excited to hear that it's coming
back.
That's what the kids need these days, get outside and explore and use their hands and
do those things.
So that's exciting.
Incredible segue, Jim, nicely done.
Max, when it comes to your athletic director over there, talk a little sports with you
here.
I will let you know and let the audience know right away that I had the ulterior mode
of wanting you on the show today.
We do a playmaker show.
We love to talk to local high school coaches and athletic directors and stuff.
So we're going to have to, this is not the last time you'll be on the air with me.
We're going to hear that.
We're going to drag on to playmakers too.
In part because one of the things we like to focus on with that show, we talk about
the pro games and all that and everything, but we talk a lot about high school athletics
and just athletics in the grade school, high school levels.
We all know the stats of kids that go on do sports on a professional level or whatever.
They're very small, but any skill set that they learn from any sport can be applied to
just about anything, anything they do going forward, building up their confidence, building
up their social skills, their abilities to work with others and some of that.
This is where sports lives.
This is where one of the things we get from sports.
I know that we're excited about the sports calendar, the fall schedule kicking in and
everything.
How are things coming together for you with the athletic department?
Great.
First off, I just want to, you know, just thank you for having me on today.
And I'm going to talk about a couple of changes from the WA that came this past April.
And then I'll segue into some things with the Port Edwards athletics.
So back in May, there was an extremely important meeting with the WA member schools past the
name, image, and likeness and brought it to high school athletics.
So NIL is here for high school athletics.
However, it is very different than the NCAA realm.
So there are many restrictions that are placed on these type of deals with students that
they may receive from the WA.
The athletes should continue to work with their schools athletic director and their coaches
to make sure they're following the guidelines and the specific restrictions that the WA does
have.
At this time, right now, it's probably projected to have just a minor impact on area schools
around here.
In the Fox Valley, probably, it's going to be a little different down South Madison, Milwaukee,
those areas, maybe a little bit more impact.
But right now, such a minor impact right now.
And I appreciate the note because the kind of we all I think we all know how life works.
If we don't talk about it, it's going to come up something we're going to have an athlete
that it's going to be brought up with or something like that.
But it's also one of the things I try to do with playmakers as well is when you get these
these words that are really big right now or they're they have such a positive or a negative
tone to them.
I like to try to bring the honesty to them and the reality to them and NIL is here.
It's not going anywhere.
You're not putting the genie back in the bottle with this.
I have been very a very big supporter of athletes having power over their name, having
an ability to make something off of their name.
These these universities on the collegiate level, the head football coach of pretty much
every university is the highest paid state athlete.
Like I mean, they have been making money for a very long time.
These athletes, while a scholarship is nothing I take lightly or anything like that, it
is not the equal to a paycheck.
It is not the same thing.
This on a high school level is a little freaky for adults.
It's a little freaky for parents and everything.
The more we talk about it, the more we can make people understand that it's nothing to be
scared of.
It's just something to kind of understand and know going forward.
And like you said, it's a great glass case needed and I don't know how much this is going
to come up around here or anything, but it's great to talk about, great to get it out
there.
No, I appreciate you covering that.
Could I just share a couple thoughts about NIL as well?
I've, you know, superintendents, we've had the opportunity to learn about NIL and just
be as clear as I can the only difference that I understand, excuse me, the only similarity
between NIL at the NCA or college level and the WIA high school level is the name.
It is very, very different.
I'm an avid listener of sports talk radio and they talk daily about, you know, this quarterback
from, you know, this university getting $3 million in NIL money.
That is not what it looks like at the high school level.
It does not look like that at the high school level at all.
What it is doing is it is giving our high school athletes some rights and some freedoms
to have their image used in some publications and things like that without having WI penalties.
All the WIA rules are still in effect and they still, they oversee NIL at the high school
level.
I encourage any parents who are just wondering about NIL at the high school level to go
to the WIA website and there's a very clear web page that says what it looks like at
college, what it looks like at the high school level and you'll see they are two very different
things.
Your son or daughter is not going to come home from cross-country football or volleyball
with a $2,000 heart check on a Friday afternoon.
That night he's still.
It doesn't look like that so just to be clear, it is here but it's very different so thank you.
No, appreciate that Jim.
Nicely done.
Nicely done.
And what else did you want to get to your next?
Other things that happened in May, the WIA member school is also voted to allow unlimited
coaching contact during the summer months so that is now concluded.
Really what that came down to was coaches and members of a school team could assemble
without restriction from June 1st to June 30th and then there's a dead week from July 1st
to July 6th and then from July 7th to July 31st, they could coach all they wanted this
summer.
With the exceptional football, obviously there's a little difference with that, you can't
go fully padded on all those days and do those different things.
But all those other sports, basketball, volleyball, cross-country, all those things, you could
have full coaching contact which is so good for the schools if it's done the right way.
But it also just gives students and athletes more time with their coaches that are hired
by the school to provide the instruction that they want to give to their students and
to continue to build that program throughout the summer months when students have that
a little extra time.
Making them stronger, better athletes, that's fantastic.
They understand the playbooks from the coachings and all those things better.
The confidence, I come back to that.
The confidence that they bid more reps, that's how you build things, that's how you build
confidence.
The more you get to do it, so getting a little more time to do those things and talk to
those coaches, it can get ahead of things sometimes.
They can build up their confidence to whatever they're playing, whatever they're doing.
We did it as a school, we talked about you can have one day a week.
Our volleyball coach met with the girls on Sundays, from four to six, our girls basketball
coach was Thursdays from such and such a time and that connection and that continuity is
going to translate under the court, under the field, hopefully in the coming months.
I know we wanted to touch on just one last thing with you here.
What did you were going to go with that?
We're going to talk about actually a really good thing for a player football, so I'm the
high school football coach as well, so something that came by with the WA was, they actually
expanded the eight men playoffs, which is awesome because there's now over 70 teams in
eight men and they expanded that field from 16 teams to 32 teams, which actually starts
this year.
It does start, okay.
That's exciting.
It just brings that ratio of qualifiers to teams in line with the 11 player division and
that's just exciting for all eight man teams around here and also push the start date to
align for our eight man team with all 11 men as well.
So our eight man team, we started at the same time as everybody else.
We get that extra week as well and now our season ends a little bit earlier to do the playoffs,
but it's exciting that we get 32 teams in the playoffs with over 70 teams in the eight
men.
That's the time where we wouldn't be able to have eight man football, and so that would
mean a lot of the schools would miss out on that, which for one, as a lover of football,
that almost breaks my heart hearing that, but what I mean by it, though, is there's no
getting around it.
Football is the biggest game in town.
It's a big sport.
Maybe when we were kids, it wasn't the number one sport, but it's become that, so more
kids are going to want to play it.
Even if they just get a chance to put a helmet on and go out there and play some eight man
football, they're getting that out of their system, getting a chance to do that, that experience.
They take that within the rest of their life.
I played junior high football.
I'll never forget kick returning.
It was my favorite thing in the world.
I can do a picture here right now and stuff.
All of those things, again, along with every sport gives different things, I think.
And I think one of the things that football does that's so important is that leaning and
counting on somebody else.
The quarterback and the receiver being on the same page, the timing of things.
The no one man can win a game.
It's not one of those sports.
I love basketball, but basketball is one that can be a little bit more leaning towards
one player and some of that stuff.
You can be the greatest football player of all time.
You're not going to win without the rest of the guys.
You've got to be able to work as a unit.
Football teaches that.
Football gives a lot of that.
And like a lot of the way you have to teach kids sometimes in a sneaky way.
You're not necessarily trying to tell them that you're going to have, there's a lesson
now.
No, you're just kind of giving it to them and they learn to buy it.
But that's awesome.
It's great to hear.
We know that assumption is going to eight man next year.
So the more teams going into this and it's also assigned to the times and where things
are going.
For me, I will come back to this every time.
I'm happy to have this.
It's so much better than not having a football program.
That part of it doesn't get lost in me.
It's cool.
That's great to hear.
So football seasons underway, we started last week.
We're looking forward to the upcoming home scrimmage, which is just a couple days away.
Against Prentice and Rashult.
Then we have our first game next week, actually over at Southwood County Field in Lincoln,
which is going to be a great experience for our kids.
We play a very good siren team.
So that's at seven o'clock.
A volleyball and cross country teams are getting underway next Monday as well.
So our cross country team welcomes back a whole host of kids.
So I actually didn't graduate anybody.
So our cross country team, yeah, Coach Tim Miller, he's super excited to have one of
his most experienced teams since we became our own cross country team a couple years ago.
And then the volleyball teams also looking forward to the season as well as they also
welcome back the majority of their roster and head coach Brian Sternad, who has taken
advantage of these unlimited coaching contact days this summer.
He's looking forward to another year at the helm with his student athletes.
This is the second year for us.
Really good to hear.
Really good to hear.
We'll be covering those games, those teams, those sports, certainly on our shows here
around and talking with you more and Jim, of course, about mentally sports, but about
the Port Edward School District throughout the year.
Looking forward to it.
Now we feel a little more set up.
Do want to remind everybody one last thing before I let you go is as we're getting close
and closer to this and we're talking about kids getting prepared for school and ready
for it in different ways.
So they can jump right in when it comes time for everybody out there.
All of us adults out there, let's remember the worthy adults in the room and we got to
pay attention.
Keep an eye out on the roads.
The kids are going to be bopping around and they're going to be out more a lot and we want
a safe start to the school year.
So keep an eye out for the little guys, slow down for buses, look around for everybody.
Guys, thanks for the time, appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, James.
Jim, if people have fault questions, they would like to know more about some of what we talked
about today.
How is the best way to reach them?
Absolutely.
Well, at Port Edward School District, 715-887-9000, my extension is 303.
And Max, for you, if people want to reach out and how can they reach you?
Yeah, same thing.
Just call the school district 715-887-9000, my extension is 237, my bad.
And be sure to follow the Port Edward School District on social media, keep up the date
and all the cool things that they are doing over there.
Thanks again, guys.
Thank you, James.
And thank you, everyone, for joining us for another edition of the Rapids Report brought
to by Crockett Sceptic here at WFHR.