Hello and welcome to the Rapids Report on WFHR, proudly sponsored by Croc Acceptic.
Today is Friday, October 24th, 2025. I'm your host, Melissa Kaye, filling in for James
J. Mayloff.
Today, I'll be speaking with Wisconsin Rapids Public School Superintendent Ron Rasmussen.
Hi, Ron.
Hello.
Glad to have you here.
Thank you for the invite.
And you have with you, Nikki Keltrow, from Keltow. I said it wrong and I practiced.
Nikki Keltow, Principal at Grant Elementary. Hi, Nikki.
Hello.
Nice to have you with us today.
Thanks so much for having us.
Well, it's a pleasure to be able to sit down with both of you. Ron, let's start with an
update on how things are going. I know the parent teacher conferences just happened at
Rams and Lincoln High School and the first terms wrapped up. So how's the school you're
going?
School year is going great. So far, it's been awesome. A lot of school spirit exhibited
throughout our community. MuMitch and Lincoln and Rams. So they're just finishing their
mid-progress report of first term. And the nice thing about trimesters is they'll wrap up
really first term right around Thanksgiving and kind of parallels the seasons a little bit
in the sports seasons. So, but overall, the school year has been great. Been in a lot
of elementary classrooms reading and being visible in those areas. Learned a lot yesterday
with kindergartners and four had only ever seen a coconut before in their life and
tend to not. So they learned about coconut milk and the feelings of the coconut and what
it looked like in the senses. So just exciting to see all the learning occurring within
our classrooms within the district.
And I just have to ask because you and I are of a similar age. Did you show them how to
make a horse sound with the coconut?
I did not show them how to make the horse sound.
Oh, man. You missed an opportunity there.
I did and I tried to break it open with my head. That did not work. So that was good.
Well, you showed them what not to do. Exactly.
That is good.
And now this is your second year as the superintendent here. How are you enjoying that transitioning
from being the high school principal?
I'm thoroughly enjoying it. When you're in education for 30 years now as I have been mostly
all at the secondary level, it's been a treat to work with students in all our different
buildings and just see the excitement and the vibrance within all our school communities.
Yeah. And to see that excitement of the light going on and kids who are just delighted
to get to school every day.
Yeah, exactly. And just like yesterday when I was in the kindergarten classroom when
they were learning about the coconut, you know, just to see that excitement of like,
oh my gosh, what is that? I've never seen that. And just to see those light bulbs go off
is really exciting.
Mm-hmm.
Now, Nikki, you get to see that every day. Being a grand elementary.
Yes.
How are you finding? You said this is your fifth year?
This is my fifth year as principal there.
Okay.
And this is my 15th year in education.
Okay.
And for listeners who may not know where grand elementary is, can you tell us?
Yes.
Yes.
We are a smaller school. I'm not the smallest, but a smaller school in the Rapids district,
but we are in Calner. So we are on the County Road, WW out by Lake Wazitja. And we definitely
take advantage of the area that we are in.
So we have a beautiful location.
Yes.
Beautiful school forest.
We do multiple events at Lake Wazitja and different things that just allow us to spread
our wings and be out in the community area.
And what's the population roughly of your school?
Yeah. We have 260 students at grant 4K through 5th grade. So we do have a 4K program at our
school.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, one of the things we wanted to highlight today with you is some of your community
partnerships and the importance of that. So can we dive into that?
Absolutely.
So we are fortunate enough to work with so many community partnerships and organizations
that support grant. And our goal is to really, truly build a village that will build a
great children that become adults that help the greater community.
And so we would just like to acknowledge some of the partnerships that we work with at
grant.
And I know that many of the other buildings in our district also work with these.
But specifically, we've worked with the United Way of Southwood County.
We have their reading mentor program within our building and our reading mentors come in.
Sometimes multiple times a week, some of them have even taken on extra classrooms.
But they really are volunteers that volunteer their time to read with students.
And so they adapt a classroom and they come in and they meet with our students and really
inspire some great literacy practices.
Well, in that case.
Early literacy is just so vital for kids to be able to have a successful, scholastic
future.
Yes.
Yes.
And a connection with someone outside of our building.
And so it's just a great opportunity.
And we are very thankful for that partnership with United Way.
We also work with United Way in terms of women united.
They have supported a lot of our literacy programs and have done a wonderful job of helping
teachers complete or supporting some of their literacy goals with their students.
And so we've received big books from them and different grants that have supported literacy
needs in our classrooms.
And so that has been a wonderful partnership.
And beyond that, one thing that's unique at grant is we have kindness ninjas.
It's our fourth graders that, and the started a few years back, they chose the term kindness
ninjas to define them.
But their fourth graders would absolutely be so perfect.
We had a partnership with Lincoln High School's Cool To Be Kind Club and we wanted to create
something similar to what they are doing at Lincoln.
And so we really made a spin-off group of them called our kindness ninjas and they've
been working with in a variety of ways throughout our school building.
But one way that we have recognized the fact that so many of these businesses have given
to us and we want to be able to give to them.
And so we've tried to reach out and go beyond our community or beyond our school walls.
And so we've been out in the community and our kindness ninjas had partnered with United
Way and they've completed the impact projects.
And so the last few years we've done the impact projects.
Last year they created the birthday bags and they've also done tie blankets for the family
center, things like that, as well as raised money for the humane society.
So trying to build, yes, you know, our community is absolutely wonderful in supporting us.
But we're also trying to get students to realize the importance of that work.
Reciprocating, yes, absolutely.
So that is one of the shout outs that I would like to give us through the United Way.
We are lucky enough to be in the Grand Rapids area and in Portage County because we're
just across the Portage County line.
We are fortunate enough to work with Grand Rapids fire department as well as the police department.
And in completing safety drills, fire drills, fire safety week was just a few weeks ago
and Grand Rapids came out and spent some time with kindergarten first and second graders.
And they were able to even shoot the fire hose out of the truck and they loved that.
And so we appreciate them and the work that they do as well as Portage County Sheriff's
Department for Grant.
They support us in a variety of ways as well.
You know, and it's really that community feel and how important the Wisconsin Rapids community
is to our district.
And I think it's important to highlight that.
And some of these things may seem small, but they are they add up and they're impactful.
They're absolutely impactful.
And we've been fortunate enough to work with another local business, Mr. Mrs. Neiman
from Neiman Photography, someone that we've worked with recently for school photos.
And just having those community connections, we, one last thing is that we have a new playground
to add Grant.
And that was due to the Legacy Foundation and the part that they played in that was essential.
We also received a donation through Wood Trust and all of that.
So if you, you know, you have the opportunity to come out to Grant after school hours to
play on the playground, it is a beautiful playground.
And we are so fortunate to have that.
And I think it's important to highlight that work too.
Oh, yeah.
So after hours, after school hours, what time to school it out?
School us out at 3.30.
Okay.
Yeah.
On a Monday through Friday, you can stop by to see the new playgrounds.
What are the kids loving the most of the new playground equipment?
Oh, they love the spinners.
Anything that they can spin around and it is so much fun to see them play and be their
ability to spin.
I don't spin well anymore.
I don't either.
I don't either.
But I do enjoy spinning them.
They really like that.
Oh, yes.
Yes, indeed.
So I know that the Legacy Foundation was doing these playground upgrades.
Was, are there any more happening or where are you at with that run?
Yep.
So that's completed.
So pretty much at all of our school buildings at the elementary level, those playgrounds
were completed this fall.
Just a few, you know, catch things at the end here just as there's always something.
There's always something right at the end, but I'm really excited about that partnership
with the Legacy Foundation.
They've been great supporters in our community to provide recreational opportunities and
healthy opportunities for our kids and families within our district.
So we appreciate that.
One of the things that has been added on is over at Washington Elementary and addition
of the playground is the district added walking paths around all the soccer fields.
So for really two reasons, provide accessibility of a walking area for individuals, but more
importantly, handicap accessibility.
So Graham and Graham, for anybody with the disability, can come and watch their kids
or their grandkids a little bit easier on the soccer fields if it's soccer rec on the
Saturdays or kickers competitive later on.
So we're excited to provide those opportunities for our families, but a lot of that is due
to the support Legacy Foundation as well.
And all of the playgrounds are available for the public after school hours.
Is that correct?
Correct.
Okay.
So when you know when school lets out and you hear that final bell, those playgrounds are
available.
Yes, exactly.
That's wonderful.
Well Ron, let's dive into some of the other things that you wanted to bring up today.
I know that WRPS is hosting the WIA events.
Now I don't sport unlike James.
So you're going to have to take a point on this one, but I know this has a huge economic
impact in our community.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah.
So we're blessed at WRPS and primarily Lincoln High School hosts three WA State Athletic
Championships within the Wisconsin Rapids community.
So coming up next Saturday is the State Cross Country Tournament.
That's going to bring about 12,000 people into town between athletes and spectators.
And has a huge economic impact working with Meredith Klecker at the Convention of Visitors
Bureau.
The estimate of that is just under $700,000 of economic impact that we'll have for that
week.
So you're going to notice businesses are going to be busier, restaurants will be busier,
gas stations will be busier.
That really helps our community and that's part of our role as a school district.
Obviously we're here for education of kids, but we're here to better our community.
And when we are able to host these events and bring individuals to our community and
showcase our community, that's really important.
About two weeks later, on November 14th, we're going to host the WA8 Player Football Championship.
The 11 players down at Camp Randall.
The A Player Championship is at Southwood County with Trust Bank Field.
That economic impact is over $100,000 for that weekend.
And so we'll be bringing two, and what's cool about the A Player is it's generally smaller
communities.
And so when they come to Wisconsin Rapids and some of our students and athletes take
our facilities for granted and to see some of the faces of other students and athletes
go, oh my gosh, this is pretty awesome.
Well, I just got to walk through Lincoln this last week and just it's very large compared
to the high school I went to.
It's large, but it's such a small field too, as I said, it's very hard to get lost.
I mean, you've got, you've basically two squares on first floor and second floor, two
rectangle.
Once you get used to it, the layout, it just seems impressive to me personally.
Exactly.
I was impressed.
And I think that's the same thing with our Performing Arts Center, obviously we're blessed
with that support of this community 25 years ago.
And so that has a significant impact and we talk about the economic impact of WA events
and the last one is stage gymnastics in March, which is just under 200,000.
So pretty much every year, the economic impact for visitors to our community, just for
three events is just under a million dollars.
Wow.
And then in addition, as you said, you talk about the Performing Arts Center and we're excited
about that.
This is the 25th year of the PAC and that same week 25 years old and it doesn't look
like it does it.
It does not.
No, absolutely not.
We obviously invest in that facility to keep it up to date, but the patrons who use it
or students who use it keep really great shape of that facility and it's just acoustically
so perfect.
It's beautiful.
It's an envy for most schools around the state that have such a facility available for
us for our music students and our drama students.
I often tell when I give tours to new families, you may not perform in a facility as nice
as this when you go off to college if you stay in those areas.
It's definitely not your typical auditorium.
It is not.
And so on November 14th, the PAC is hosting a 25th anniversary celebration and there'll
be an open house at four o'clock and then we're going to have a dinner and some performances
in the LHS commons that evening, which is another beautiful facility.
Another beautiful, exactly.
And then they'll be moving into the fall play and some additional things within the PAC
for that evening.
So it's a whole day of events to celebrate the 25th anniversary.
And what's the date of that again?
November 14th.
Saturday.
Oh, Saturday the 14th or Saturday the 15th.
Whatever the Saturday is, I'll stop my mind right now.
And I should know that because my birthday is in November, so I shouldn't know that.
But that Saturday in the PAC and is the 15th and I had a check.
Thank you.
And tickets for the meal and the performance will be $25 to celebrate the 25th year of the
PC.
So a lot of that information is available on the Foreign Arts Center of Wisconsin Rapids
Facebook page.
So in addition to that, and the WA events, just those things that come into our community
are really important for us.
And with the WIA, can you tell me what that acronym means?
So Wisconsin Inter-Skullastic Athletic Association.
Okay, good.
Thank you.
I'm glad you had to say that.
Over in Steven's point, and obviously great partners of ours.
We're the only school that's an actual school district that hosts more than one state event.
Great swimming.
Is that a high school down in the Milwaukee suburbs?
But most of them are on UW campuses or at the Rush Center in Green Bay.
And do you feel that that gives the students at Lincoln High School just being able to
have that exposure?
How do you feel that impacts them?
Yeah, I just think it's really important.
So like our livestream crew will do a lot of work with them and they'll do graphics and
they'll work through them.
T-shirt design for what some of the t-shirts will look like for these events.
So they get a feel for that.
It's one of the reasons we have the last Friday and October, generally off, because we're
preparing for that event.
And then obviously it's a boon for our clubs that are able to host concessions in such
of those events as well.
So it will be busier in town next week.
I said about 12,000 people that will be coming into our community.
Okay.
And along with those economic impacts, you mentioned something about the board passing, an important
thing here.
Tell us about that.
Last night, the board approved the school budget for the 25, 26 year and they do a preliminary
budget in June, but we're always kind of waiting on what the state is going to do and the
state budget was delayed this current year.
So the board did approve a budget last night with a mill rate at $6.54 per thousand, which
is a drop of 21 cents from last year and a drop from basically two years ago of $1.50
per thousand.
We do know equalized values have gone up, so the mill rate's going to drop.
But trying to be good stewards of our local taxpayers dollars as in our district, we're
about 35 to 40% funded by local tax dollars and the remaining generally from state aid.
Unfortunately, in the state budget this year, the state aid was flat for schools.
So a little bit of that shift did flow a little bit more on local taxpayers.
We wish they would have increased the state aid a little bit across the board.
But once again, trying to be good stewards of the local tax dollars that we do receive.
And that's just really important for us as we move forth and as we begin to look at budgets
in the future.
And one of the things that will be occurring with budgets in the future is there'll be
a community survey coming out very shortly to everybody within our community.
Okay.
And what's going to be contained in that survey?
So the survey was really divided into two parts that will be laying out is I'm just going
to talk about some of the financial challenges that the district currently has.
Okay.
Five years ago, the tax players allowed us to spend an extra $2 million a year for
technology and curriculum.
And that was for a five year time period.
Okay.
This is the last year of that accessibility of that $2 million.
So that falls really off next year, which really precipitates a budget deficit for the
district to maintain our current operation.
And then with inflation and just the increase of electricity and gas and all of that, we're
projecting approximately about a $3.5 million deficit in the district for next school year.
That is not a small number.
That's not a small number.
But the good thing is the board has been really great financial stewards in the past and
continue to attempt to pay debt down earlier than what it needs to.
So we reduce interest costs that the district incurs over the time period.
And so we're going to be sending a survey out kind of explaining a little bit of the financial
challenges for the district.
And then looking at would individuals be willing to support a future referendum, can really
continue that $2 million, but really to meet that deficit that we have in the future.
And really the survey lays out what that mill rate impact will be.
And most of that mill rate impact will be less than what the mill rate dropped from last
year in the district.
So once again, the board really being good financial stewards.
In addition, we know we're declining enrollment district and looking at our facilities and
how we can look at possible consolidation of facilities or possibly upgrading a few
facilities so we can close other facilities.
And so we're really going to ask some in the survey a little bit about some infrastructure
issues that we do have in the district.
For example, we have had a huge growth in our agricultural program at the high school.
We're looking at expanding agriculture into our middle school.
But the agriculture facilities at Lincoln are not up to where they need to be for some
of those areas.
Well, not with that level of enrollment.
Correct.
I was actually just speaking with Mr. Radke about the interest in the agriculture crisis
there.
Yeah, just the aquaponics and that growth.
And it's very different than when I grew up, I grew up on a pick farm.
And such and so it's an agriculture has changed.
It's also much more, you know, you have engineering that agriculture and the general agriculture
science of the aquaponics.
It's a lot broader than when we think of egg when I was in high school.
Yeah, it's not just crops.
Correct.
Correct.
And so looking at that and then looking at possibly at some renovations that would set
elementary is one of our older buildings that has it really been taught.
So the community survey is really laying out trying to get some opinions, really planning
our future for the district for the next five, 10, 15 years.
And so the survey will be sent out to every household in our district.
It doesn't matter if you have students in school or not in school, laying out really the
background for the school district and really it's our impact in the community.
And so we talk about the events such as the AA events that have a million dollar impact
in the community.
And a lot of that is because we have the facilities and the people to be able to bring those
events here and just trying to highlight those areas.
And their taxpayers have been really supportive of our district and continue to be very supportive
of our district.
But we just really want to reach out and learn about other areas that they may have concerns
about, things they may support.
And so the survey, as I said, we'll hit every mailbox, hopefully the week of November
3rd and the survey will be due back November 24th.
Community members can either do the survey online, they'll be a QR code or they can be
able to survey back.
The district does not see the surveys or who's filling them out, they go to an independent
company called School Perceptions and they'll compile all the results for us and for
the Board of Education in December.
So they're essentially anonymous?
Anonymous, yeah, nobody knows.
And but you know, a lot of community members we know may have questions.
So we're hosting a listening session on Tuesday, November 11th at Lincoln in the beautiful
commons which you mentioned earlier at 6.30.
So if there's any members of our community that have questions and you're going to see
a lot of information via our social media, our Facebook and our Instagram over the next
two weeks, we really do want people to fill out the survey.
Okay.
And then the other thing, the WASB, which is Wisconsin Association of School Boards, the
Business Honor Roll recipient.
Yeah, so Nick, you see today we really talked a lot about our collaboration and that is
just a little bit of the collaboration that occurs within our school buildings and one
of the things that I wanted to highlight is every year we try to highlight three businesses
to be recognized by the WASB Honor Rolls.
So this year we're going to recognize Red Run properties in December of the board meeting.
Red Run was one of the incredible partners that worked in the playground at Grant and
they've continued to work on a few of our playgrounds.
We're going to recognize Wisconsin River Orthopedics who have been major supporters of our programs
at Lincoln, our marketing program, our deck of program being one of the major sponsors
for one of the last 20 years within our programming.
And then lastly, if you've ever been to an event, you know there's Rocky Rococo's pizza.
And we're going to recognize Rockies for their support of everything with us as a school
district and youth groups, just so supportive of always being visible if you need something
always there for us.
And so Rockies and Wisconsin River, we're going to recognize them at our November board
meeting as well.
Wonderful.
I'm stopping myself from singing though.
Yeah, exactly.
Then you want some bread sticks probably too.
And then the board at the last meeting is going to recognize in December we do a holiday
concert, our Lincoln high school band choir and orchestra.
And then during that concert we recognize a friend of education and the board chose the
Judy Goss Literacy Memorial Fund.
And so every year they donate books to a classroom across the school district and over the last
few years it's been total of over $4,700 they've donated in books.
And so they're going to recognize them as well.
So we're only as successful as our partnerships and support of our community and we're just
blessed with businesses and individuals and foundations to do that for us.
So it really helps us meet our mission of helping every child succeed.
Wonderful.
Well, Nikki, is there anything else that we didn't touch on that you wanted to talk about
yet today?
No.
Other than the parent teacher conferences for elementary, I know we had talked about secondary
but elementary parent teacher conferences are coming up in November.
So they are hosted at our individual buildings and it depends on what building.
So be watching parent square if you are a parent in Wisconsin Rapids and have an elementary
student so that that will be coming up in November.
Okay.
So you'll get that information sent directly to you so you know when to show up.
That's great.
And then anything else Ron?
No, I just think it's, I think we're lucky to live in a community we do live in.
You know, I listen the other day when Lance Plummel County Board Chair was on and he talked
about the importance of collaboration between the counties and the cities and municipalities
and we're the same with everybody that we work with.
So I just appreciate you as we enter this fall season, season of thanks, thanking everyone
for their support of the school district.
Okay.
Well, tell us again the date of the community where they can come to Lincoln and the community
listening session will be on Tuesday, November 11th at 630 in the LHS comments.
Wonderful.
Well, thank you both for being here with us today.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well, thank you for listening to another edition of the Rapids Report on WFHR.com where
you can find past episodes and share them on your socials.
Thank you, a special thank you to Crockett Sceptic for sponsoring this episode of the Rapids
Report.
I'm Melissa K. Signing off.
