The Alzheimer’s Association

Bye!

It's on the morning show today from WRCO.

We have Chris Gerber who's in to talk about the Alzheimer's Association Summer Celebration, Pam Colberg, dementia care specialist with ADRC of Eagle Country, in to join us as well with an update.

Chris, you've got a big event coming up here a week from tonight, right?

I do, and it's a surprise event even for me.

I'm part of a committee, a board committee, whatever you want to call it.

four of us get together, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Madison.

I was very shocked that the Alzheimer's Association said, Chris, we want to have one in your area because of my event in November.

So September 2nd at the Phoenix Center, from 5 to 8.30, it's an end of summer celebration.

However, you want to look at, nobody likes to celebrate end of summer, so it's more just an Alzheimer's celebration thing to kind of get together.

Not looking at donating, I want to say thank you to those that have been part of my November event.

And just thank everybody for that.

But also, if you are a caregiver or anybody that you think is suffering, bring them down.

We'll have PAM there, we'll have the ADRC there, where Alzheimer's Association is going to be there.

So you'll be able to get some of your questions answered.

Where can I go next?

What options do I have as caregivers?

Caregiver health to me is very important.

caregiver health due to the fact, and we were talking about it just a little bit ago with Dolly Parton.

Dolly Parton was a caregiver for her husband, and she let things slack a little bit on her own health, which you find with a lot of caregivers these days.

They tend to, if they're caregiver, they ignore their signs that they're seeing pain, whatever it means, it's just, well, I'm tired.

I'm getting through it.

I was a caregiver for almost two years driving back from Hudson and, you know, 600 miles in a week and whatever it may be.

And it wears on you after a long time.

And then after everything passes, it doesn't pass.

It stays there.

And did I do the right thing?

Did I do everything I could?

So I'm inviting everybody down to the Phoenix Center, September 2nd.

There are going to be some big names there.

There'll be some celebrities.

Phil Nee.

Hank Bray, Tony Kurtz.

Don't scare people away now.

Come on.

Well, and that's where you bring up.

That's one thing that does scare me with the environment we're in these days is when I say Tony Kurtz is going to be there, is people are going to say, oh, well, then we don't want to come.

This isn't an event that is politics.

This doesn't care if you're rich, poor.

This disease cares less about if you're rich, poor, right, left, LGBTQ, whatever.

That doesn't matter.

This disease doesn't give that option.

And it is one of the most disease I've ever seen somebody go through with my mom.

And so I was honored to take this on.

Donny Razak is going to be there.

Donny's music is going to be there.

I love Donny.

I like his music.

He's really good.

And for him to be self-taught.

I never knew that about him.

He's self-taught all of his stuff that he does, which is amazing.

So he'll be there.

And then we'll have a pizza buffet as well.

Come on down and then get your questions answers.

This really is an Alzheimer's event.

So come down and get your questions answered.

Find out where you can go next.

What should happen?

So yeah, at the Phoenix center on September 2nd.

Well, I have information about your November event as well.

I will

have no, that's coming fast.

I started this two years ago and I never thought I'd be to the third event.

Um, but I am, and I'm full.

I've added more teams even this year.

Wow.

I've got 24 teams this year, so I'm running two shifts instead of just one.

My wife is ecstatic about that.

It's overly happiness, I think, is what it is.

You've had your wife experience some of that happiness in her life, I'm sure.

Maybe once or twice.

Maybe once or, yeah.

Your hobby causes that.

This is just a hobby.

But yeah, November 7th, we'll be at the Phoenix Center as well.

24 teams.

I've got 24 lane sponsors already.

I've got 17 silent auction things I think already and a dozen bowling balls for bowling ball raffles.

So yeah, it's, it's going to be a big event again this year.

My goal is 10,000 again this year.

Um, I'd raised just shy of that last year.

I missed it by 400 bucks or something, but that's why they now brought this to September 2nd.

Good deal.

Pam Colbert is here as well.

Pam, what's new with you?

Well, I just want to say I really appreciate that Chris is bringing the Alzheimer's Association out.

I know a lot of people used to love when we had the walks.

That was through the Alzheimer's Alliance and they're, you know, now we got the Alzheimer's Association.

I don't

know if Chris knows how much I deal with them because the Alzheimer's Association's website includes like what to do after you first get a diagnosis, but it also has a lot to do with brain health and you know how can you sort of work towards prevention if you think you have it in your family.

They're also, they've worked with local people who maybe felt like memory care wasn't exactly what it could be and they worked on getting the politicians to put a line on defining more and making sure that staff are trained when they

are working in memory care.

So this is an organization that has brought like a lot of money to the table in terms of research.

Folks know, because we've talked on the radio about the blood test that looks at the amount of amyloid, which is the twisted protein that causes the disease Alzheimer's.

But now we know that Alzheimer's Association will point out there's over 100 kinds of dementia, right?

There's a lot of ways your brain can get affected.

And so we know there's other kinds of dementia, right?

Lewy body, frontal temporal, all kinds of stuff.

You can hear it, you know, with the different celebrities having diseases.

And so we really want to support this organization.

They're like every organization.

They're stretched a little thin.

Their outreach Pearson covers a lot of counties.

But if we can get them to come here and see, I think of this as a county that likes to come out that has volunteers that wants to see work go towards that effort of getting money to kind of

deal with treatment for dementia, right?

We have some treatments now, um, you know, through lecumbi and other injectable stuff.

So there's a lot happening in this field.

I don't know if everybody knows I've been doing this for like nine years since 2017.

I worked a lot of different counties.

Um, but

I will tell you in the last year or two, it's booming, what's happening in terms of treatment and research.

I mean, they're finding out that your gut bacteria affects your brain, that there's all kinds of ways that we can look at how the brain operates, and we're still discovering new things.

So I think people can come out and support the Alzheimer's Association, as well as Chris, who does a phenomenal job getting the word out, raising the money.

I don't think there could be a better organization.

I don't know if Chris knows,

but I know somebody's coming there that day to do a donation.

That's what I heard.

Yeah, that they're, appreciate the service that the ADRC does and the dementia care specialist program.

And so they want to make sure that it goes to an organization that's really important.

So a lot going on at this event, which I feel like is almost as big as the event coming in November too.

Well, and you're starting to see, I'm glad you brought up the other people that are starting to get it.

It's not labeled just as dementia Alzheimer's anymore.

You look at Ronnie lot.

Ronnie Lott, probably one of the best defensive players in the NFL ever, has now come out and says he has dementia and it's from taking all the hits to the hit, which is what the doctors are saying.

So that brings me to domestic abuse part of it.

They're saying that is a huge...

player into dimension Alzheimer's because of the amount of hits to the head so football you're starting to see DTE and all of that kind of stuff that is playing effects into dimension and that's why I think sometimes you watch and people say well why did that football guy retire at 35 well he might have been starting to see signs already you gotta remember they're not this isn't like

per se high school.

These guys are professional athletes and they're running fast and they're getting hit hard.

And your brain just is not meant for that kind of contact.

And so when we start seeing Bruce Willis when he got involved and then we saw what happened with Robin Williams, it takes those kind of Morgan Freeman.

We're starting to see big names that are coming out with this.

I think, you know, the Duck Dynasty group, both parents.

you're starting to see more and more money being pushed to it because that's what takes to bring attention to it.

So whatever I can bring attention to it and hopefully help a little bit.

Alicia and them out in Milwaukee with the Alzheimer's Association, they're absolutely swamped and Pam summed it up very well with very limited resources.

I think statewide this year was $145,000 at small groups raised somewhere in there.

So my $15,000 that I don't think

I personally don't think it's that big.

It's not a big accomplishment in a way.

I'd love to make more.

But I also don't want to get so big that it overtakes that.

I want to make sure people know and understand the reason why we do it.

None of us want to see our parents go through it or have somebody have to.

And now we're starting to see younger and younger.

Unfortunately with my stroke, I move up the ladder in possibilities of getting dementia Alzheimer's stuff because I have a brain

Damage.

I had damage before Phil.

Don't worry.

My mom said that many times when I was younger too that I did have brain damage.

But no, it's part of that.

That when your brain health is not right,

things happen too soon.

Pam, I was going to mention too, we've done a lot of broadcasts this month for cancer, you know, with grace and everything.

And we always say it's hard to not, I mean, everybody knows somebody who's been affected by cancer anymore.

It's almost like that with Alzheimer's,

isn't it?

Right.

So when I started the job nine years ago, our job was to raise awareness and reduce the stigma.

There is no raising awareness anymore.

All the legislators are aware of it when we go and do advocacy day.

I haven't met a person who hasn't been affected.

What's interesting, I'm seeing a trend with my classes.

People want to come who are friends

and neighbors.

These aren't just direct caregivers or somebody married to someone with dementia.

Now these are friends and neighbors say I have so many friends with a various form of dementia that I want to learn more about how to because we know how you respond to someone with dementia because their brain is perceiving the world slightly differently than it did before.

I want to support them.

You know our county that have a lot of older people but this this

this disease is now seeing younger and younger people, right?

We're seeing more different kinds.

It's not an old person disease anymore.

There's Huntington's, which affects families pretty dramatically.

There's trauma, right?

Like Chris brought up that we know that trauma rewires the brain.

So people have childhood trauma.

Their brains have been rewired differently.

It's why they may struggle in other ways.

We're really seeing the impact of that.

You know, people who have been veterans, right?

They've had a lot of trauma.

And so I think that people

people are realizing this isn't just that old person disease and it's not just Alzheimer's.

It is like cancer because cancer affects different parts of the body.

So does dementia.

If you have it in the part of your body that has to do with reasoning or planning, that's going to affect you differently than if the damage is in the part of the body that affects walking and movement.

And so all those different diseases, when you hear different names and you're like, well, I thought Alzheimer's was dementia.

Well, dementia is like cancer.

It affects so many different areas of the brain.

that it can make people affect.

So not everybody has a memory issue.

Dementia is not just a memory issue.

It means that your brain has been affected in a way that affects.

But the other change that I have seen is that there's more of a direction towards giving voice to the people who actually have the disease.

Just like in cancer we have our ambassadors and you see them on the front page of the observer talking about their journey with this.

Well there's hope and light in the journey with dementia.

That's what we call our conference.

Is that people with dementia can now

be allowed to speak for themselves and talk about how do I want to have quality of life?

So I got this disease.

It's fear bummer, right?

Just like cancer.

But how am I going to go forward with this?

Can I have my community, my job still embrace that I still might be able to do some work?

There's a lot of people that are working that may have a form of early dementia, right?

There are people, employers need to be aware that they can make adaptions just like any other disability that they have to make adaptions for.

in the workplace.

How can people still be engaged in their community, right?

And so we want...

the people of dementia to realize that our community supports how they're going to go through the journey, how they're going to have quality of life.

And that's what I love about the Alzheimer's Association is they really pick up on, you know, where what's the next area that we need to focus on.

And right now it's it's working with employers, right, for how do you how do you accommodate to somebody who might have a form of dementia, but is still able to work.

because there's other parts of your brain still work.

And we need workers.

Yeah, we need workers.

Absolutely.

What about Harmony and Hope Choir?

How does that go

on?

So one of the quality of life things you can do in your community is that we want people to realize that the community supports them.

So I don't about you, I'm not.

singing but I

do have you heard that on the radio yes I was gonna

ask him to sing but I don't know if

that's filler not good

so I was hoping Chris

definitely I'm in with them okay

right

I can play the spoons okay there you go we would be the less hope choir

I don't sing either so I've been as you know because I've talked about this before I got a grant to make what's called a giving voice choir because we want to make

environment that's welcoming to everybody whether they can sing or not.

So the idea is that I have people show this fire and they go well I don't have dementia and I can't sing so I'm not coming and I think I don't have dementia and I can't sing but I will sit around if somebody's strumming a guitar and sing you know the rainbow connection or whatever and that's what happened last week.

We had an open house at the Grace Community Church so folks could learn about the choir and all I can tell you is we need more people.

because the four of us, some people are really good, and some of us ain't so good.

So we need some more singers, and that is a big plug, to start coming.

And what we're gonna do is have practices on Thursday mornings from 10 to 1130.

It starts September 17th.

It runs all the way through to December.

And then December 6th, which is a Sunday, will be at the Community Church having our

our concert and it's gonna be great.

Everybody's

gonna wear purple,

right?

Cause purple's the color of dementia.

And so we'll be singing and some of the songs we'll be singing so you can practice Phil while you're getting ready is the sound of music appropriate.

I love this one.

We're doing the monkeys daydream believer.

Accentuate the positive, right?

K Sarah Sarah, that's a really memorable song.

The rainbow connection, good old Kermit.

You've got a friend in me.

Right, Randy Newman, and Stand By Me.

Phil

knows all those very well.

Yeah,

and so you could join us.

So the idea here is to have fun.

And I think that's what people don't realize is, I can't sing, but I can hum along.

And we have this great musical director.

Her name is Aubrey.

She's out of Lancaster.

She's going to come and lead it.

She plays guitar.

We have Mary Ewing playing piano.

Christy, who you met before, Christy Thompson, who's been helping us out and get the word out.

As a group, we're just going to get together and have fun.

And so I can't tell you how great Grace Community Church has been very welcoming.

They have a beautiful space.

And so we get to meet every Thursday morning, have some fun, and sing.

And the nice thing is it doesn't matter if you have a poor memory

or if you have issues.

Well, the big thing there is you do not have to have dementia or Alzheimer's to do it.

Just get out and sing.

And what helps with that is brain health.

That also helps immensely with just helping with remember and those kind of things.

So

take it both ways, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

You're right.

Actually, we should call this the brain health choir.

That's a

good point

because.

We know that like with brain health, you need to socialize.

They have found that out through the pandemic that the big number thing is, is if you, if you sit at home, your disease gets worse.

But if you're out talking to people, whether it's phone, whether it's singing.

Remind my wife that Pam with bowling tournaments, that's socializing.

That's socializing.

That's social.

Remind, tell her that it's a very important.

Bowling is brain health.

That's why you could call your thing, bowling for your brain.

It's about the same size.

Depending on who you are.

Yeah, no.

Good stuff.

Do you have the words in front of you, too, in the inquires?

Yeah, there's a

way.

So this Giving Voice organization, anybody can go to givingvoice.org and see that it's a method they've created.

They have choirs in Minneapolis, Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee.

And they finally said, we need these small towns to join us.

And so this

is

the rural initiative.

And they have a way of displaying it, and people get to be at pairs.

So if I can only hum, and Chris is going to sing, we'll team up together and sing together.

So they have a certain method that they do, and then they just provide a lot of support.

So if anybody wants to see more about it, there's some wonderful videos of people singing and their story of what it meant for them to have dementia.

Christy will also say it's anybody of any condition she had.

friends in there that had cancer who felt like that was their joy for the week.

And so music produces a lot of joy.

We're a pretty fun group, I think, to hang out with.

And so that's the idea, is that even though you have a disease and you're struggling, you have a community that cares about you

and you can get together and have some joy.

It's one of those events that you can incorporate grace in, Alzheimer's with and dementia is this harmony of hope because it is for

everybody.

Those music songs give you just that two or three minute escape.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

And

singing.

Right.

And let me give you the phone number because you can call the ADRC, but you can also call me directly.

And my number I'm looking for it here to remember is 608 548.

three, nine, five, four.

That's my direct number.

Also, if people are listening and are just like, you know, I got a new diagnosis or I'm really curious about, you know, how my, what I heard from the assessment clinic works out, I meet with people one to one and kind of talk them through how can we make sure you have some quality of life.

So again, the phone number 608-548-3954 and join us for the Harmony and Hope Choir.

Very good.

And you also have healthy living with mild cognitive impairment.

Right.

That's coming out.

So one of the places, and what's interesting in Wisconsin is that you see how the government supports the university.

The university does lots of research.

And there's what we call the other ADRC is the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, internationally known for the things that they have discovered.

And so they have something.

It's a webinar.

You can either meet me in person and pray to Shane, or you can ask me about it.

You can get signed up to see it off your

computer, it's a webinar, and it's called What's Next in Alzheimer's Detection into Treatment.

And so it's kind of some of the new treatments that are going on, the new areas of research including inflammation, that's the big one they know, is why people like the football stars and that kind of thing, why they get...

that inflammation really affects the body.

It's a natural response, but it can sometimes lead to disease.

And so there's so many more tests that they can do now, like that blood test.

They call it Tau 217.

It's looking at different

what they call buyer markers, what's going on in the body that people have these struggles.

So if you want to know what's next in all summers detection and treatment, it's Friday, September 11th at 9 30.

It is a webinar you can join.

There's also places around the state of Wisconsin.

We have about 12 of us dementia care specialists that are hosting in person.

So you can ask questions after and

that's a good time September 2nd.

that they could see you at the bowling alley.

Yes, and then they could find about it and

I'll have this piece

of paper that has a QR code and they could register.

There you go.

Good timing.

We planned it all the time.

We did.

Chris, that's good.

Absolutely.

And as we close the men's shed, you've been really getting some good programs out there.

Right.

And I think one of the things you want to stress is this is not a dementia activity.

No, no.

Is it 60 and older?

60 and better.

60

and better.

I

was actually thinking

that

here at WRCO, they have a lot of, you know, it's an all male cast here.

And I was thinking you guys could have your own men shed here.

None of them over 60

yet.

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

I was trying to.

A woman doesn't ask a

man for the stages.

That's appropriate.

That's all I was trying to

do.

But things that we're having, there's an author coming September 9th.

It's every second Wednesday.

Gary Jones, he wrote a book all about living on the ridge.

I'm really curious to hear about that.

Rose Walsh is talking about Medicare enrollment.

If you ever had questions about Medicare.

John Summelt, the pastor that writes that article and the original observer, he's apparently, has a storytelling that he's gonna do.

And then we also have somebody coming in December.

Jeff Kirsten is talking about scams.

Things

you need to know about.

That's a huge, that's a huge for any age, by the way.

But the men shed on my side point of, I look at it and I wish sometimes I was 60 to go to it because I see the things that they're doing and what amazes me in the small town of.

Lloyd.

Or Lloyd.

I mean, yeah, so it's basically Casanova too, I think.

Isn't that kind of in between?

Be careful, Phil

went to kindergarten there.

No, first grade.

First

grade.

Yeah,

it does have a Casanova address, but

it is a different town.

But yeah, no, it's a great thing.

So I think anybody in that,

that wants to have a good meal, too.

I've seen the food, because we just say that comes at my house.

The food is delicious.

Sotwheels.

Sotwheels from Kaz.

Has the best beef

I've ever tasted.

Good stuff.

So coming up in September.

Well, thanks for coming in today, you guys.

No problem.

Thanks,

Phil, for having us.

Phil, I just want to mention all this is on the community calendar.

Thanks to Todd.

Oh, and I'm going to end with this.

There's one other celebrity I forgot to mention that will be at the event.

You worked countless hours with that gentleman.

We're going to put the RWRCO duo back together.

That sounds good.

So you guys will be singing at this

event.

On a hill far away.

That event coming up next Wednesday, September 2nd, 5 to 830 at the Phoenix Center in Richland Center.

Thanks to Chris Gerber and Pam Colberg for their expertise on the first half of the morning show.

Music playing

Welcome back to the Morning Show.

Glad to have in the studio representatives of Weston Schools, Weston Principal, District Administrator, 7th through 12th Principal, Molly Casten, and Jason Meyer as well, Elementary Principal and 7th through 12th Dean of Students at Weston.

We'll introduce you to Jason in just a bit.

Molly, welcome back.

You look fairly well rested

for the

summer.

Yeah, you know, you get lots of rest in the summer.

It's, you know, when you only have the, you have a few adults in the building, but not many students.

And so,

So it's a time, it's a busy time because there's a lot of behind the scenes.

People don't realize all the work that goes into closing up one year and then preparing for the next year.

And especially when you have to make hiring adjustments and do some of those things.

But it's good, you know, and we're excited we had open house last week.

And it was good seeing kids in the building.

And that's why we all do what we do is for students.

And so I know over the summer, I really miss them.

And it's so neat this year when so many came in.

And you just can't believe how they've grown so much over the summer.

And I'm looking at so many kids thinking, wow, we've got some really tall.

There were so many kids that came in.

I'm now looking at them eye to eye, and they're in elementary school, so it's good to have the kids back, though.

Growth spurt, yeah.

Going into the school year, you know, having passed a referendum too, it's a little different than the last couple of years.

You can really focus on what's important this year, can't you?

Yeah, and the past couple of years, that's kind of overshadowed a lot of the work that was going on, but this year our

You know, we really want to focus on clarity and making sure we're clear in our with instruction curriculum, our process and procedures, the expectations we have for staff, students and our parents and the organizational structure.

So really fine tuning things so that we can operate like a well oiled machine and everybody knows what they're doing and where to go with things.

So it's good to have that different.

different mindset of of the year and to plan plan for the year without the addition of all the planning that had to go in for the referendum

Yeah, so back at it anything new in terms of I'm guessing you had a few new hires in the offseason

Yes for our junior high in high school.

We had to replace one teacher our high school English teacher and

We hired Ren Eliason, she is from the Mineral area, and she's in her second year of teaching.

We're excited to have her and the energy she brings as a new educator.

She also will become our forensics advisor, so that's good to have someone taking on that responsibility for our

students.

Okay, and student council as well.

Yes, we had a student council advisor shift, Mariah Green, who is our high school secretary in our public relations.

She has taken over student council and really looking forward to having her really develop our student council as leaders and that's the role they

that those students should have as leaders of the high school.

And so she's looking at working on bringing back some traditional activities along with some new ones to create new traditions and again developing those kids as leaders in our high school.

Student council does a lot of things behind the scenes and can you envision them doing some fundraisers and things like that for the school year?

Yes, and what they've always done a few fundraisers and they're responsible for the activities that homecoming our homecoming we're going to go in more depth on at a later date but we have a lot of plans for that.

But it's really important for me in conversations with Mariah and some other staff that

We need to look at providing some more engaging activities at the school for our high school students.

You know, just providing the sports, which we need to provide sports, we need to provide those clubs and activities, that isn't quite, that's not enough.

You know, we need more for them to become engaged with the school because

If we don't provide things for them to do, they're going to find their own things to do.

And we know that sometimes they don't make the best choices.

So we are looking at really bringing in some more fun and rich activities for our high school.

And for our school district, we have had

We have two big dances.

We don't have that third one, but we are going to be adding a winter formal this year and some fun activities the week of that.

So really adding to, we want our kids to have that full high school experience that everyone remembers, right?

You remember the things you did in high school and that's what those activities are a big part of that.

We used to have more dances when I was in school, right?

So I mean, that was always a fun activity.

Good to hear you're bringing those back a little bit.

Yeah.

So as far as some other things you're looking forward to, is there anything in terms of the schedule that's going to change this year for Weston?

No.

Our school schedule is consistent with what we've been doing with our class structure in the junior high and high school.

We've worked over several years because it's

It's difficult scheduling classes when you have some teachers that are teaching from 4k to 12th grade and having people that are teaching in both the high school and the elementary.

So our schedule, our class schedules in pretty, we've been revising that over the years and it works pretty well.

There's some adjustments that are elementary that Jason's gonna talk about, but at the high school,

In junior high level, it's pretty consistent.

Our school year calendar, the one big change this year is we did move our spring break that it is, I think it's March 8th through the 12th.

It's earlier, we're trying to get it between the sports seasons so that there's the break at that time instead of at the end of March around.

Easter time.

So we did move our spring break this year.

Important there for people to make plans.

Well, you mentioned Jason will introduce you to Jason Meyer.

Good morning.

Good morning, Phil.

How are you?

Great.

First trip to the morning.

So tell us a little bit about yourself if you

would.

Sure.

Well, so I came to Weston seven years ago right in the heat of COVID.

And I'm a local person.

I grew up in Loganville.

So Weston was always

I was always aware of Weston and I was always kind of jealous that, you know what, I always heard about the sports and the athletics and all the different activities that kids at Weston got to do.

I always saw myself as a small town person so there was an opportunity that came into play and I joined the team at Weston seven years ago.

So I've been working with Molly here for all that time and

So that's a little bit about me.

I've always been an elementary person.

I taught sixth grade before I was a principal.

And so I've really come to love Weston and the community.

Got to know everyone and working in partnership with them.

So today I'd like to talk a little bit about our structures for the school year, if that's okay.

So last year we had our kindergarten teacher left us halfway through the year.

So we had to kind of think outside the box around the rest of the school year, how that would look.

And so our first grade teacher at the time, Amber Needham, agreed to give it a try and teach kindergarten for the rest of the year.

And she discovered that she really liked it.

And so this year she's going to be in kindergarten.

Our second grade teacher, Mrs. Woodrick,

We decided to combine first and second grade at the end of last year.

So we just didn't think that would be a long-term solution to a short-term problem.

And so I brought the brainstorming session to our teachers to say, hey, what would be the best structure for us moving forward?

Given that our numbers are where they're at and everything else like that.

So we have some wonderful staff who

came up with some outside of the box ideas and that's what I love about our staff is that when you have a problem that you present, they come up with some great solutions.

So this year we're going to have our third, fourth, fifth grade classrooms being taught by two classroom teachers and one paraprofessional.

You might be familiar with one of our teachers who's also a coach, Bailey Miller.

She's going to be one of our teachers, and then Laurie Glassbrenner.

So they're going to teach our third through fifth grade classrooms that gives us a little flexibility as well in terms of maybe meeting the needs of some of our higher learners, of our younger students, and some of our lower learners of our upper grades.

And so some book group possibilities and also in math, perhaps, as the year goes on, just meeting

the needs differently in that way.

So that's exciting.

That's one of the things that I think our parents are probably a little nervous about going into the year.

What will that look like?

We don't have all the answers to all those questions until we encounter them, but definitely we're

We're working as a team to get through all those things.

The students move like from

classroom to classroom at that age then?

Or how does that

work?

Well, so that was one of the things we talked about, Phil.

What the teachers came up with was that the teachers are going to have the, they'll have some, we have three classrooms structurally and then the students will move to the teachers.

So there is some movement, which is nice, especially in the third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade.

age groups, you know, we need to give them opportunities throughout the day to move, so that kind of naturally gives them some breaks.

So yeah, that's part of the rotational structure.

Bailey's going to be teaching science and social studies, and then Lori's going to teach the language arts and the writing.

They decided to specialize a little bit there.

But as we go, the main theme is that flexibility and the ability to perhaps make changes along the way as we see those needs arising.

Do you

miss the classroom?

Oh, you know, I do a little bit.

I do have opportunities to do some of that teaching just naturally in what I do.

A couple years ago, I took a class.

where I can teach yoga and mindfulness.

And so some of those skills really do come into play with teaching students and staff self-regulation skills, which is really one of the most important things in order to learn.

You need to be self-regulated, right?

And able to be calm and, you know, present, so.

And you can use that in your role as

principal.

Yeah, and dean of students.

And so yeah, I've I have been busy with that.

And in the first couple of years, since then, just, you know, working through those things and teaching staff how to give students some of the strategies.

Connecting to your breath is just one simple strategy.

So we do that on the daily basis at Weston at the elementary school.

I presume you get maybe in a fill in role once in a while, you get in the

classroom.

Oh, absolutely.

Yes.

actually a joy is having opportunities to fill in when I can.

You wanted to talk about elementary enrichment as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

So this is an after-school enrichment program that we started a couple years ago now.

We have a coordinator, Stephanie Vic, who's also one of our junior high teachers.

And basically what it is is that we have several of our staff members right now, but it is open to anyone who would like to

you know, coordinate a program or an activity.

It started with chess club, which I actually ran only because I know how to play a little chess and so I thought I'd share that skill with some of our students.

And, you know, I was planning on maybe 15 students and we ended up with 30.

So there's definitely a need for the students as well as the parents to have something to do after school that then built into

Marcus McCauley doing a wrestling club and Laura Deamer doing an art club and Amanda Ren one of our paraprofessionals doing something called Little Eagle Cooperative with our younger younger learners where they get to learn cooperation skills through play and And then we have a talent show or a drama club that Christina Jennings runs and so Those are just some of the things that we were currently doing and that will continue to do but

Just putting a pitch to anyone out there that might be interested in maybe sharing a talent who would love to lead a small group.

They can contact me over Stephanie Vic at Weston.

It's a great way for somebody to give back a little bit to the community.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And that's the best, you know, giving, giving makes us feel good.

And so, yeah, any of that is, is always welcome.

So looking to expand that and

And any volunteers out there as well, if there are people that are looking to give their time, have them contact us at Weston.

Wonderful.

New cell phone policy.

We've talked about this with some other districts in the area.

What's going on with the policy at Weston?

So the approach that our school board took is our elementary will not have any cell phones during the school day.

But our junior high and high school students are permitted to have their phones before and after school.

at lunch and between classes.

The way we approach managing this, and it's still, the policy still fits with the statute, state statute.

Our teachers have a consistent storage system in each classroom, so as the students come in, they drop their phones into those, and so that they're not on them.

If a student doesn't do that, doesn't leave their phone in, and they happen to be on their phone during a class period, which includes Study Hall,

sore any of our junior senior privilege, they are taken away.

You know, for us, it was important that in we live in

Our students live in such a rural area and our school is in such a rural area that there are so many times that parents are communicating with kids, you know, to let them know they need to go home with someone or that they're having practice at a different time or location, all of those things that come up.

And, you know, parents want to be able to communicate with their kids and give those messages.

We felt that it was a good thing and also it was important to teach kids the skills of appropriate cell use, you know, that you're not on your cell phone during school or you're

your Bluetooth speaker because that's included as well or a watch, you know, that you need to be present during that time.

But then there is a time that you do need to communicate with people and check in with your parents or some different things.

So that's how the West End School District approached it.

What is cell reception like?

I mean, you're high on the hill there, so it's probably pretty good, isn't

it?

One would think.

One would think.

It depends on what...

which company you have and what location.

I know Jason is in a hole down in the, and when I say down in the elementary, our elementary portion of the building is in a lower.

a lower spot than the high school.

The high school sits up a little higher and you walk down some steps to get to the elementary.

And there's some areas within there that you can't get reception.

So it depends too if you have your Wi-Fi on and a lot of different things.

But yeah, some areas are good.

Luckily for me, my office, my previous office that Jason's now in, I did not have service in there, but now my office that I've been in the past,

just my third year.

It's got service, so that's helpful.

Weston and Ithaca joined forces for football this year.

Back to 11 player football, it seems to be going pretty well, Molly.

Yeah, it was an exciting game.

It sounds like last Friday night against Riverdale when they won.

And you know, this is our new, our first year of this new co-op with Ithaca.

We also did

with the co-op, we are also combining our junior high students.

And so they're playing together as well.

So that was something we found.

We did that with Girls Basketball.

Last year when we switched to our co-op with Ithaca for Girls Basketball, we also included our junior high middle school so that it's a consistent program.

So that's been pretty effective.

And we have quite a few students out.

And we have some kids that have been, we knew the sophomore group that we have, they've been working pretty hard in all sports and with some strength and conditioning over several years.

And it's a good group of athletes and they're a good group of kids that work hard as students and they're good school leaders.

Yeah, and they showed well on the field.

And I mentioned it before because I've experienced it with your girls basketball and wrestling and track and softball.

But the kids don't seem to mind.

You know, they don't know anything about a rivalry between the schools over the years.

It seems like they are pretty cohesive as a team.

Have you seen that?

Yeah, we have.

And we've seen, you know, the girls softball team that co-op was a positive experience for a lot of our kids, too.

The kids enjoyed it.

the team itself you know they they're cohesive and like you say it's not it's not always the the kids you know these these students they don't they don't remember those rivalries that other people do you know so it's they have different rivalries they have different things and and when you think of it the the connections that they have they've all been connected because of social media and cell phones you know it's not like

back in the day, Richland Center River Valley, we were rivals.

And Richland Center, when you lived in Richland Center, it was long distance to call River.

We didn't have a way to easily communicate.

It was not easy and it's not like that anymore.

And so the boundaries and limits of where kids have friendships have expanded so much.

So they don't know a rivalry.

They don't remember it.

And it also helps that we've had the successful co-op of wrestling.

That has been ongoing for several years.

And so that's a connection too.

And then once you have one or two students that are connected, somehow it just spreads like wildfire.

And they have friendships.

And they've known these kids for a long time.

Most definitely.

Where are you at in terms of the nickname for the team?

You

mean the mascot?

The mascot.

That's been kind of bandied about, I think, in both communities.

Yes.

I still stand by, and I've said this for the past several years, that the name of the mascot is something that should come from the combined effort of students and community.

It isn't something that I'm going to come out and say this is what we should be named and talk with other administration about.

It needs to be a community thing, a community and student thing.

And especially, you know, it's the students, right?

they're the ones that are going they're in school and um it's we want them to have pride in their in their school and their their teams and all the things they do that they have to have a say in that so um I I'm okay with taking some time on doing it the right way instead of rushing to name to name something um and you know like there are so many sports that

have co-opped for years and they're, you know, like with wrestling, right?

It's the Ithaca-Weston wrestling team.

Yeah, we have a few other things that sometimes, you know, that is the unofficial name for the team, but, you know, we need to take some time and do it the right way.

I think that's a good plan, good idea.

We referred to you as IW when we weren't saying Ithaca-Weston

last

time, so, yeah.

And that's, you know, and in time,

as people adjust, you know, because we don't, we don't want it to just be, you know, we take over one school's mascot.

We want to make sure that it's something that everybody has a say in and everybody can feel some pride in because it's new.

It's something new.

And we're still, Weston is still going to be the Silver Eagles and Ithaca is still going to be the Bulldogs, right?

But when we have our teams together, we have to have

We can have something, but it needs to be from the kids, in my opinion.

Yeah.

Oh, I think that's good news.

So both schools will have their homecomings for football and for sports this year.

And that's going to be a little different, because it's fairly early this year, isn't

it?

September 19th.

Yeah.

So that's coming up.

We had ours really early, I think, last year at that time.

So it's a quick turnaround.

You get kids in the building.

You're doing a lot of community building because you're preparing for homecoming.

So that's how we that was the approach we took last year.

So they got the early date for the homecoming game and then ours is October 16th.

And you've had some alumni reach out and things like that wondering about it.

And you recently had some alumni tour of the school too,

didn't you?

Yeah, I had some, the class of 1971 contacted me and they were having their class reunion and they wanted to do a tour of the school because several of them hadn't been back to the school in some time and they wanted a group picture.

So I think it was August 15th they came back and I was able to

to tour with them and go through the building.

They weren't interested in the elementary section.

That wasn't even there when they went to school, but it was really neat to see them in the school and hear the stories that they told about high school.

And then I took their picture.

And then of course, after they took the picture, they put me on the spot because they had the words to the school song, but they couldn't remember the tune.

And so I had to...

felt it out there.

It's posted in the gym, isn't

it?

The words aren't the problem.

It's the music.

They didn't remember the tune, how it sounds, and so I had to lead.

And so I was able to do the school song, and they were able to chime in once I, you know, hopefully had the right tune behind the melody behind it.

You're not going to perform it to close the morning show

today?

No, not that.

You know, I don't have those.

It's weird because I can do the school song when I see it, but I still remember my high school song.

And it's like, how can I remember that from all those years ago?

And I'll struggle with, as an adult, the school song at Weston.

But I know it when I have the words.

Next time you can sing it for homecoming when you come back.

Maybe.

Jason, what excites you about the upcoming school year

at Weston?

I'm just excited to see all the kids.

We had a little taste of that at the open house and I can't wait for our first day.

So I'm just thrilled to get started with another school year film.

Is there anything else that parents should know about the first day of school at Weston?

Well, if they're dropping their kids off, just remember we're going to drop them off at the upper

end with the high school, end of the school.

So make sure you do that.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to Corinne in our office or myself or any of our staff.

And the first day is Tuesday.

First day is Tuesday.

Wow.

Right around the bend.

My granddaughter started today down in the Milwaukee area.

So tis the season to get going.

Good to see you both.

Thank you.

Here's to a good school year at Weston.

We'll see you

in the home

football Friday night,

right?

Yes, Friday night at Weston.

Hosting Wozika Stubin-Seneca.

Yep.

Very

good.

Well, good luck.

All right, thank you.

Molly Kaston joining us, Weston Principal, District Administrator, and also Jason Meyer, Elementary Principal, and 7 through 12 Dean of Students.

Welcome back to The Morning Show.

Glad to have in the studio representatives of Weston Schools, Weston Principal, District Administrator, 7th through 12th Principal, Molly Caston, and Jason Meyer as well.

Elementary Principal and 7th through 12th Dean of Students at Weston.

We'll introduce you to Jason in just a bit.

Molly, welcome back.

You look fairly well rested.

for the summer.

Yeah, you know, you get lots of rest in the summer.

It's, you know, when you only have the, you have a few adults in the building, but not many students.

And so it's a time, it's a busy time because there's a lot of behind the scenes.

People don't realize all the work that goes into closing up one year and then preparing for the next year.

And especially when you have to make hiring adjustments and do some of those things.

So, but it's, it's good, you know, and we're,

Excited we had open house last week and it was good seeing kids in the building and you know That's that's why we all do what we do is for students You know and so I know over the summer I really miss them and it's it's so it's so neat this year when so many came in and You just can't believe how how they've grown so much over the summer and I'm looking at so many kids thinking wow We've got some really tall I mean there were so many kids that came in I just couldn't

you know, I'm now looking at them eye to eye, you know, and they're in elementary school.

So it's, it's good to have the kids back though.

Grossberg.

Yeah.

Going into the school year, you know, having passed a referendum too, it's a little different than the last couple of years.

You can really focus on what's important this year, can't you?

Yeah, and you know, the past couple of years that that's kind of overshadowed a lot of the work that was going on.

But this year are, you know, we really want to focus on clarity and making sure we're clear in our with instruction curriculum, our process and procedures, the expectations we have for staff, students and our parents.

and the organizational structure, so really fine tuning things so that we can operate like a well-oiled machine and everybody knows what they're doing and where to go with things.

So it's good to have that different mindset of the year and to plan for the year without the addition of all the planning that had to go in for the referendum.

Yeah, so back at it, anything new in terms of, I'm guessing you had a few new hires in the off season?

Yes, for our junior high and high school, we had to replace one teacher, our high school English teacher.

We hired Rena Eliason, she is from the Monroe area, and she's in her second year of teaching.

We're excited to have her and the energy she brings as a new educator.

She also will become our forensics advisor, so that's good to have someone taking on that responsibility for our

students.

Okay, and student council as well.

Yes, we had a student council advisor shift, Mariah Green, who is our high school secretary in our public relations.

She has taken over student council and really looking forward to having her really develop our student council as leaders and that's the role they

that those students should have as leaders of the high school.

And so she's looking at working on bringing back some traditional activities along with some new ones to create new traditions and again developing those kids as leaders in our high school.

Student council does a lot of things behind the scenes and can you envision them doing some fundraisers and things like that for the school year?

Yes, and what they've always done a few fundraisers and they're responsible for the activities that homecoming our homecoming we're going to go in more depth on at a later day but we have a lot of plans for that.

But it's really important for me in conversations with Mariah and some other staff that

We need to look at providing some more engaging activities at the school for our high school students.

Just providing the sports, which we need to provide sports, we need to provide those clubs and activities, that's not enough.

We need more for them to become engaged with the school because

If we don't provide things for them to do, they're going to find their own things to do.

And we know that sometimes they don't make the best choices.

So we are looking at really bringing in some more fun and rich activities for our high school.

And for our school district, we have had

We have two big dances.

We don't have that third one, but we are going to be adding a winter formal this year and some fun activities the week of that.

So really adding to, we want our kids to have that full high school experience that everyone remembers, right?

You remember the things you did in high school and that's what those activities are a big part of that.

We used to have more dances when I was in school, right?

So I mean, that was always a fun activity.

Good to hear you're bringing those back a little bit.

Yeah.

So as far as some other things you're looking forward to, is there anything in terms of the schedule that's going to change this year for Weston?

No.

Our school schedule is consistent with what we've been doing with our class structure in the junior high and high school.

We've worked over several years because it's

It's difficult scheduling classes when you have some teachers that are teaching from 4K to 12th grade and having people that are teaching in both the high school and the elementary.

So our schedule, our class schedule's in pretty, we've been revising that over the years and it works pretty well.

There's some adjustments that are elementary that Jason's gonna talk about, but at the high school,

In junior high level, it's pretty consistent.

Our school year calendar, the one big change this year is we did move our spring break that it is, I think it's March 8th through the 12th.

It's earlier, we're trying to get it between the sports seasons so that there's the break at that time instead of at the end of March around.

Easter time.

So we did move our spring break this year.

Important there for people to make plans.

Well, you mentioned Jason will introduce you to Jason Meyer.

Good morning.

Good morning, Phil.

How are you?

Great.

First trip to the morning.

So tell us a little bit about yourself if you

would.

Sure.

Well, so I came to Wesson seven years ago right in the heat of COVID.

Um, and I'm a local person.

I grew up in Loganville.

So Weston was always, uh, I was always aware of Weston and, um, I was always, uh, kind of jealous that, you know what?

I always heard about the, the sports and the, and the athletics and all the different activities that kids at Weston got to do.

Um, and I always.

saw myself as a small town person.

So there was an opportunity that came into play and I joined the team at Weston seven years ago.

So I've been working with Molly here for all that time.

And so that's a little bit about me.

I've always been an elementary person.

I taught sixth grade before I was a principal.

And so I've really come to love Weston and the community and got to know everyone.

working in partnership with them.

So today I'd like to talk a little bit about our structures for the school year if that's okay.

So last year we had our kindergarten teacher left us halfway through the year so we had to kind of think outside the box around the rest of the school year how that would look and so our first grade teacher at the time, Amber Needham,

agreed to give it a try and teach kindergarten for the rest of the year and she discovered that she really liked it.

And so this year she's going to be in kindergarten.

Our second grade teacher, Mrs. Woodrick, we decided to combine first and second grade at the end of last year.

So we just didn't think that would be a long-term solution to a short-term problem.

And so I brought the

brainstorming session to our teachers to say, hey, what would be the best structure for us moving forward?

Given that our numbers are where they're at and everything else like that.

So we have some wonderful staff who came up with some outside of the box ideas.

And that's what I love about our staff is that when you have a problem that you present, they come up with some great solutions.

So this year, we're going to have our third, fourth, fifth grade classrooms

being taught by two classroom teachers and one paraprofessional.

You might be familiar with one of our teachers who's also a coach, Bailey Miller.

She's going to be one of our teachers, and then Laurie Glassbrenner.

So they're going to teach our third through fifth grade classrooms that gives us a little flexibility as well in terms of maybe meeting the needs of some of our higher learners, of our younger students, and some of our lower learners of our upper grades.

And so some book group possibilities, and also in math, perhaps, as the year goes on, just meeting

the needs differently in that way.

So that's exciting.

That's one of the things that I think our parents are probably a little nervous about going into the year.

What will that look like?

We don't have all the answers to all those questions until we encounter them, but definitely we're

We're working as a team to get through all those things.

The students

move like from classroom to classroom at that age then or how does that work?

Well, so that was one of the things we talked about, Phil.

What the teachers came up with was that the teachers are going to have the, they'll have some, we have three classrooms structurally and then the students will move to the teachers.

So there is some movement which is nice, especially in the third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade.

age groups, you know, we need to give them opportunities throughout the day to move, so that kind of naturally gives them some breaks.

So yeah, that's part of the rotational structure.

Bailey's going to be teaching science and social studies, and then Lori's going to teach the language arts and the writing.

They decided to specialize a little bit there.

But as we go, the main theme is that flexibility and the ability to perhaps make changes along the way as we see those needs arising.

Do you miss the classroom?

Oh, you know, I do a little bit.

I do have opportunities to do some of that teaching just naturally in what I do.

A couple years ago, I took a class.