Music.
yeah thanks phil it's great to be here again
you boy it sure does it uh and of course the school started before labor day this year it's just the way the calendar worked out but
You know, you kind of get this opportunity to breathe in June as school gets out.
And then July is a time where a lot of people have the opportunity to get a lot of work done, a lot of catch up, wrapping up the past school year, getting ready for the new school year.
But it's also a time when a lot of folks are, they work full time, they're taking vacations.
And so it's pretty relaxed, but you had a good opportunity for people to get things done.
But boy, when you hit
August 1st, it feels like things really get rushed quickly and then it just becomes a blur because you're getting ready for super registration early in the year.
Our offices were extremely busy this summer, certainly in the month of August, but really all summer with enrollments and new enrollments and getting things ready for the new school year.
Our teachers come back and start in service in the middle of August.
A couple years ago, Phil, our teachers that were on our calendar committee, they decided instead of having a whole week of in service where they just come Monday through Friday and it's just five days of intense in service and a lot of training, they wanted more time to be able to be used in their classroom and also spread it out a little bit because it was just like drinking water through a fire hose.
There's just so much information that they're gathering
at the beginning of the year.
And so with that, a few years ago, we broke up in service.
Teachers come the third week in August for three days and then come back the fourth week of August for three or four days.
And then they also get the ability to come in a couple of flexible days anytime in the month of August, just to get their rooms ready.
And so with that, we start a little earlier.
It's a little bit more of a soft start because we don't have this intense week of in-service training.
It's kind of nice because, you know, you get to see people in a little bit more relaxed setting and see how their summers went.
But still, it is, you know, super registration, in-service week, another week of in-service, and kids are in school.
And that's ultimately what we're here for, right?
We're here for students and we're excited when students come back into the building.
And I've said this to you before, I've probably said it a dozen times to different folks, you know, kids all summer long, you know, I see them, I see them at a summer basketball or I see them at Walmart and how's your summer going?
You're ready for school and it's inevitably it's summer's going too fast.
No, I don't want school to start, but then that first day rolls around and it doesn't matter which building you're at.
And I was at all of our buildings on the first couple of days and watching students, whether they're in
4k, and yeah, there's a couple of tiers as they hang on to mom and dad's leg.
Second grade, fifth grade, seventh grade, or a senior.
There are genuine smiles and sincere appreciation that students are happy to be with their classmates again, some of them that they haven't necessarily seen all summer long.
Social media has made the world a little smaller, and they have the ability to connect
electronically during the summer, but they still don't necessarily get that face-to-face interaction that they do in school.
And of course, we, like most schools across the state, are cell phone free when school starts.
And just watching the interactions between students and students, students and staff, staff and staff, the first couple days of school, that's phenomenal.
And something that I don't take lightly, and it's always
Brings a smile to my face and when September rolls around and we get to see that
Yeah, you know is as positive as the school year has been unfortunately there was a
a bus accident with a private vehicle just south of the intermediate school.
I believe it was a second day of school and so fortunate that no one was seriously injured.
We had some students that were shook up a little bit.
I mean, shook up more from a frightened standpoint.
Some of these students had never been in a situation like that before.
But again, fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.
There were no major injuries.
All of the students
were released back to school.
Some of the parents chose to keep them home.
But when you do have unfortunate situations like that, it does make you appreciate the things that maybe you take for granted a little bit.
And that's the first responders and those folks who are on scene quickly, you know, from our local law enforcement, the city, the county sheriff's department, who are first responders and our EMT folks.
And while...
ambulance crews and things like that were not necessarily needed for this accident.
Knowing that they were there and knowing that they were available and ready to be deployed and work in any capacity that they could is really good to see.
And it's unfortunate that you have to have situations like this, but fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.
And I think it's a good opportunity to just be reminded of the wonderful folks that we have, either employed or volunteering to be first responders in situations like that.
and know that they're there for us if we ever do need them.
And again, happy to report that all of our students are back in the buildings and everybody's doing really, really well.
And they were able to quickly get through it.
But it is a good reminder of all the wonderful folks that we have in our community.
It really is.
And it's not just in our community, but across the state.
And unfortunately,
The news doesn't report all of the successful trips that happen each and every day, mornings, afternoons, midday routes.
And you do hear about the unfortunate situations.
But to your point, we have close to 20 routes that are going, 20 buses that are sharing the road every single morning from a little after 6 AM until 8 30.
We have another half dozen buses that are on the road during midday routes from 11 30 to one.
And then another 20 on the road again after school from starting about 245, maybe slightly before until students are home at five o'clock.
And then on top of that, you throw in all the extracurricular and co-curricular activities and buses transporting students to an away game or visiting opponents coming to Richland Center.
There's a lot of buses on the road and very fortunate, not just locally, but
but across the state to have really good people that have gone through extensive training to become a certified bus driver and appreciate all of the hard work that they're doing.
You think about.
I just think about going on a family trip, right?
And I have two kids and those two girls and my wife in the vehicle with me and me driving and trying to keep track of what I'm doing, driving and also engaging conversation with them and sometimes separate my two daughters in the back seat can be challenging.
And then you think about that multiplied by the number of students on a bus.
And these bus drivers are responsible first and foremost of getting students to and from school safely.
But these are buses where some of our buses have, you know, upwards of 40, 50 kids on them, and they're trying to develop relationships with them, have good positive conversations and communications with them.
These are the first folks that our students see in the morning, our last folks that our students see when they get off the bus, and then trying to put out any fires or conflicts, again, because it happens.
There are 45 kids on the bus, and they just do a phenomenal job of navigating all of it.
And then you throw in the external factors like road construction and narrow roads on highway 14 and all of the different things that they've got to navigate around.
And when you really put it all in perspective, they really have a remarkable job to do and they do it really, really well each and every day.
And we're just very fortunate that we have such a skilled staff of drivers and that our students are generally well behaved on the buses and that allows everyone to do their job safely.
I agree 100% and they're driving 60 foot buses around the corner.
Yeah.
drivers.
Yeah.
So we are well underway now.
Schools, you know, we're in the second week of school.
It feels like we're in, you know, month two, but things are going really, really well.
But a lot of our high school
sports and clubs will start prior to school, starting all of our athletics for the most part, nine through 12.
But also a lot of our activities.
I know our student council has met numerous times during the summer.
NHS has had activities.
There's just a lot of things going on.
But then when September first rolls around and we're at that first day of school, that's really where things really ramp up for all of our students, right?
We have our middle school sports now in full swing.
High school sports are now, you know,
in competition, they're playing games, they're doing those things.
And then also the numerous clubs and activities that we have for students throughout our school district.
Those are all getting underway as well.
And I know Mr. Lemke and Mrs. Perkins, they continually are trying to promote for students to get involved.
And I know that's something I've talked about on the radio, something that we try to tell our parents.
And if there are parents out there listening, I cannot stress enough how important it is and how beneficial it is for students to be involved in something, right?
And maybe they're not of the athletic nature.
But they really enjoy art.
We have an art club, right?
Maybe they really enjoy the environment or science.
We have a science club.
Maybe they like participating in skits or speeches, humor, serious, an environmentalist.
We have forensics.
We have things available for just about every
interest that there is in out there, right?
And I don't know, maybe Carrie knows, but I think we have upwards of close to 30 clubs and activities and sports for kids to be a part of, maybe even a little bit more than that.
And there are always new ones that are starting when there's an interest for that to be started up, weightlifting, powerlifting, movie club, eat and read club, where students can just read books, right?
And there's so many opportunities.
And I would just encourage every student
just get involved in one thing.
And it just allows them to meet another group of students, maybe that are not in the same grade, but clearly have similar interests, right?
Because they're in that club and allows them to really meet friends that potentially become lifelong friends.
It also allows students to maybe get out of that shyness shell a little bit and do something that they feel...
proud about that they can put on their resume for a college application, a job application.
whatever it might be.
But so many, so many opportunities for kids to be involved.
And I would just encourage everyone to get involved.
But this is the time of year.
It's not too late.
Yes, we're in the second week of school.
Yes, there may have been some clubs that have already gotten together.
It is not too late.
It is not too late to inquire about joining a sport.
It is not too late to join a middle school sport.
It is not too late to join a club and take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that we
have out there and I can almost guarantee them that they will not regret it.
You know, we tend to look back in life and we regret things that we didn't do, not things that we did do.
And I don't know that you'll ever meet somebody that says, boy, I really regret joining that club in high school.
It's just they're positive experiences, right?
And they may may not have loved every moment of it or there may have been some ups and downs with it, but they don't regret doing it.
they do regret not doing it.
And so if there's any advice I can give a youngster out there, just get involved, do something, be involved, have that wonderful Hornet pride that is so prevalent right now and be excited about our school and be excited about doing something other than just academics and again, so many opportunities.
This is something that we had debated administratively.
We did not do that this year.
The read across the hive has kind of come to an end.
I loved the benefits of it.
They're still doing a lot of it organically in homeroom.
And I think some of the things that we were able to do across the district laid the foundation for that to occur.
And that was really the goal, right?
That was really the goal is to get students interested in reading, allowing them to read things that they
wanted to read and not things that they were told they had to read, right?
And I know if I was in high school was told that, you know, you have to read this book or this chapter, it was a grind.
And I may or may not have fulfilled that obligation before the class started.
But, but if I, if I get to choose something that I want to read, whether it's, you know, it's about something in sports or hunting or education or, or world events or whatever it might be, I do enjoy reading.
And I think that's what we were trying to get students of all ages to
just enjoy reading, find something that you like to read, whether it's outdoor life or ESPN or...
you know, something about dance or fine arts or whatever it might be, find something that you enjoy to read and just read.
And it doesn't matter how quickly you read, it doesn't matter how fast or slow of a reader you are, just take the time to enjoy the content.
We're so used to in today's society of having things fed to us via video with social media platforms and things like that.
And boy, it is so clear the evidence of
being successful academically and being successful in life after high school and postgraduate.
if you are able to read, and if you are able to read well, your vocabulary enhances, your writing skills enhance, your communication skills enhance, and that affects everyone.
That affects everyone, whether they are filling out a job application, doing a job interview, applying for college, working in the workforce, giving a presentation to a group of coworkers, being on a Zoom meeting with another colleague that might be in another state.
There are so many opportunities, but
It all boils down to the ability to communicate and speak clearly.
And that all stems from the foundations of reading.
And so that's what we were trying to do.
And I think we accomplished it.
And I think that there are some nice foundations built in now for our students to be very successful, even though the read across the hive isn't still officially and technically going.
of
Well, I'll tell you, I was a little reluctant to bring Kerry because we both have the gift of gab.
And when you put a microphone in front of both of us, this may be a three hour show.
But with that being said, you know, Carries carries on the morning show as am I, you know, once a month, usually a couple of weeks apart.
But when Carries on the morning show, she wears a different hat.
She's doing her job at that point.
She's promoting the district.
She's bringing other people on similar to what I do, but really just enhancing the overall experience of the district.
But what I've tried to do when I bring people on is really let's talk about
what their job is and how they, what their day to day job is.
And that's what I'm bringing Carrie along for, because we've all got an opportunity to see her work, whether it's on social media or.
on the radio and she's phenomenal at it.
But I'm not sure everybody knows exactly what she does and so this is a great opportunity for our listeners to hear one of our team members and somebody who I haven't ever gotten a chance to sit here and talk to in front of a microphone and really just talk about what she does for the Richland School District.
They're all different for sure.
It's great.
Our team is great.
You come to work in the morning and it's really a positive.
Maybe a little less so after a three-day weekend that we come in with smiles, but it really is a great place.
I look forward to being at work.
Sorry, Mark.
That's my husband.
I really do.
I look forward to coming to work.
And there's always something new every day.
Our office is so great.
It's made of just the most wonderful people who really do make every day seem exciting and seem special.
And you never know what you're going to be asked to do or what you're going to have to feature or what you get to feature or what you maybe are scheduling.
I think today I have a photo shoot later today.
hair-brained ideas will come up with or something fun to feature the district.
But yeah, every day is different for me and always exciting.
It's usually capped off with games or events or practices or something along those lines and it's such a joy to get to feature our district and our kids in that way.
I do.
I invested in a camera actually this year.
That was one of the things I had on my budget was a nice camera.
I am not amazing and I keep telling the kids that but I'm learning and I will get better.
My kids happen to be in high school and they give me a lot of feedback on what the best images are to take.
So yeah, I'm working and people will see me often on the sidelines or that kind of thing.
I'm getting pictures but
I also have my cell phone usually in hand and it's often good for a quick snap.
And yeah, you never know what's going to happen or what you're going to be called on to take photos of.
Carrie?
I do.
Yeah, so I'm a district resource.
It's really great to get to work with, you know, all the way from 4K to the high schoolers.
We do have about, I think it's half of our kids are at the high school, so I tend to spend kind of more of my time there just because of the
the number of students that are there.
But I made it over to the primary for the first day of school just to kind of capture the four kers on the playground and their, you know, first, first day, which is always fun.
And the intermediate school, you know, went through a lot of construction this year.
So got over there to take some photos, especially of the new cafeteria, which has kind of some fun little hexagons kind of part of our branding in there.
And that was neat to see kind of that space.
come to life.
I got to see it a couple times over the summer, but seeing kids in there and people using the space is really awesome.
And yeah, we're so lucky to have multiple buildings and great people in each of them.
right?
Yes, that is correct.
And I think that
Generally speaking, people on the outside think of this position that carries in as a social media person, right?
Somebody who's on Facebook and districts have tried to replicate that, but this position is so much more than that.
When I was advocating for this position prior to Carrie, even her predecessor five, six years ago was actually part of some Esther dollars coming out of COVID.
You know, I said the district was kind of in a rough spot at that time.
And I said that the district is still doing great things.
You know, we still had a lot of positive things going on.
We still had a lot of really, really good success stories out there.
But it was getting overshadowed by kind of the muck, right?
And we just had some factors that were going on.
And what I wanted this position to do and what our vision as a district, it certainly wasn't just me, was for someone to be able to come in and just remind people of all of the good things that are going on.
Because those things have always existed.
They exist now and Kerry's doing a phenomenal job of getting that information out to people.
But they also existed when the district has been at its lowest points and it existed in the early 2000s and it existed in the 1960s.
There's always been
times when the district has been doing really, really good things.
We just have an avenue now of being able to promote that, right?
I heard one time, and I'm not a social media person.
I don't even have a login for any social media account.
Carrie tells me I should get one, but that's the one thing that I'm fighting her on with that.
Most of the time we're pretty much in alignment.
But I was told one time that
Social media is going to tell your story one way or another.
You might as well have a say in it, right?
And so Carrie has helped tell our story of the district and it's all things that we've always done.
But I would argue that schools in general and the same could probably be said for most other governmental agencies, whether it's a city or a county or municipalities, things like that.
It's no longer a question, can you afford to have a marketing communications person?
It really boils down to, can you really afford not to, right?
In today's world of social media and so much misinformation out there, can you really afford not to make sure that people aren't hearing?
accurate information and hearing it before the inaccurate information gets out there.
And again, it's, but it's not just social media.
It's all of the other things and it's all tied together.
And there's so much more than just posting stuff on, on Facebook or Instagram.
Um, and that's what I think people need to understand is that this is not just carry, you know, scheduling, you know, 30 posts over the course of a week.
It's, it's billboard management.
It's branding.
It's communications.
It's training people on how do we communicate
communicate and what our what our image and looks like and getting all that information out there, working with teachers, staff and others in getting information out there.
And then to bring it full circle on the situation that we had with bus accident when there are situations out there that we need to get information out there in the right way.
I'm not an expert in that kind of communication, but she is.
And so she can then help guide the district and getting that information out.
So it's.
It's really instrumental in how we have it and I think it's been a big part of why our district is in a position that it's in right now because
We have a cheerleader front and center that is able to continually and daily get information out there, accurate information and do it in a way that promotes the district.
Almost certainly it's, um, I mean, I'm, I'm from the generation that kind of like started, you know, Facebook was a thing when I was in college.
So, um, but our kids now are growing up with it.
And so it's really a part of their communication strategy and their style.
And I even see that with our younger parents.
This is where they are.
And I think a big part of communicating is not necessarily saying all the right things, but it's also saying those things where people are going to hear them.
And so this is a great platform, especially in our community.
WRCO does a fantastic job.
But social media is really a big component for our younger parents and for our students that they
They see these good things and that we're saying the right things in the right spaces.
That said, our community is very wide, is a wide demographic.
And so we've been so lucky to have partners in WRCO.
But the Richland Observer has given us multiple spaces every week.
They give me some space just to highlight the great things that are going on in our community.
And they really are great.
I mean, I catch flak maybe sometimes for being the cheerleader, but I really feel that 100%.
It's so awesome.
Our kids are great.
They're so great.
And to be able to highlight them in the way that I get to is really a blessing.
And I just cannot say enough good things.
I mean, I remember being in high school and school in general.
And I remember having bad days.
And I remember it being hard.
But I also remember it being really great and getting to tell those stories, getting to see our kids in that light is
is so amazing and I just I hope that I really hope that it comes through to our community as well that these kids are doing awesome things and I'm really so so corny but they are the future and our future is really bright with the kids that we have in the buildings.
Yeah so parents every year have the option to do a media non-release so basically it's kind of a
If you don't tell us not to, we assume you're okay with it.
And that's part of super registration.
But we have a few families in the district who just really don't want their kids' images out there, which is completely fine.
And there is a form that they fill out.
And so I keep a file of that and the buildings keep a file of that.
So then I kind of know.
who those kids are and to kind of make sure I don't have images of them.
And yep, pretty slick process, usually end up with three or four every year.
And they're more than welcome to make that decision.
And if it is a decision that parents want to make, they just need to call their building, request this form, and it probably takes us a week just to make sure I know who I'm looking for.
But yep, no problem at all.
We're more than happy to
to make those changes to help our families feel secure and confident in their kids and the images that are produced of them.
That said, I always want to highlight everyone's best.
My kids again will give me flax sometime in a clocking.
Have we all heard this term?
Clocking?
Yeah.
They'll tell me that you really clocked so and so in that photo.
And I never mean to.
So, um, sorry guys, if I, if that ever comes across, I never, never mean that to me the intention.
I
I don't know
now.
So if you learn something today, that's what does it mean?
It means they looked bad in the photo.
Like there is the background.
That's
just my everyday
Yeah.
Every photo of me since about 1990, I've been clocked.
What do you do?
We'll be back with more in a moment on The Morning Show after this timeout.
We're spotlighting the Richland School District today.
Steve Bord, Kerry Stoltz are in to talk with us a little bit.
Sounds like enrollment numbers are pretty good, Steve, but you won't know until, what, next Friday officially,
right?
Yes, a week from this Friday is the official third Friday count for the fall.
Every school district in Wisconsin has to do an official pupil count, and that's a count that totally and completely drives revenue for school districts.
The more students you have,
the more money you generally get, the less students you have, the less money you get.
And so while the state does do a three-year average to level out these big spikes and dips for school districts to try to keep revenue a little bit more equal, it is a big day for school districts.
And when I was on here in early August, I think it was right after a super registration, I think I'd reported that we had
had taken in 150 or so new enrollments during the summer.
And at that time, I thought that was phenomenal.
On the first day of in-service with our teachers, I reported to them that we were up to 179 new enrollments.
And just half hour before I came here this morning, we have taken in, Phillip, 206 new enrollments since the end of last year for this school year.
And just to put that in perspective,
Our graduating class last year was 106.
So this is 100 more students than our graduating class last year.
And while there is still a lot to be sorted out between now and the third Friday count, a kid could enroll and then not end up coming.
And we don't know if they're absent or if they chose to go to a different school or return to their resident school.
But still, the vast number that we have a year ago, we were around
the 80 new student mark.
And so, you know, we've more than doubled that.
And last year was a phenomenal year from an enrollment standpoint.
And this year looks like it's going to be even better.
We've averaged for open enrollment in students, students who live in another district and are coming to the Richland School District.
And again, this is no secret, right?
One of our biggest problems as a school district over the last
12 to 15 years has been this vast number of students who have lived in the Richland School District and have chose to educate elsewhere.
And that was disproportionate to the number of students who lived elsewhere and were coming in.
You know, we talked about the many roles that the Cary wears and one of the things that her and I have talked about extensively over the last few years is
we've got to get this net enrollment more in line, right?
I mean, we were net negative 180.
We had 180 more kids going out than we had coming in.
You start putting on 10, 12, $14,000 price tags that the state gives school districts and multiplying that by 180 students.
And that's a significant amount of revenue that you either don't get
to get or that you have to pay out as an expense.
And so our goal has been that we've been shooting for and Carrie and I are keeping our fingers crossed.
We've been wanting to get to net negative 100 or less, right?
And that's still, we have work to do at negative 100, but getting to that number would be extremely beneficial.
We've been averaging for open enrollment ends right around the 90 mark.
We were at 96 last year, 88 the year before that.
We have 182 students that have open enrolled into the Richland School District.
Now not every one of them have necessarily chosen to come and we'll know that in the on the third Friday count as we're trying to again figure out are they absent or are they just not coming but
increase in our open enrollment in applications by almost 90 and only having 14 students choosing to go elsewhere tells us that we're on a positive trend and very, very excited this year probably more than any other year to find out what the actual third Friday count numbers are for the Richland School District because I just think that we're going to be very, very surprised at how positive our enrollment trends are going.
We've got a lot
of students that have traditionally homeschooled you know they haven't necessarily gone to school anywhere other than being schooled at home and many many families do a phenomenal job with that.
We've gotten many of those families coming to join our Hive, which is a great way for them to continue to do school at home, but be under the Richland School District from an academic standpoint that the Hive numbers have grown.
I think we're up to 120 plus for that and only being in a second year of existence.
That's phenomenal.
Our alternative programs, our pathways programs, our iThrive, our partner school programming, all of that has increased student enrollment.
And then just the great jobs that our buildings are doing.
All of our buildings, Carrie mentioned earlier, that all of our buildings, with the exception of Partner, is up in enrollment.
We have more students physically in the buildings.
Partner is holding its course.
Of course, that's a smaller program.
If it's a niche student anyway.
But 206 new enrollments.
And so we are expecting now with that data, instead of us going down 80 students,
given the 106 students leaving us subtracting out the estimated 4k enrollments that those numbers are up going to all day every day 4k.
And then the addition of all those enrollments, we're actually expecting our overall enrollment to increase from last year's number.
And that would be a trend that would.
be bucking, you know, 80% of the school districts in Wisconsin, the trend that they're facing with declining enrollment, but also reversing a trend in the Richland School District for Boy, I'll bet you, I can't say this factually, but I'll bet you that we have been declining enrollment every year for the last 15 or 16 years.
So to have one year of a positive enrollment increase speaks to the volumes of our wonderful staff and administrators and the academic opportunities that we're providing all of our
of our students.
And it's not too late.
We've had two more open enrollments yesterday that came in.
We had two more actual enrollments, students that lived in the school district that came back last Friday.
And so it is never too late.
There is no more of a traditional window where it has to be done between February and April each year.
Students can come and go.
pretty much as they wish between school districts.
And so it's our job as a Richland school district to welcome those that are coming in, but then also making sure that we are keeping and retaining those students and finding ways for them to be successful academically and post academically and outside, which brings into all of the different opportunities that we have and all the things that we've talked about here this morning.
Yeah, so that hive mind was absolutely a great experience to be a part of and to witness this steering committee, this group of 13 or 14 community members in different aspects, put together this event, collect and just act.
tremendous amount of data from our community and our stakeholders, and then gather all of it, analyze the data, and make a presentation to the board at the end of June, which had really readdressed our mission, vision, and value statement, but also then identified five pillars.
And we've talked about those pillars, but some updated information at our last board meeting at the end of August, our board,
elected to declare one of those pillars as a priority pillar.
right?
And so it's impossible to make movement in one year on every pillar, right?
Even five is a lot, right?
To really be able to do it right or correctly.
And so our board picked the priority pillar number one, which was the first pillar that our steering committee presented, and that was done for a reason.
And that is the academic excellence pillar.
And so that pillar says that
We as a school district want to ensure that all students build strong foundations, grow academically, and gain critical thinking skills needed for future success, whether that be in career, military trades, or in college.
And I think it's important to point out that each of those words were very deliberate and intentional, starting with the, all students build strong foundations, right?
This is something that we are, as a school district, our goal is to educate students, right?
But it is clear from our community that it is more than just academics.
And so building strong foundational skills, starting at,
EC, 4K, 5K, and our primary school, those youngest learners, having them understand and build and growing the foundation to be successful people, not just successful academically, but to be successful.
So building those strong foundations is happening at all levels, grow academically.
And again, those two words right there, that is the fundamental and core reason while schools in the United States exist.
They do schools all over America do a lot of different things.
We feed kids with our food service program.
We provide extracurricular activities.
We've talked about the benefits of those.
We provide nursing services.
We have counselors for mental health.
All of those things are wonderful.
But the core reason schools exist
is for students to grow academically.
And that's our fundamental purpose.
And so for us to make sure that we are getting our students at a point where they need to be academically and having them grow each year, not falling behind, keeping students engaged in their curriculum, making our
curriculum relevant for students, not teaching students that live in 2026, the same way that we learned in, you know, the 80s, 90s or early 2000s, depending on which one of the three in the room we're talking about.
I'm still 80s.
I am too.
So, okay.
So 80s and 2000s.
The 90s got forgotten there.
But, but the point is, is that.
there are different things whether it's social media or distractions or things that kids are dealing with and so we have to be able to adapt educationally and how we present information and the curricular opportunities that are out there and available the Richland School District and I would argue that every school district across America really needs to be analyzing and looking at are we offering the best things to make kids
Get an educated educational experience that is relevant to today's world and so growing academically and then tying that in with the one of the values which is rigor and relevance I think is is crucial and then Finally gaining those critical thinking skills right those those thinking skills to be able to solve problems to be able to identify problems to be able to overcome adverse situations I think that
that the workforce has gone through over the last 10 years, a difficult time.
America doesn't necessarily have an unemployment problem.
America has an employment problem.
It's difficult to find quality workers, people who can get through a job, be dependable, be responsible, do their job, but also be able to
to problem solve a little bit, to be able to figure out solutions to things that go wrong.
And one of the things, and this is my personal opinion, but one of the things that I saw post COVID is because the world had such a, it was so many job opportunities for people that people, our younger generation,
jumped jobs a lot, right?
There was a lot of different opportunities for them to move jobs.
In many cases, it was for advancement and I never begrudge anyone for taking a promotion or advancing their career.
But oftentimes it was also because they didn't have the skills that were necessary for them to get by that struggle during the day or that problem that they have or the communication that they had with a supervisor.
And that's part of our job.
And that's what I think that this means when it comes to critical thinking skills, be able to have those skills, communication,
problem-solving, resilience, those kinds of things to be successful in their post-secondary career.
So that is the priority pillar that our board has tasked the administration to work on.
It doesn't mean that we're going to forget the other four pillars.
They're still in existence, and we're still going to have an importance.
They're still going to play an important part in our school year.
But we are going to try to really move the needle on academic excellence, and specifically around those three things.
growing strong foundation, growing academically, and the critical thinking skills.
And so now our administration will be tasked with working with our board in the very near future in the coming weeks on what does this mean?
And then administration will have to determine the how.
Our board will help us determine the what, right?
What are we looking for?
When we say that, what are we really talking about?
Are we talking about improving reading scores?
We're talking about improving math scores.
We're talking about improving ACT scores.
When we say grow academically, what are we really talking about?
And once that's established, which again, should be here in the coming weeks, then our administration can start to figure out like, okay, now we know what we're trying to improve on.
Let's gather some baseline data.
This is where we're at.
How are we going to move the needle and then continually be reporting back to not only our board, but our stakeholders through the flyers, the newsletters that Carrie puts out that goes to every family three times a year or email communications.
But keeping our community informed on the progress that we're making, I think, is essential as well.
But that will be the primary focus this year.
And in the coming months, our administration is going to be tasked with a very difficult job and a very important
job of making the needle move when it comes to our academics and doing it in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
long.
Yeah we're actually we have actually people in there now on the pathways program
got a jump start and they're using some offices in there and our Hive program will be moving in shortly.
I think Monday
they're
scheduled to get over there.
The Hive program is like Steve said, a lot of home-based kids online, but it is really nice for them to have a space.
Some of them come and take classes at the high school and then their teachers have offices there that they can utilize if they need meetings or
Students want to meet with them or jump on a zoom and I think there's actually some Plans to maybe have like a lounge and that kind of stuff that our high students can utilize as well So yeah Melville is with the district now and another building that we're happy to add to our
our inventory and we have the gym.
I know there's events already going on in there.
I think JV2 played volleyball in there already and so nice to have that extra facility for all these needs.
I mean full credit to our maintenance staff who really got in there and cleaned her up quickly once we got the keys and we really can't say enough good things about them and all the cleanup that happened and how fast they were able to get that push through so we could definitely use it for basically the start of the school year this year.
from
to see your program that I was there for four years.
You're there for four years.
Absolutely.
You know, I know just again, personally, a sentimental value that it did mean a great deal to me.
This was a place that, you know, shaped my life, right?
This is where I got my
first start in coaching, which was such a huge part of my life, which got me into education, which got me into administration, which allows me to be in the role that I'm in now.
But also, I think about the friendships that I developed.
Those are the people who are my lifelong friends.
These are the people that are in my wedding.
These are the people who I wish I communicated with more, but that I call my really, really close friends.
These are the people that I met at UW Richland, and I'm proud to say that.
when UW-Platteville pulled out of the campus, and obviously it was an issue for, an emotional issue for a lot of people, for the school district to be able to hang on to a small part of it, the gym and Melville, and to be able to continue to use it for academics.
That means a lot to me, and I think it means a lot to our community.
And again, just to be clear, technically we are still renting Melville.
We take official ownership after the city council meeting on August, excuse me,
October 6th, then shortly after that, we should be able to transfer the title and make it official.
But for all practical purposes, we're renting as owners right now.
And I've been able to do some wonderful things because Carrie mentioned our custodial crew cleaning up the inside, but also the outside and getting some of the.
tall, overgrown, bad, dead wood that was up there, getting that chopped down.
It looks great.
And I think it's just going to continue to look great.
And to be able to use that space adjacent to our high school for academic and athletic purposes is not only great for the Richland School District, but as a soft spot in my heart as well.
and
Music.
yeah thanks phil it's great to be here again
you boy it sure does it uh and of course the school started before labor day this year it's just the way the calendar worked out but
You know, you kind of get this opportunity to breathe in June as school gets out.
And then July is a time where a lot of people have the opportunity to get a lot of work done, a lot of catch up, wrapping up the past school year, getting ready for the new school year.
But it's also a time when a lot of folks are, they work full time, they're taking vacations.
And so it's pretty relaxed, but you had a good opportunity for people to get things done.
But boy, when you hit
August 1st, it feels like things really get rushed quickly and then it just becomes a blur because you're getting ready for super registration early in the year.
Our offices were extremely busy this summer, certainly in the month of August, but really all summer with enrollments and new enrollments and getting things ready for the new school year.
Our teachers come back and start in service in the middle of August.
A couple years ago, Phil, our teachers that were on our calendar committee, they decided instead of having a whole week of in service where they just come Monday through Friday and it's just five days of intense in service and a lot of training, they wanted more time to be able to be used in their classroom and also spread it out a little bit because it was just like drinking water through a fire hose.
There's just so much information that they're gathering
at the beginning of the year.
And so with that, a few years ago, we broke up in service.
Teachers come the third week in August for three days and then come back the fourth week of August for three or four days.
And then they also get the ability to come in a couple of flexible days anytime in the month of August, just to get their rooms ready.
And so with that, we start a little earlier.
It's a little bit more of a soft start because we don't have this intense week of in-service training.
It's kind of nice because, you know, you get to see people in a little bit more relaxed setting and see how their summers went.
But still, it is, you know, super registration, in-service week, another week of in-service, and kids are in school.
And that's ultimately what we're here for, right?
We're here for students and we're excited when students come back into the building.
And I've said this to you before, I've probably said it a dozen times to different folks, you know, kids all summer long, you know, I see them, I see them at a summer basketball or I see them at Walmart and how's your summer going?
You're ready for school and it's inevitably it's summer's going too fast.
No, I don't want school to start, but then that first day rolls around and it doesn't matter which building you're at.
And I was at all of our buildings on the first couple of days and watching students, whether they're in
4k, and yeah, there's a couple of tiers as they hang on to mom and dad's leg.
Second grade, fifth grade, seventh grade, or a senior.
There are genuine smiles and sincere appreciation that students are happy to be with their classmates again, some of them that they haven't necessarily seen all summer long.
Social media has made the world a little smaller, and they have the ability to connect
electronically during the summer, but they still don't necessarily get that face-to-face interaction that they do in school.
And of course, we, like most schools across the state, are cell phone free when school starts.
And just watching the interactions between students and students, students and staff, staff and staff, the first couple days of school, that's phenomenal.
And something that I don't take lightly, and it's always
Brings a smile to my face and when September rolls around and we get to see that
Yeah, you know is as positive as the school year has been unfortunately there was a
a bus accident with a private vehicle just south of the intermediate school.
I believe it was a second day of school and so fortunate that no one was seriously injured.
We had some students that were shook up a little bit.
I mean, shook up more from a frightened standpoint.
Some of these students had never been in a situation like that before.
But again, fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.
There were no major injuries.
All of the students
were released back to school.
Some of the parents chose to keep them home.
But when you do have unfortunate situations like that, it does make you appreciate the things that maybe you take for granted a little bit.
And that's the first responders and those folks who are on scene quickly, you know, from our local law enforcement, the city, the county sheriff's department, who are first responders and our EMT folks.
And while...
ambulance crews and things like that were not necessarily needed for this accident.
Knowing that they were there and knowing that they were available and ready to be deployed and work in any capacity that they could is really good to see.
And it's unfortunate that you have to have situations like this, but fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.
And I think it's a good opportunity to just be reminded of the wonderful folks that we have, either employed or volunteering to be first responders in situations like that.
and know that they're there for us if we ever do need them.
And again, happy to report that all of our students are back in the buildings and everybody's doing really, really well.
And they were able to quickly get through it.
But it is a good reminder of all the wonderful folks that we have in our community.
It really is.
And it's not just in our community, but across the state.
And unfortunately,
The news doesn't report all of the successful trips that happen each and every day, mornings, afternoons, midday routes.
And you do hear about the unfortunate situations.
But to your point, we have close to 20 routes that are going, 20 buses that are sharing the road every single morning from a little after 6 AM until 8 30.
We have another half dozen buses that are on the road during midday routes from 11 30 to one.
And then another 20 on the road again after school from starting about 245, maybe slightly before until students are home at five o'clock.
And then on top of that, you throw in all the extracurricular and co-curricular activities and buses transporting students to an away game or visiting opponents coming to Richland Center.
There's a lot of buses on the road and very fortunate, not just locally, but
but across the state to have really good people that have gone through extensive training to become a certified bus driver and appreciate all of the hard work that they're doing.
You think about.
I just think about going on a family trip, right?
And I have two kids and those two girls and my wife in the vehicle with me and me driving and trying to keep track of what I'm doing, driving and also engaging conversation with them and sometimes separate my two daughters in the back seat can be challenging.
And then you think about that multiplied by the number of students on a bus.
And these bus drivers are responsible first and foremost of getting students to and from school safely.
But these are buses where some of our buses have, you know, upwards of 40, 50 kids on them, and they're trying to develop relationships with them, have good positive conversations and communications with them.
These are the first folks that our students see in the morning, our last folks that our students see when they get off the bus, and then trying to put out any fires or conflicts, again, because it happens.
There are 45 kids on the bus, and they just do a phenomenal job of navigating all of it.
And then you throw in the external factors like road construction and narrow roads on highway 14 and all of the different things that they've got to navigate around.
And when you really put it all in perspective, they really have a remarkable job to do and they do it really, really well each and every day.
And we're just very fortunate that we have such a skilled staff of drivers and that our students are generally well behaved on the buses and that allows everyone to do their job safely.
I agree 100% and they're driving 60 foot buses around the corner.
Yeah.
drivers.
Yeah.
So we are well underway now.
Schools, you know, we're in the second week of school.
It feels like we're in, you know, month two, but things are going really, really well.
But a lot of our high school
sports and clubs will start prior to school, starting all of our athletics for the most part, nine through 12.
But also a lot of our activities.
I know our student council has met numerous times during the summer.
NHS has had activities.
There's just a lot of things going on.
But then when September first rolls around and we're at that first day of school, that's really where things really ramp up for all of our students, right?
We have our middle school sports now in full swing.
High school sports are now, you know,
in competition, they're playing games, they're doing those things.
And then also the numerous clubs and activities that we have for students throughout our school district.
Those are all getting underway as well.
And I know Mr. Lemke and Mrs. Perkins, they continually are trying to promote for students to get involved.
And I know that's something I've talked about on the radio, something that we try to tell our parents.
And if there are parents out there listening, I cannot stress enough how important it is and how beneficial it is for students to be involved in something, right?
And maybe they're not of the athletic nature.
But they really enjoy art.
We have an art club, right?
Maybe they really enjoy the environment or science.
We have a science club.
Maybe they like participating in skits or speeches, humor, serious, an environmentalist.
We have forensics.
We have things available for just about every
interest that there is in out there, right?
And I don't know, maybe Carrie knows, but I think we have upwards of close to 30 clubs and activities and sports for kids to be a part of, maybe even a little bit more than that.
And there are always new ones that are starting when there's an interest for that to be started up, weightlifting, powerlifting, movie club, eat and read club, where students can just read books, right?
And there's so many opportunities.
And I would just encourage every student
just get involved in one thing.
And it just allows them to meet another group of students, maybe that are not in the same grade, but clearly have similar interests, right?
Because they're in that club and allows them to really meet friends that potentially become lifelong friends.
It also allows students to maybe get out of that shyness shell a little bit and do something that they feel...
proud about that they can put on their resume for a college application, a job application.
whatever it might be.
But so many, so many opportunities for kids to be involved.
And I would just encourage everyone to get involved.
But this is the time of year.
It's not too late.
Yes, we're in the second week of school.
Yes, there may have been some clubs that have already gotten together.
It is not too late.
It is not too late to inquire about joining a sport.
It is not too late to join a middle school sport.
It is not too late to join a club and take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that we
have out there and I can almost guarantee them that they will not regret it.
You know, we tend to look back in life and we regret things that we didn't do, not things that we did do.
And I don't know that you'll ever meet somebody that says, boy, I really regret joining that club in high school.
It's just they're positive experiences, right?
And they may may not have loved every moment of it or there may have been some ups and downs with it, but they don't regret doing it.
they do regret not doing it.
And so if there's any advice I can give a youngster out there, just get involved, do something, be involved, have that wonderful Hornet pride that is so prevalent right now and be excited about our school and be excited about doing something other than just academics and again, so many opportunities.
This is something that we had debated administratively.
We did not do that this year.
The read across the hive has kind of come to an end.
I loved the benefits of it.
They're still doing a lot of it organically in homeroom.
And I think some of the things that we were able to do across the district laid the foundation for that to occur.
And that was really the goal, right?
That was really the goal is to get students interested in reading, allowing them to read things that they
wanted to read and not things that they were told they had to read, right?
And I know if I was in high school was told that, you know, you have to read this book or this chapter, it was a grind.
And I may or may not have fulfilled that obligation before the class started.
But, but if I, if I get to choose something that I want to read, whether it's, you know, it's about something in sports or hunting or education or, or world events or whatever it might be, I do enjoy reading.
And I think that's what we were trying to get students of all ages to
just enjoy reading, find something that you like to read, whether it's outdoor life or ESPN or...
you know, something about dance or fine arts or whatever it might be, find something that you enjoy to read and just read.
And it doesn't matter how quickly you read, it doesn't matter how fast or slow of a reader you are, just take the time to enjoy the content.
We're so used to in today's society of having things fed to us via video with social media platforms and things like that.
And boy, it is so clear the evidence of
being successful academically and being successful in life after high school and postgraduate.
if you are able to read, and if you are able to read well, your vocabulary enhances, your writing skills enhance, your communication skills enhance, and that affects everyone.
That affects everyone, whether they are filling out a job application, doing a job interview, applying for college, working in the workforce, giving a presentation to a group of coworkers, being on a Zoom meeting with another colleague that might be in another state.
There are so many opportunities, but
It all boils down to the ability to communicate and speak clearly.
And that all stems from the foundations of reading.
And so that's what we were trying to do.
And I think we accomplished it.
And I think that there are some nice foundations built in now for our students to be very successful, even though the read across the hive isn't still officially and technically going.
of
Well, I'll tell you, I was a little reluctant to bring Kerry because we both have the gift of gab.
And when you put a microphone in front of both of us, this may be a three hour show.
But with that being said, you know, Carries carries on the morning show as am I, you know, once a month, usually a couple of weeks apart.
But when Carries on the morning show, she wears a different hat.
She's doing her job at that point.
She's promoting the district.
She's bringing other people on similar to what I do, but really just enhancing the overall experience of the district.
But what I've tried to do when I bring people on is really let's talk about
what their job is and how they, what their day to day job is.
And that's what I'm bringing Carrie along for, because we've all got an opportunity to see her work, whether it's on social media or.
on the radio and she's phenomenal at it.
But I'm not sure everybody knows exactly what she does and so this is a great opportunity for our listeners to hear one of our team members and somebody who I haven't ever gotten a chance to sit here and talk to in front of a microphone and really just talk about what she does for the Richland School District.
They're all different for sure.
It's great.
Our team is great.
You come to work in the morning and it's really a positive.
Maybe a little less so after a three-day weekend that we come in with smiles, but it really is a great place.
I look forward to being at work.
Sorry, Mark.
That's my husband.
I really do.
I look forward to coming to work.
And there's always something new every day.
Our office is so great.
It's made of just the most wonderful people who really do make every day seem exciting and seem special.
And you never know what you're going to be asked to do or what you're going to have to feature or what you get to feature or what you maybe are scheduling.
I think today I have a photo shoot later today.
hair-brained ideas will come up with or something fun to feature the district.
But yeah, every day is different for me and always exciting.
It's usually capped off with games or events or practices or something along those lines and it's such a joy to get to feature our district and our kids in that way.
I do.
I invested in a camera actually this year.
That was one of the things I had on my budget was a nice camera.
I am not amazing and I keep telling the kids that but I'm learning and I will get better.
My kids happen to be in high school and they give me a lot of feedback on what the best images are to take.
So yeah, I'm working and people will see me often on the sidelines or that kind of thing.
I'm getting pictures but
I also have my cell phone usually in hand and it's often good for a quick snap.
And yeah, you never know what's going to happen or what you're going to be called on to take photos of.
Carrie?
I do.
Yeah, so I'm a district resource.
It's really great to get to work with, you know, all the way from 4K to the high schoolers.
We do have about, I think it's half of our kids are at the high school, so I tend to spend kind of more of my time there just because of the
the number of students that are there.
But I made it over to the primary for the first day of school just to kind of capture the four kers on the playground and their, you know, first, first day, which is always fun.
And the intermediate school, you know, went through a lot of construction this year.
So got over there to take some photos, especially of the new cafeteria, which has kind of some fun little hexagons kind of part of our branding in there.
And that was neat to see kind of that space.
come to life.
I got to see it a couple times over the summer, but seeing kids in there and people using the space is really awesome.
And yeah, we're so lucky to have multiple buildings and great people in each of them.
right?
Yes, that is correct.
And I think that
Generally speaking, people on the outside think of this position that carries in as a social media person, right?
Somebody who's on Facebook and districts have tried to replicate that, but this position is so much more than that.
When I was advocating for this position prior to Carrie, even her predecessor five, six years ago was actually part of some Esther dollars coming out of COVID.
You know, I said the district was kind of in a rough spot at that time.
And I said that the district is still doing great things.
You know, we still had a lot of positive things going on.
We still had a lot of really, really good success stories out there.
But it was getting overshadowed by kind of the muck, right?
And we just had some factors that were going on.
And what I wanted this position to do and what our vision as a district, it certainly wasn't just me, was for someone to be able to come in and just remind people of all of the good things that are going on.
Because those things have always existed.
They exist now and Kerry's doing a phenomenal job of getting that information out to people.
But they also existed when the district has been at its lowest points and it existed in the early 2000s and it existed in the 1960s.
There's always been
times when the district has been doing really, really good things.
We just have an avenue now of being able to promote that, right?
I heard one time, and I'm not a social media person.
I don't even have a login for any social media account.
Carrie tells me I should get one, but that's the one thing that I'm fighting her on with that.
Most of the time we're pretty much in alignment.
But I was told one time that
Social media is going to tell your story one way or another.
You might as well have a say in it, right?
And so Carrie has helped tell our story of the district and it's all things that we've always done.
But I would argue that schools in general and the same could probably be said for most other governmental agencies, whether it's a city or a county or municipalities, things like that.
It's no longer a question, can you afford to have a marketing communications person?
It really boils down to, can you really afford not to, right?
In today's world of social media and so much misinformation out there, can you really afford not to make sure that people aren't hearing?
accurate information and hearing it before the inaccurate information gets out there.
And again, it's, but it's not just social media.
It's all of the other things and it's all tied together.
And there's so much more than just posting stuff on, on Facebook or Instagram.
Um, and that's what I think people need to understand is that this is not just carry, you know, scheduling, you know, 30 posts over the course of a week.
It's, it's billboard management.
It's branding.
It's communications.
It's training people on how do we communicate
communicate and what our what our image and looks like and getting all that information out there, working with teachers, staff and others in getting information out there.
And then to bring it full circle on the situation that we had with bus accident when there are situations out there that we need to get information out there in the right way.
I'm not an expert in that kind of communication, but she is.
And so she can then help guide the district and getting that information out.
So it's.
It's really instrumental in how we have it and I think it's been a big part of why our district is in a position that it's in right now because
We have a cheerleader front and center that is able to continually and daily get information out there, accurate information and do it in a way that promotes the district.
Almost certainly it's, um, I mean, I'm, I'm from the generation that kind of like started, you know, Facebook was a thing when I was in college.
So, um, but our kids now are growing up with it.
And so it's really a part of their communication strategy and their style.
And I even see that with our younger parents.
This is where they are.
And I think a big part of communicating is not necessarily saying all the right things, but it's also saying those things where people are going to hear them.
And so this is a great platform, especially in our community.
WRCO does a fantastic job.
But social media is really a big component for our younger parents and for our students that they
They see these good things and that we're saying the right things in the right spaces.
That said, our community is very wide, is a wide demographic.
And so we've been so lucky to have partners in WRCO.
But the Richland Observer has given us multiple spaces every week.
They give me some space just to highlight the great things that are going on in our community.
And they really are great.
I mean, I catch flak maybe sometimes for being the cheerleader, but I really feel that 100%.
It's so awesome.
Our kids are great.
They're so great.
And to be able to highlight them in the way that I get to is really a blessing.
And I just cannot say enough good things.
I mean, I remember being in high school and school in general.
And I remember having bad days.
And I remember it being hard.
But I also remember it being really great and getting to tell those stories, getting to see our kids in that light is
is so amazing and I just I hope that I really hope that it comes through to our community as well that these kids are doing awesome things and I'm really so so corny but they are the future and our future is really bright with the kids that we have in the buildings.
Yeah so parents every year have the option to do a media non-release so basically it's kind of a
If you don't tell us not to, we assume you're okay with it.
And that's part of super registration.
But we have a few families in the district who just really don't want their kids' images out there, which is completely fine.
And there is a form that they fill out.
And so I keep a file of that and the buildings keep a file of that.
So then I kind of know.
who those kids are and to kind of make sure I don't have images of them.
And yep, pretty slick process, usually end up with three or four every year.
And they're more than welcome to make that decision.
And if it is a decision that parents want to make, they just need to call their building, request this form, and it probably takes us a week just to make sure I know who I'm looking for.
But yep, no problem at all.
We're more than happy to
to make those changes to help our families feel secure and confident in their kids and the images that are produced of them.
That said, I always want to highlight everyone's best.
My kids again will give me flax sometime in a clocking.
Have we all heard this term?
Clocking?
Yeah.
They'll tell me that you really clocked so and so in that photo.
And I never mean to.
So, um, sorry guys, if I, if that ever comes across, I never, never mean that to me the intention.
I
I don't know
now.
So if you learn something today, that's what does it mean?
It means they looked bad in the photo.
Like there is the background.
That's
just my everyday
Yeah.
Every photo of me since about 1990, I've been clocked.
What do you do?
We'll be back with more in a moment on The Morning Show after this timeout.
We're spotlighting the Richland School District today.
Steve Bord, Kerry Stoltz are in to talk with us a little bit.
Sounds like enrollment numbers are pretty good, Steve, but you won't know until, what, next Friday officially,
right?
Yes, a week from this Friday is the official third Friday count for the fall.
Every school district in Wisconsin has to do an official pupil count, and that's a count that totally and completely drives revenue for school districts.
The more students you have,
the more money you generally get, the less students you have, the less money you get.
And so while the state does do a three-year average to level out these big spikes and dips for school districts to try to keep revenue a little bit more equal, it is a big day for school districts.
And when I was on here in early August, I think it was right after a super registration, I think I'd reported that we had
had taken in 150 or so new enrollments during the summer.
And at that time, I thought that was phenomenal.
On the first day of in-service with our teachers, I reported to them that we were up to 179 new enrollments.
And just half hour before I came here this morning, we have taken in, Phillip, 206 new enrollments since the end of last year for this school year.
And just to put that in perspective,
Our graduating class last year was 106.
So this is 100 more students than our graduating class last year.
And while there is still a lot to be sorted out between now and the third Friday count, a kid could enroll and then not end up coming.
And we don't know if they're absent or if they chose to go to a different school or return to their resident school.
But still, the vast number that we have a year ago, we were around
the 80 new student mark.
And so, you know, we've more than doubled that.
And last year was a phenomenal year from an enrollment standpoint.
And this year looks like it's going to be even better.
We've averaged for open enrollment in students, students who live in another district and are coming to the Richland School District.
And again, this is no secret, right?
One of our biggest problems as a school district over the last
12 to 15 years has been this vast number of students who have lived in the Richland School District and have chose to educate elsewhere.
And that was disproportionate to the number of students who lived elsewhere and were coming in.
You know, we talked about the many roles that the Cary wears and one of the things that her and I have talked about extensively over the last few years is
we've got to get this net enrollment more in line, right?
I mean, we were net negative 180.
We had 180 more kids going out than we had coming in.
You start putting on 10, 12, $14,000 price tags that the state gives school districts and multiplying that by 180 students.
And that's a significant amount of revenue that you either don't get
to get or that you have to pay out as an expense.
And so our goal has been that we've been shooting for and Carrie and I are keeping our fingers crossed.
We've been wanting to get to net negative 100 or less, right?
And that's still, we have work to do at negative 100, but getting to that number would be extremely beneficial.
We've been averaging for open enrollment ends right around the 90 mark.
We were at 96 last year, 88 the year before that.
We have 182 students that have open enrolled into the Richland School District.
Now not every one of them have necessarily chosen to come and we'll know that in the on the third Friday count as we're trying to again figure out are they absent or are they just not coming but
increase in our open enrollment in applications by almost 90 and only having 14 students choosing to go elsewhere tells us that we're on a positive trend and very, very excited this year probably more than any other year to find out what the actual third Friday count numbers are for the Richland School District because I just think that we're going to be very, very surprised at how positive our enrollment trends are going.
We've got a lot
of students that have traditionally homeschooled you know they haven't necessarily gone to school anywhere other than being schooled at home and many many families do a phenomenal job with that.
We've gotten many of those families coming to join our Hive, which is a great way for them to continue to do school at home, but be under the Richland School District from an academic standpoint that the Hive numbers have grown.
I think we're up to 120 plus for that and only being in a second year of existence.
That's phenomenal.
Our alternative programs, our pathways programs, our iThrive, our partner school programming, all of that has increased student enrollment.
And then just the great jobs that our buildings are doing.
All of our buildings, Carrie mentioned earlier, that all of our buildings, with the exception of Partner, is up in enrollment.
We have more students physically in the buildings.
Partner is holding its course.
Of course, that's a smaller program.
If it's a niche student anyway.
But 206 new enrollments.
And so we are expecting now with that data, instead of us going down 80 students,
given the 106 students leaving us subtracting out the estimated 4k enrollments that those numbers are up going to all day every day 4k.
And then the addition of all those enrollments, we're actually expecting our overall enrollment to increase from last year's number.
And that would be a trend that would.
be bucking, you know, 80% of the school districts in Wisconsin, the trend that they're facing with declining enrollment, but also reversing a trend in the Richland School District for Boy, I'll bet you, I can't say this factually, but I'll bet you that we have been declining enrollment every year for the last 15 or 16 years.
So to have one year of a positive enrollment increase speaks to the volumes of our wonderful staff and administrators and the academic opportunities that we're providing all of our
of our students.
And it's not too late.
We've had two more open enrollments yesterday that came in.
We had two more actual enrollments, students that lived in the school district that came back last Friday.
And so it is never too late.
There is no more of a traditional window where it has to be done between February and April each year.
Students can come and go.
pretty much as they wish between school districts.
And so it's our job as a Richland school district to welcome those that are coming in, but then also making sure that we are keeping and retaining those students and finding ways for them to be successful academically and post academically and outside, which brings into all of the different opportunities that we have and all the things that we've talked about here this morning.
Yeah, so that hive mind was absolutely a great experience to be a part of and to witness this steering committee, this group of 13 or 14 community members in different aspects, put together this event, collect and just act.
tremendous amount of data from our community and our stakeholders, and then gather all of it, analyze the data, and make a presentation to the board at the end of June, which had really readdressed our mission, vision, and value statement, but also then identified five pillars.
And we've talked about those pillars, but some updated information at our last board meeting at the end of August, our board,
elected to declare one of those pillars as a priority pillar.
right?
And so it's impossible to make movement in one year on every pillar, right?
Even five is a lot, right?
To really be able to do it right or correctly.
And so our board picked the priority pillar number one, which was the first pillar that our steering committee presented, and that was done for a reason.
And that is the academic excellence pillar.
And so that pillar says that
We as a school district want to ensure that all students build strong foundations, grow academically, and gain critical thinking skills needed for future success, whether that be in career, military trades, or in college.
And I think it's important to point out that each of those words were very deliberate and intentional, starting with the, all students build strong foundations, right?
This is something that we are, as a school district, our goal is to educate students, right?
But it is clear from our community that it is more than just academics.
And so building strong foundational skills, starting at,
EC, 4K, 5K, and our primary school, those youngest learners, having them understand and build and growing the foundation to be successful people, not just successful academically, but to be successful.
So building those strong foundations is happening at all levels, grow academically.
And again, those two words right there, that is the fundamental and core reason while schools in the United States exist.
They do schools all over America do a lot of different things.
We feed kids with our food service program.
We provide extracurricular activities.
We've talked about the benefits of those.
We provide nursing services.
We have counselors for mental health.
All of those things are wonderful.
But the core reason schools exist
is for students to grow academically.
And that's our fundamental purpose.
And so for us to make sure that we are getting our students at a point where they need to be academically and having them grow each year, not falling behind, keeping students engaged in their curriculum, making our
curriculum relevant for students, not teaching students that live in 2026, the same way that we learned in, you know, the 80s, 90s or early 2000s, depending on which one of the three in the room we're talking about.
I'm still 80s.
I am too.
So, okay.
So 80s and 2000s.
The 90s got forgotten there.
But, but the point is, is that.
there are different things whether it's social media or distractions or things that kids are dealing with and so we have to be able to adapt educationally and how we present information and the curricular opportunities that are out there and available the Richland School District and I would argue that every school district across America really needs to be analyzing and looking at are we offering the best things to make kids
Get an educated educational experience that is relevant to today's world and so growing academically and then tying that in with the one of the values which is rigor and relevance I think is is crucial and then Finally gaining those critical thinking skills right those those thinking skills to be able to solve problems to be able to identify problems to be able to overcome adverse situations I think that
that the workforce has gone through over the last 10 years, a difficult time.
America doesn't necessarily have an unemployment problem.
America has an employment problem.
It's difficult to find quality workers, people who can get through a job, be dependable, be responsible, do their job, but also be able to
to problem solve a little bit, to be able to figure out solutions to things that go wrong.
And one of the things, and this is my personal opinion, but one of the things that I saw post COVID is because the world had such a, it was so many job opportunities for people that people, our younger generation,
jumped jobs a lot, right?
There was a lot of different opportunities for them to move jobs.
In many cases, it was for advancement and I never begrudge anyone for taking a promotion or advancing their career.
But oftentimes it was also because they didn't have the skills that were necessary for them to get by that struggle during the day or that problem that they have or the communication that they had with a supervisor.
And that's part of our job.
And that's what I think that this means when it comes to critical thinking skills, be able to have those skills, communication,
problem-solving, resilience, those kinds of things to be successful in their post-secondary career.
So that is the priority pillar that our board has tasked the administration to work on.
It doesn't mean that we're going to forget the other four pillars.
They're still in existence, and we're still going to have an importance.
They're still going to play an important part in our school year.
But we are going to try to really move the needle on academic excellence, and specifically around those three things.
growing strong foundation, growing academically, and the critical thinking skills.
And so now our administration will be tasked with working with our board in the very near future in the coming weeks on what does this mean?
And then administration will have to determine the how.
Our board will help us determine the what, right?
What are we looking for?
When we say that, what are we really talking about?
Are we talking about improving reading scores?
We're talking about improving math scores.
We're talking about improving ACT scores.
When we say grow academically, what are we really talking about?
And once that's established, which again, should be here in the coming weeks, then our administration can start to figure out like, okay, now we know what we're trying to improve on.
Let's gather some baseline data.
This is where we're at.
How are we going to move the needle and then continually be reporting back to not only our board, but our stakeholders through the flyers, the newsletters that Carrie puts out that goes to every family three times a year or email communications.
But keeping our community informed on the progress that we're making, I think, is essential as well.
But that will be the primary focus this year.
And in the coming months, our administration is going to be tasked with a very difficult job and a very important
job of making the needle move when it comes to our academics and doing it in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
long.
Yeah we're actually we have actually people in there now on the pathways program
got a jump start and they're using some offices in there and our Hive program will be moving in shortly.
I think Monday
they're
scheduled to get over there.
The Hive program is like Steve said, a lot of home-based kids online, but it is really nice for them to have a space.
Some of them come and take classes at the high school and then their teachers have offices there that they can utilize if they need meetings or
Students want to meet with them or jump on a zoom and I think there's actually some Plans to maybe have like a lounge and that kind of stuff that our high students can utilize as well So yeah Melville is with the district now and another building that we're happy to add to our
our inventory and we have the gym.
I know there's events already going on in there.
I think JV2 played volleyball in there already and so nice to have that extra facility for all these needs.
I mean full credit to our maintenance staff who really got in there and cleaned her up quickly once we got the keys and we really can't say enough good things about them and all the cleanup that happened and how fast they were able to get that push through so we could definitely use it for basically the start of the school year this year.
from
to see your program that I was there for four years.
You're there for four years.
Absolutely.
You know, I know just again, personally, a sentimental value that it did mean a great deal to me.
This was a place that, you know, shaped my life, right?
This is where I got my
first start in coaching, which was such a huge part of my life, which got me into education, which got me into administration, which allows me to be in the role that I'm in now.
But also, I think about the friendships that I developed.
Those are the people who are my lifelong friends.
These are the people that are in my wedding.
These are the people who I wish I communicated with more, but that I call my really, really close friends.
These are the people that I met at UW Richland, and I'm proud to say that.
when UW-Platteville pulled out of the campus, and obviously it was an issue for, an emotional issue for a lot of people, for the school district to be able to hang on to a small part of it, the gym and Melville, and to be able to continue to use it for academics.
That means a lot to me, and I think it means a lot to our community.
And again, just to be clear, technically we are still renting Melville.
We take official ownership after the city council meeting on August, excuse me,
October 6th, then shortly after that, we should be able to transfer the title and make it official.
But for all practical purposes, we're renting as owners right now.
And I've been able to do some wonderful things because Carrie mentioned our custodial crew cleaning up the inside, but also the outside and getting some of the.
tall, overgrown, bad, dead wood that was up there, getting that chopped down.
It looks great.
And I think it's just going to continue to look great.
And to be able to use that space adjacent to our high school for academic and athletic purposes is not only great for the Richland School District, but as a soft spot in my heart as well.
and