WRCO Live Music Interviews: Danielia Cotton

you

It is our day to put the focus on Riverdale schools today.

Jeff Campbell is in Riverdale administrator and he's brought along some friends again today.

We'll introduce you to Addie Bird, Emily Powell and Aurora Schmidt and Sarah Plucklman will be back as well to discuss some topics going on here as we start the school year.

Well, Jeff, how was the first few weeks gone?

really well yeah I think you know staff wise doing well people are getting back in the routine of things our families are getting back into the routine we had a couple short weeks there with the holiday in there and kind of starting on the first but otherwise it seems like it's kind of just back to back to routine of everybody in both schools and things have going well

We talk with Lauren Glassburn at River Valley about this the other day, but the third Friday of the month is an important date, and that's coming up.

It is, yeah, this Friday.

So we have our picture day scheduled on that day too.

It just happened to fall this year.

So we're pretty excited about that.

So people like to come to picture day.

And I said our third Friday count, it's our big count for the school year.

It's where our funding's determined.

And we're looking in pretty good shape.

I feel like you always want more.

It would always be great to have more kids, but I feel like we're in a pretty solid spot right now.

We probably will be up a little bit this year, which is good.

That's always a positive.

And it's just one of those days that you look forward.

too, because it's, uh, it's so important to the financing of the school district and the money that the state's going to allocate for us based off, you know, the number of students we have.

And, um, it's a pretty detailed formula that's used with it.

Um, you know, like your, your 4k kids are only count as 0.6.

And, you know, your other students, and then you got to read, you know, you got to do the open and rolled in and open and rolled out.

And it's pretty detailed.

I know our district office and both offices at the other schools, uh, they'll be working hard to make sure.

all the way through Monday, even, because it's something like you can count a kid if they don't show up on Friday, but then you can count if they show up on Monday.

And then there'll be the third Friday count later in the year or two in the winter time to kind of, you know, if you got some move-ins and different things come up.

But it's pretty detailed, but the district office staff, Mendien Lee, have it down really well, a good routine that they use.

And it's a busy day for everybody, but it's a big benefit for our school.

Have you looked at the numbers that I'm sure you have in terms of what it looks like for the future for Riverdale like the incoming 4k and kindergarten classes?

How are those sizes?

Yeah, we we did our incoming 4k this year and Emily's doing a little student teaching in there She'll probably talk about that experience in a bit a little bit, but we have 45 kids in our incoming 4k this year.

So that's a that's a huge

positive for us because, you know, if we're kind of at that point, if we can average that 45 to 50 in a class, that's above expectations, I feel a little bit, you know, and then that, you know, you always think of a four year run.

If you average that, you're looking at, you know, 180 to 185 maybe in your high school, which would be a solid number in the future.

We're seeing, you know, numbers dropping all over that would keep us pretty steady from where we're at right now.

So those big 4k classes are always a benefit, you know, with our 4k

and with other students, I think we had about probably 65 plus new registrations this year, which was a positive on, you know, that side of things.

And, you know, our open enrollment, that's another thing that we're trying to, you know, always try to close that gap.

This year, I think we'll be around 20, net 20, which means we're still, you know, trying to get more students in than we have out.

But with 90% of the kids that are out never attending our school,

It's just kind of what's beneficial for the families.

But I wouldn't say an odd thing, but I think it's an interesting thing because I think it shows that families are trying to stay.

And I think it's going to be up to 12 students that were open enrolled into our district this year that ended up taking up residency in our district.

So that's a, you know, is your open enrolled in number?

You lose those 12, they're no longer, but it's better to be a resident in the grand scheme of things.

And I think that just shows that people feel pretty comfortable when they open and roll in, and then they're trying to find housing when it becomes available to become a resident in the district.

So that was an interesting thing that I haven't had happen in the last couple of years.

So we're, we're excited about that to show that the.

these families are ready to settle down in the community when housing's available, which is never an easy thing.

But our village is proactively working on that on a new development that will supply us a number of lots available for people to move in.

So that's exciting.

And then they got kind of a phased approach too that they can even go bigger with it if it takes off.

So I think families are trying to find ways to move into the district, which is always a great thing for Riverdale.

Did your high school recently get some recognition?

Yeah, the recognition we had this year was we're top 40% high school in the nation, which has been great.

We've been as high up as the top 20% in the nation, but we're recognized again as a top 40%.

And I think the one thing that we're

strictly proud of is we continue to have 100% graduation rate.

Between that and also our CTE numbers, our students taking dual credit, taking youth apprenticeships, all of that stuff to prepare them for the future really figures into that.

But that graduation rate is, it's a goal of ours.

We want to make sure every student kind of is on their pathway that they need to graduate and we're graduating kids.

And the clock, you know,

I always mentioned to some of my lower elementary, I said the clock really starts when they enter 4k, you know, in 4k and kindergarten.

That's when the clock starts because students have that choice when they turn 18, whether they want to be a student anymore.

And a lot of times you lose, you'll lose kids to dropping out in that.

And so it's, you want to make sure you're hooking them right away.

And as they get older and develop, you're finding those career paths that are

keep them in interested in school to the best extent possible.

And when we can do that and as a staff and entire staff from littles to the bigs, we're doing that well.

And I think that 100% graduation rate is exciting for another positive of what we see, but that figures into that recognition and that's nationwide too.

And so that's kind of neat to see that you're comparing nationally better than half the nation in what you're doing in your high school.

So always, always a positive and

And we always say, we always talk about, I think Sarah will talk about a recognition one of our teachers will receive through Wurza.

But I think when you have these recognitions, and I say it, I've said it a lot, when either school gets recognized, we were recognized as a junior high school, you know, this past year.

And I said, that's an.

you know, it's a showcase for everybody.

It's not just that necessary that school because everybody had a had a hand in developing those kids.

So, you know, win for, you know, one school is a win for all of us.

We're not competing internally against each other.

We just, it's a positive, you know, that everybody can feel good about.

When you talk about schools from the bigger cities, you know, they cannot claim that high of graduation rate.

And I know you're a small school, but I think in the, in the rural areas, um, you know, you do a better job of maybe not letting those students kind of fall through the cracks, so to speak,

right?

Yeah.

And sometimes I think we get from the students, we bother them too much.

You're like, what?

Just leave me alone.

Let me go.

You know, or they came from a school where, you know, it was larger.

It is difficult because you don't have the staff to student ratio as we do in situations.

So they,

kind of do fall through the cracks and no fault to anybody it's just that's I think what

kind of helps our staff stand apart from others is the ability to kind of, they're just not gonna let somebody go.

We're gonna find some way, shape, or form to make sure that student is ready for the future.

And that's whether they're a junior high student, you know, a young elementary student or up into our high school level, we wanna make sure that they are ready to go when they leave Riverdale and have an idea of something they're gonna

go into.

And then we got to let a lot of different pathways.

So yeah, we don't, I think it's it's it's a good fault to have for a staff that cares that much.

And, you know, kids kids make that comment a lot, but we're just not going to let you go, you know, without being ready to roll.

But plus, you know, the programs, you know, whether a student is involved in music or whatever it might be, you know, I mean, you've got things to get them excited about going to school.

We do.

And it's truthful.

You ask a lot of kids, they probably don't go for the math or the reading, we got a couple that do, you know, but a lot of them, they're

What's bringing them to school are the different avenues that we offer.

And so we're going to continue to find ways to offer all kinds of different avenues that we can.

I mean, with the CTE stuff and the dual credit now and partnerships with like Southwest Tech and other, you know, universities, you have so much more opportunity.

And so it's like we talked about it when Sarah first started.

in the college and career position, it was different.

She got us rolling in the right direction, did a ton of stuff with it.

And I was a little nervous when she left because I was like, she did so much for the program, but it was a benefit to our elementary school to get her in the format of a leader that way.

And it was like she really trained Tanner into Williamson and moving it to the next step.

Because if you don't have those avenues, a lot of kids

lose just interest in coming to school.

So it might be because they come to school because they enjoy that those two A classes or that shop class or, um, you know, it's just, or being part of that club.

Oh, that club's doing this right now where we got some kids extensively building our yearbook right now.

I know a couple of those kids, that's their, their big part or they're hanging out in the art room and they really enjoy art.

And it's like, okay, what can you find?

Every kid's got to find something within that school or a staff member that makes them want to be there every day.

And, and we're trying to continue.

you to build that.

And I think it's a lot easier now.

It's a lot of work on the back end, but it's a lot easier because the opportunities a lot of places like Southwest Tech and that are offering us.

We recently had some community celebrations as well, Blue River, Autumn Fest.

Yeah, it's always fun because I think it's nice to see the communities come together and they really have that ownership.

I know we're split into three communities now, Volca, Muscat, and Blue River.

I mean, that's what makes up.

We've got a couple smaller ones too that make it up, but each one holds their big

Community festival and it's always like that's their ownership.

You know, we don't have necessarily the schools in each town anymore But they all have that community ownership and the Blue River autumn fest is always a popular run right at the beginning of school I know our FFA gets involved.

There's a number of other groups that get involved in the parade So that's always it's a great turnout and you know, they got ball games down there They got all kinds of activities going down bands and so that's always a nice thing that Blue River puts on.

It's a great fundraiser too for them

for their fire department EMS.

And then this Saturday we have the Fall Opener, which is a long running event tradition in Muscatay.

And something a little new this year, they're gonna be out at events at Castle Rock for it this year.

So that's always, I know they're having a meeting out there tonight to kind of go over everything and it'll be a little bit different, but it's a great opportunity to fundraise for that community and the Chamber of Commerce.

And I try to make as many of those meetings as I can.

That's a great,

group of hardworking people that are trying to make the area better.

And if you ever sit in on one of their meetings, they've got the best interest of, you know, the businesses in mind and the people in mind and very giving organization that we're very fortunate to have.

And very fortunate that the school can be part of that too.

And I think those people are, you know, really making Muscaday in the surrounding area better with the decisions they're making and how they're spending their money.

you brought along some staff members today some

Well, I guess maybe one veteran staff member and some other.

Yeah.

Sarah will be our veteran

staff

member.

That she'll be talking, but we've brought three of our new staff members this year, um, two new staff members and a student teacher that's working with us, or I should say intern that's working with us, um, in grade three.

So yeah, you'll get to know them.

And then, uh, I think the next October we'll bring our other two new staff members.

Wonderful.

So let's, uh, let's throw it right into the fire.

Shall we Emily?

Good morning.

How are you?

Good.

How are

you?

Good to have Emily Powell and now tell us about.

your role at Riverdale this year?

My role is a little complicated right now as I'm completing my student teaching first.

I'm currently located in the 4k classrooms and I have about a week and a half left of that and then I will roll over into a second grade classroom for another eight weeks and then after Thanksgiving break I will roll into my spec ed position that I have there and that will be K through second.

I have a background in being in spec ad as a paraprofessional for the last five years So I'm very excited to get back into that again, and it's kind of my comfort spot and can't wait to be with them

It doesn't sound like a dull moment.

You've got an eventful day.

I

do.

Yes.

Yes.

I'm juggling between my student teaching and then checking in with my spec ed sub right now and making sure things are rolling well for her.

And yeah, it's been fun.

If you just bottle up some of that 4k energy,

right?

Yeah.

Yeah, they have lots.

They keep us on our toes and it's been a blast over there.

I've enjoyed my time.

Where are you from originally?

I'm from Dodgeville originally.

Grew up there and graduated and then I went to La Crosse for a couple years met my husband and then we've been in the area since.

What made you want to get into education?

So I originally did not go to school for that.

I went for like

medical.

I was going for surgical tech in college and then that was not my thing I quickly found out.

Kind of job hopped went into pharmacy and stuff and then COVID happened and life changed.

So then I found a position at local school district as a para and quickly found out within that year that this is my thing.

I want to do more of it and so I enrolled in school that year and have been completing my degree since and I've loved every second of it.

What makes you excited to get up and go to work every day?

Being with the kids and just seeing the excitement that they have for learning.

Um, and when they can actually, they see something in front of them and they're struggling and then they make that connection and are able to solve the problem or figure out a solution to what they're doing.

Um, just seeing them grow, their skills is amazing.

So you'll be taking over as a full time staff member then?

Yep.

Sure.

Do you have some goals?

for that position then when that takes

over?

My goals are just to get settled after all of this this fall.

Hopefully get life settled a little bit more and yeah I'm excited to grow in my role being in a spec-ed room for the last five years.

I've learned a lot from my former teachers and I'm excited to put that work that they've shown me to good use and yeah help my students grow.

So I know it's a challenging position.

There's somewhat of a high burnout rate in that area.

How do you keep yourself fresh?

Um, I have lots of hobbies outside and I have two little girls that, um, keep me busy and, uh, go on hikes and bike rides and everything that way.

Um, so I have my time alone.

I, my husband's great at tapping me out when I get home.

So I can have 20 minutes of relaxing, quiet time.

And then we're back at it.

And yeah, I love speck it and.

Yeah, one change it for the world.

Sounds good.

Well, it's nice to meet you and have you in the studio with us here today.

Thank you.

We'll move over on the other side of the room.

Next up, we have Addie Byrd.

Good morning.

How are

you?

Good.

How are you doing?

Great.

Tell us about

yourself.

I am actually a Riverdale graduate, so I'm very excited to be back.

I feel like my whole

Education experience and life in general has just kind of been wrapped up in a Riverdale bow, which is really nice, but I am the new SLP, so speech language pathologist at Riverdale.

I see kids from early childhood, so little three-year-olds all the way up to I have a senior this year.

She's really nice.

I feel like it keeps my SLP brain really refreshed and keeping up on all the things I learned.

I did

six years of school so I had to get my masters for this and I was lucky enough to do my masters online and then I did my clinical hours and things you have to get for that in like the local community so I did my school hours at Riverdale kind of got a training session almost on my caseload this year and then I did a hospital placement down in Platteville.

Okay so were you always counting the back of your mind thinking you wanted to get back to Riverdale or?

I was just kind of hoping to land anywhere really I think

as an SLP and like a rural community it's a little hard to pick and choose what you want.

The scope of practice is so large I could really have gone anywhere but right as I was looking for a job Riverdale opened up and I was like it just kind of felt right so I applied, interviewed, got the thing and it's really exciting to be back.

I think in the back of my mind I was always kind of hoping to stay around here not necessarily had a specific place in mind but yeah.

Were there, can you think about some teachers that, uh, made you want to get into education when you're coming through the schools?

I honestly, all of them, I know that's kind of like whatever to say, but I really, every single teacher I had at Riverdale, um, I was so excited to go to school when I was younger.

I loved it.

And I like would want to play school at home, which is like so lame to think about now.

But so for me to like be back,

And like these staff members that were once my teachers are just as supportive now as they were in the past It's really rewarding for me and I'm sure for them as well to kind of see that like they did have this great impact on me Enough so that I like came back and was really excited to interview and get the position and then start my journey there

When you're working with all grade levels, you know, how do you how do you prepare for that because there's something probably different every hour

Yeah, for sure a lot of my students have

similar goals I would say a lot of them are working on the same sounds so I can kind of use activities like for the same couple groups I do kind of split into like lower elementary upper elementary and then I have like different things I do with high schoolers but really I sometimes I let them take the lead which is a little scary to think about but they all

love coming to speech which is really nice so they know that they have to do their work and then we can you know do some fun stuff at the end but really I reuse a lot of things which is nice that I kind of have that education and experience in the back of my mind to be able to use the same activities for 4k that I do for like a fifth grader.

Do you do a lot of recording?

Do you do like audio recording of students?

Sometimes.

I do

for mostly like data collection.

I don't, if I have kids that are working on like fluency or if I have to calculate different, you know, like speech things, like how many words they have in a sentence.

I do a little bit of recording, but mostly I kind of go off my ear.

Have they made a lot of strides in that field?

Do you feel since you started in college?

I would say a lot.

I would say there's a lot more of a shift of focus of the way we treat the different disorders that we see.

I was just looking the other day for things on fluency because I haven't done a lot of fluency in my schooling and clinical hours.

The shift of focus has really turned to what our students want to see for their speech.

We're not necessarily looking for them to be perfect and have

no errors, you know, we want them to be comfortable with how they're speaking and what they're doing in class.

And if that looks a little different for every student, then that's just kind of how it is.

I'm guessing you could see some real rewarding things though, you know, the improvement somebody makes during the school year.

Yes,

for sure.

That was one of my biggest things last year was towards the end of my time at Riverdale when I was seeing these students kind of really understand

if I do this with my mouth then this sound comes out and it's correct and the way they just like light up and they're like oh that's how you do it like that's how it's supposed to sound that's really really rewarding for me as an educator it's really great to see and then for them to understand as well you know that like they are making progress is really great to see too.

Indeed.

Do you do any like part-time work as we have some radio announcers, myself included, that you probably use?

I don't know if I could do this every day.

Well, thanks for coming in.

Great to meet you.

Thank you.

Aurora Schmidt is here as well.

Good morning, Aurora.

Good morning.

Tell us about yourself a little bit if you would.

I'm the third grade intern at Riverdale, so I'm going to school right now at UW-Platteville to get my elementary education degree and just having fun.

I'm from

a few hours away off in two rivers, Wisconsin, so right on the lake.

Is it true?

Are we supposed to say Twivers?

Is that what the natives say, or how does that work?

Some people do say Twivers,

but.

Combine the towns.

Yeah.

Right.

Then we might need to see the speech person if we say it.

So what made you want to get into elementary education?

So both my parents are high school teachers, so I knew I wanted to be a teacher.

But then I sat in on a class my first semester in Plathal.

I sat in a high school class and I realized that is not for me.

There was so much going on.

And so I went, elementary is great.

Love the kids.

They saw light in their eyes.

It's just so

much fun.

Growing up in two rivers, had you ever heard of Riverdale schools before?

I have because my mother used to work down here.

Well, both my parents used to work down here.

So I had heard a little bit, but obviously.

being here, it's much more fun.

What excited you about the job when you first saw it listed?

Being in a third grade because I know I liked third grade being in a small rural town because I liked that aspect, being able to like work with the community with my students and being able to bring community into the classroom was very important to me.

Third grade, what are some challenges of teaching third grade?

Kids can be a little talkative.

Kids are still learning how to be independent in their grade.

They gain a lot more independence within our classroom, so making sure they understand the independence of their grade and the big step up can be.

a lot for them sometimes.

Sure.

I guess every grade level has the challenges.

They probably still, you know, they're still pretty well behaved in third grade, right?

Oh

yes, they're great.

So what are some things you're looking forward to maybe instituting from what you've learned and things like that as you get into the school you're a little deeper?

Looking at being able to teach more obviously, getting to teach some classes and then adding projects into our classes and like math and science.

It's just a party.

Every day, right?

Every day.

Sure.

And you have students at all levels, you know, reading-wise and everything.

So how do you kind of incorporate that for every student in the classroom?

Yes, being able to work specifically like give certain, being able to push certain students who are more advanced in certain areas like math or reading and then being able to bring.

lower students up to that grade is so much fun.

Do you have any field trips or any projects or things like that planned for the year?

I don't have anything right now, but I'm sure there will be.

Okay, good.

Well, it's nice to meet you.

Welcome to WRCO and we'll have you back again.

We're going to take a break and come back as we put the focus on Riverdale schools today.

We've kept her waiting a long time.

Sarah Pluckerman is coming up when we return.

Thanks for our guests on the morning show from Riverdale Schools.

Sarah Plekelman is here, elementary principal.

How are things going this school year?

Oh, they're going well.

Thanks for having us this morning, Phil.

So like Mr. Campbell had mentioned earlier, often running, third week of school here, really excited.

We did have one change that we started this Monday at the elementary school in our drop off procedure that I kind of talked about last time we were here.

So we're really kind of focusing on building security and as well as kind of working on developing some independence in our younger students.

And so parent drop off is now happening at the front doors instead of

of parents walking their kids in.

That way it helps us know who's in the building, making sure that we can focus on instructional time starting right away and just really building those relationships between students, like students to their peers and students to the staff members.

So that's gone really well.

A couple of tears right away from parents as well as students, but we were able to get kids in and the day running right on time.

How does that work when the staff members kind of meet them at the door?

We

do.

Yes.

Yep.

And we have it kind of differentiated for a different grade levels.

We have some paraprofessionals that work in our 4K and 5K classrooms that are their degree.

Our youngest students at the door help them through the breakfast line if they're going to have breakfast at school or help them get down to their classrooms.

We have a couple of students that have like a one-on-one paraprofessional.

So that person will be their degree to help the transition process from the parents into the building.

Now that you have the full week of school this week and everything, it probably seems like, you know, you're just running all cylinders again,

right?

We absolutely are, yes.

And I would imagine that as we get later in the week, kids will get a little bit more tired, but we're working on rebuilding that stamina from being home during it in the summer.

Jeff talked a little bit about being an award-winning school, but tell us a little bit about WURSA and what that

is.

Oh, yeah.

So WURSA is the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance.

And it's a statewide organization that really works on supporting

rural and small schools and also advocating for rural schools you know at the state level and the national level as well.

Jeff I.D.

is the executive director of WORSA and he goes to bat for rural schools as a group.

If you you know you kind of talked about earlier that we

now are able to offer more opportunities as we're all in small schools for our students to graduate college, career, and community and life ready.

But that historically hasn't been the case.

The bigger schools tend to have had the bigger voice in Congress.

And so the World Schools Alliance is really working on evening that playing field, if you will, to make sure that we have an advocate at that level.

And they have, part of the support that they offer schools are some trainings.

They have a conference that's held every year at the state level.

And at that conference, they recognize outstanding contributions to rural education.

So we were able to officially release the news this Monday that Warsaw has named Calico as one of their 2026 rural teachers of the year.

So we are very proud of Cali and our whole district.

for their contributions, but this is really an awesome honor that we get to celebrate with Callie.

She is, I believe, starting her seventh year in the district.

So in the six years she's been here, she's really transformed our ag program and it impacts students not only at the junior high school building, but across the whole district.

They have really developed some programming at the school farm that the elementary kids get invited to.

They have community events through FFA, like in October, they always have their haunted walk.

In the spring we've had like farm visits.

This in October the third graders will get to go and check out the pumpkin patch that the FFA has done and they get to pick out a pumpkin and do some pumpkin carving.

Last spring they had an energy day where the egg department, the FFA and our science department at the junior high high school and including Mrs. Daly at the elementary building, they held this energy day where all classes came through from the elementary building to learn a little

but about some sustainable energy.

Like the wind turbine that they have there, the solar panels talked about how they worked and how it helps the community and not only the farm there.

So yes, really incredible honor for Kelly this year.

It proves that it's just not sows and plows, right?

So many different avenues you can go in anywhere.

It

is.

It is.

Yeah.

Um, and I'll say one really neat thing that Cali does is work with all departments at the high school.

And I mentioned the energy, um, day that she did in conjunction with the science department, but she has also, um, had some of her A classes, um,

can count for science credit.

So she's working closely with the science teachers in that.

Some of her classes are transcripted through Southwest Tech.

So students in her egg department will earn college credit through those programs.

So it's just about opening up opportunities.

to all students.

Congratulations to her.

Is there like an actual ceremony?

There is.

Yep.

Actually, the worst of conference will be at the end of October and Steven's point.

Um, and on the 29th, we'll have a luncheon where all of the, um, award recipients will be recognized.

Okay.

I have to get a sub for that day.

I'm guessing.

Yep.

For sure.

For sure.

Working on that already.

Yes.

Seven mindsets.

Uh, what does that involve?

Yeah.

So seven mindsets is, um, a social emotional learning curriculum, uh, that we started this

at the elementary building, and it's extending into seventh and eighth grade at the junior high as well.

But what it is, is it really focuses on positive relationship building, again, students to students, students to staff, and it focuses on more positivity and their mindset, not just behavior, but it then, as you change your mindset, you tend to change your behavior.

So we have seven mindsets that we'll focus on throughout the school year, so probably four to five weeks for every mindset.

Right now, our mindset is everything is possible, so it's a great one to start out.

school year as kids kind of think about what is possible with a new school year.

You know for sure growing in their academics but growing and learning new people and you know new skills along the way.

So each week has kind of like a mindset objective so last week we focused in on dreaming big and kids in their classrooms talked about you know what is your dream for the future and it is something that we have implemented across the whole building but it gets done a little bit differently based on the grade level

right.

because it's individualized for students.

So in some second grade classrooms, I heard them talking about what career do you want?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

And then relating it to now, OK, you want to be a police officer.

What are some kind of things that police officers do?

What do they say in their job?

And kind of getting the kids thinking about that and bringing it down to their level.

And then in some of the older classrooms, they can go a little bit farther with that.

OK, you want to be a police officer.

So what kind of things are you going to have to do now to prepare you

that career in the future.

So it's all, it's similar, but grade level appropriate.

And along with Dream Big, they talk about dream builders.

Who in your life are those people that will encourage you in your dreams?

Okay, what are some dream breakers?

And we want to make sure that we stay away from the dream breakers and focus instead and spend our time on those dream builders.

This week we're talking about embracing creativity and looking at things from a different perspective.

Next week we'll be think positive and then our last week of everything is possible will be about acting and adjusting.

And again, going back to those things, looking at everything as possible and making sure we're opening up opportunities

opportunities and that, you know, focusing on the negative.

So seven of them throughout the school year then spread out through the year then.

Wow.

Sounds like a positive thing.

It is.

Yes.

We're enjoying it so far and, you know, looking forward to improving the building culture along with the mindsets.

What did you want to say about Act 20?

Oh, OK, yeah.

So kind of going back to what Jeff said at the beginning that he emphasizes, the clock starts on graduation in elementary school.

That our goal is to graduate each student as college, career, and community ready.

And it does begin in elementary school.

And Act 20 from the state ties right into that.

It's the Early Literacy Act.

And so we really focus in on our 4K, 5K, first, second, and third grade classrooms.

The state has tasked schools

with making sure that every third grade student exits third grade literate that they can read.

And so we have, we actually Lynn Terrell is our DPI like early literacy coach.

We did get a 50% grant from DPI for her time.

So she is working closely with teachers to make sure that all students can read by the time they leave third grade and provide supports for

teachers in that.

And then we do have two reading specialists that work with our students who struggle with reading at those levels and give them some intervention time.

They are assessed, students are assessed three times a year, fall, winter and spring on their literacy, phonics, phonemic awareness.

And then if they fall below a certain threshold or put on a reading plan and then are given that extra support with those reading specialists to again, bring them up to great level in reading.

You have some set aside times for reading.

through the day?

Absolutely.

Library time.

We do, yes.

So each classroom has about 120 minutes of some kind of literacy instruction throughout the day through fourth grade, then fifth and sixth grade is about 90 minutes.

That 120 minutes is not a straight block, especially for those younger kids.

It's broken up throughout the day with some phonics tasks, with some literacy tasks, with writing.

But it goes into that.

They once out of our six day cycle for specials, they get to go to the library

or story time, get to check out books and take them home.

And most grade levels are encouraging students to be reading for a certain amount of time every night, all of those things to encourage literacy.

Great.

So you're excited about a new school year.

Anything else you want to add, Sarah?

No, I think that's all Phil, but thank you.

I appreciate you having me on today.

Nice to have you in here.

Jeff, I think everybody's passed the test pretty well here so far.

Yeah,

they've

done really

well.

Very well.

No doubt about it.

Some other things you wanted to talk about some project updates, perhaps.

Yeah.

So we have been kind of updating everybody on our project update.

We do have their storage said project.

small in comparison to like a building project and that but we're moving right along with it.

We got the last of the cement I think was getting ready to be poured here this week and then we'll be starting the building process.

Our board approved somebody to complete the building process so hopefully before winter we've got our new storage set so we can start to move things into that and kind of take care of those ones that are the one that's starting to

deteriorate on its own.

So we'll have that ready to go.

The other thing is, is our community, I think I spoke a couple weeks ago, or a couple shows ago about our community.

We had a group of parents that did a fundraising campaign with our businesses in our community, and raised enough money to put up a video board.

So that's, we had a few hiccups with some, some of the delivery of it, but it looks like it's going to be installed today and tomorrow.

And then we'll work on getting that ready to go hopefully for, if not on Tuesday for the

volleyball game, but the following Thursday we're also home.

So that's a goal that, you know, this group had and our business is really supportive of our schools and that and came together really quickly.

So it will be nice to get it up and running.

And then we've got a sponsorship board that will go around the outside giving credit to all those people that contributed money to it.

So an exciting part of our gym that was raised strictly all funds by the community, all expenses have been

paid by those sponsorships.

So that's great to have in our gym.

Add a little bit to our elementary

gym.

What are some uses you can see for that video board?

Yeah, it's going to be more highlighted during our sporting events, but they'll be able to use it in their FIED classes.

We'll be able to use it during our homecoming skits.

We video all of our skits.

In our senior graduation video, we'll use it.

We'll use it for all schools assemblies or just assemblies that we have in our elementary gym.

So we really wanted ready to roll for the homecoming.

So we're going to be a little bit earlier than that, which is great.

But I think

I think as we learn it and as we go, it's going to be kind of manned by our library media specialist, Sherri Wilkinson.

She's kind of getting a group of students involved in that.

And I think as we get it up there, we're going to find uses that we didn't think we could probably use it for before.

So it's just going to nice add to our entire school.

Tell me about homecoming.

When is that coming out?

Yeah, we've got a little later homecoming 5th through the 10th.

I wrote down here.

So I think the next show we're on is the 6th.

We'll have Jesse Kinney here who does a lot of the planning at our high school kind in the middle of homecoming week.

She'll give a little breakdown of what's left.

But that schedule is coming together right now.

We've got skits planned.

We know for Thursday night, I think at 7 30, there's no other events that night right now.

So that's going to be that's going to be nice.

you know, it's gonna start at that time.

Then Friday we have our PEP rally, all school PEP rally, which I believe is starting at 1.30 with the parade at 2.30 then.

And we'll do the alternate route that we took off, we took it off of Main Street last year, just a lot of traffic congestion in that.

And we go by our elementary school that way.

And it's kind of on the backside around our school campus.

So it's kind of a neat little, neat little parade that will run through a parade route, a little bit different than

in the past, but those are the main events right now.

They're working on finalizing some other things.

There's some other things during the week as far as at the high school and junior high doing some activities.

And then I'm sure they'll come out with a dress up.

days for all the different days we have.

So those are always fun to see.

Lots of fun.

It's probably better that it's a month or so into school so you can kind of get ready and prepare for it.

Yeah, I

think so.

I think they've had a lot of planning time and yeah, they're getting there right now with it all.

So leave it to them.

They do a great job with it and Jesse will have a full breakdown of it come October.

What about fall

sports, Jeff?

Yeah, we've had a we've had a nice start to our fall sports.

Our cross country's been busy.

They just competed last night again.

They'll compete this weekend.

Volleyball was in Cuba City last night and they got another home game on Thursday and then our football team two and two right now they host Pecatonica on Friday.

So they've had a nice start to the year two.

We do have a change in our football program coming up in the future at the last school board meeting.

They voted to go to eight player football starting in the next cycle.

which will be 2028.

So for the 20 and 29, we'll be going to eight player.

We're just at a point numbers wise where that's gonna make more sense for the school right now with our junior high transition to eight player already this year in sixth, seventh and eighth grade.

They've got about 15 players right now learning that system and then we'll make the transition here in another two seasons to eight player all together at our high school level.

So this will help us

develop our younger players at the JV level and continue to have a varsity, a solid varsity program at there.

And yeah, I think it's going to, you know, I was very supported by our community.

I held a community meeting last year on this after the football season, kind of laid out the plan, got a little bit of feedback, but otherwise the board was very much in favor of what's best for the kids.

And that's what we're looking at right now.

Did you have much pushback because there are a lot of us that are, you know, kind of like the old school, you want to stay with the

Yeah, not, not a lot.

No, not much.

Um, one thing is we will be playoff eligible enrollment wise by that time with the three year average, which helps.

Um, I think we might have went this direction, maybe even at the last cycle, if we had our enrollment hadn't figured into not being playoff eligible, but, uh, not much.

People understood where our numbers sit at right now.

And I think they want.

We want to, my goal's always been, I don't want to go week to week whether I'm going to have a game or not.

I want to make sure we're set and our program knows what they're going into and this is going to be the best way to do it.

And we've seen a lot of success in this area in the eight man.

you know, ranks with the, you know, Belmont Northcroft.

I think Belmont's ranked up there near the top this year again.

And we've seen some of those programs have success in it.

We've talked to them.

We talked to their staffs, their athletic departments, and they feel it's been a real benefit for them.

So we'll give it a go.

It doesn't mean that we're stuck there every two years.

We can have this discussion and make those changes that we need to if our numbers warrant it.

Will you be a Ridge and Valley member then for

football?

That's up to debate too.

We would like to.

I think Kurt's got a meeting today.

He's going to ask them about that.

But it would make the most sense.

But I don't know.

I know of a couple other schools that might be going eight man that officially have made it.

And so I don't know how the WIA will reconvene the conferences based off that.

So, okay, it's kind of a wait and see.

We'll put in what we think would be benefit for us travel-wise and size-wise, and then we'll go from there.

And you're, is always confusing.

You're a member of the, the six rivers for football now, but in terms of all other academics and athletics, you're a swall member then.

We

are.

Yeah.

So it's, it does.

So our ADs, he actually goes to about three different meetings.

He also goes to a little bit with the Ridge and Valley.

There's a little, could be some mix in there too.

Um, you know, with some of the schools that play in our six rivers football.

So he tries to hit some of those meetings, but yeah, six rivers and football, swall and everything else.

So it's, uh,

It's a busy time when you're mixing a match in different conferences.

Well, it sounds like things are going well this school year.

Good luck.

And, you know, we'll see you again during homecoming week then.

Yeah, definitely.

Looking forward to it.

And thanks for bringing in the new staff members.

We appreciate that.

Addie Byrd, Emily Powell, and Aurora Schmidt.

Any of you know the Riverdale school song yet?

Or you do.

Addie,

right?

Not singing it.

Well, I wasn't gonna ask you to sing.

And Sarah Pluckerman, thanks for coming in today.

We spotlight Riverdale Schools on today's morning show.

We'll be back with more coming up tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the Ithaca School Fair and Homecoming.

We are in the studios with Danelia Cotton, who is in the studio, has made the trick to see us today.

How you doing, Dania?

I'm doing great.

It's an awesome drive getting here.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful part of the country.

Awesome to have you.

So if you want, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

I come from a small town in New Jersey called Hopewell.

I lived like in the Satterland Mountains, which, you know, it,

I think people think of New Jersey and they don't think country, but I grew up on Mountain Church Road.

There are still no streetlights on that road.

It's pretty dark and windy.

But I grew up there and ended up going to college in Vermont.

So I was always in a country-type area.

loved music.

I grew up singing with my mom and her six sisters.

She comes from a family of 10.

They had a gospel like acapella group.

That's where I first started to sing.

She gave me my first guitar when I was 12.

And I liked rock and roll because it sounded the way I felt being in a smart white town as the only black kid.

But as I, you know,

got into music.

I did sort of like an indie soul rock kind of thing.

But my grandmother owned a Charlie Pride album.

Well, we all thought it was my grandfather's and he hid it kind of under the bed because he was blacks back then.

It wasn't like big to be like in the country.

But she's like, it was my album.

She just died.

She was 105.

But I came across it and thought I would do a cool cover and call it like cover album and call it Charlie's Pride.

Because he was a lot like my grandfather.

They were both very similar colored and lived in an all-white area.

But never thought about color.

They just kind of raised their family and lived like Charlie Pride when you really look into the history of him.

He just went into the music, into that genre.

I don't think he was thinking anything racially.

He just liked the music and went in.

you know at a time really it was like right after the you know civil rights movement I mean he just it's pretty spectacular and what he did and who he was so I picked songs of his that I like like Kiss an Angel which I thought was kind of cool put my own spin on that and Snake's Crawl at Night I liked because my other half is a legal aid attorney and so

We're always talking about murder and cases in our house.

And Rollo, Mississippi, I loved.

And so I got into this, and then they were like, you're kind of good at this thing.

And I realized it was probably always a little country in some of my ballads.

And so I'm here.

And then I wrote Two Step and decided to actually do an album full of originals.

So this is the first one.

This is about just like putting your phone down because I'm older and I come from a generation that did not grow up on the social highway.

And I think it's important to stay rooted in the moment.

And, you know, if you learn the two-step, you'll be with people and it won't be about your phone.

You got to put your phone down to dance.

So I just kind of did a spin on that and like sort of commented on that whole.

the moment that we're in.

So that's really it.

And I guess it's kind of taken a little bit.

I think we're on deck.

And I don't know if we're in the top 80 this week, but we're close.

We were on deck last week.

Working on

it.

Yes.

All right.

Well, if we give it a spin here, it's bound to go number one on WRC.

Oh, Danila Coleman on WRC radio.

It's called Two Step.

Here

we go.

Cause I'm tired of dancing alone, tired of my lonely house Always sitting here on my phone, just teaching me the two-step Cause I need to get out so-

I just reached my phone there when I heard that ringing at the end.

Good stuff.

Yeah, that's got a good beat.

We can dance to it.

I can almost, I can only do about a one and a half step now these days, but good stuff.

So you've got the background you mentioned.

Charlie Pride, who I know a lot of our listeners love Charlie Pride, and you did your own spin on one of his most famous songs.

Yes.

Would you be so kind to play that live for us in the studio today?

Yes, yes.

Okay.

Whenever I chance to meet some old

They wonder how does a woman get to be this way?

Always got a smile in the face, in a town, in a place, and every time

People may try to guess the secret of happiness.

Some of them never learn, it's a simple thing.

The secret that I'm speaking of is a woman and a man in love.

Let him know you think about him when he's gone Kiss his angel, good morning Love him like the devil when you get

back home

That is amazing.

Just

a little different.

Yeah.

So, so you actually do kiss an angel.

Good morning then.

Your husband, right?

Yes.

Yes.

I was just talking to him.

He's, he's on call because he does the, you know, all of the attorneys when you, when you do legal aid and his specialty is he's on a murder unit.

You wait.

And I was like, did anybody die in the last few days?

Are you going to pick up?

He already has 13 cases.

Oh my goodness.

I know.

Yeah.

Wow.

Pretty

deep.

Yeah.

It's pretty interesting in our house, the conversation.

I bet.

You're both doing what you love doing, right?

Yeah.

No, he really does.

And I think now I have sympathy.

You just don't know a lot of these people had horrible, horrible upbringings.

Not to say that murder is right, but I don't know.

There's a lot that we don't know about things.

One should never assume.

anything when it comes to anything.

If you don't know the backstory,

that's

what I feel.

I agree.

So you're well-educated, you've had quite a background, you've been an actress for a while.

Yeah, I actually went to performing arts high school and my last year I went to Bennington College.

which was big for my family because I was in the third generation, and I was the first ever female in my family to go to college, and I got into Bennington, which at the time was the most expensive college in the nation, which was deep.

Because it was sort of, I went into another situation of an all-way college.

There was like 10 of us that were black, all female, and we were all on scholarship.

I think we...

But it was a great experience and these I spent my last year there at the Royal Academy of Dramatica Arts in London, which was just Deep to live there and I was there when the wall went down which totally tells my age which was an experience like no other like it just was I was really lucky really really lucky

and you had a chance to you were in at least one well-known movie, weren't you?

I was in fresh which back when there was like Cisco and Ebert

Two years ago.

Thumbs

up.

Thumbs up.

It was like one of the 10 best of that year and it was a young director, Yoaz Bakken.

It was his first film and it was good and you know Samuel Jackson's in every movie but it was really good and I played a Puerto Rican drug addict.

I had to curse so much.

I didn't know if my grandmother would go and like I was like just clover your ears.

But likewise, I mean, you kind of, you've set standards for yourself because I understand you turned down a role too along the way.

I mean, I, at the end of it, at the end of, at the end of all of it, I didn't want to go to school to be, to constantly play a hooker or a drug addict.

And at that time, there just wasn't a lot of roles for black females.

Now there's like,

Netflix, prime videos, there's HBO, and there's a ton of things, and we've become a more multi-racial world.

And so there's more roles.

So there's more out there for us.

But no, you don't ever want to study to always play a certain type if you definitely have fought your whole life to fight that stereotype.

You know, yeah.

And at the end of the day, I don't think my heart was in it the way it is when I sing or I play music.

So I think you end up being, you know, I ended up where I was supposed to be.

Yeah.

Definitely.

Yeah.

When you sang that last song too, I hear all kinds of influences.

I hear little Bonnie Rates.

Oh my God.

You know, maybe, you know, and some other artists, but who did you listen to?

My

mom listened to jazz.

So like, you know, at home, there was like Nancy Wilson and

Even like Chaka Khan and my mother actually did like Bonnie rate Jonathan Winters and Like there was just weird and my aunts were on the road with Southside Johnny.

They were

background singers and so

from New Jersey Yeah,

and you know my one aunt would play like Dan Fogelberg But then my brother was over you know our rooms were connected and he was playing the black crows You know Led Zeppelin Todd Rungren like it was just

I had everything, so I was not the average black kid listening to Michael Jackson.

I discovered him later.

She did have songs in the Key of Life, an album which completely affected me.

But when you have jazz downstairs, rock over here, and then there's Southern rock over there, it all kind of...

I don't know and I loved old movies.

So I would watch all those being Crosby movies and you know, so I liked being Crosby and Elvis Presley and There was all these hands Christian Anderson movies kind of things that were in the old I would my mother used to say like were you born like like 40 years later Or like earlier than you're supposed to I just what I you know, there's so at the end of the day I was just exposed to so much and it's just I think music isn't

It's not like one should stay within a genre.

It's just like whatever sounded good to me did, but I was really, really exposed to quite a diverse amount.

So it's just, I'm everywhere.

And then in Bennington, my teacher for music was a horn player.

And he made me study this John Coltrane, Johnny Hartman album.

And I just wondered why Johnny Hartman never was as big as Nat King Cole, but whatever.

But so I really got quite an education.

That's

interesting.

I

just read a biography on Prince and he was very, you know, he would listen to Fleetwood Mac, you know, which you wouldn't think that maybe that would be his genre.

He listened to everything as well.

And his dad was a musician.

No, they say I knew a guy that knew that whole circle.

They said, you know, when he was 15, like he kind of didn't have a place to stay.

And the guy would let him stay in a studio and he'd say, like, look, I'm gonna lock the door at night.

So you don't leave, you know, with whatever.

And he said it was staying in that studio.

That's how he learned like all he started learning all those and doing everything too.

But yeah, he clearly that's one of my total heroes.

Totally love him.

Love him.

Love him.

Love him.

Him and Sly.

you know Sly and Family Stone like I also think like Sly was the first prince like he's so brilliant and so but I like them they sort of definitely challenged sort of the lines of what black music was too yeah

and Sly Stone was a producer too before he became famous he did he did a lot of bands and things like that

So good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

I love talking music.

I could do that all morning, but we'll come back and after the time out, we'll have more a little bit later on here as Danelia Coleman is.

I said a wrong last

name.

Cotton.

I said, what's your

shirt made

of?

Danelia Cotton, our guest here on WRC radio.

Great to have you along today.

Any thing that you would give like an aspiring artist out there, some things that you've learned through your time in music?

Um, you know, I would say, you know, I want to be an example for that there is no time limit for when you do this.

I always think like if I met Dolly Parton that she'd be like, I like you because literally I grew up, you know, I mean, and I'm not like 90.

I grew up with no running water.

So, I mean, I woke up to go to school, and I pump water, and I put it on a stove, and I heated it, and I washed it in a bit.

I come from that single mother for kids.

But there is no way to really succeed in this world without real discipline and putting it in the time.

And I know that there's a social highway, and that's a huge avenue for promotion.

stay rooted in the moment.

You can't write about life that you're not living.

That can be there, and I understand that that has to be a tool.

But there is a way to navigate in this world where you have time to study your craft and live your life.

And then you just check in.

It's sort of planning out one's day.

And I think a lot of these highways

They suck you in and you're like, you're in that for that moment.

But be in that because I believe art is about, music is about an escape.

It's five minutes to stop thinking about your life or today dream or just feel good.

And so to create that, you have to know what that is.

So you have to be rooted in.

what it is.

So my advice is, you know, study your craft.

You know, the people that make it, it's discipline.

Sometimes, you know, true geniuses are just a gift plus discipline.

That's it.

That's the equation or whatever.

But stay in the moment.

You know, give yourself time and enjoy what is out there to listen to other artists and go back a lot of there's a lot of people from my generation.

There's a lot of great like even I went back through old Dolly Parton stuff that I had never heard.

I mean, I was not necessarily a country artist.

For me, she was the Shania Twain of my generation.

She was a country artist who crossed over into popular music.

And she was beautiful, and she was an act.

I mean, she kind of even did more than Shania.

She was acting like the whole thing.

She really was.

That loss was like, ugh, to lose my grandmother of 105.

And her two like epic, extraordinary women, I was just like, God, what do we have?

So little girls out there, people out there, like to become that, you have to,

You have to live and do things and be rooted in what this is, life.

Don't forget life.

Huge component.

Yes.

No doubt.

Well said.

All right.

We have your guitar.

We're going to make you sing another song.

Welcome back to our studios.