Riverdale School District

Music.

On our morning show today, we put the focus on Riverdale Schools.

Mr. Jeff Campbell is here, Riverdale School District Administrator.

We also have guests in the studio.

In fact, we'll introduce you to Amy Sequin.

also Penny Boringer and also Jesse Kinney and Lynn Terrell are here.

We're going to talk about what they do and their roles at Riverdale this year.

Mr. Campbell, here we go.

Happy homecoming week.

Yeah, it's a, yeah, this is, uh, this is a fun week.

A lot of energy, a lot of energy right now in the school and, uh, at our powder puff last night and Jesse will kind of run down all of our activities.

She's our planner.

So we got to add, we got her out of the school for a little bit, which is a little scary because all of our kids are in activities right now and she planned them all.

So they'll be in

good shape with our staff.

But I think it's a relaxing time for her at least to be here right now during this time.

But she'll talk about that in depth.

But yeah, a lot of fun dress up today.

We got a safari day going on today.

So it's nice to see the little ones and the older ones all dressed up.

So do the best we can.

Listeners can't see your shirt, but you must

have.

This is about the best I can do.

huge dress up day guy, but I thought I'm not on TV today.

I'm good to go, you know, on radio.

So this

works.

Oh, that's awesome.

Well, it's good to get in the spirit of homecoming and everything.

We'll talk a little bit more about that coming up.

You want to talk a little bit about some recognition recently for

that.

Yeah, we do.

I think last Friday, we recognized our custodian staff and a lot of times in a school district, I don't know the people know the number of hours these people really put in, you know, our grounds crew, which is outside.

with Randy Nautical and Jim Goplin help out out there and keep our grounds crew, keep our facilities looking great.

We've got some exceptional facilities and if you don't keep them up, they deteriorate pretty quickly.

So those guys are on the outside doing all that stuff.

They'll get involved with the snow plowing and everything that's coming up soon, helping out there.

And just our indoor custodians, too, want to give a shout out to them.

At our junior high school, we got Ellen Peterson, our main day custodian, and then we have Michelle Voight and Richard

Richard Thompson just came on our staff here just in the last week.

So those two are the nighttime, evening and night handle a lot of our event cleanup.

We have a number of events at our junior high school for junior high right now, all of our events there.

And then in the wintertime, we'll do our high school wrestling there.

So they do a lot of the cleanup there.

They do a lot of the setup for those and then all the cleaning of that building, keeping it in tip top shape.

It's built in 1965, I believe, around that time.

So they've got a lot of

work to do.

And then our junior high or our elementary staff, which a little bit bigger building, we've got West Wannick on the days there.

And then Patty Barron's who does kind of double duty.

She does some mid afternoon custodian stuff.

She's a cook in the morning for our staff.

And then our night staff, which is Bruce Young, Vanessa McBain and Deanna Hunt.

And those three have been on working together for a while and and get the rooms already go for the morning, you know, they're they're late into the night to make sure we got a nice clean school and keeping our

kids safe and healthy.

So and the whole crew is ran by Tim Redmond Tim's, you know, a guy we got to get on this show, but he's a man a few words.

He always tells me so I can't gonna drag him on here sometime.

But he's the kind of guy that leads, leads us by example, and has a great knowledge and experience of 20 plus years at Riverdale, but probably over 30 in education, working in this kind of buildings and grounds role.

I've always said, if you want to know what's going on in the school, ask the custodial staff.

Yeah, they are.

It's the first person you find when you're new to a place and you want to get them on your side because they're the ones doing the work.

They're the ones getting down and dirty.

And then during the summer, the most of them are on staff too, doing all the summer projects that we talk about when I'm here during the summer.

And we've had a lot of change over in our school as far as building projects and that.

And it took on a bigger role, but really never added people.

added space to our schools, but didn't add position.

So they just take on more, more of the duty.

So want to give a shout out to them.

It's kind of a crew that we want to pay a lot of respect to.

And last Friday was the official recognition day for our custodian staff.

Very nice.

All right.

The last time I was at your your gym for volleyball, the new board wasn't up.

Have you made any progress

there?

We have, we have it up.

We put it up on Thursday and Friday, actually finished up late Thursday night, a little bit of change up on Friday.

The crew of

that kind of ran this, our community members, Jen Goplin, Melissa Wannick, Mandy Tisdale, a tremendous amount of work on their part, going to the businesses and raising the money.

When they came to me with this idea, I said, we just...

don't have the funding right now to do something like this and they understood that.

So they went out to our businesses and our community members and they raised a large amount of money in a short period of time.

We'll have the video board will make its debut at tonight's volleyball game.

That was, we were hoping a little earlier, we had some bumps in the road, but we got it done and got it put up.

We won't have the sponsorship boards up yet.

Those are coming within the next couple of weeks.

We'll hopefully have everything ready as far as sponsorship so you can see all those people that contribute.

by the start of basketball.

But it's going to be nice to have that display for our senior night tonight for our homecoming activities.

For our volleyball team, we got them in at least one home event.

They will be hosting a quad coming up here, too.

So they'll get a couple of events with our new video board, but just a neat way to kind of spruce up our gym a little bit and get some movement of our scoreboard and different things.

But it's all fit really well.

And now it's just the point of running it.

And we have Sherri Wilkinson,

We'll be involved in that.

Jen Goplin's still involved in the running of it, but we'll have some kids that are putting together content right now for it and get an advanced start for the winter sports with it too.

So early on content will be like pictures of the team and things like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well pictures of the team, pictures of players, um, uh, you know, highlights of other sports going on, different activities that are going on.

We'll talk a little bit about community events.

Um, a lot of advertisement up on the video board.

And, and I think it will grow in time.

You know, right now we're just kind of learning the basics of it and get it going.

And then in time it's going to grow.

You know, we'll have sponsorship.

Thank yous up there too, rolling through.

Um, so people can see those, but it's exciting.

It's exciting.

for something and it's a community built you know that's the biggest thing and I think those community sponsors you can never go give them enough credit for you know donating to a for project like this

no longer will you have to hang a sheet for your skits to be shown on

that that is great that is yeah that's something Thursday that is going to be wonderful the sounds a little bit better so we video mall we're

which is kind of something we've been doing for quite a few years.

So to put them up there now, I think that's going to be the biggest thing.

We always had difficulty with sound in that.

And this year, it'll be a lot better.

So that's another great use that we'll have Thursday night when Jesse talks about the skits.

And yeah, that's another exciting thing that we have.

Awesome.

You wanted to talk about your notification system as well.

Yeah, so we did.

We changed up a little bit this year.

We went from a school messenger system to what's called bright arrow.

So now we'll be sending out email.

uh, text message and, uh, voice calls.

So when we have mass notifications, the, the most important ones are like the school ones where, you know, schools letting out, um, we have the ability now to communicate all three of those areas.

So I'll probably be using that, uh, quite a bit.

We just got through our testing phase with our staff two weeks ago and then we just did our parents, um, text messages went out last night, um, to parents and then they got a kind of, um,

opt into the text messages.

We did phone calls testing last week, and we did email testing.

So if people had any issues with it, just contact the district office.

We'll get you squared away.

If there is an incorrect number, but all families should have the ability to be able to, you know, be contacted by those three methods, which is, which is a step up.

It's something that we've been trying to upgrade for a while.

And, you know, we'll use this, like I said, for school cancellations.

It could be for, you know, mass things that we have going on in the community.

Probably would have used it a little bit with homecoming this week if our testing phase would have been done.

Might even try to send something out on Friday reminder about the parade and that just to kind of run through an entire district test.

But it's also a good notification as we continue to look at our emergency response.

We want to make sure we communicate with families in a timely fashion if we had

a situation of a lockdown or a hold or an active shooter type situation.

That was where most of our communication would happen with parents.

So it's a great, it's easy to use.

I can use it off my phone.

I can do it off computer.

I can do it a number of different ways.

And we have access to a number of different people.

So if a situation happens where I'm not available, other people have access and are trained on it too.

So just a new thing they should be getting.

And like I said, parents, if you haven't received one of those things, just call the

district office will get you scored away and get you ready for the probably the winter season.

So the contact number that they put in like when you know registration those kind of things for the families that's how they're contacted them.

Yep.

goes right off our skyward system.

So they did online registration, their emails on there, their voice, you know, anything else they have.

A lot of times it might only go to one number or you might have your home number and you might not have your cell phone.

So those are the things that we kind of got to know that we make changes to.

But yeah, otherwise it's all in our system updates every night.

So when updates are made, it's right into the system and it's so far the testing's gone really well.

Good to hear, technology, modern technology.

Love it,

love it, yeah.

Saves making what, 200 phone calls or

whatever.

There

we

go, yeah, this is a great way to do it.

Awesome.

Well, move around the room a little bit.

Lynn Terrell drew the next shortest draw there, so she's on with us next.

Good to see you again, Lynn.

Hey, thanks for having us.

Tell us a little bit about what you do at Riverdale.

Well, in the past, I've been, I guess, a reading specialist, Title I reading intervention teacher, as well as a half-time instructional coach.

And my role has slightly shifted a little bit this year, and now I'm taking on full-time literacy coaching as well as reading specialist duties for the district.

Okay.

Important stuff.

Tell us about how the role has changed then for someone with that title over the years.

Well, a lot of the changes happened with Act 20, the legislative act that was passed a couple years ago.

That has required us to

address learning gaps, address any students that might be struggling, developing personal reading plans for students, which just ensures that they're getting what they need to work towards that proficiency by third grade in their reading skills.

And we were really fortunate.

We have applied for the Act 20 Early Literacy Coaching Grant, and that opportunity started this year, and that's what's allowed me to extend coaching throughout the whole day.

And that means that half of my time is really spent with the kindergarten through third grade, our early readers, and there's students and teachers there, and then the other half of my day can be dedicated to fourth grade through twelfth grade.

So all ages.

All ages.

It's a variety show for you every day.

Yes,

it is.

Sure.

So you never get bored.

No, there's no boredom.

And how has reading improved?

You think it's been improving?

Because I know we kind of blame COVID a little bit there for a while, you know, for things maybe not being as good.

That's true.

We've made a lot of gains past COVID, I think, past that time period.

Act 20 sort of came into play across the state to really shift the way that we teach younger readers and to shift towards what they call the science of reading or the research base behind the instructional practices.

And I feel like we were on a good

towards that shift before the act went into place.

But having that allowed us to do some extra training with our staff and to ensure that some of those practices are happening in the classroom.

And that's a lot of shift in how we address students' phonics and their word study, things of that nature.

And really, you know, the grant now is also in place to help us even move more forward in our progress towards that.

third grade reading proficiency.

Are there specific plans for each level then?

Yeah, it's a variety of plans.

Like right now I'm spending a lot of time with third grade and we're working on some new program and materials in word study and vocabulary development.

So I'm spending some time there.

And the plan is to put a plan together to continue to work in that

with that grant over the next two years.

The grant runs for a couple of years then.

Do you have to reapply then or how does that work?

DPI has not confirmed whether that program will get to continue or not.

I think that they're hoping that that's the case, but time will tell for that.

Was there a summer reading program over the summer then?

Part of the requirements of Act 20 is that we provide the opportunity for summer school for students who have reading plans.

And so we do have

two sessions of summer school and when students sign up we are able to provide ongoing reading instruction within their summer school times.

The key thing is to find something that where the light bulb goes on with the student like something that they really enjoy.

You know are there popular books some right now like let's say third grade you know what's the most popular book right now.

Well, there's a lot of them.

I still think graphic novels come into play quite a bit with some of our students about that age.

They do enjoy those.

But, you know, with all of the emphasis on reading instruction and phonics and explicit instruction, we can't forget to, I guess, still instill that joy of reading in our students.

And so we do put some things in place to sort of continue to

bring that around like we have a book trust program which we're really fortunate to have.

The kids get to pick out books of their choice a few times a year so they get four free books out of that this year.

We have the good old book fairy she likes to come around and visit in the classrooms and so that program is funded through the foundation and so that allows classroom visits.

three times a year, reading to life in a fun, read aloud way, and engaging students.

And then the books get given away to a winner in the classroom.

Somebody gets to keep that book.

So they look forward to that.

They start the school asking when the book fairies coming to visit down in the elementary classrooms.

I think we've also worked on just sort of making the library a welcoming space for students, more physically appealing, you know, welcoming them in.

We have new librarian, maybe that's for another day to talk about, but some of the things that's happening in the library, I'm just changing how kids view the library and continuing to push for that joy of reading because we know that reading is really the gateway to all learning and, you know, hopefully

The things we have in place help us to, you know, address struggles early on and just move all of our kiddos to proficiency and so that they have the academic success that they can have.

Sounds like making it fun is the key, right?

Probably with most things.

With most things, yeah.

Absolutely.

Good to see you again.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you.

We move around.

Jeff has brought along a couple of newbies here today.

Jeff, I think I've mentioned that before.

Is it like the job interview?

You're like, OK, will you be agreeable to go to WRC

and

do the morning show?

Yeah, we don't let them know that until after they sign on the dotted line.

And then we tell them, hey, I'm taking you this time and you did another time.

So we had three of our new staff members

last time and we have two that we brought on here that kind of keep that English theme going and reading theme going with them.

Awesome.

We'll talk to Amy Sequin first.

Good morning, Amy.

Good to see you.

Good morning.

Nice to meet you.

You too.

Tell us a little bit about yourself if you would.

Sure.

I'm originally from the Milwaukee area and born and raised in Waukesha.

And when I went, I didn't know what I wanted to do coming out of high school.

So I worked full time that the year that I got out of high school and I decided I wanted to do something else besides just going into the workforce.

So I went to community college first and then went through my phase of wanting to get away from my parents and transferred to UW River Falls the furthest away I could get at the time.

entered the education program there based on my older brother was going back to school as well at the same time and he was getting his art certification to teach art.

And so he was kind of my catalyst to wanting to get into education because I really didn't know what I wanted to do.

And then ended up discovering that college and living by myself is expensive and went back home and lived there and then graduated from UW Parkside in Kenosha.

with degree one through eight and then one through nine in history.

Did you have another role, another job before you came to Riverdale

then?

Yes, the previous nine years I spent at basketball schools, I was seventh and eighth grade language arts and I did some ninth grade world history as well.

Were there some teachers that influenced you, Amy, back in the day?

Not one that I can specifically say really influenced me, but I always enjoyed school.

It was something that I always liked going to.

I liked the learning portion.

I liked everything really about it, just the academia setting.

So not really one that I can specify that really drew me towards education.

More so my brother going back to school and then I shadowed him a couple of days when he was at school or when he was teaching in...

a small school, like a K through eight school.

So I kind of got a range of classes to look at.

And that's when I decided that that's what I wanted to do.

I have a daughter that's a teacher and all she ever wanted to do was play school when she was young.

Did you do that when you were young?

I don't remember doing that, maybe, but not that I really recall, I guess, no.

We'll talk about your role and like what you do on a typical day at Riverdale.

Sure.

So I start my day at Riverdale Elementary School.

and I have a sixth grade ELA class.

And then I shift over to the junior high and I go there for two blocks of seventh grade ELA.

Okay.

Yeah.

Explain what ELA is.

ELA is English language arts.

So it encompasses everything from reading to grammar to vocabulary to writing any of those components that in our communication.

Very important these days, you know, I mean, no matter what role, whatever career you get into, it's going to be something you use every day for the rest of your life, right?

Yes.

Yes.

What's the most rewarding part about being in education?

Oh, probably the light bulb moments.

Just when someone quote unquote gets it finally and they're able to take whatever instruction I'm giving and be independent workers and do

an amazing job on something, that's probably the best.

Probably happens despite every day, doesn't

it?

It does, it does.

Some tasks are a little more so than others, but with lots of steps to go through, but then when you finally get that moment that it really clicks with them, that's rewarding.

What are some changes that you've seen now that you've been in education as long as you have?

Are there some major things or some things for the better?

Oh, yeah.

There's always good things going on in education.

There's, like Lynn was talking about with the grants that come up that help to foster more literacy-based things, because then as we get them in middle school and high school, that just makes them more prepared as they get in further along in their education.

So those things are always good.

And at the middle school level, I feel like they're at that age where they want to communicate their opinions and their thoughts on things.

And so doing assignments like that that allow them to voice their opinions on issues that they face in their lives makes it a little more relevant to them.

And doing more things like that I think in classrooms is helping.

That could bring out some really good discussions.

A lot of good debates.

I bet.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

And you're kind of the, what do you call it?

Moderator.

Yes.

Yes.

Good.

Well, nice to meet you.

Thanks for coming in today.

And also, Penny Boinger is our guest here as well.

Penny.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Good to meet you.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Sure.

I'm from the basketball area.

I originally grew up in Highland.

I've taught second grade in basketball for the last 31 years and I just recently retired from basketball in May.

Fully intending to do something after I retired and

when the halftime reading interventionist job came available in Riverdale, I thought this would be the perfect place for me to be.

So yeah, I'm working halftime now in Riverdale with grades K through three.

I am the new reading interventionist.

So my role frees up Lynn's schedule a little bit to work on some of her other projects.

You didn't want to just go fishing or something.

Well, as tempting as that sounds, um, um, I knew I wanted to do something.

I like to stay busy.

So this has been perfect.

Wonderful.

That's, that's a wonderful age to work with.

Isn't

it?

It is.

It is.

I really enjoy it.

Um, yeah.

So I'm working with kindergarten through third grade, which having had 31 years in second grade, you know, I'm pretty familiar with that age.

So it is a nice age to work with.

Our students, when they get to school, are they better prepared than they were when you first started?

Because it seems to me with my granddaughters, they know more about reading than I did when I was in probably third grade.

In ways, yes.

I think in ways they are.

I've seen such a shift in the electronics in our lives.

And so when I was growing up, we had Sesame Street.

And now kids have more of their devices and electronics.

But they are exposed to more things.

Yeah, in ways they are more prepared.

Bluey.

Yes.

So take us through a typical day when you're at Riverdale for you.

Is there a typical day?

Oh, yes, I've got a very set schedule.

So I work in the afternoons and I take small groups of kids.

So I have between two and five students at a time for 30 minutes.

So

I have six classes that I go to and I have a very set schedule.

They spend 30 minutes with me working intensely on phonics and reading skills.

And then they head back and I get my next group.

And so we work intensely on learning the phonetic rules and applying that to learning how to read.

Has there been a little bit of a shift in education back toward more of the basics and phonics?

There has been.

There has been.

Um, having been in education for quite a while, you see the cycles where you have something for a while and then it cycles out and you try something new.

And eventually it comes back again.

And, um, yes, it is very, uh, like Lynn said, that with the science of reading, it's a very phonics based and, um, learning all of those rules that for a while we taught, but not as intensely.

Did you remember what made you want to get into education?

I was one of those kids who always liked to play school.

Oh, good.

Yeah, I just had a wonderful experience going to school, and it was something I enjoyed when I graduated from high school.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do, but did a few experiences where I got to go into some schools and check things out, and I thought that that was really for me.

Was there a teacher that you really connected

with?

I had a few very special teachers.

My fourth grade teacher in Highland was a wonderful teacher.

And when I look back, she's probably the first person that I think of as far as being one of those teachers who inspired me.

Well, the background at Highland and Boscobel and now Riverdale, you must like the small schools.

I do, I do.

Having grown up in the area, I think it's a wonderful place to be.

I enjoy the small town settings and rural life.

And it's, yeah, I do enjoy it.

Good deal.

And then some other things that you like to talk about with what you do in the classroom every day?

I just really like the energy that the kids bring because I work in small groups with two to five students.

I really get to know the students.

And they're excited to be there.

And it is really neat when you see them, like Amy said, have that light bulb moment.

I love it when they feel proud of, of what they can do and what they've accomplished.

And their energy, I mean, it probably fuels you a little bit.

It

does.

It does.

Yes.

Definitely.

Absolutely.

Well, nice to meet you.

Welcome to Riverdale and Morning Show Studios.

We'll have more in a moment.

Thanks to Penny and Amy and Lynn.

We're going to come back and talk homecoming to Jesse Kinney after the time out here on WRCO's morning show.

We have a spotlight on Riverdale schools on the morning show today as we do that once a month and pleased to be here and have the group during homecoming week.

We haven't asked anybody to sing the school song yet.

Jesse, do you know it?

No, I, you know, I feel like we have alumni here that would be much better suited to sing that than myself.

That could be our walk out

music.

Mr. Campbell at the

end here.

People would love that.

Happy Homecoming Week, though.

And I know that you are a huge part of lining it up.

How's everything looking this

week?

You know, we lucked out right now.

The weather is fantastic.

And so the kids are all out and about yet here for another 20 minutes this morning yet and getting the spirit laced throughout the community.

And they're out window painting and doing chalk and just trying to get the whole community to participate and buy in and have a good, fun, wholesome Homecoming Week.

You never know when you have, and of course it's incumbent upon your football season, you know, when you're going to have homecoming.

But you guys had a home run with the weather this week, didn't you?

We absolutely did.

Last week with all the rain and a little bit colder.

And then I looked at the weather.

I kind of try not to look until Sunday.

And I'm like, oh, I think we're going to be good.

And yeah, last night was beautiful.

They had powder puff and it's a nice fall.

It's exactly what you imagine for your homecoming.

So we really did luck out.

Tell me about the dress-up days.

What's going on

this week?

So, yep, dress-up days today.

As we said, we are safari themed.

Yesterday was class color day.

They do a great job at trying to coordinate things when we have events.

So last night with powder puff, they all kept their same colors.

They wear them all day to school.

Tomorrow we have pajama day and then Thursday is decades and school spirit day is on Friday.

So, and then I think the elementary added in a little wacky day to mix in there as well.

But yeah, the student body is participating.

well we everything's a competition so we count how many we do the percentages they get points for their classes and at the end of the week with all of our events they win a golden plunger yes yes we were really really looking there and we came up with that and it's kind of it's displayed all year long with the class picture on the front of the display box with the plunger proudly above it

Now, this isn't supposed to happen, but I cover a lot of homecoming because I was at a homecoming recently in the freshman class one.

I mean, that's not supposed to happen, is it?

I couldn't tell you the last time the freshman class one.

I would love an upset.

I love our upperclassmen, but I would love it just to mix it up a little bit.

But, you know, powder pop didn't go great.

So I mean, they could pull ahead though.

We do have student council activities today and they have a lot of games and that's an opportunity for them to win a lot of points.

So it could, but usually the seniors and the juniors are fighting it off at the top.

I'm sure they are for the Spirit Awards.

And did you have something just about every night then this week?

So it kind of varies every year, but this year we don't.

We have Monday, we had powder puff, and then tonight we just have a volleyball game.

And then Wednesday and Thursday are kind of normal-ish days for us, except Thursday night we do have skits.

So Wednesday we stay away from everything, gives them a chance to either toilet paper, do some of those extra cricketers that are not through us, and then do their other activities and then revamp for

Thursday and Friday.

Tell us about the volleyball match tonight.

Yeah, we host Fenimore tonight.

It'll be the first time we've seen them this year.

We have very similar records.

I think they're 22 and 11 and we're 23 and 10 and just the same conference record.

So this is kind of a it's a really big match and just they're a solid program.

So it would be a huge win for us this this year too.

I saw your team a week or so ago and it looks like they're starting to come together pretty well.

Yeah, we've had a pretty wonky schedule and it's kind of suited us well.

We've been able to mix in a lot of competitive drills within practice.

Last week, we also did a pregame cooking competition.

We have a great group of girls and they work hard when they're on the court, but they also thrive in relationship building.

So when we can get an opportunity to get them out of the gym and build that within each other, it just kind of

reignites their passion and you know this is why we're here and we're over that hump of halfway now so it's kind of that refocus to push through for regionals.

The big thing as a coach is you're you're preparing them for life to be citizens you know outside of school so it's all all a part of learning isn't it?

Absolutely and they they've done you know with some of their volunteer work and I think that's the most

proud that we are as our coaching staff is that when we're out and about in the community they they never we never hear anything negative they are always holding doors open for people they are you know manners and and those are the things that matter far beyond the court.

That's true.

We talked about the new video board.

How nice is that going to be to be the sport that gets to debut it?

Yes, it is.

And we had a little chat last night about not letting that be a distraction for us today because Lord knows they're going to be looking at it.

But, um, yeah, they've been pretty amped for that to, to get going.

And, and they are, um, many different personalities.

And I think that'll be pretty evident in some of the clips and things that go on that board tonight, but they've worked for it.

They've put a lot of time in.

done well they may not have fundraised directly for that board they've done a lot to help with the program building so I'm very excited for them to get that and for them to see that it's pretty special and they know how rare it is that you know there's a lot of schools our size that would have the board that we have currently.

Do they each do a little bit of a film or how did how did you put that together?

Well, I am not the tech savvy one.

I did film some things they have, but some of the girls are working on it.

And then Sherry Wilkinson will have it running tonight.

But yeah, they have some film that they've done and each intro is definitely.

their own.

So they are a unique group, but we are eclectic and they are fun.

That's a fun thing about a team.

You bring all that together for one common goal, right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Tell us about the dance.

So the dance will be on Saturday from 7 to 11 with the grand march at 830 and

that I mean, that is ready to roll.

I believe they have tickets ready and selling and the kids I know are amped and ready.

I've seen dresses.

I've seen colors and they're ready to go between that and getting ready for the parade and the game itself.

It's it's already building this week.

Now you knew something at Riverdale.

It may be a little different than other districts that you filmed the skits in advance.

So is that process happening or has it already happened?

That is also what they're working on this morning.

So they are filming.

They started filming yesterday.

They have to have them submitted for approval tomorrow after school.

And they thank goodness they're tech savvy because they find ways to edit and clip and get everything together.

And over the years it's gotten better every single year.

So I am actually excited.

Hopefully the freshman

Freshmen and sophomores can do something to upset some of our top kiddos there with that.

But yeah, with the board this year, it'll be much easier to hear and see everything than it has been with our old projector system and a microphone.

So it is different, but I think it's nice.

The kids can enjoy all of the work they've put in versus having to put on a live show and be nervous the whole time and such.

So it is kind of nice.

We've enjoyed that switch.

Who are the sensors

then?

the judges edit

it.

No, no, edit it.

Make sure that

it's Mrs. Gruen is in charge of that.

Not.

Nope.

They go right to her and they do a good job.

They, they get permission.

If they use people in their skits and, um, I feel like very rarely do they have to make any edits at this point.

The kids are pretty good gauges on what they need to do.

I'm sure I think as a teacher, you probably know, you've made it.

If you get parodied in, in one of the.

You

know, Mr. Thompson is kind of a legend in all the skits.

If there's not a Mr. Thompson in a newspaper with the daily news, then I don't know that they've really accomplished their goal.

It's a running gag then year after year.

Tell us about the parade, Jesse.

So the parade will be on Friday.

We actually bumped it back.

So we'll have a two 30 start about a two o'clock lineup.

Um, and that will be, I think it's a little, we're getting some good float entries.

So that'll be a little bit longer than otherwise.

That is a newer route, which we ran last year, uh, mainly for ease and safety of our elementary kiddos, not having to walk all the way down to main street.

It's kind of difficult for our.

for our police to block off that main street and with so much traffic.

So this has been a good change for us too.

And prior to the parade, we actually do an all district pep rally, which is maybe my favorite part of the week because we have 4K through 12 in the same gym for about an hour.

And it's just the seniors do such a good job at getting her on the gym and helping with class yells and cheering for the elementary kiddos when they're doing some games.

So that is right before

it is open if people wanted to come to that as well.

They are welcome to come into the gym and watch that pep rally, but that's kind of something that is maybe my favorite part of homecoming week.

Wonderful.

And in terms of the route, do you, do you know that?

Are you privy?

We're going down Elm Street and then right in front of the elementary building after that.

Okay.

So, and then they'll loop around by our nursing home.

the back entrance of the nursing home and end up back by the high school.

My road names are not great.

So that's all I got for you.

But yeah, it's just like a really big block that they'll, they'll loop around there.

Great.

And any other activities you wanted to mention during homecoming week, Jesse?

Oh, I think that's pretty much it.

I mean, outside of, we've got Monday, Tuesday, super busy, and then Thursday skits.

And then Friday is between dance decorating and our whole district pep rally.

And that, it's, it's a lot.

And they're, they're excited.

We're excited.

And I think by that point, we're all just seeing the end too.

Get that homecoming behind you then, but it is at least this year.

Sometimes it's earlier.

So you have little, little time.

You've got more time to prepare this year.

I totally agree.

especially with trying to get things set up, we also, that reminds me, we also have our athletes go over and do reading with their elementary kiddos during the week.

So we grab them out of some of their study halls or classes that they are head in or anytime they can, and they will run over and read a book to our elementary kiddos.

So that is something else that they are doing during the week as well.

And then they're fielding questions on their sports and on their favorite colors and their favorite foods and all those other things, but another way to

see different ways kids can be involved and for our younger generation to put a face to some of those names.

Yeah, we talked about reading during the program, but that's another way to inspire them to see somebody that they kind of consider a hero and look up to to see them reading,

right?

Yeah, and it's always fun because while that book that you're reading to 4k may be

a book you haven't read in 10 years, those older kids are nervous and they make mistakes.

And then our younger kiddos can see, well, hey, they're older and they make mistakes.

Readings, that's a very normal thing to do.

So it's a great full circle moment.

And your senior senior night tonight, right?

Correct.

Could you say something about your seniors for volleyball?

Oh, I don't want to start now.

I'm trying to make sure we can make it a game game face night here.

We're going to do a reception after the match so that we can hopefully be focused and business during the night.

And then after that, we'll have some cake and things to recognize them.

But.

They have been, I have seven seniors and they've been just fantastic.

They each play a different role.

They take care of each other.

They take care of the rest of the team.

They lead the entire program by example.

They put in time, you know, for years.

And so I'm just really appreciative of them and I'm not prepared to think about their time ending yet.

We have a lot of season left, so.

Yeah, absolutely.

And when do you find out where you go for the tournament

then?

Seating will be, I believe, the end of this week.

So it's computerized for the first time then.

And we are kind of in the dark exactly how that's going to work.

But we will know by Monday for sure what we are and where we're going.

Good luck with that.

Thank you.

Jesse, Kenny, joining us back to you, Mr. Campbell, as we kind of wrap up things here today.

But we've covered a lot of ground here this morning.

Sure have.

Yeah.

We've gone over a lot of stuff.

I think one thing I just want to add for homecoming is we did add a first ever

staff homecoming championship this year.

So there's activities for staff during the week and they get points for different things and our coaches did that.

Lynn was part of that group along with Sherri Wilkinson and Kelly Schaefer for planning that.

So they've got activities I can't really give away what each day is because it's kind of a surprise thing.

So I know there's a

seek and find game today around the school, but there's going to be some fun things going for our staff too.

And throughout the week, they've got throwback pictures to our staff when they were in high school and their homecoming pictures that they submitted.

So it's a pretty neat activity that we decided this year to get everybody together and each building's got some different teams.

So there's competition between our staff this week on number points and we're going to announce the winners on Friday during the all staff assembly.

some of the staff might be more competitive than others.

It gets pretty competitive.

And now when you've divided the teams up, it even gets, when you're going against your next door neighbor, it can get, yeah, it gets interesting at times.

So we got to, we got to make sure the staffs can trolling themselves a little bit too during this week.

But I think it adds a little extra fun in the kids.

I think we'll are starting to pick up a little bit on that.

And cause they're hearing staff talk about it.

And I think it's fun for them to start to kind of see that competition between each other.

Some other things as we wrap up, you went by the third Friday of the month of September.

And how do things look as far as enrollment is concerned?

Pretty good.

We're going to be down about six kids this year.

We've been slowly declining here and there, like 80 to 90% of the school districts in Wisconsin, but not at the rate that others are either.

So we're down about six this year, which is kind of, we figured that we'd be right around that range, but, but been holding steady over the last couple of years.

So content with that right now, you know, it, it's.

brings us challenges anytime you lose, you know, a couple kids, it just brings us challenges because we haven't been able to keep up with inflation and the pricing of things right now.

And as I've talked about before, we're one of the

in this CISA region, we're one of the five lowest in per student, you know, four to $5,000 less per student than even our next door neighbors.

So that's, you know, something that affects us a little bit, but we're doing what we can.

We're pretty conscious district and changes that we need to make.

And we got to make sure we're getting the most out of our people.

And that's why you hear a lot of these people come in, we're in a number of different roles, because we can't

do what we want to do with just one person for this and one person for that.

We got to ask people to do a number of different things.

So we'll continue.

We don't get our final numbers until the 15th of October.

We set our tax levy at our annual meeting coming up on the 21st of October.

So there's still some wiggle room in there.

So I don't have a whole lot of final numbers to go over right now, but we'll know all of that by the end of the month and encourage the community if they want to come to that annual meeting with any questions or anything they have.

I'm guessing you and all the other areas

administrators are hoping that maybe after the election in November, some things get settled in terms of budget and school funding and things like that.

Oh, definitely.

I think we I just attended the superintendent's conference in Madison this past end of last week.

And it's a topic of conversation.

We've got to we've got to find a way to support our schools here.

There's so many great things going on, especially in our smaller schools.

And in this area, when you, you know, you listen to what I think I went through as a school this year and how people banded together.

our small schools have a place and our communities do.

And I think that we need to keep pushing that.

And I think it comes from us as administrators, as teachers, but it's also needs to come from our parents and our families that are experiencing the things they're experiencing.

And if they can get ahold of those legislatures and say, hey, our schools need help, they need help, we're investing in the most important thing we can invest in.

And that's our children.

And we want everything to be better for them than what was for us.

And that's the philosophy.

we need to have.

And I think if we can continue to band together and continue to tell our story.

And I think, you know, who does you feel?

And that's another thing I ran into this past weekend and discussions about telling stories.

We're fortunate.

You know, I sat around a table with a number of people in larger districts, they don't have this avenue to tell their story, you know, you allowing us on here, you know, once a month is is incredible.

And then covering our kids and the wonderful things they're doing.

And not just Riverdale, it's River Valley, it's

Center at the Cuts Highland.

It's all the schools around here and we thank you and we can't thank you enough for that because it does bring more to our communities and I hear a number of people talking about that all the time.

So thank you to you.

It's what our small area enjoys and hopefully we can keep that going, you know, for a number of years.

Keep you around and keep pushing what you do here at WRCO.

But it's a positive thing that not a lot have and we take advantage of and we appreciate it.

Well, that's what local radio should be.

You know, I mean, that's, that's how we survive too.

Um, and your football team, uh, boy, you've had an improved season and they play this weekend on Friday night, of course.

Yeah.

Friday night against Iowa grant.

They've done a great job.

Um, they've.

You're not 100% in the playoffs, but it looks like they're going to make it for the first time in 13 years.

And they've got two of the league leaders here at the end of the year to battle through.

And they're doing well.

They're battling with kids.

And Jesse spent a lot of time this summer weight training a lot of these people, running our summer workout program.

And it started to pay off with our programs this year.

Our cross country is also having a strong individual season with a couple of people that are going to be near the top qualification time for them.

And our volleyball

you heard what they're doing and our football and it's you put in the work, the results come.

So it's a great start to the fall season for us.

And like she said, we've got a lot of opportunities left for our kids here with the tournament trail coming up.

Well, the school year goes quickly as we talk about every year.

The next time you come back, it'll be November already.

So

yeah, we'll be done with the first quarter into second quarter and we'll be talking about those snow delays probably tickling in soon.

Hopefully not at that time in November, but

it's

moving along.

No, we don't need that yet.

But yeah, for budget reasons too, the snow removal doesn't have to start yet.

But no, I'm looking forward to it.

We've got a great week in front of us and we'll appreciate tonight.

The community will be out.

again in a great environment for our kids.

Well, here's to Riverdale and a happy homecoming.

And again, you surround yourself with good people.

You have a stellar staff.

We have to do that.

We keep bringing in the best.

And I can't say enough about just these two sitting here, what they've already done in a month of working with our kids.

So it's been a good start.

Workies of the year.

That's right.

That's

right.

Thanks a lot to Lynn Terrell and Jesse Kinney, Penny Boinger, and Amy Sequin, and of course, administrator Jeff Campbell.

Here's to Riverdale.

Are you going to do the school

song?

out of time.

Oh yeah, I believe.

Yeah.

I think we got to get to a commercial, he said.

So we're good.

We're good.

I'll, uh, I'll work on it for next week or next month.

Jeff Campbell and company joining us.

Saluting Riverdale here today in the morning show.