We have a full studio this morning, folks fresh from the Rippin' Noon Kiwanis Roadshow.
We have four members of the Rippin' Area School District and or Referendum Committee joining us this morning and they did a presentation to the Rippin' Noon Kiwanis.
Ron Rivard is here.
He's the superintendent, also a business manager, Jonah Adams.
We have M.E.
Jess.
And also Jesse Johnson from the Referendum Committee.
Jesse is also the principal at Murray Park Elementary School.
So Ron, you want to start?
The
referendum is coming up.
You can just grab that microphone.
Perfect.
Thanks, Bob.
We appreciate the opportunity to be back in studio and be able to talk with you and our Ripon residents.
So this morning,
Jesse and Emmy and Jonah are going to go through some of the high points you mentioned our presentation with the Kiwanis and Rotary last week.
So they're going to highlight some of the things that we talked about for your listeners so that other people can hear the message that we have as well.
Jesse's going to give a little bit of a historical perspective on the referendum, referendums in the past.
Emmy is going to talk about how we've performed on the return on investment since the most recent referendum was passed, and then Jonah's going to give a financial overview.
So thank you again
for
having us in studio today.
All right, who's next?
OK, Jesse, I guess it's your turn.
All right.
We have in Rippon have had support for the referendums since back in 2009.
In 2009, we passed a $500,000 referendum.
Again, in 2015, we had a $500,000 referendum.
And then we had continued that referendum on.
And around 2021, the state froze our funding.
So we went back to the community and asked for another $850,000 referendum.
So those two merged together for like $1.35 million.
Then so what we're at right now is we are at a place where those two referendums kind of overlap, but they don't line up perfectly.
So we're hoping to go to the community.
The board is going to the community asking for next year
to continue that $500,000 where the $850,000 is already there, and then merge those together in 2028 so that the vote will encompass all of that so that we can maintain that $1.35 million as an operational referendum moving through to 2033.
So pretty
much tax neutral.
Yes, it is tax neutral.
All right.
Amy, are you next?
Yeah.
Okay.
So Jesse gave a little bit of a historical perspective from our standpoint as a district for the referendum.
I want to be able to share a little bit about what are we doing with those dollars?
So when our community approved the last operational referendum, that ultimately allowed us to protect programming during a period when that, as Jesse alluded to, that state funding was frozen.
So since then, some of the things we've been able to do, we've seen ACT scores rise from 19, just over 19, to just over 20, almost 21.
So we've seen a pretty significant improvement there.
Our graduation rate has increased to almost 95% of our students, and both math and reading proficiency have improved significantly.
So we're being responsible stewards with those taxpayer dollars, just some of the return on investment that our community can see.
Okay, I guess Jonah you're up next.
Yeah, we just wanted to share some of the highlights I guess about what's happening in Wisconsin and why we're Why we have operating referendums in Wisconsin per pupil revenue was indexed to inflation until 2009 and Then it became decoupled so that inflationary increases were not automatic in the year 2011 2012
Per pupil revenue was decreased $554 per pupil.
And then per pupil revenue was frozen in 2015-16, 2021-22, 2022-23.
What's happened in is that Wisconsin in the most recent year in which in 2023 the most recent year for which the US Census Bureau data was available Wisconsin spending was fourteen thousand eight hundred and eighty two dollars per pupil this was nine point nine percent less than the national average of sixteen thousand five twenty six so the changes in Wisconsin are
Beginning in the year 2014, Wisconsin started spending less than the national average and it's continued to separate from the average.
We're going down while the nation is going up.
On top of that, Rippon is not a high-spending district.
Revenue limits per pupil range widely in the state.
This year, they range from about $11,300 at the lowest end to $25,600.
Rippin is near the bottom.
We're at $12,062 per pupil.
And so because of that, about 55% of districts have more revenue per pupil than Rippin.
And so that's one of the reasons why we've had these operating referendums in the first place.
So basically we're being punished for being frugal,
right?
Yeah, that's
exactly right.
Okay You look like you want to say something.
Yeah.
Well, I was gonna add to that that you know, unfortunately when the revenue limits were set up in 1993 and yeah, I did not misspeak it was 1993 33 years ago that it Unfortunately set up winners and losers right so high spending districts in 1993 are
the winners.
They have a lot more per pupil.
Funding then ribbon does and to your point about being frugal, you know low spending districts didn't do anything wrong in 1993 in fact they were probably doing things better than most and then ended up being quote-unquote punished for that 33 years later by being relegated to whatever the incremental increases that we get from the state and what's really interesting Bob when we dug into our data
10 years ago, our transportation costs are healthcare costs.
Comparatively from 10 years ago to today, they have increased 19% and 24% respectively.
And our spending or not spending our revenue has only increased 10% over that same time.
So that's that structural deficit that we're facing.
So oftentimes we get questions like, Hey, you need to manage your money better.
You need to do these things.
If it was in my home, you know, in our checkbook, we couldn't run a, you know,
budget this way so it truly is something that is out of our control and we're trying to do the best that we can to manage it and I appreciate our boards take and to say hey we don't want to ask for more we just want to maintain what we currently have so I appreciate that and want to reinforce that message to all the listeners out there okay
We spent quite a bit of time on the referendum anything more before we move on.
No, I think that was great.
We just appreciate the time
Okay, you wanted to talk a little bit about strategic planning because I understand you had a successful couple of days doing that last week
Yeah, we did.
Thank you for bringing that up.
So last week we had 51 a combination of 51 residents
business owners, board members, students, staff, administrators come together to revisit and reground our strategic plan.
We are going to be bringing forward to the board for their consideration in October.
Our mission statement, the recommendation from that committee was to keep the mission statement the same, which is to empower learners engage
the community and enrich the world.
That is why we exist.
And there was a slight shift in the recommended vision statement, which was to foster excellence for all.
That would be the...
The adjustment we had a focus on innovation and after some discussion lively discussion with a group of 50 people Decided that the for all piece was a lot more powerful and that's what we wanted to do so in any case that the That brief overview also leads us into creating some strategic objectives Which is going to be the next step for us and the feedback from that team?
overwhelmingly was that we want to have measurable metrics that we can use to guide our work and use to celebrate our progress along the way.
So we're looking forward to doing being able to do both of those things.
Okay.
So are we going to see the Tiger pause refreshed on our city streets this
week?
Oh, I believe so.
Yeah, that is the that's exciting.
It is homecoming week.
And there are a lot of events that go on that just make high school homecoming week what it is.
The pause on the streets, the parade.
I think there was decorations where Mardi Gras on Monday.
There's a different theme every day.
It's been a really incredible gear up for homecoming this week.
And do you know what Friday is?
Bob?
I have an old answer for that that I can't tell you.
Okay, well,
Friday is a bad day to be Boston.
That's what I'm gonna say.
That's what Friday is.
So we're excited about homecoming.
Okay.
Yeah, I saw a young man in his jersey on his way to the high school this morning.
Great.
They must have some, that must be some kind of the theme this
week.
So also, part of the homecoming festivities, we always
honor a distinguished alumni.
And Rob Neal is our distinguished alumni this year.
It's an exciting, neat story for him.
He's a Broadway, affiliated with Broadway, which is amazing and really neat to have him back in town to be able to celebrate and show students what you can achieve, no matter where you grow up, whether from Ripon or anywhere else.
So that's exciting as well.
Class of 87.
Yeah.
It was a good year for movies, too.
Yeah.
Very true.
Very true.
Well, I'd like to thank the four of you for coming in this morning.
I appreciate it.
Of course, joining us, we have Ron Rivar to Jesse Johnson, Emmy Jess, and Jonah Adams.
Thank you, all four of
you.
Thank you for having us.
Thanks, Bob.
Thank you.