Ron Rivard the superintendent of the Rippon area school district is joining us today.
Good morning, Bob.
Thanks
for having me
back.
Yeah big election coming up tomorrow Yes,
sir.
I voted in-person absentee already.
Oh good
for you.
I'm
not
gonna tell you how
I voted.
I don't fear that
that would be.
Yeah.
No, that's all right.
That might violate some kind of code, so
Anyway,
but
Rippon area school district has a referendum on the ballot you're asking for
I think seven and a quarter million dollars over six years or something like that
Yeah 1.35 million is just in a continuation of what we already have in place and you're Good math.
Yeah, Bob.
Well done.
Yeah six years at 1.35 Again, just continuing what's already in place our board Was very adamant about not wanting to ask the community for more money, but you know saying
where things are uncertain and we want to make sure that, you know, we just maintain what we have and not add to it.
Right.
So when would this, when would this take effect if it's approved by voters?
So great question.
We currently have, so two things are going to happen if it is approved.
One is there's a bridge year because we actually have two referenda right now.
And one expires in 2027 and the other expires in 2028.
So for that bridge year, there would be an extension of the $500,000 operational referendum that is sunsetting in 27.
And then in 2028, they would merge together and with the other $850,000 referendum that we currently have.
And that's how you get the 1.35.
Right.
1.35 and all together is seven and a quarter million.
Correct.
But how is it that, I should say, this just continues the good work of the district, right?
Yes, yes.
It's not an ad.
I think that's the
That's the one thing as we've done a number of public appearances and tried to engage with the community as much as possible in person.
That's the one question that continues to come up.
Sometimes it's difficult, given the legal ease of how a referendum question is written, it can be confusing to people.
listeners and everyone in the community to reiterate that the work that we've been doing is what we want to continue to do.
80% of our cost as a system are in staffing directly.
And over the past, even the past two years, we have trimmed down in a lot of areas, almost five full-time positions.
in the teaching ranks, 1.7 positions in the administrative area, and also another position in our support staff at our district office.
So as enrollment declines, we need to trim where we can as well in terms of our...
the number of employees that we have because we want it to be a manageable ratio and not be something that is Over overbearing or more taxing on the community because less kids typically translates into less workforce
Okay, so what you're saying is that the district's been responsible for the taxpayers money.
Yeah
I believe so.
I would have a hard time to be convinced otherwise.
We've paid down debt early.
Our moody rating, which talks about our fiscal stability and our responsibility has increased in the past, actually in May of 2025.
So we're taking steps to make sure that we continue to provide a really good product for our community.
And what I can say in regard to that is,
We've seen on some pretty key metrics for us, ACT results, graduation rate, third through eighth grade reading and math has continued to improve over that time.
So we want to keep that momentum going and still provide a high quality education for all of our kids, for sure.
All the programs that we have and all of the results that we get are directly correlated to the people that we have, so we want to keep those great people.
And one way to do that is through an operational referendum, just because the inflationary increases haven't happened for all public school districts since 2011.
So that that gap continues to widen and we're just
Like I say, not asking for more, just trying to maintain what we currently have so we can keep doing those great things.
Well, there are a lot of school districts that are going to operational referendums, I think.
You know, I was looking among the area school districts and only one was actually a borrowing referendum.
So.
Yes.
Yeah.
For capital.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Most I think you hit the nail on the head, Bob.
I think there's over 70 or 71 districts that will be pursuing an operational referendum vote tomorrow.
Yeah.
Okay.
So tell people why.
They should vote yes for the Ripon School District referendum.
Well, I can't tell them how to vote, but I can tell them.
You can give
reasons for why they
should consider yes.
You got it.
You got it.
So I think the key points for us are we're seeing great results for kids.
We're being fiscally responsible with the funds that we do have and I think a credit to our board which represents our community is that they absolutely charged me appropriately by saying we can't ask for more.
This is not a time to ask for more and we need to be respectful of the community.
So in turn, asking the community
to be respectful and make a cast an informed decision to, I guess, I need to dance a fine line there to make an informed decision based on the information that you have.
And if you need more information, that's why I'm here.
It's one of my roles.
Something that we've said to all of the people from the public when we've engaged with them is
Please feel free to reach out.
If there's something confusing, we want to make sure that there isn't confusion about what kind of decision people make tomorrow when they cast their ballot.
Okay, Ron.
Well, good luck to the school district.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining us.
Appreciate you.
Yeah, appreciate you having me back, Bob.
Thank you.
We've been talking with Ron Rivard, who is the superintendent of the Ripon area school district.