And welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Kratlow on 98.9 WXCO.
I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh.
Ian, good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
Are you going to get one right today?
I certainly hope so.
I need to get out of this rut.
You are in a slump to end all slumps with your number for the day quiz.
I certainly am.
It's hard to go two weeks in a row without getting one right.
I'll tell you this much.
I'll give you credit for that.
Are you trying too hard or I'm not trying enough?
A guy that knows a little bit about wins and losses back in his days as the head football coach at Wasa East High School, but now is the.
the leader of the Wausau School Board, the Wausau School Board President, Jim Boucher, back with us here this morning, and
Jim, good to see ya.
Good morning, Chad.
It's good to be here.
It's always nice to get back into the community after being
on a little vacation.
So as we were talking about before, it's nice to be in one's own bed.
It certainly is.
It certainly is.
But it's glad to have glad to have you here because haven't had you on in a while.
Wanted us to get updated on, you know, we're into the new school year and it's there's some change within the Wasa schools with the elementary schools.
I want to ask you because again, maybe I'm missing.
but it feels as though the changes that occurred with some of the closings and the changes with some of the students going to different areas, from what I'm gathering, it's gone pretty well.
Would that be fair to say?
I think it'd be very fair to say.
Um, it, it was, it has been very smooth and I'm going to give a lot of credit to our administration and central office for what they've been doing and communicating with the community and, uh, communicating with the parents, the students, everybody knows exactly what's been going on.
Um, I think they've done a tremendous job.
And I just, matter of fact, not too long ago, I think last week when I met with Kail, I had commended him on the fact that this has been.
more smooth than what I thought it would be, because when you consolidate schools, and especially elementary schools, community members are not real happy about that.
They want to
keep things as it has been.
And they're not happy, and usually, superintendents lose their jobs.
And even though it might have been needed to consolidate, the mantra is consolidate.
and then get fired.
And that has not been the case with our administration.
Cale has done a tremendous job communicating and that's the key.
You
know, you and I have talked about the fact that if you're not going to communicate and communicate well, you're going to have problems and those little problems become the big problems and we have not had...
big problems because we've taken care of the little things and Kale has been out there at the elementary level with school starting this past fall he has been in the buildings talking with parents talking with community members so I'm commending him on this because that is the key.
Be
in there.
I mean, I think that is such a good point to be made because when change is hard, I think that's one of the things that you can talk about in any aspect of life, but especially when it involves the younger children.
And I think that to go through these changes and not have it blow back, besides the communication, was there anything else here that
for folks that may, in the future, whether it's at the Wasa School District or maybe some other area school districts, anything that you've learned in this process that maybe you'll try to do in the future, because I think there's one thing that is certain in this era, change is gonna be constant into one way or the other.
What did you find out maybe in this situation that was different than maybe in previous situations?
Well, I think you had a key point right there.
The one constant that we have in life is change.
and you either adopt it and take it on or you grieve about it and you gotta make a decision.
But you have to help people.
You have to help people understand why change is taking place.
With this situation, we did a lot of things this time that I thought was right on.
We brought in a demographer.
We brought in community members to give their input, to explain to them what's happening with our enrollment dropping as it has and helping them understand so that they could.
then get that information out to their neighbors
and to
their friends and things of that fashion, that helped.
We had a lot of people involved with this.
That's the key.
So involvement, a demographer, a third person party that has no subjectivity to the change and why we're changing, that makes a big difference.
And that has helped us in getting through everything.
So I would say those three items really is.
You mentioned Cale Bushman.
And I think I would agree with your sentiment in terms of what I've heard is that it's not easy to, even within somebody, and I think it's a big advantage that he knew the district like he did know the district, but to move into the new position, it looks as though, again, that the relationships that he has had and that he's continuing to build has been a key to the, again, the success that he's had early on.
Would you agree with
that?
Oh, 100%.
understanding the community is a key.
You and I have talked about that in the past as well.
If you don't understand the community, how can you help move the community forward?
You have to know a little bit of the history.
You have to know how did the community get to where we're at right now so that we can get better for the future.
So as we look at all of this, and I want to reflect a little bit back on the idea that, you know, change is going to continue.
And I keep on.
echoing that because our enrollment is not going to become constant either.
That's going to continue as we look at the demographers reports.
It's going to continue to go down even though we've consolidated three elementary schools, four elementary schools with one being redirected into a different area with 4k.
We're going to see the enrollment drop even more.
And so we're going to have to be ready to make some tough decisions in the future.
So this is going to be a step forward to move forward so that we are ready for the future.
And not all of a sudden, oh my gosh, what happened?
You know, the little things.
in the present become your big things tomorrow.
We will have more with WASTA school board president Jim Boucher coming up in just a few minutes at 7.22, including we'll talk about the choosing of a new member of the school board, a vacancy and tonight at the meeting in fact that they will make the decision on who will be the new member of the WASTA school board.
So that's coming up as we continue on this Monday morning.
I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh, the WXCO morning report, more of Mornings with Pat Crightlow coming up after an information update at the top of the hour here on 98.9 WXCO.
It is the WXO morning report chart of mornings with pack right low on 98.9 WXO online at WXO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXO and on the civic media app I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh earlier
in the program, we had a chance to start our conversation with the president of the Wasa School Board, Jim Boucher, and let's continue that chat.
And actually jumps into the next question I was gonna ask, but you mentioned the demographer a little bit earlier, and the demographics, excuse me, and that they don't change.
It's a very difficult balancing act, I think, at times to try to be proactive and yet not be
too quick on the triggers in terms of of the change and knowing that the demographics are continuing to change at all levels within the wastes school district.
How do you try to balance that all because we've seen I think where if you if there's a sense that it's moving too quickly then you get a little bit of a backlash but if you don't move quickly enough then all of a sudden you get yourself into some very difficult situations both in terms of the economics that are at play and other issues.
How do you try to balance that foresight without maybe going too quickly and maybe agitating some folks within the community as well?
Well, I think that's a good question.
And I truly believe that when you look down the road, you need to take a step back.
to find out where you're going to go.
You don't want to be walking into a landmine or a landmine field or anything like that.
You need to take a look at how is this decision going to affect the decisions coming down the road as well.
I don't want to correlate it always to athletics, but it's a good correlation.
I'm
all for
it.
I knew you would be.
As a coach, you have to make a decision right now, but you have to realize that this decision is going to affect the decision making for maybe three, four plays down the road as a football coach.
So I will go back and I don't want to be redundant on this, but communication is the key.
and everybody talks about communicate, communicate, communicate.
Well, what does that mean though?
We need to give data, we need to give facts, we need to give an understanding why this decision has been made here because of the facts that we had at that time.
And be ready to make a change if change is needed to go some other way because even when you make a decision,
Next few steps might have to be decided on all over again and and we don't want to continue to do that That's gonna cost us money.
So I want to just re summarize that one is by saying
getting people involved, having people involved.
We're elected officials, but we're elected to be in these positions based on people trusting we make good decisions, but going back and making good decisions is based on going back to the people that put you in this position and talk to them.
Well, what do you need?
What's best for our community as a total and what's best for you as an individual?
Again, we're talking to Jim Boucher, the school board president, wants a school board here on 98.9 WXCO.
An issue that's coming up in the next meeting is the filling of a vacancy within the board.
And before we talk about specifics, I was impressed that there were seven people that wanted to be part of the board because we've talked in the past where there's been elections where you just had enough to fill.
You know, everybody that runs gets a position.
And that's not good, I think, for the democratic process in terms of, you said it, I think, the last time that you ran Abe.
You're all for it because, in a sense, you don't have to, you know, do as much heavy lifting for the campaign.
You can just focus on the job itself.
But at the same time, you said it's good to be out there and talking about the issues and then trying to persuade people to vote for you that you do have the right vision for the future.
Your take on seven folks wanting to join the board.
Is
that a positive?
I think it's a great positive.
And unfortunately, in the preliminary meeting where we had to narrow it down to four, I was gone at that time on my 50th anniversary crew, except we were on my wife and I. Well, I think you get
that number.
I think people would understand.
Well, thank you.
But I was very closely in contact with everybody back here and understood all the people that were running.
And I was just excited about the fact that seven people that put their names in there, the quality.
of people that are wanting to run for school board excites me.
And to have one selected to be brought onto the board will be an exciting time.
So whatever seven, whatever four that we now have gets chosen, that one gets chosen to be on the board, we can't go wrong.
That's all I look at it because they're all good people and they're really, they're really interested in doing the right thing for our community and for our students and for our parents of the Wausau School
District.
Based on that, it's not an easy decision.
So how do you look at that as you sit down and try to think, what is the best for the board?
What is the best for everyone involved, whether it's the families, the students, the staff, and everybody that works for the Wasa School District?
What are the qualities that as you sit down in, as you looked at these?
Well, for lack of a better term, resumes and listen to what they have to say that you're looking for in terms of choosing the best person to join you and the other members of the board.
Well, why are you running for the board?
That's a big, it's a very general question, but it's a good question because there are reasons why people weren't running for school boards.
And we would like to know that.
And as we move forward with that.
I got to step back one step here because of the fact that I know all four of them, the candidates.
And for me, it's going to be even a tougher decision because one has been on the board.
Two have been students of mine, three have been students of mine.
And so I'm sitting there looking, okay, who's the best?
So that's going to be very
difficult.
Who's feeling am
I going to hurt?
Which is, I mean, as human beings, I mean, that's there,
isn't there?
There's the emotional attachment.
There's no doubt.
You have to try to step away from it though, right?
You do.
And it'll come down to the meeting on Monday and, and asking the four questions that we'll ask of all of the four candidates and the board is a eight member board at this point in time.
And there are eight votes that will be coming in and I'm one of those eight votes.
So I can't, I can't go wrong in this situation because like I said, I'm going to just kind of step back and say,
great people.
We will have a few more minutes with Wausau School Board President Jim Boucher in about 22 minutes at 752.
But coming up next, it is an information update, including the Farm Report and then more of mornings with Pat Crichtlow on 98.9 WXCO.
WXCO morning report part of mornings with packed right low on 98.9 WXCO I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh and we have a few more minutes remaining as we continue our conversation with the president of the wasa school board Jim Boucher Looking forward on this because something that I know that we've talked about I again would like to talk even more about this is about the importance of throwing your hat in the ring and running
Is there gonna be a change now for the next election, that there's gonna be an additional person that's gonna be voted in?
Am I correct on that?
That the person that is going to be chosen tonight at this board meeting to complete the term, will this now change the election at all for this coming spring?
It does to a point, uh, we will, you always try to keep your, your system.
We have nine members.
We have three year terms and every three years, the next threesome are up for election.
So what this does is this person is being appointed by the board to fulfill this term.
And then at the next election in the spring, instead of having three.
selected, there will be four.
And the fourth one will be then having to fulfill this term, which then means that this individual will have to run again the following year, I think it is.
And so that's how you stay on your system of three every
year.
I do think it's important that, and hopefully, and frankly, when I saw that, where there are going to be four people that are ultimately elected in the spring, my thought is, well, it's going to be hard to get four people running because, again, I think it is a little different where you apply for this position.
going out there, it's, it's not easy.
And you probably know this as well as anybody, anybody that's run for office for folks that, you know, and I want to see a lot of people running in the spring.
Why should they think about running in the spring for the WASDA school board?
Well, I can only go off of what I, and the reason why I.
decided to run for school board six years ago.
It was because I wanted to give back to the community that helped raise my children in this area and I was a proud employee of this district and wanted to continue to see this district be at the point and at the top of the curve of everything for the betterment of our students and that's why I ran and I believe that
is going to be the driving force for anyone that runs for school board.
The people that have the one an axe to grind or anything like that, we talk about that often with the Wisconsin Association of School Boards being the director of Region 5.
We talk about, you know, people should run for the right reasons.
Not that you're angry at somebody, you don't want to get back and get rid of that individual, but to...
do what's right for the community and your local control.
And that's what we talk about a lot at that level.
And in this level, at the Wasoff School District, I would hope that everybody would be thinking the same thing.
What can I give to the district that will help us move forward?
And you have to be visionaries.
You know, I'm getting a little older as I get grayer and grayer on top, but I...
I love looking at the future.
I love looking at what's the next best thing.
Not what's the best practice, but what's the next best practice.
And if you're in that mode, you're always going to be improving.
And that's the excitement I have.
And I would give to anyone running for school boards, as I talk with many in Region 5 about the fact, this is an exciting time to be where we are.
Let's make it a positive.
And before we wrap up, what are the issues right now that you and the rest of the board are looking at here as we now are into the school year?
And of course, there's always issues out there.
I guess my question would be, we had a referendum that was not passed in the recent past.
How has that affected the day-to-day operations?
Because it's always interesting because we go into these elections and say, okay, we feel like we need to have this.
this referendum passed and sometimes they get passed and sometimes they don't.
Has that made a major difference right now with the work that you and the rest of the folks at the WSD are doing?
Well, I take a look at this.
Referendums are questions.
You and I talked about that.
It's a
question to the community.
Are you willing to give a little bit more money to the district to help educate your students, our students in this area?
If not, well, then we're going to have to tighten down
some other
areas.
And tightening down is exactly what has taken place with our financial people in the district.
And I'm happy to say that we are moving into this next segment with a balanced budget.
And that's the first time in years that Wasaw School District has moved in without a debt, but have moved in with a balanced budget.
That's exciting.
And we were told by the district, by the community that no, we're not going to affirm a referendum this time, you know, but there could be a time down the road that we may have to go back to the district and say, guys, state level funding has gone down.
If we want to keep our quality education, we need to come to you as a local control and do what is best for us in this district.
So there's going to always be that question, Chad, and we just have to be ready to answer the questions.
That sounds like a big part of the job.
And again, I really appreciate you stopping on by talking about what's going on and busy time.
And good luck on your decision on who will be joining the board.
Because again, as you said, I was very impressed to see the seven folks that decided to step forward and serve their community.
And that's such a positive thing.
And I think that no matter who you are, you want to see the folks within our community step up.
And I think that's, again, something that makes it maybe
hard decision for you, but it's a good thing for our community.
It's a great community, and we have people that are willing to step up, and so I'm excited about that.
Thanks a lot.
Absolutely.
We'll talk again real soon.
Jim Boucher, the school board president of the Wasa School District.
Coming up top of the hour, that means another information update news, whether sports find out what's going on around the country, around the states.
around the area and then more of mornings with packed right low and we'll be back with one more segment of a wxco morning report at 7 at 8 22 it's almost 8 o'clock hopefully your monday morning is off to a good start wxco morning report on 98.9
wxco
Center off of the strip In the outskirts And in the fringes In the corner out of the grill
Good morning once again everyone and welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Crichtlow 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app Overcast guys here at our downtown studios the corner of Washington Street and North Third Street in Wasaw 54 degrees is the temperature.
I am Chad Holmes with Ian Welsh Ian.
Good morning
Good morning,
Chad.
How was the weekend?
Honestly, it was a lot of fun on uh Well yesterday my friends and I got to tackle our alias escape room.
We went to uh, oh Aquare for a uh It was a special escape room because it was a fundraiser.
It's one of their it's their annual Fundraiser that they do every year to raise money for good causes and
And this year's room was called the Enchanted Order.
It
was very spooky, very, very cool, and we did beat it.
You always win, don't you?
Well, not always.
When we first started off, we were struggling at first, and we've had, you know, a couple of losses over the, you know, many months that we've been doing this.
But the important thing is that we are getting better.
Absolutely.
And if we don't win, it gives us a good story to talk about after.
There you go.
Something to keep an eye on this week.
Folks out there, we would love for you to visit us here at the corner of Washington Street and North Third Street and downtown Wasup.
We are a 301 North Third Street and coming up on Thursday from 10am until 4pm.
It is our WXCO open house.
Yep, we're going to open up the doors to you.
Let you take a look around again.
Not a huge operation here, but we'd love to just show you around, give you a chance maybe if you've never been in front of a microphone to sit down and we could record you and just let you see what we have here as well.
So just step inside here, get behind.
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We will have snacks, courtesy of the Mint here in downtown Wausau.
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You have a chance to meet Ian Welsh.
You have a chance to meet our new news reporter, Isabella Nieto.
You have a chance to visit our...
salesperson, Leah Arroyo.
Basically, all the folks here are going to have some of our civic media brethren come on up and join us as well.
So again, you can take a studio tour.
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We'll let them hear what they sound like in front of the microphone and just take a look at how radio comes to life each and every day.
So again,
We would also like you just to let us know what you think.
if there's things that you like that we're doing, if there are things that you think we should be doing better, or if you just have some ideas, maybe story ideas, things that we should be covering here in North Central Wisconsin.
So we'd love to just hear your thoughts on what you would like to see here on 98.9 WXCO and on the Civic Media radio network.
So again, that's coming up this Thursday, October the 16th, 10 a.m.
until 4 p.m.
right here in our studios at 301 North
3rd Street in Owasa.
So hopefully... Look forward to seeing you here.
Yeah, and make sure you come by because we're going to have those great snacks from the Mint.
We'll have plenty of beverages for you as well.
So we don't want to have a whole bunch left over.
We want you to come on by and make sure you take advantage of all that.
Absolutely.
And just say hello.
And again, we'd love to talk to you and just learn a little bit more about what you're looking for from us and no answer any questions you may have as well.
That's Thursday, 10 a.m.
until 4 p.m., the WXCO open house here at our studios in downtown Wausau.
Well, let's get to it because...
I had to get out of this rut.
This is pretty amazing.
Our number for the day quiz for the most part over the last couple of years Ian's done pretty well.
But the last two weeks have been not good.
I mean a big goose egg for two weeks in a row.
I mean that is that's I can't believe that's happened But it's time to turn the page time to do a new start of a new week.
Yeah with our number for the day quiz What we do is we give Ian Welsh three choices three different numbers
One of which is our number for the day.
We give him a topic, of course, and then he tries to figure out what the correct number is for the number for the day.
And based on the math, three choices, one is correct, one out of three, 33%.
So anything about 33% for the week is a passing grade.
When he gets more right than wrong, that means it's a winning week.
Four out of five is an A grade and five out of five is a gold star for a perfect week.
All right.
We're gonna kind of mix an event that happened on this date four years ago 2021.
Okay, William Shatner.
You know William Shatner.
Oh, yes, Captain Kirk from Star Trek legendary.
Yeah, legend.
The man, the myth, the legend.
Absolutely.
William Shatner became the oldest person to reach space on this date in 2021, traveling aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket on a 10 minute flight.
Okay.
The number for the day is how old was William Shatner?
when he went to space four years ago.
Okay.
Your choices are 88 years old, 90 years old, 92 years old.
Okay.
I'm going
my gut here this time.
So
how old was Captain Kirk when he went to space?
I'm going to say 92.
92 is my final answer.
William Shatner was 90 years old when he went to space four years ago.
Start off with the middle number.
I tell ya, it's like, that's normally your go-to and it's been, we've had a few of those go-tos and you haven't got it.
All right, we'll try again tomorrow to break the streak.
Absolutely.
But have a good rest of your day.
You too, Chad.
Happy Monday, everybody.
Tomorrow will be joined by Jane Graham Jennings, the executive director of the women's community.
So make sure you join us for that starting at 6.52 a.m.
Right here on WXCO.
when you add to it, that it is the highest we've seen.
When we are in the year 2025, when we should be having the tools and having the understanding of why things happen and to be able not to have a number go up but actually go down, I know this will be a hard question, but I'll put it simply, why?
Why in 2025 are we seeing that number actually go in the wrong direction when we have
information.
You've been, as you said, you've been in this work for three decades.
Why, based on what you've learned over these years, are we not seeing that number go down and in fact going up?
I think part of it is, I mean, that's kind of the million dollar question if we could figure that out.
But it's the complexity of domestic violence.
So there still is a tendency for people to blame victims.
And there's still
not an incentive for people who cause harm to change.
And that's, you know, the focus on letting and literally we let people get away with harming someone that they claim to love.
There is a power dynamic in a household.
the people who choose harm manipulate and control everything.
They manipulate the systems, they manipulate law enforcement, they manipulate judges, and they keep getting away with that.
They manipulate their families.
So we really need to figure out a way that we can address people who cause harm.
That's where we're going to get at the root cause.
Log that line.
When you were just talking just a moment ago,
about where lack of air from the blame goes.
And we've often hear the statement when somebody gets arrested and then gets released, we always hear, well, it's really hard because for then, whatever reasons it may be in order to ultimately prosecute, it feels as though that's an excuse, isn't it?
Because the percentage.
of we've seen studies the percentage of false reports are incredibly low incredibly low and yet the percentage of arrests that ultimately don't even get to trial they just they get arrested they spend a night in jail and then all of a sudden well we we don't have the evidence to proceed how does that change because that seems like maybe one of the core problems is when there's no accountability right then you get back into the same situation then the cycle continues doesn't it
I mean, one of the things that can that of the complexities is the criminal legal system isn't necessarily the answer to get people to change.
So, you know, when mandatory arrest came into place for domestic violence in Wisconsin, there was a sense that this was going to help curb the problem.
And I don't think we've seen that play out.
There is.
a tiny bit of accountability.
But what we see more in the criminal legal system is people who use power and control manipulate the entire system and continue to be manipulative and continue to harm and hurt their family members.
And they use the legal system to do that.
So in the big scheme of things, we need to find an alternative to that punishment cycle because it hasn't worked.
What it does do is, in that moment, it protects victims from being killed.
So when someone is, when it's a very violent situation, law enforcement comes, someone is taken to jail, that keeps someone safe for however long that person is in jail.
But it doesn't provide any incentive for that person to change.
that we've just not seen that work.
So we have to look at some different ways that we address people who cause harm, that we look at the entitlement to people who say,
I can do whatever I want, regardless of how much it hurts someone else.
You're going to do what I say, and if you don't, then I'm going to hurt you.
If I can't have you, no one will.
That's kind of the mentality.
That's what leads to domestic violence homicides.
So we need to find some ways to address differently.
What we've been doing is not been effective enough.
It's been a band-aid.
But there's some real deeper issues in our society and in our culture.
that we support people who cause harm and we make excuses for them.
Let me make a little bit more positive forward as we continue this conversation.
You have been working in this area for such a very long time and you talk about the use of manipulation from the system within relationships and families as well.
In your work, what has shown positive
whether it's for people that they look at themselves and they want help.
There's people that do want help, that
they
realize that this is not right and that their loss of control is destructive not only to the people in their lives, but also to themselves in your work over the years.
what has been successful, maybe areas that people need to think about, and maybe as you talk to others within, whether it's law enforcement, whether it's in other areas, what has shown positive in this terrible situation?
On a pretty regular basis, when someone sends a donation into the women's community, it comes with a note that says, when my mother was going through this, there wasn't somewhere like this for her.
So I just want you, thank you for being there.
So the fact that we have agencies in every county in Wisconsin to help address and remove the shame that had surrounded victims 40 years ago, awareness has increased and why do we do that?
Because it helps victims feel less alone.
So that has all been positive in that there are places where victims can go and know that they're not going to be blamed and know that they're not going to be shamed.
We talk about it more now.
So that definitely is a positive.
We still need to do that more.
But the biggest positive impact is that there are places that victims can go to receive assistance and support and to understand and help them figure it out because they're just trying to figure it
out.
It frankly hits me hard when I think about when you talked about the people that have no place to go.
If you put yourself in the situation where you feel, and I think we've all had situations, not to maybe the point where you feel like your life is in danger, but it could be financial issues, it could be, you know, just issues interpersonally with people in your lives, but when you're at a point where your life is in danger, when you have nowhere to go, I mean, I don't know if people truly understand, you talk to these people, women often, who are in these abusive relationships, is there anything you can share to maybe
add perspective to why the importance of the women's community and other shelters.
