Pride Pump will help boost Rib Lake schools
Rib Lake residents will have a new opportunity to show their support for the school as they fill up their gas tanks.
General Manager of Medford Cooperative Chris Piotrowski, introduced the Pride Pump Program to members of the Rib Lake School Board on October 14.
Piotrowski described the program as a way to give back to our community schools. Medford Cooperative is working with Medford, Rib Lake, and will be soon opening a Pride Pump in Phillips, at the end of this month. Piotrowski explained “Whenever a Pride Pump is used, 3 cents per gallon of fuel purchased, will be saved, and the cooperative will give the school a monthly check, to use however the school wishes.” The schools will not cross over towns, meaning that Rib Lake’s pride pump will always be in Rib Lake, you wouldn’t see a Rib Lake Pride Pump in Medford.
The board approved the motion to go ahead on this project.
Elementary principal Jon Dallmann talked with the board about school building goals that he hopes to achieve this coming school year. The elementary goal was to get students that are at the basic learning level, to get them to proficiency (60th percentile or higher) based on the state. Based on the assessments that were given the previous year, English Language Arts is the weakest area in the elementary school. Dallmann projected that the students will be at a 5% increase by 20212022 school year. Dallman added, “There is a team meeting every year and that is where these projections come from.”
Rollie Thums pointed out “The advanced students need to be challenged to improve themselves and their learning abilities as well, not just the average students. Challenge is a great thing for any student.”
Cardey brought the football program to the board’s attention. He talked about the possibility of Rib Lake going to an 8-man football team in the fall of 2023, which would then end the co-op with Prentice. Cardey discussed that this has become a problem in recent years with traveling for games more than two hours away.
Cardey spoke on the coach’s behalf in saying, “We are going to be applying for 8-man football next year to be applicable for 2023. The co-op application is also due at that same time.” Conferences are bound to change with every season.
The school received their Emergency Connectivity Fund Grant, which gives the district, 25 pre-paid hotspots, 60 iPads, and 90 chrome books. With this grant, it allows students to have technology at home if they don’t have it. They plan to put 5 hotspots in the high school, 5 hotspots in the middle school and if a student has a project, let them check out the chrome book for a week, to be able to complete their project.
Dallmann, spoke on behalf of the elementary school about Fire Prevention Day. Fire Chief, Russ Bullis, said that “Since they have been teaching fire prevention in schools, he has noticed a decline in house fires.”
Dallmann was happy that the school was able to schedule field trips to Timm’s Hill and Ocean Spray cranberry plant. Getting kids out of school to learn is just as important as in class lessons.
Every two weeks, a health report will be sent out to inform parents and families about the pandemic, and how it’s been affecting kids since the school year started.
Craig Scheithauer will be going to head softball coach and Dennis Scheithauer will be going to assistant softball coach.
Cardey also added that the choir trip would be delayed a year, to be able to have more kids be included in it.
Cardey talked with the board about having an introduction to education classes. On Tuesdays, Cardey teaches a class about the hidden tasks about running a school district. There are 6 kids in the class, and Cardey talked with them about Superintendent roles, policy, school board roles, Department of Public Instruction (DPI) roles, and Department of Education roles. He is happy to say, that a lot of the kids have a good grasp about what goes on.
Cardey has started holding focus groups with each class to see what they would like to see in the district. When asking the seniors, they said they would like to see more field trips. Cardey added “The seniors were very complimentary about a lot of things that happen in the district.”
There will be more information about this in the next month’s meeting when Cardey has more meetings.
The discussion of the district depository accounts possibly relocating, due to the Rib Lake branch of Nicolet bank closing in December, was brought to the boards attention. The possibility of activity accounts getting relocated to Lakewood Credit Union (LCU) wasn’t an option. LCU doesn’t support municipal accounts, however they will exchange small bills if needed, for instance if they need change for concessions. Cardey is willing to do their research to find a good fit about where to put the funds.
Erica Burns, middle school, language arts teacher, received a plaque from the Rib Lake School Board for being September’s Educator of the Month. Words that Rick Cardey used to describe Burns, were creative, collaborative, a teacher leader, she is also a technology mentor, and she is a go-to person for all of us.
“I can’t say enough good things about her,” added Cardey.
New teachers of this school year, were introduced, and were asked to give a short background on themselves. Cardey said “The new teachers for this year have fit in really well here, and are a fun group to work with.”
Levy set
The Rib Lake School Board met briefly on Monday to finalize the tax rate. At the Oct. 4 annual meeting, the district had projected a tax rate of $7.72 per $1,000 of equalized value.
At Monday’s meeting the finalized tax rate, after state aid was finalized was $7.78 per $1,000 of equalized value.
The district’s tax levy includes $1,707,598 for the general operations, $520,425 for referendum debt service, and $22,500 for the community service fund (Fund 80). The total levy is $2,250,523.
The district’s equalized tax rate is about $.11 per $1,000 lower this year than last year’s rate of $7.89 per $1,000 of equalized value.
