Rib Lake School Board approves trip to Nashville

Rib Lake students will be Nashville bound next summer.

At the September 8 meeting of the Rib Lake Board of Education, board members approved a four night trip to Nashville, Tenn. for the high school choir from June 19-23, 2023.

The trip will include seeing a performance at the Grand Ole Opry - including a post-show tour, dinner at Paula Deen’s Kitchen, and Opry Plaza performance. On the educational side of things, the trip will also include a tour of Belmont University, where the students will meet with a professor and have a clinic with them. The students will get a chance to participate in the Country Music Hall of Fame “Star for the Day” and “Inside Tracks” programs, where they will have the opportunity to record a song, and will co-write and produce a song from scratch with recording artist Megan Linsey and Grammy nominated producer Tyler Cain.

The approximate price per student for this trip is between $895 and $920. There will be many fundraising opportunities for students in the coming months in preparation for this exciting opportunity. One major fundraising opportunity is a car wash coming up on Saturday, September 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The car wash is free, but community members can pledge money to the students or donate there. The locations for the car washes are Cenex Gas Station in Rib Lake and Hardee’s in Medford.

While talking about the importance of this trip, Board of Education member Rollie Thums said, “We need to be well rounded. We love it here, we still need to be well rounded for what is going on around us.”

In other business:

  The Board of Education approved payment of current bills totaling to $136,348.64.

  District Administrator Travis Grubbs discussed the 2021-22 audit, which showed school district reserves at 13.6% of the total budget. This equates to around 50 days of functionality before the school runs out of money without any outside finances. Grubbs mentioned that ideally, this number should be between 10% and 20%, and though 13.6% is within this range, he would like to see it higher.

It is for these reasons that the school district engages in short term money borrowing to meet expenses between the receipt of tax payments and state aids. The district approved a short term borrow for $1million to “meet the immediate expenses of operating and maintaining public instruction in the district for the 20222023 school year.”

  The Board of Education annual meeting is set for October 3, at 7 p.m. in the Rib Lake Elementary School music classroom. The Levy Approval Meeting is on October 24th at 6:30 p.m.

  In the budget update from District Administrator Grubbs, he speculated with the note that none of the “revenues and things are solidified until the beginning of October.” According to the trends thus far this school year, Grubbs stated that it can be expected that the property tax will increase and revenue will decrease, and that it should be remembered that the budget will probably not get better as time goes on. The school district received technology grants last year, so the budget in that area is much lower than last year.

  The debt referendum from the high school renovations in the school district have three more years left on it, with slightly more than $500,000 owed per year. With three years left, the debt becomes callable, which means that it could be payed back early. District Administrator Grubbs said “it would make a large amount of sense to pay back half this year, and half next year, and be done with the referendum debt by the next fiscal year. This would save taxpayers in Rib Lake money on interest for the extra year or two years.”

  The Board approved a pay increase for event staff.

  The Board approved sealing the brick for the High School and Middle School gym walls and the Elementary School Gym Atrium Roof Line. This will hopefully fix an issue with a leak at the elementary school.

  District administrator Grubbs and High School/Middle School principal Kirsten Budimlija talked about the beginning of the school year, both mentioning the energy felt in the building on the first day, and how it is greatly improved from the past two years.

  When talking about the ongoing Legacy Garden project, Administrator Grubbs expressed his gratefulness for the community. “Our community is truly wonderful. Thank you to everyone who has donated to this special project.”