Rib Lake looks at having a school dog

Grant funded school therapy dog would help with mental health issues

When it comes to connecting with students and helping people deal with trauma Rib Lake High School principal Kirsten Budimlija is turning to “man’s best friend.”

At the September 27 Rib Lake School board meeting, Budimlija presented a proposal for the district to use grant funds to purchase a resident therapy dog.

She explained that that idea has been kicking around for the past few years after reading articles about how other districts, including Merrill, have used therapy dogs in their buildings.

“My goal this year is think like a student,” Budimlija said. She said that in trying to think like a student she wanted to look at ways to help students to deal with trauma and help in other ways.

Budimlija contacted Sean Dumais, owner of Central Wisconsin K9, to find out more about therapy dogs and how they can be used in schools. She noted that while a therapy dog is a working animal, it is not considered on the same level as a service animal such as a seeing eye dog. Therapy dogs don’t have the same level of access guaranteed under federal See RIB LAKE on page 4 and state laws.

“In short, a therapy dog is a well behaved, environmental neutral dog that makes everyone happy and so much more,” Budimlija said.

In practice therapy dogs in school settings typically are with the principal or counselor most of the day as “home base” and at the end of the day are brought home with a school employee.

The dog would be used in counseling situations as well as being a school culture mascot. In addition, other districts have used their school dogs to assist with small group reading. She noted there have been studies showing that people who struggle with reading do better when they have read to a dog. “They know the dog isn’t going to judge them,” Budimlija said.

Budimlija said the research has also indicated that dogs can be helpful in getting young people to open up about trauma and intervention situations and that they are particularly effective with helping younger boys open up.

Budimlija said Dumais’ recommendation is a purebred, medium to large, younger dog from a breeder. The dog would then undergo extensive training. The cost of the dog and training is estimated at $3,000 to $5,000 depending on the dog’s demeanor.

District administrator Travis Grubbs noted the purchase and training would be grant-eligible expenses under a mental health grant the school district has already received. The district would be responsible for the upkeep with food and veterinarian costs. Grubbs said there would be places this could come from within the budget.

Budimlija said the goal would be to get the process started to ideally have the therapy dog in the school by the start of the 2024-2025 school year. She explained that the process takes several months and the training period is extensive.

To questions about allergies, Budimlija said the trainer noted there were no completely allergy-free dogs, however there are breeds with lower levels of dander and ways to minimize dander which will minimize allergy impacts. She noted they have six students in the middle and high school who have identified allergies to dogs.

“I think it is a great idea,” said board member Jackie Mohr in support of the idea.

Board member Rollie Thums was hesitant to make a decision at that meeting without taking more time to think about it. “I would like to have people contact us with their feelings,” Thums said, noting that it would be in The Star News and give a chance for people in the community to give feedback to board members before proceeding.

Thums said he was on the fence regarding the therapy dog proposal and said there may be people in the community who view it strongly one way or another.

“It is something totally different that we haven’t had in the past,” he said.

Budimlija said her goal in bringing it to the meeting was to get the board’s OK to start the process. She noted that she had not even brought it up to staff or any students in case the board said no.

Thums was not opposed to the idea of moving forward with talking with staff about how having a therapy dog could work. He noted that his therapy animal is a horse and saw their value.

“To most people it will be a new thing,” he said.

Budimlija will continue with researching and working on the logistics of how having a therapy dog could work and will bring it back to the school board next month after they have gotten feedback.

In other business board members:

Reviewed building goals. As in the past school leaders are working to build off of previous success and strive for students and teachers to aim higher. At the middle and high school level, the goal is to have 10% of students go beyond the projected RIT score for their MAP testing. The district will work with collaboration among peers and using targeted learning tools to achieve this. At the elementary school level, they have set a goal of having 80% of Kindergarten to grade five students being at their MAP benchmarks for reading and math by the end of the year and exceeding their RIT goals. Dallmann explained this would put 80% of students in the school in the top 40% of all students in the nation. “We want to shoot to make sure everybody gets that goal,” he said.

Received the third Friday enrollment count. District enrollment took a jump with 512 students enrolled for the third Friday count this year compared to 481 a year ago. While generally holding steady in enrollment, the district has seen ups and downs as larger or smaller classes of students enter or leave the district.

Approved the creation of a parttime assistant athletic director position and a part-time athletic trainer position. Grubbs said he has been working to get an athletic trainer in to work with student athletes in the district, but programs that used to be sponsored by Marshfield Clinic and others have switched to pay models that make them cost prohibitive. The district also had an unexpected vacancy in its athletic director position at the beginning of the school year with physical education teacher Paul Yanko stepping up at the last minute to fill the spot. Grubbs said he had an individual in mind who could fill both positions and provide much-needed support for the athletic director.

Received an update on the recent community sessions held for the proposed building project. Grubbs said he thought they were pretty well attended with 20 to 30 people present. He said about 10-12 went on the building tours. He said that he had people who attended comment to him that they had come in thinking they would oppose the plan and left feeling positive about it. Grubbs said that as of the meeting, they had 307 surveys returned and were looking forward to getting more in before the deadline to get community feedback on the proposal and general school operations.

Received an update on the work completed in the school forest. About 80% of the trail work is completed and there is about 400 feet of walkway to build. Thums described the trail improvements as being “absolutely fantastic” with the granite on the paths. It was noted that the project was a lot of work, made possible through donated labor including from Thums. When completed the boardwalk will be five feet wide with a small lip to make it accessible for people in power or hand wheelchairs. Thums said he thinks that when people see the improvements they will see walkers and joggers and others out there enjoying the forest. School forest day October 5.