Rib Lake School Referendum - Inadequate District-Wide Safety, Security, and Accessibility

Rib Lake School Referendum

The Rib Lake Middle and High Schools currently share both students and staff; however, the buildings are separated by an active parking lot. Students and teachers are traveling between these buildings every class period of the day, and even our food service staff transport the food prepared in our district kitchen across this parking lot to serve in our middle school for lunch. This occurs every day, regardless of rain, snow, ice, or countless other weather conditions.

Both the middle and high school entrances are original to each building that were built in 1981 and 1964. These time periods had different safety standards, and neither of these entrances are considered fully secured entrances. While visitors are currently required to buzz in, a fully secure entrance would route them into the office where they would be screened and issued a visitor badge before allowing access to student/ staff occupied spaces.Today, once a person is inside of the first door, they can access the rest of the building. The middle school entrance is especially challenging to monitor as the office is down a hallway and around a corner, making security an extreme challenge. Along with security concerns, both buildings were built prior to the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and are simply not designed with today’s accessibility needs in mind. The district has made adjustments to make spaces more accessible, but issues exist with door widths, entrance spaces, and bathroom sizes.

Voters in Rib Lake School District are being asked to approve a $19.5 million referendum to address safety, educational and maintenance issues at the Middle and High School buildings.

Community information sessions regarding the upcoming referendum vote were held February 21 at 10 a.m. and at 6 p.m. An upcoming session will be held on Monday, March 18 at 6 p.m. The session will take place in the Rib Lake Middle School library.

Additional referendum information can be found online at: https:// www.riblake.k12.wi.us/district/referendum. cfm. Over the next several weeks, The Star News will be running photos and information about the issues and concerns that prompted the school board to seek the referendum.