Neillsville District Administrator Highlights Items From November Board Meeting

Monday, December 1st, 2025 -- 3:01 PM

The Neillsville School Board recently held their monthly November meeting.

I spoke with Neillsville District Administrator Corey Peterson and he discussed some of the items approved at the meeting in more detail.

Listen to the interview with Mr. Peterson here!

Again, if you have any questions or concerns, you can contact Mr. Peterson at the Board Office.

(AI assisted transcription by Otter.ai)

Riley: "One of the items that was approved was the Academic and Career Plan. Can you explain what that is?"

Mr. Peterson: "Mrs. Backaus was here to present with us our Academic and Career Plan. So, each year, we take a look at what we're being offered to our students and how we're going to create an environment in a setting that's going to make them career ready."

"And we take a look at how we're going to revise that from grade 6th through 12th to make sure that we are hitting the mark and exceeding what we need to make them career ready. She's done an excellent job in leading the charge on this."

"And so we took a look at how we can continue to expand upon, whether it be reviewing course offerings to the fact of how we can enhance skill sets. We talked a lot about mentorships with our business partners."

"He had noted that we have maxed out our mentorship capacity right now, but we're going to continue to find ways to expand that as well. So, really taking a big wraparound look at how we can continue to expand our programming to help kiddos out and make sure that we are setting up for their future success, especially as they transition to high school and beyond."

Riley: "The Board also approved the Redefining Ready Annual Report. Can you touch on that?"

Mr. Peterson: "In the same context as we take a look at making sure that everybody is prepared for where we're at and where we're going, just reassuring that we take a look at, how are we going to make sure that everybody is ready?"

"What does that mean? What does it mean to be college career ready? What does it mean to be job skills ready, you know, again, talking about the mentorships, talking about community outreach."

"How do we embark upon that so that we can take a look just, you know, as a community and as a district, I know we've done a lot of outreach lately to the Chamber and how can we work with that so that we can work in unison to better support our programming, make sure that we're setting the mark and hitting where we want to be, so that when you define ready and readiness for current practices in the future, what might it look like."

"And so again, credit to Mrs. Backaus for what she's doing there, as we're taking a look to make ourselves bigger and better all the way up and through."

Riley: "The Board also heard a building projects update. How are those progressing?"

Mr. Peterson: "It's going well. We're going to finish off the last couple of things here on the front entrance. Mr. Spencer reported that we have a coiling door that will be coming in and installed momentarily here in our front entrance, along with as we look at our track storage shed that our capstone students are utilizing as their project again, talking about career ready, trying to connect skills for life embedment."

"Our capstone students have been working with Mr. Kren to construct that this fall. So, that is well underway. They'll be continue to work on that through December, to get that up and going."

"So, we're going to continue to work on some of the projects that we are either finishing off on the last end our referendum work to the front end of just similar projects with our track shed."

Riley: "The Board also approved the club application for the Warrior Strength Club. Can you discuss that?"

Mr. Peterson: "So, first of all, I want to say thank you to Mr. Schuler and the people that are leading the charge trying to continue to build up our weight room and the capacity there."

"They put an application to really itemize that, like taking a look at lifelong fitness habits, enhancing athletic performance, and just really working to build, build up the culture of pride and commitment in the weight room and beyond, and, hopefully, having that spill across the board to all of our clubs, different activities that could benefit from the training that can take place with this particular club."

"We're looking at using the weight room, looking at speed endurance, all those different things. And credit to Mr. Schuler for leading the charge on that as we try to continue to build up our programming."

Riley: "The Board also approved some donations. Can you touch on those?"

Mr. Peterson: "Again, we are still very, very fortunate to have a great community that is looking to support us in different ways and shapes. First of all, Subway that donated some cookie coupons for our high honor students in the middle school and we continue to work to build that number up. And thank you for that. And everything helps to keep kids motivated along the way."

Cindy Boone, donations to the Kick Club and helping out with our giving tree that will be up and going here momentarily for our holiday seasons. Ultimately, you know, if people have needs, we're going to help support them by giving and taking off of this tree to help support their needs."

"And then, you know, there's the day to day operations and Unity Bank, thank you for helping support just hygiene needs, puberty needs that come along the way, and as those times move along, just helping families in any way, shape or form that we can with items along these donations are much, much appreciated."

Riley: "As we are in the holiday season, the Neillsville School District always holds such wonderful holiday concerts. Can you talk about those?"

Mr. Peterson: "Absolutely! Thank you for bringing that up. We are going to be hosting our holiday concerts coming up on a slew of Mondays. As we take a look at December 1st, coming right off on the backside of Thanksgiving, we have our middle school high school choir concert at 7pm."

"The eighth, we will host our elementary concert at 6pm in the field house. And on the 15th, we have our middle school high school band concert at 7pm. So, the next three Mondays, we have several key items coming up."

"Please come out support our kids as they showcase their skills. A lot of smiles, a lot of enjoyment. So, we encourage you to come out and get in the holiday spirit."

Riley: "Anything else you'd like to touch on?"

Mr. Peterson: "Stepping back to our Veterans Day program, I want to say a huge thank you to Sergeant Jeff Barrows and alumni for coming back to speak to our K-12 student body. Veterans Day: What does it mean? The impact? So, thank you very much for his time and efforts to come in and speak to our veterans on our Veterans Day ceremony. Appreciate that!"

"School report cards. We talked a little bit about that, the district, is meeting expectations, at our board session here, if anybody were have questions along that they can certainly reach out and talk to me on that."

"But just a great time to take a look at upcoming planning, whether it be with our 4k planning for the future or the like. So, if people have questions, please have them reach out and talk to me. Would love to have those conversations."

(Photo couresty of the Neillsville School District)

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