Neillsville District Administrator Highlights Items from December Board Meeting

Friday, December 19th, 2025 -- 1:01 PM

The Neillsville School Board held their December meeting on Monday.

I spoke with Neillsville District Administrator Corey Peterson and he discussed some of the items on the agenda in more detail.

Listen to the interview with Mr. Peterson here!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns regarding what’s happening at the District, you can contact Mr. Peterson.

(AI assisted transcription via Otter.ai)

Riley: "The Board heard a building projects update, how is that going?"

Mr. Peterson: "We are going well, we're moving along, and things are full speed ahead. So, at this time, we are finishing off a couple final project tasks that we've had in our front entrance. Our fire coiling door is now in place."

"We're taking a look at just some other odds and ends with finishing a few areas for carpeting and like we take a look at our school store. We're putting the final touches on that, to have that up and going."

"In addition, we're working on countertops in our a classroom, our storage shed for the track area that's been our capstone project is underway. You can see that as you drive by. Pushing a little pause right now with the cold temps as of late, but keeping rolling with that."

"And then one final task that we're working on is we're going to continue to work on updating some flooring in our high school office area, but right now, we are working our way back on pace to where we want to be."

Riley: "The Board also approved the 4k full day schedule for the next school year. Can you touch on that, please?"

Mr. Peterson: "It's starting in 2026-27 school year. The Neilsville School District will be engaging in full day, 4k full week. And what that looks like is that Monday through Friday, we will offer full day capacity, so parents that are interested in this, certainly, can reach out and ask more questions."

"Will have some information sessions coming up in a short period of time, but we're looking to offer that balance for all of our students and families to make sure that we have that equity and opportunity across the board."

"We know that students come with various different backgrounds. We want to make sure and support them in any way, shape or form we can. Taking a look at trying to help them with socialization."

"SEL first, most people gravitate to the academics, but there's so much more in 4k than what most people would envision, and we want to try to make sure that we are fulfilling that throughout the full day and giving them a full opportunity to see a whole picture of what it looks like here on campus and prepping them for what the five year old look would like the following year."

Riley: "And the board also received a couple donations, which they approved. Can you talk about that?"

Mr. Peterson: "This is just an amazing, amazing period of time for us and the community, because we continue to get the donations. They've come to our "Give and Take Tree", they've come here in the form of self created hats and mittens, and/or purchased items."

"We continue to receive those and we're so very fortunate to have those along the way. As we take a look, we want to, you know, say thank you to the people that continue to reach out from whether you're donating hats and gloves, it could be personal hygiene supplies."

"It could be the fact that people are just donating towards the various cause. Case in point, we have our "Give and Take Tree" right now. If you were to come into the building, you would see that we have various items on there."

"It could be from school supplies to hygiene products to just different items for the holidays. And so anything that we can do to offer up along the way, much appreciated. And we are very, very thankful to have such a supportive community."

Riley: "And another thing that I noticed on Facebook, speaking of you know, charitable time of year, the Connections Club recently took a trip to the Marshfield Children's Hospital. Can you touch on that?"

Mr. Peterson: "Yeah, so, you know, working to relate and connect with the community, the Connections Club, living to their name, did just that. And talking to Angie McIntire, who is the coordinator of this work for their students."

"And the students came up with the idea and they just said they want to give back. How can they give back? And they wanted to specifically give back to the Children's Hospital. So, what they came up with, their idea was, how could they support that?"

"And working with the hospital, they went there and they were to set up for their holiday store for families, give and take for a gift, not only for students that might be admitted at the time, but for anybody in their family, any students there, for all the children."

"And they had board games. They had books, you know, ranging for gifts from infants to 20 year olds. And so ultimately, we had a series. We had five kids that went over there that did just amazing things to help."

"Want to say they had, like, about 10 carts of toys that they helped put out that given day to help support the needs of the hospital and certainly heartwarming for the kids and the community alike. So it was a win, win."

Riley: "And now, just the last thing that I wanted to touch on is, you know, there are bills about this being passed, or they're making their way through the legislature, I should say. And there are Districts in Clark County, and around the state, that are starting to talk about it, but it's grade sharing. Could you please explain what that is?"

Mr. Peterson: "Substantial portion of the pupils enrolled in one or more grades. It can range from 4k, 5k, all the way up through high school. And ultimately, there's an agreement in place where school districts are going to attend one or more, four periods of the day, for an extended period of time."

"Some districts are looking at it from the side of 'would it work for a whole building?' So, for exmaple, it's our high school. It could be the fact that we want to pair up with another district and we're going to send grades five and six somewhere."

"Seven and eight are going to go back to another district. So, everybody's looking at a little bit differently as to how the nuances would work in connection for those particular districts."

"But correct, there are some bills that are rolling through right now that would work to incentivize this and help support the enhancement of at least the investigation of what this could look like, because it's been in the docket. It's been there for a period of time."

"People haven't gone down that road for various reasons. But now there is some other additional support there that's coming through the state legislature aiming to look at if you want to investigate whole grade sharing. So, you're partnering with another district, what could that look like?"

"Through feasibility studies, through grants per student per year? Ultimately, take a look at other supports along the way, just to help incentivize it so that, if that was the hurdle, how could that at least be investigated to help support rural districts or smaller districts that are trying to maintain in the day and age of declining enrollment?"

Riley: "Is there anything else you'd like to touch on?"

Mr. Peterson: "Well, we talked a little bit last month about the upcoming celebrations and we were in fever pitch this month with having our band, choir concerts at all different levels and they were so very well done and attended."

"So, thank you for everybody coming out and supporting our kiddos there. Again, much appreciated to our leaders on making that happen. As we take a look at moving forward, we are investigating what strategic planning could look like for our district and, ultimately, investigating how we can make sure to have, and create, common goals and a shared focus and vision for the future for the district."

"So, along the way, if any insight is out there from community members that they have as the important things that they would like to share with me, please have them reach out to make sure that I am able to hear from their side of things as to where they would like things to go, if they haven't had a chance to express that in recent period of time."

(Photo couresty of the Neillsville School District)

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