Neillsville District Administrator Discusses Items From the January School Board Meeting

Friday, January 23rd, 2026 -- 12:00 PM

The Neillsville School Board held their monthly January meeting on Monday.

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

Listen to the interview with Mr. Peterson here!

If you have any question or concerns regarding what’s happening at the District, you can contact Mr. Peterson.

(AI assisted transcription via Otter.ai)

Riley: "The Board started by hearing a building project update. Can you discuss that?"

Mr. Peterson: "Mark Spencer was there to give a project update. We are in the final stages of a lot of small things right now. Our front entrance is pretty well sealed up, ready to go."

"So, we focused more on our track shed project, which is on temporary hold as the temperatures are plummeted. So, the kids are needing to take a little break on that."

"But just some internal work as we start taking get some revamping and remodeling taking place at our bus garage. Do some internal projects that are happening on site with the temperatures in the winter season upon us."

"So, at this point in time, we are taking care of some of the smaller projects that are in play as we plan to prepare for the future, with late spring and summer as to what might be needed next on our schedule."

Riley: "The Board also approved the High School in house course catalog, and then, along with that, they approved the summer school class schedule. Can you touch on those two things?"

Mr. Peterson: "Yeah, both of those handbooks are going to run pretty consistent with what we had in the past. Slight differences at the course handbook for the high school level; we're going to make a name change for one course."

"We added a grade based learning for something, for a work based learning. We're going to have a grading process for that, rather than Pass Fail. Summer School is going to be consistent with what we've run in the past."

"We're still working through a few details on that, as we're a little bit early yet, but want to plan forward so families can put that on the calendar and know that we're going to be running it through the month of June, get that up and ready to go so they put it on their calendar and we will get ready to go for June 2026."

Riley: "The Board also approved the annual safety drill report, which is something that I believe they do on a yearly basis, and think something we've discussed before. But if you could just remind our listeners what that report is exactly?"

Mr. Peterson: "Each year the safety drills will be reported out for state statute. January is the timeline, and when we do that, safety drills could include fire drills or intruder drills, tornado drills."

"A lot of people have memories of what that could look like. We run those often with kids monthly, to make sure that if whatever scenario would be posed, we have a plan in place to run through with that."

"So, while the fire drills are usually front and center and people focus in on those, we want to make sure that we're prepared in a lot of different ways, that scenarios could be popped up over time, and we have an idea as to what we're going to do given those situations."

Riley: "The Board also approved a one time supplemental payment of $60 to the bus drivers. That was for the bus heater plug in reimbursement. Can you explain what that is?

Mr. Peterson: "In our handbook, we currently have a $15 a month payment for the bus drivers to have their busses plugged in at their house. We know that the cost of doing so continues to go up."

"We do about a four month look at this and looking at having a bus plugged in for roughly 12 hours a day at your house, averaging that out per kilowatt kicks out that we would need to supplement the pay to be able to help the drivers at least break even in this process."

"Certainly it's a benefit to have those busses plugged in so we can get them up and going quickly, but yet, it does come with an incurred cost, and we want to make sure to reflect that to our employees."

Riley: "The board also had a couple donations they approved. Can you touch on those?"

Mr. Peterson: "Much appreciated for our community is to continue to support our kids and our needs. Just Love has donated for middle school/high honor roll, and they donated coupons for those. And we appreciate that."

"There's a monetary donation from aspires health for $500 for our whole program looking to supplement some healthy snacks for kids along the way. So any way shape and form that we're getting these benefits to our kids, keeps them excited about being in the classroom doing good things and keeps healthy for being able to be actually ready to engage in the day."

Riley: "Just one other thing I wanted to touch on too is that a couple Neillsville teachers were recognized with Crystal Apple Awards. Can you talk about that?"

Mr. Peterson: "Yes, such an exciting time. You take a look at the Crystal Apple Awards. In this set, there are four Apple Award recipients this year through the Marshfield Chamber and, roughly 630 nominations came forward, and Neillsville is a proud recipient of two of those four categories."

"Adam Smrcka is bringing home the high school category for his great work in art. Also we have Becca Bernhagen for her amazing work in first grade as well. So, as we've talked about, as as a staffing community, we're very, very fortunate to have amazing teachers."

"This is just capitalizing on that. And since that, we have multiple nominees each year. Two of the four categories, though, are going to needlesville teachers."

"And as we've talked about, it's a compliment to everybody across the board, but especially to Adam and Becca for their hard work in the classroom, their connections with kids, parents, the community, and just making this a great place to be. So, congratulations to them, because it is such a proud moment for them and their professional careers."

Riley: "Anything else?"

Mr. Peterson: "Just a reminder that our 4k Programming, as we plan forward for the future, as you look at calendars, a couple big ticket items coming up for 4k again, reminding that we are going to be a full day, full week process starting in 2026-27 for our 4k program."

"However, if parents still have questions about that as to how that might work for them and their needs, please feel free to call the offices and we will touch base with you as to how to make sure that it aligns to your needs."

"If you are wondering a little bit more about that, in some planning you already have in place, so we will have information available for that academic and Career Planning Night at the high school level is next week, on the 26th and we'll have information there."

"We also have information available that will be coming out at our parent teacher conferences in February, along with several news articles that will be coming out and published papers along the way as well."

"But again, if anybody out there has a four year old that is in starting school or considering starting school next year, please be in touch with the offices as to how this could work for you and how we can help support."

(Image courtesy of the Neillsville School District)

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