Neillsville District Administrator Discusses Items from the Neillsville School Board's June Meeting

Thursday, June 18th, 2026 -- 11:00 AM

The Neillsville School Board held their monthly meeting on Monday.

The Board approved a wide range of items as they wrap up one school year and look towards the next. I spoke with District Administrator Corey Peterson and he discussed some of those items in more detail.

Listen to the interview with Mr. Peterson here!

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

(AI assisted transcription from Otter.ai)

Riley: "Well, one of the first things that the board did at their meeting on Monday is they did hear a facility and grounds update, and they did approve a couple bids with that. Can you talk about that, please?"

Mr. Peterson: "Taking a look at our facilities, we continue to look to revise and improve as we look forward. We know there are several areas that need to get continually updated, one of which was the roofing over the elementary section of the building."

"The approval went to quality roofing for that section of the building. They will be in alignment and get that started here early this fall and try to get that up and going to make sure that our roofing continues to be addressed in different sections of the building, as to where we're at now, and looking forward."

"In addition, taking a look at our football field area, we know that we are lacking some fencing down there and we've had that on the dock and we're going to get that fulfilled this summer, so our temporary fencing will be going away and will be putting up a firm new fence in place, ready to go for our fall sport. So some improvements you'll continue to see around and or hear about on our facilities to make sure that we continue to address the needs of our infrastructure."

Riley: "The board also approved the Achievement Gap Reduction Report and this is something we've discussed before, but if you could remind our listeners what that is exactly."

Mr. Peterson: "Yeah, correct. The Achievement Gap Reduction is a program that we're involved with. It's a five year process that we get renewed through the DPI and we were approved last summer, in July."

"So we have our five year renewal. Ultimately, the intent is to reduce the achievement gap between low-income students and their peers. In doing so, focusing on reading and math across grades K through 3rd, so we each year, twice a year, we report out on the progress of our goals, building wide, to see how we're doing against that mark."

"We do that mid year and at the end of the year. So, our end of the year reports, we're giving and a key point to the AGR is that it gives you flexibility to try to use different strategies to increase our results and we try to focus in our class size ratios and take a look at that, but you also go look at coaching and one to one tutoring as well."

"Yes, twice a year we take a look at those goals to monitor how we're doing as an elementary and the lower elementary against our AGR focus and work to make sure that we're doing the best we can with what we have."

Riley: "The board also approved a few memberships. Can you touch on those?"

Mr. Peterson: "Yeah, taking a look at our memberships moving forward our key pieces to helping us operate on our behalf to make sure we're hitting the mark. A couple of those would be our February WASB membership."

"So, from the school board side of things, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards provides our school district with legal resources or professional development opportunities, just giving us training along the way and opportunities for growth to make sure that our board and or whole district really has access to the growth opportunities to make sure that we're doing the best that we can, connect in with our school board convention and the like as well."

"Our rates there stay the same as last year. It's based off the number of professional staff we have in district, so our rates stay the same for WASB membership. Looking at WIRSA, so Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance, in doing so we have maintained our membership with them as well and it's the same cost as last year's, $550."

"But it does give us the ability to have statewide advocacy, and really their focus is on small rural schools, making sure that we have networking, professional learning, resource sharing, allocation and just a voice on behalf of the rural schools at the local, state and federal levels aiming to strengthen the rural schools and community, so we appreciate that.

"And then, finally, our WIAA membership; we need to make sure that we're updating our WIAA membership each year at the high school level to make sure we're part of our postseason and tournament series that we want to be part of for athletics, but also gives us guidance as to regulations to make sure we're adhering to throughout the seasons as well."

Riley: "And as the district finishes off one school year and looks forward to the next, there are usually a handful of things that are done each year and one of those is setting a temporary fund 10 budget. Can you just touch on that, please?"

Mr. Peterson: "Each year you set a fund 10 temporary budget at this time of the year as an estimate moving forward into the fall to start out the year. It ensures that we have payroll, maintenance, summer programs continuing on as we would expect."

"Couple key pieces will change; your firm final numbers will come in in October when we have a chance to lock everything in at our annual meeting in October, but in the meantime, we want to make sure that we're still able to function and move forward."

"We proposed an estimated fund 10 to move forward and operate under at $14.1 million for 2026-27. In doing so, it's a 4% increase from our current fund 10 budget. Looking ahead, some factors that may come into play when we get into September."

"We'll have our third Friday count, we'll have October state aid certification and then they'll tie into tax levies and things like that. So, there'll be moving pieces that will come for every district yet, but this allows us the opportunity to continue to move forward with our planned payroll maintenance, summer programming, and the like."

Riley: "The board also approved substitute management software. Can you explain what that is?"

Mr. Peterson: "Many districts have moved towards an online system for sub management, so ultimately it's a transition. In the past, lot of times, it would be a lot of morning phone calls from principals or school district personnel trying to line up subs for the classroom for the day."

"This allows things to become more electronic, so staff members can enter their absence of needs wherever they're at, whenever time it is. They enter those in, it gets notified out to our sub pool, and then from there subs can determine to pick up positions as aligns to their needs."

"We're then notified throughout the process and we have a dashboard we can continue to monitor that. In reviewing multiple different programs over the course of time, from Front Tier Technologies, Red Rover, we settled on Red Rover as our choice."

"Again, we have nearby districts that are using this. Loyal, Auburndale, and a few others that are using this, but really eliminates that staff having to make phone calls for perineum subs and increases that communication side of things as well between the staff that are entering it, in subs that are receiving it, and really clarifies that, so that we hopefully are a little more efficient with what we're doing."

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

Mr. Peterson: "Yeah, we have a couple very, very generous donations this month. So, we take a look. We have Aspirus Health that has donated $2,300 to us, and that is in connection with our Safe Routes to School."

"So, we continue to focus in on campus safety and we had the opportunity for the Aspirus Health grant money and, when that came forward, we designated that towards some on-site need, from signage, to more markers for ground work, things of the sort that are in need to continue to increase our say our safety on campus and promote the safe routes to schools work that we've been doing over the last couple years."

"In addition, we also were able to aprove a very, very generous donation and that it would be the scholarship contribution from Jim Chalene Family Foundation in the name of $32,000 So, again, very appreciative of the great gifts that are coming our way that benefit our kids and community."

Riley: "AIs there anything else, then, anything else you'd like to touch on that we may not have already discussed?

Mr. Peterson: "Yeah, as we take a look ahead. You just, as you already mentioned, we are in the planning stages for 2026-27. You close one chapter, you open another. Summer school's underway right now, so kids are involved in that, but, as we look ahead to 2026-27, the online registration is out there and open, so please feel free to hop on and enroll your child for next year, so we have pretty accurate numbers."

"The better our numbers are now, whether it be for classrooms and or bus transportation, the more accurate will be for our planning for staffing and routes in the lake for 2026-27. So, we really appreciate if you haven't had a chance to really think about that or jump into it."

"Start helping us with our planning by taking a look at that in connection with our bus transportation planning those roads for next year. We want to have as much accurate information as soon as possible, so if you know your bus plans for next year for 2026-27, please put those in as well, or contact us for any needs you have, that way when we get to open house in August, we'll give you the best answer at the time for estimates of time."

"So again, appreciate everybody and what they're doing. It's been a very busy start to the summer, but, as we continue to move forward, if there's any questions from people, have them reach out to the district, and we'll take care of that."

"The last thing I guess I would add to that is strategic planning. If everybody has questions on our strategic plan, please let us know. There, we continue to build that. We had a steering committee on Monday night that came together and continued with our guidance for our next step drafts, and our plan is that we will propose those in July at the board week. So, again, if there's questions out there on upcoming 2026-27 in relation to strategic plan and or our planning. Please let us know."

(Photo courtesy of the School District of Neillsville)

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