Neillsville District Administrator Discusses Items From September School Board Meeting

Thursday, September 24th, 2026 -- 1:01 PM

The Neillsville School Board held their monthly meeting for September on Monday.

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

Listen to the interview with Mr. Peterson here!

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

(AI assisted transcription from Otter.ai)

Riley: "One of the items you discussed was the implementation of the District's Strategic Plan. Can you discuss that?" 

Mr. Peterson: "We take a look at this each month and to make sure that we're on pace for what we aim to do. So, this year, we have several key goals in mind in our first year of our strategic plan."

One of which was to talk about our MTSS and our supports for staff and students, looking academic and behaviorally. One of those was the math interventionist position. So, we've had that posted. We're looking and conducting interviews and looking to see if we can bring somebody on board here shortly."

"Depending upon how that navigates out with our staffing, we'll determine which route we go as to if it's an internal candidate, external candidate. But we are interviewing for that position to try to help support our kids more in our math realm right now. We'll continue to look at other options as well."

"Parts of our strategic plan for this year, we talked about conducting a compensation study to ensure that we are hitting the mark there for our staff, for salaries, benefits, wages, all those things. We're working on that."

"We're going to continue to work on our behavior matrix realignment and that will be a K-12 realignment. And I would encourage anybody in the public or the like to contact me if they would be interested in serving on a committee to work on that."

We aim to get voices across the board from all stakeholders to make sure that we're going to hit the mark with what we want our K-12 matrix to look like, so that there's consistency throughout."

"And then finally, we're taking a look at putting all those together under a dashboard, so that it's a public display, and we're working on creating all those things right now. But we have a couple key cornerstones for this this year's work under our year one of our strategic plan, and we're on our way of doing that."

Riley: "And I know the last time we spoke, there were some projects that were still wrapping up, some construction projects still wrapping up at the school district. Can you touch on that? How are things looking at the district?"

Mr. Peterson: "Yeah, we are in a good spot right now. I know that Mark Spencer had mentioned that our meeting on Monday night that we're, the first ftime in, probably, four summers where we don't have massive construction going on, which is great."

"But if you take a look around campus, we have several things that have taken place. We finished our fencing around our football field, so if people have been here for Friday Night Lights, they've noticed that transition going on."

"So, that's been completed. Around the exterior of the building, we had some repairs to some concrete and retooled the southeast corner of the field house to have a more conducive approach there, rather than a big step up on our concrete curb."

"There, we made more of a zero grade entry there, and then as we continue forward, we had electrical change over the summer. Our middle school with the gears and things like that, all that has been completed. And finally, good news: the pool is back up and running. So we are all excited to report that we've got that all repaired and updated, so that the pool is back in action."

Riley: "The board did approve a couple of sports items for this coming spring here, as well as the next couple of school years. Can you touch on those, please?"

Mr. Peterson: "Absolutely. We take a look at exciting times here. We are going to move forward with adding a middle school baseball program to our fleet of supports for the athletics and so we take a look at that."

"We will be looking for coaching coming up there. So ,please look for those if somebody is interested in joining our staff as a coach for middle school baseball. We'll be looking for some help there."

"In addition, we have approved the co-op for our football program with Granton moving forward for 2028-29 and 2029-30 school years, so a couple key components for our athletics to keep us moving forward and giving opportunities for our kids to be successful in the classroom and beyond in different capacities."

Riley: "The board also approved the Spirit Club application. Can you touch on that, please?"

Mr. Peterson: "Yes, Spirit Club is a great addition to our opportunities for our kids at the high school, and really, what we're looking at is taking a look at just providing a chance for kids to have increased participation."

"Taking a look at increasing our participation at school sporting events and just the positivity of campus culture to give everybody a chance to get involved. If you've been up here this week during homecoming week, you can see outside our field house entry. There's a lot of chalk decorations going on out there. That was the spirit club work."

"They had a booth at our back to school where they garnered a lot of activity and support, and so just a chance for kids to pop in and out and help out in a way of making the campus a positive place to be for a lot of different activities and just to support our kids in any way that we can. So it's a great way to bring on board and just really enhance this as it lives to the spirit of our campus culture. So it's exciting time."

Riley: "Since we've last talked, the school year has gotten underway. Can you just kind of touch on that? How have things gone within the first few weeks of school?"

Mr. Peterson: "It's been a great start to the school year. Really have to get credit to our staff and students and community for the support that we've gotten and as we move forward here, just the excitement that's in the air."

"And I know we had a chance last Friday. We had our first data day on our calendar and the energy that came out of that, just from the way we've been able to transform some instruction."

"I know that we've also taken a look at just the energy this week with homecoming. But even preceding that, we started out the year with some transition days this year. That was first for us on our calendar."

"A lot of energy and excitment coming through the doorways for our kiddos and parents for that. You know, and even prior to that, a lot of great reviews on our back to school open house with having our pictures aligned with that."

"The kids looked amazing coming through the doorways. So. there have been so many positive things to start the school year out. And again, credit to everybody for for doing that and entering through the doorways with a positive spirit and and willingness to improve upon every day."

"As we continue to look forward coming up, of course, being homecoming week, we're looking to finish out a strong week here with the activities of the week. We had a busy night last night with a lot of festivities going on here on campus, with middle school football and middle school volleyball, high school volleyball, cross country is in action."

"We have Friday night game coming out. We have the tailgate party coming up here this week from 5pm-7pm on Friday night. We have a color run on Saturday morning for our PBIS."

"So, a lot of exciting things going on to make sure that we can celebrate homecoming and then, as we carry forward, just carrying that energy into the next phase of the year. You know, by the time we're done with this week, we're roughly halfway through the first quarter."

"And as we keep moving along, making sure that we're hitting the mark with the needs of the parents and the students, and so if there's things that we can do better, we certainly are always open to that. And please reach out to us to let us know. But definitely an exciting time. It's been a great launch of the year. A credit to everybody."

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

Mr. Peterson: "A couple things just to keep in mind as we look forward here, one of which has been coming forward in the news and that is different cases of measles being reported throughout the state."

"And so, one case has been confirmed in Marathon County and I just reported out on Monday night to let our parents and our community be aware that as we learn more, we will relay that along."

"If there's anything that's relevant to Clark County, however, you know we are following the direction of Clark County and making sure that we are aligning with the needs. So, we will keep everybody posted."

"But it's a good time for all parents out there just to kind of be comfortable with where they're at for updating vaccinations if need be to make sure that they are comfortable with their child's situation and just to be on the lookout for any symptoms that may come in place."

"Backing up to our transition days, excellent attendance to start the year out, and I think that's carried forward. We've had some very, very solid attendance to start the year out. Some some historic marks, and we have some big classes, and we've had some very good reports on our attendance."

"So, credit to everybody for the excitement of being here and moving forward. One other topic here on Sunday, the 27th, we will be hosting a meeting with Greenwood School Board at 630 p.m. in the elementary gym."

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.