Potosi School District Seeks New Operational Referendum

By Jason Oyen

Some people may wonder why the Potosi School District is experiencing such an increase in open enrolled-in students.  The district believes it is because of the staff being so warm, friendly, and positive. “We know that, because we had a family engagement audit last spring and that’s what they shared with us.  We also believe that the district has a positive reputation because of feedback received from one of the parents of an open enrolled-in student. The parents moved to Platteville from another state to teach at UW-P and called to open enroll their child to Potosi.  When they were asked why they were deciding to open enroll here, they said they’ve heard so many positive things about our district and wanted their child to be a part of that,” said Potosi District Administrator Ron Saari.

Now, the Potosi School Board is considering an operational referendum where they will be asking the citizens of Potosi and Tennyson, as well as the surrounding townships within the Potosi School District boundaries, to consider approving additional support for the school's operations and programming by raising property taxes.  

Saari said that there are three reasons for the operational referendum.  First, the district needs to maintain its programming and be able to compete with neighboring districts.  As of now, Potosi School District averages 9.2 openings per year for staff. This year it was 7, but the year before, there were 13 new staff members.  Annually, that is an average of 18.2 percent of staff turned over. The state average is around 6 percent. “The pool of candidates has dramatically decreased over the past 6 years, and the competition between districts to hire quality staff has increased.  Our focus is to be able to keep the same amount of programming and to keep our teachers working in Potosi instead of transferring to a neighboring district,” said Saari.

Second, the district wants to follow through with their plan for an operational referendum because they know that they need to invest in their tech ed. and agriculture programs. The last time they put money into such programs was over twenty-five years ago.  In today’s job market, there is a high demand for workers in manufacturing and the trades, which are the areas the school plans on enhancing. Potosi School District wants to invest over $150,000 in equipment and training in their industrial arts and agriculture programs.  “It is our hope that students that don’t want to go to college or aren’t able to go to a tech school would be able to graduate from high school having earned an industry certification in an area of their interest. That could be welding, machining, electrical, plumbing, you name it.  Our goal is to provide as many of these certifications as possible,” said Saari. This referendum would also include growing the youth apprenticeship program where juniors and seniors leave campus to gain experience in the workforce.

The third and final reason for the proposed referendum is that the district needs to invest in its capital maintenance fund.  They would like to place at least $45,000 per year into this fund to be used strategically for them to maintain their buildings and grounds.  “It’s our hope that by doing this, we wouldn’t have to go to a facility referendum again,” said Saari.

In the last five years, 15 of the school districts in CESA 3 have passed these types of referendums, which is 48 percent of the 31 school districts in CESA 3.  In the last ten years, 23 districts in CESA 3 (74%) have had to pass these types of referendums to maintain the programs they offer. The last time the district passed this type of referendum was twelve years ago, and if history repeats itself, they may have to do this type of thing once again in another twelve years.  The operational referendum would require taxpayers to pay no more than an additional $29 on a $100,000 home or piece of property in property taxes. Other districts have done similar operational referendums and needed taxpayers to pay anywehre from $75 up to $550 on a $100,000 home. The school board believes that its proposed $29 tax increase is very reasonable and fair, especially when compared to the increased taxes other districts in Southwest Wisconsin are paying for their operational referendums.

Over the past five school years, the district had to cut over $455,000 from its budget.  This includes eliminating positions such as an art teacher, counselor, math teacher, and elementary classroom teachers, as well as restructuring their food service program from four people to two, reducing the bus routes from 6 to 5, and several other cost-saving measures to maintain a balanced budget.  Over the last 7 years, the district has lost 30 students, and their revenue limit, which is the maximum amount of dollars a district can have to operate, has decreased by over $900,000. The amount of state aid the district receives has decreased by over $600,000 over that same time period.

An interesting statistic: last year, the district had 54 open enrolled-in students.  Of those 54, 7 moved into the Potosi School District boundaries over this past summer.  54 open enrolled-in students equals 16 percent of the district’s total student population.  1 out of every 6 students does not live within the district's boundaries. This year the district has 52 open enrolled-in students.  The open enrolled-in students are very valuable to the district because each one of those students brings in $7,055 a year in additional revenue.  When the number of open enrolled-in students is multiplied by $7,055, it generates over $380,000 of additional revenue for the district.

In addition to the staff’s reputation, the district also believes that they are receiving an increase of open enrolled-in students because of their improving student achievement outcomes.  Last year, Potosi School District had the highest state report card they’ve ever had. The district scored a whopping 74.4 percent, which is considered to be “exceeding expectations.”

The district’s improved facilities are another reason why they believe parents are choosing to come here.  When parents are touring and “school shopping”, they share many positive comments about the school facilities, including the auditorium.  Potosi’s excellent special needs program, which they’ve had for quite some time, may also be bringing in students from other places.

Lastly, a positive student body with kids of character is probably one of the biggest reasons why parents are enrolling their students at Potosi.  “Every school may have some students who make poor choices, but the students at Potosi School District, for the most part, are very well behaved and polite,” said Saari.

After discovering several unknown problems with the building during the recent facility referendum, the district knew they had to address those problems. The replacement of the roof above the cafeteria was unexpected, and in fixing this issue, they had to hold back other planned projects they had intended to do.  

As of now, the only thing being accomplished at the school, grounds wise, is the dumpster area in the student parking lot, which is getting a touch-up.  During the summer, Jamie Pierce put gravel under the bleachers and installed a french drain by the softball field. The janitorial staff also relocated the high school teachers’ lounge to the old counselor's room.  In the future, once funds become available, the district would like to flip-flop the current biology room and the foods room, which is often used for concessions. They plan on doing this to make the student section in the gymnasium more accessible.  If this plan were to go into effect, a doorway in a wall in the biology room would have to be created to provide access to the old weight room, which could end up being new restrooms for events in the gym.

The Potosi School District is asking for only the essentials with this referendum, no frills included.  The district hopes that the taxpayers trust them, knowing that they are managing their money in a prudent and efficient way, and that their community will approve this much needed operational referendum.  The referendum is scheduled for Tuesday, April 2, 2019.

Track Co-op May Send More Athletes to State

By Jeffrey Jacobson

Will Potosi/Cassville have a better potential of sending athletes to state in track? I asked some of the athletes from Potosi to see how they felt about the situation. There were some mixed feelings about the co-op, but overall the athletes thought it would be beneficial in the end because of the increase in athletes for the teams. “It will also help,” Taylar Pleumer, a senior track athlete at Potosi said, “because Cassville has a full track that we could all use to practice on.”

A few of the track athletes thought that the co-op would make the team the better. The majority of the people said that it would help because there would be more athletes. Taylar also said that it would help because Cassville has some good athletes that would be good to have on the team. Taylar also added that it will help with the funding because Potosi is having a hard time getting the funds to keep the track program going, but with the co-op, both teams won’t have to worry about any funding problems for a while. Potosi has been lacking funds to run the program and has been just barely getting by. With the co-op, the funding issue will be fixed for Potosi because there will be two schools funding one program.

A few of the track athletes from Potosi thought that the athletes from Potosi and Cassville will get along well because we have already had a co-op in football with Cassville, and that worked out really well. The athletes from Potosi and Cassville are all becoming really good friends from the co-op between football, so there should not be any problems with the co-op in track.

Finally, will this co-op be sending more athletes to state? Lily Reynolds, another Potosi senior, thought that there will be more people going to state because of the increase of athletes. Taylar said that she thought it would send more people to state because the athletes that went to state from Potosi and Cassville will now be on the same team, and because of the increase of boys on the team, which Potosi was lacking. She stated that with the increase of boys on the team, it will help with the boys' relay teams because they will not have to have distance guys running in sprint relays. That will help by improving the relay team that already went to state, and it could make a new relay team that could make it to state.

FCA Impacts Student-Athlete Lives

By Jaydn Noonan

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is an international non-profit Christian sports ministry based in Kansas City, Missouri.  FCA was founded in 1954. It has staff offices located throughout the United States and abroad. FCA's mission is to lead every coach and athlete into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His church.  Its vision is to see the world transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes.

FCA was introduced to Potosi three years ago; the coaches were Mr. and Mrs.Siegert, Mrs.Nutter, and Mr.Downs. They began FCA because they found out that many kids were not going to church on a regular basis and thought that a little Christian teaching and fun would be good for them, and they also saw it as a chance for kids to grow closer to God. The school was very open to having an FCA huddle and the student body was okay with this as well. The coaches hoped to have many students involved. Mr. Downs is one of the coaches for the FCA, and he decided to become a coach because he saw the value of FCA through his own children when they were in High School.

Our FCA huddle has meetings every Wednesday night in the foods room and also does activities outside of Potosi. The FCA huddle goes to Fields of Faith in Boscobel each year. They work a concession stand at Badger football games, and went to Des Moines, Iowa for a mission trip for three days last summer. They have also raked leaves for community members during the fall. During the year they encourage the athletes by making posters for the locker rooms.
As a coach for FCA, Mr. Downs has seen a change in the students that attend the FCA huddles regularly he says  “ I have seen lots of changes, some of the kids are going to church more and some kids are seeing the needs of others and are trying to meet them, there is an openness to talking about Christianity in public without being embarrassed.” Mr.Downs hopes more students see the value of FCA and want to join and be a part of it. Right now the FCA huddles have 10-12 students that come on a regular basis. He also hopes to do more service projects that benefit the community.

Boys Basketball Looking Forward From Past Success

By Alex Freese

The Potosi Boys basketball team had a remarkable season last year, ending the season undefeated in conference.  However, in the playoffs, they ran into out-of-conference foe Southwestern. At the end of the game, Southwestern defeated Potosi with a last-second shot. Coach Uppena thought that the season was a good one because of how his team came together and were conference champs.  In addition, they went undefeated, which is not an easy task with the conference they are in. Coach Uppena said, “Unfortunately we got beat way too early in the tournament and that was one of the toughest things that everyone had to deal with.” They lost to Southwestern, which was a 7 seed coming into that game against the Chieftains.  Southwestern would later come out of the sectional, beating Seneca in double overtime 67-66. Coach Uppena’s plan coming into this basketball season is to not let the season end the way it did last year.

Uppena has had the same team with a few additions over the last two seasons.  In those two seasons, his teams had records of 16-9 and 18-6. In that 18-6 season, the Chieftains won the conference. Uppena talked about how in those seasons he gained trust in the players and the players gained the trust in him. Uppena talked about playing time going along with trust, having that trust and knowing what that player can do on the court.

The types of adversity the team had to go through were certainly tough. One of the biggest challenges Uppena had to deal with was the loss of his mom. When they had the wake, the team came and supported their coach and his family, which meant a lot to the Uppena family. A couple players made a few bad decisions over the year.   Player behavior can certainly hurt the team and they have to learn from that. Coach Uppena talked about how those types of things can affect the team when they are rolling along and everything is clicking, then someone makes a poor choice and the “rolling along feeling” comes to a screeching halt.

According to Coach Uppena, one of the toughest things about being the head coach at Potosi is the judgment that people place on you, and not being able to make everyone happy.  How much playing time a player gets is always a big concern to everyone involved.

           Before the 16-17 season, basketball player Ryan Kruser tore his ACL in football and was not able to play his favorite sport. When he came back in 17-18, Kruser was ready to blow some minds with the work he put in on the offseason. He said about that comeback season, “I had a fun time, the team had some talent, and we had good coaches.”

Coach Uppena wasn’t surprised at the performance that Ryan put on in the season he came back. “Ryan would have played his freshman year on varsity, but he got hurt in football and sat out the whole year,” Uppena said. Out of all the negatives that happened that season, Uppena says they got better. The team he has coming back in the 2018-19 season has a lot of experience up and down the line-up. Also his team is getting ready for the season by lifting weights and taking shots in the gym more than any team he has coached this far. He believes there is still more work that needs to be done.

Cuba City and Southwestern are two of the teams that Uppena can’t wait to go up against this year. Uppena likes the tough competition in those teams, but really he can’t wait to play Highland in the first game of the year for the Chieftains, and really he can’t wait to play everyone. The expectations for this Chieftain basketball team are set pretty high from what they accomplished last year. Uppena’s expectation for the 18-19 team is to repeat as undefeated conference champs and go as far as possible in the tournament as they can.  While those are big goals, they certainly have the tools to do that. They have to be focused every day in practice and, Uppena said, “They have to play every day as if they could not play tomorrow.”

Teacher Inservices: Do Teachers Play When Students Are Away?

By Mariah Cull

Students love having a day off once a month, but most probably think the teachers just catch up on grading and planning on those days. They actually do a lot more with those inservice days.

“Inservices are a professional development day, we discuss the school-wide issues that need to addressed and they help teachers and staff.” I interviewed Mrs. Amy Foote to get some information from someone who was newer to the scene. Inservice days introduce staff to workshops that help them learn about new changes going on in schools, such as the new safety measures and the new online classes that Mr. Fry and Mrs. Brunton are teaching. Mrs. Foote recalls visiting two different workshops at one of the inservices: “There was one workshop that specifically trained us in using Schoology and there was another one that taught the staff how to help kids regulate their emotions.”

There is a school staff leadership team, called the SAIL team, that decides what is to be discussed. If there is something that needs addressing immediately then that is something that will be discussed. SAIL stands for School Administrators Institute for Transformational Leadership team. Not every school district allows the staff to be part of the decision-making process, which makes the SAIL team very unique. The team works together to plan the growth of our staff as professionals by setting measurable goals, setting out to achieve those goals, and reflecting on the process. They are focusing on providing responsive and high impact instructional strategies for our students and building social-emotional skills within our staff and students. Science teacher Matthew Eastlick, one of the members of our SAIL team said, “When we grow and get better, students grow and get better.”

There are two more parts of the inservices that are quite possibly the most important, the SLO and PPG. Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) and Professional Practice Goals (PPG) are the means by which our staff and administration set specific goals for their own practice as educators and document their work as professionals.

All of the inservices have to be planned at the least 6 months ahead of time so that they can be approved by the board, then the information can be sent out to the parents and other people. Inservices are primarily for teacher development, Principal Uppena says. “We try to make them the most beneficial to our staff, so that they can be the best teacher that they possibly can. That’s the goal. There’s a lot of pieces that fall into place with what the staff need to do to develop.”

One of the biggest concerns right now, besides the more common problems like bullying and illnesses, is the safety of the school. When everything is in place, the teachers will be taught how to use the new safety measures.

Inservices are mandatory for all staff. One recent inservice discussed and taught CPR; they also discussed the blood borne pathogens that are in our area to try and prevent them from reaching the school. We all have to be aware and learn about some of these issues.

This year they changed the inservice days from half days for the students to a full day off school. They changed this from the two half days a month we had last year. It is now a lot more efficient for not only the school, but the students and parents as well. The teachers were all polled on this and the entire school calendar was changed to accomodate the decision.

The location of the inservice depends on what is being discussed that day. When they are learning the aspects of Schoology, our new online learning program, they will use the computer lab. Other times they will be in the cafeteria using a projector, in the auditorium or in classrooms. Not only are they in the classrooms for the air conditioning and the seating room, but they are in the classrooms because they want to be able to see the process from a student's perspective. Seeing things from a student’s perspective helps the teachers find new ways to improve in the classroom and make learning a good and fun experience.