RIVER FALLS – The River Falls School Board meeting March 25 focused celebrating successes within the district.

Board member Mike Miller presented a Wildcat Pride Award to River Falls Lions Club members for their support of the district’s schools and students.

“The Lions have displayed the willingness to care, support and love our students with scholarships for diabetic students to attend Camp Needlepoint, vision screenings for all of our elementary students, financial support to students in need of glasses and mental health support, and sponsored motivational speakers for students,” Miller said.

He presented a second Wildcat Pride Award to Meyer Middle School students and staff for being chosen as a 2024 State School of Character.
“Your impressive ability to succeed at character development has had a significant impact on academic achievement, student behavior and the school climate within the community,” Miller said to Principal Mark Chapin, who accepted the award.

Next, River Falls High School freshmen FFA members spoke about the history and significance of the FFA Creed, which helps establish the organization’s collective vision and goals with the intent of providing purpose and direction. Written by E.M. Tiffany, an agriculture professor at University of Wisconsin, in 1928 and officially adopted by the National FFA organization in 1930, one of the first activities for new FFA members is to memorize the FFA Creed.

“This short, five-paragraph creed has transformed many a shaking, nervous freshman into a confident and articulate FFA member,” Luther said.

After their recitation of the creed, Board President Stacy Johnson Meyers called their performance “very impressive.”

Personnel

The board approved the following personnel changes:

• Hiring Kara Reich as a part-time long-term substitute physical therapist for March 4 through June 4 (for MiKayla Sanocki).
• Hiring Heather Vogel as a part-time long-term substitute physical therapist for March 4 through June 4 (for MiKayla Sanocki).
• Hiring Melissa Fierro as a full-time long-term substitute eighth grade math teacher at MMS for March 8 through May 24 (for Lindsay McLain).
• Hiring Reagan Stocker as a full-time limited term substitute school counselor at RFHS March 11 through June 7.
• Hiring Annabel Reimers as a full-time long-term substitute first grade teacher at Westside Elementary School March 13 through May 31 (for Alyssa Schluessler).
• Hiring the following short-term, on-call substitute teachers: Myah Olson, Katherine Keehr, Savanna Frie, Carissa Nelson, Heather Lane, Michael Stoskopf, Even Pechacek.
• Resignation of full-time RFHS school counselor Emma Fowler at the end of the school year.
• Resignation of River Falls Public Montessori full-time special education teacher Molly Chapman at the end of the school year.
• Resignation of full-time Rocky Branch kindergarten teacher Lauren Thomforde at the end of the school year.
• Resignation of seventh grade MMS math teacher Riley Sutton at end of the school year.
• Retirement of full-time Rocky Branch kindergarten teacher Rita Sommerfeldt after 32 years of service.
• Retirement of full-time Rocky Branch fourth grade teacher Pam Friede after 33 years of service.
• Retirement of full-time MMS seventh grade math teacher John Witt after 34 years of service.
• Retirement of full-time MMS health teacher Lisa Lockie after 35 years of service.

Other business

• River Falls High School principal Kit Luedtke spoke about RFHS’s building goal of making sure kids are college and career ready. He highlighted the recent successful career fair where students practiced interviewing with potential employers.
• Renaissance Charter Academy Principal Chris Silver spoke about his building’s goal of understanding basic financial concepts and developing a financial plan for the future. Students have been learn how to fill out a 1040 tax form the old-fashioned way and buying and insuring a vehicle.
• MMS Principal Mark Chapin spoke about his building’s progress on rolling out standards based grading next year.
• Superintendent Jamie Benson said construction on referendum projects should mostly begin in Summer 2025.
• A new English Language Arts curriculum has been selected for grades K-5 after 11 months of collaboration. The committee chose “Collaborative Classroom” for the following reasons: Teachers know students as readers, consistent lesson structures, targets small group phonics to mastery (K-2), emphasizes word study, allow for focus on effective literacy instruction, strong vocabulary instruction; students are talking, reading and writing about texts; practices social skills to promote characteristics of a learner, effectively guides students through the process of writing, and more.