Rychter wants more communication, cohesion, in school district

Metro Wire Staff

The Stevens Point Area Public Board of Education has nine candidates on the Feb. 15 primary.

Nine candidates will compete for four open seats on the board. Incumbents Jeff Ebel, Barb Portzen, and Rob Manzke, are being challenged by newcomers Jennifer Bushman, Miguel Campos, Alex Sommers, Kari Prokop, Dennis Raabe, and Lisa Rychter. The top eight vote-earners will move on to the April ballot.

Questions by Brandi Makuski. Verbatim answers from Lisa Rychter follow:

What prompted you to run for the school board?

“Being that I am a former employee of the district, and continuing to have those working relationships, the things I’ve heard from teachers and the community, and what I personally witnesses when I was working there, are several concerns about how the district is operating. Things haven’t changed. I feel as though it’s not a cohesive unit, it’s not a collaborative nature. My daughter was enrolled in the district last year and I was just unhappy all around, seeing that that lack of community was still around. It’s a concern we’ve had for a long time. I’m a problem-solver by nature; we have a lot of unhappiness in the community about how the district is running. I love working out in the community. I love working with children, they’re adult people in progress. And I think I can make a difference.”

Do you think some of those issues have been blown out of proportion by social media?

“Yes.”

So what are your thoughts on some of those controversial issues, e-learning, for example?

“There was a lack of planning, not this year so much but last year. The lack of planning for all the virtual learning and in-person learning, the cohorts. There was a lack of planning and a lack of listening to opinions from employees that were in the classroom about what they could accomplish. I think that was a huge issue. And now I think we’ve had that achievement gap that has continued to widen.”

We aren’t doing that now?

“We need to start looking deep into how we can fix that, and hearing from everyone is important. I really think we also need to improve the mental health in our district. One way to achieve that would be improving social-emotional learning; I do feel strongly that consistent language is important from an early age so it’s something the students can depend on.”

What do you mean by “consistent language?”

“At all the 4K sites across the district, they use what’s called the ‘pyramid model’ for social-emotional learning. They teach the same language, how to use interpersonal skills at that young age. As they move on into the school buildings, they don’t necessarily use the same language for that positive behavior intervention. Moving on to secondary, their language is different too. I work in the Waupaca School District; they use the same language from 4K all the way up through high school that teaches the kids to be responsible, respectful. We even have community involvement, and I would love to see that in Point, so we can help bridge that and teach the kids day-to-day how to deal with mental health issues. Another piece of that is, we don’t have guidance counselors at the elementary level. We somehow lost those along the way. I’d love to see those brought back, there are many children dealing with mental health struggles.”

Is there anything I didn’t ask that you feel is important to include?

“I’m ready to get to work and help create a more cohesive school district that welcomes the involvement that welcomes the involvement of our community, welcomes the input of our education staff who are working with our children, and that welcomes fresh ideas from all the stakeholders so we can improve our district as a whole. I feel very strongly that it’s time to bring sole and complete voting power back to the school board; there’s a reason why community members vote school board members in—they are there to help govern school policy and to have the best interest for student success. We need to have those votes back. We need to increase advocacy for student success, closing of the achievement gaps, and advocate for the retention of our education staff. I want to make sure our educators feel valued and heard.”