Four running for Rhinelander school board

Voters in the School District of Rhinelander will find four names on their ballot on April 2. The top three vote-getters will be elected to serve on the school board. Challenger Patricia Townsend is facing incumbents Ron Counter, David Holperin and Ben Roskoskey. Below, in alphabetical order and unedited, are profiles of the candidates. Townsend did not respond to our questions.

Ron Counter

What prompted you to run for another term on the school board?:

I am running for another term on the school board for the same reasons I first ran many years ago. My desire to see Rhinelander move forward as a community. For too many years we have seen our children leave Rhinelander and take their talents else were. My three daughters included. We now have moved forward to a point that our children are electing to return following further education. I think some of this is due to the School District and the community having formed a partnership for the benefit of all of us. There is still much work to do.

What qualifications/experience/attributes do you have that have been beneficial in serving on the school board:

My qualifications/experience/attributes for serving on the school board.  I have served in various positions on the school board since the ‘90s. In that time, I have served on each committee and have served in various leadership positions including my current as president. I also have acted as one of the representatives to the legislature and served on various committees organized by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. I have also represented the Rhinelander School District as a member Cooperative Education Service Agency 9 and as CESA’s president.

List three top priorities for the School District of Rhinelander over the next four years:

The top three priorities of the district as I see them. Continue and enhance the various partnerships we have developed within the community. Included but not limited are Nicolet College, Partners In Education, The Manufacture’s Association, neighboring school districts, state and legislative representatives.  I would also like to mention the many individuals who have stepped forward to improve Rhinelander. Number two would be to improve our offerings that help provide an entry level skill to those who may not have college in mind. This is the reason I voted to go to referendum which would provide improved infrastructure for enhanced offerings of automotive repair, small engine and marine engine repair, home construction, welding, machining and project design. The third is to foster a more effective learning process.  While I feel there has been a definite improvement in the ability of our students as demonstrated by the student scores on State of Wisconsin Report Cards, ACT, and standardized testing, I feel more improvement needs to take place. This statement should not be taken to say there is a problem, but this is a process that takes time and continued improvement. Part of this goal is also to develop the traits of citizenship, develop personal responsibility, work habits and social skills of the students at the School District of Rhinelander.

I would like to thank those who have supported me in the past and ask once again for your vote April 2nd.

David Holperin

My first term on the school board was in 2012.  I’m grateful to have been a part of several administrations that were committed to an evolution of excellence and to provide an exceptional educational experience to thousands of kids from our community. However, our work is not finished.  Not by a long shot.  

1. Our schools must remain laser-focused on getting to “Exceeds Expectations” with the state scorecards at each of our individual schools, from 4K through 12. We are not there yet, but our strategic plan is working.

2. We must continue to find and cultivate excellent educators while attracting young teachers willing to move north and serve our district.  On my watch we have seen an uptick in applications.

3. Safety and security of every student is paramount and we must always challenge ourselves to do a better job. We have the safest schools in Wisconsin.

4. College and career readiness needs to remain a top priority for our district, and to that end we must pull together the right mix of facilities, personnel, and leadership.  The proposed Tech Ed project is critical to this goal.

5. One of the most important indicators of future student success is what happens at a young age.  Learning “how to learn” must be an early focus and that starts in the home. We must continue to innovate ways to include parents and families in the educational process.

6. Lastly, we must make learning fun. This starts in the classroom and includes a plethora of activities. We work with the YMCA, we have summer school programs, after school programs, and then we built a dome!  Each of these contribute to a breadth of student experiences and help build character.    

My background is business. In business we must identify our mission, set challenging goals and develop strategies to accomplish them, and then we must monitor and adjust our progress. If done well, a high level of success follows. I am a manager, an entrepreneur, and am committed to our community and its future potential. These are the attributes that I bring to every meeting and every endeavor. My skillset is unique from our other current members of the board.  My first contribution was the insistence of developing a strategic plan in 2013. We are now on our third upgrade version and it has been a key driver to a decade of success.  I have more to offer, I want to continue to serve, and I am asking you for your support in the upcoming April election.

Benjamin Roskoskey 

What prompted you to run for another term on the school board?:

I want to continue the good work that I’ve been involved with on the board since 2017 and ensure that all students within the district are able to be successful.

What qualifications/experience/attributes do you have that have been beneficial in serving on the school board:

I have served two terms on the Rhinelander School Board and have learned a lot about how the board and district function. I will continue to work with the other members of the board and the district employees to continue moving the district forward! I have also attended the state education convention each of the past three years, where I was able to interact with board members and educators from around the state. Lastly, I have been a member of the State Superintendent’s Reading Advisory Council since its inception in 2022, which focuses on reading advancement and improvement in the pre- kindergarten through 2nd grade levels.

List three top priorities for the School District of Rhinelander over the next four years:

Recruitment/retention, reading at the elementary level, and state-level school funding.

Recruitment and retention: I believe that the best way to support our students is through the supporting of our teachers, specifically in ensuring that they are adequately paid for their work. In this way, we will reduce turnover and keep our highly-skilled employees. We need to continue to provide salary increases that are at or above inflation.

Reading: The ability to read and to comprehend what you are reading is the one skill that can best set a student up for a successful educational career as well as a successful life. To this end I believe that my participation on the State Superintendent’s Reading Advisory Council has given me a better understanding of the reading process as well as a deeper empathy for the challenges involved in both teaching literacy and learning to read. We must continue to put focus on our early-elementary reading efforts and ensure proper supports for our emerging readers.

State-Level School funding: I am concerned that the school funding formula hasn’t been adjusted in the past 30 years. This has resulted in districts receiving unequal amounts of state funding (Rhinelander for example only receives about 30% of our school funding from the state, while the other 70% is covered by our local taxpayers). We need to keep pushing on our legislature to update the formula and provide for more funding to reduce the burden on our local taxpayers.