PESHTIGO – The Peshtigo School District Board of Education held their most recent meeting on Wednesday, March 11.

During the meeting, the board heard presentations regarding student performances and schedules.

Peshtigo Elementary Learning Center (PELC) Principal John Bell presented the mid-year/winter Achievement Gap Reduction (AGR) report for the 2025 - 2026 school year.

This presentation broke down student performances across 5K through the third grade. Specifically, the AGR tracks the percentage of students scoring “average or above” in literacy and math.

Bell shared that students scored much higher than the past two years, especially in literacy.

Comparing literacy scores from the fall of 2023 to the fall of 2025, an increase of 42% to 89% of third grade students scored at the average or above. Similar positive changes were also seen in second grade and first grade.

The AGR reports so far for this year included:

Literacy

• 5K: Fall — 81%; winter — 80%
• First grade: Fall — 86%; winter — 71%
• Second grade: Fall — 83%; winter — 81%
• Third grade: Fall — 89%; winter — 85%

Math

• 5K: Fall — 62%; winter — 74%
• First grade: Fall — 71%; winter — 76%
• Second grade: Fall — 68%; winter — 76%
• Third grade: Fall — 80%; winter — 88%

Superintendent Patrick Rau spoke to the board about security updates that have been made since an incident occurred where an armed man entered the school building with concealed weapons.

He shared that staff is undergoing additional training and plans are being made regarding how students can be incorporated into training.

“A calendar of upcoming community events has been shared with the Peshtigo Police Department and the Marinette County Sheriff’s Department. This coordination helps ensure a police presence at entry points and during events whenever possible. These steps provide immediate support for our events while the district continues to explore the feasibility of a school resource officer and/or additional security personnel,” Rau shared.

Additionally, more security cameras have been purchased and plans regarding secure entrances are moving forward .

“The safety of our students and staff remains our highest priority. We will continue working closely with local law enforcement and safety experts to strengthen our procedures and ensure our schools remain safe and welcoming places for learning,” Rau added.

Afterwards, high school principal Dave Moody gave a presentation about a proposed change to the middle school/high school daily schedule.

Moody’s presentation outlines a daily “flex period” at Peshtigo Middle/High School aimed at improving student outcomes and academic performance
Currently, the school operates on a seven-period day with 54-minute classes and six-minute passing periods. The school would maintain a seven-period day with the new plan, but regular classes will be shortened to 50 minutes and passing periods to five minutes.

This would leave enough time for a 30-minute flex period at the end of each day from 2:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

To utilize the flex period, teachers would upload their weekly offerings each Friday. Students would then report to their homerooms on Mondays to sign up for flex options for the rest of the week or learn if a teacher has assigned them to a specific location. A teacher may directly schedule specific students into their Flex if the student is failing or has missing assignments; students cannot override this mandatory placement.

Juniors and seniors with Honors Passes who are not directly scheduled may still sign out.

The flex options will cover a wide range of offerings from homework help and lesson makeup to extra curricular meetings, music lessons and regular study hall.

Additionally, Moody wrote in his report “During ACT Prep season, flex period will be extended to 44 minutes instead of 30 minutes. This would be accomplished by making all regular classes 48 minutes long instead of 50 minutes.”

“All juniors would report to ACT Prep every day from January until the day before the ACT Exam. All other students will continue to attend flex offerings, albeit with a longer flex period,” he added.

Moody said that additional opportunities could be scheduled in addition to the outlined offerings and that this could allow for targeted academic support, reduction of failing grades and missed instructional time as well as overall student enrichment.

So far, the flex schedule plan has received positive feedback from the staff advisory group, students and parents.

School board action items

The board then approved a variety of staffing changes. This included the resignations of Jon Nunnery as a middle school boys basketball coach as well as Kristy Verdecia as a high school English teacher, effective May 29.
Carrie Nolde will retire from her position of elementary school teacher, effective May 29.

In other staffing updates, the following hires were approved: Josh Seefeldt, director of buildings and grounds; Leo Meeks, middle school track coach; Mike Paquette, girls soccer assistant coach; Derrik Maye, varsity head football coach; and Jenifer Hendricks, elementary secretary.

The board then accepted a $500 donation from the homeless service organization Mr. Bob’s Under the Bridge to benefit the volunteer club.

Donations were also accepted to benefit the post-prom programming, including: David and Heidi Doll — $500; Frank’s Logging — $300; Justin Oberg — $250; RW Fernstrum & Co. — $500; and TD Lines Inc. — $250.

The meeting ended with the board going into closed session.