 Hello and welcome the quality of life Today our subject deals with education and joining us today are the principles from Sheboygan North and Sheboygan South Sheboygan North we have Jason Bould principle. Welcome Jason. Thank you for having me excellent And then from Sheboygan South we have Mike Trimberger. Thank you for having me. You bet start off with How long have you guys been in the roles that you are principal roughly? This is I'll be concluding my third year's principle at North and I was an associate principal at North for three years prior to that I was fortunate. I think Jason and I it was The same summer we got hired so this is also my third year so we've kind of got to sharpen our teeth together in some cases and Before that I was an elementary principal at Sheridan Elementary and Sheboygan for three years. Okay, great When we talk about education and how it you know deals with quality of life How is that relation and how do they play one role play with the other what influence does education have on one's quality of life start off with? You know, I think one of the things that that we try to convey to our students is being a lifelong learner You know, what can you do to make sure that you're always learning? You know There's a lot of different pathways that students can choose career-wise going right into the workforce going into Two-year college for your college things like that It doesn't matter as long as you're a lifetime learner and you're always trying to strive to get better It's going to make you better at whatever you do think along with that we talked to our students about Education should in addition to a lifelong piece it should make Provide an opportunity to be successful and to be happy and success and happiness must be measured by our individual students And prepare them to make a positive impact in their community Pee back onto that. Why is education so important? You know, I think there's a lot of information out there that says that The the level of education can be correlation to how much your salaries are going to be so You know in some cases for people the level of education can be how much you're going to make Satisfaction to jobs things like that But really as you look at it from a community standpoint the better educated Community we have the the more successful we're going to be the community the better we're going to be from our from our people and engineers to our CEOs to this to our Students that are going to work on production lines or work in other areas The more educated they are the better they're going to be able to give to the shaboying community I would totally agree out though a more educated informed population Turns into a well-functioning Thriving community Now you're from the high school education, but you know you have dealings with you know people kids come in from elementary As well as it on to college Is there any certain type of education that is more influential on our quality of life? You know like high school education to life expect our life experiences to You know does it all fit together as part of a transit or is there one more influential than the other? I think it truly is High school elementary are all pieces of a puzzle There's no doubting the power and impact of the early stages of life where it's not formal education, but it's experiential it's learning traditions and culture And experiential learning is continued through all ages But coupled with formal education those those are the many pieces of the puzzle that that provide a well-rounded again educated and informed individual and I'm really getting excited with some of the things that we're doing in the district with Technology about how much we can personalize learning because you know elementary middle school those foundations are so important in high school as the brain matures they get Different biases different things like that and when we can start personalizing and saying this is the level This means lifelong learning to me or this means lifelong learning to me can be totally different And when we can individualize and break that down That's when we can really get to that next level of education and make sure that everybody's learning to their potential I think that really goes back to Success and happiness as measured by that individual right now as Mike said is it's personalized So if we can provide opportunities for our students to be exposed to many things different courses different experiences They will find their niche they will be happy They will be successful as they measure it and in turn be good community members Mm-hmm, I think what you mentioned there Jason there are key elements to you know ones measure of quality of life You know they're happy they feel good dig about their bounce their step when they get out of bed in the morning They're happy to go to work or whatever activity are going to do They're contributing to their community in their other areas which in turn helps other people Increase their quality of life. So I think those are all key factors You know as well, and I think it's a balance between all of them and the reason why I say that as I know some people who Really high salary Well money, you know or income is obviously helps to contribute But if you're miserable and other things are you really happy and do you have a quality of life? If you hate, you know getting up and going to work or you know, I really don't want to do this I think that can take a toll on somebody as well Well the the quote that I love that put at each one of my emails is From Abe Lincoln, whatever you are be a good one And I think that really when it fits very well in education because it doesn't matter if you're a Doesn't matter where you're at if if you are a lifelong learner and you enjoy what you do You'll be good at it and and really that's what we want We all want to to get to a level that we can be happy with our professional life with our personal life What the things we're doing in the community and that's that's a powerful statement I would agree with the educational process, you know, they always say, you know, we learn Probably our brain will absorb as much and probably till we're about 10 years old or whatever is or whatever the figure is Is there a certain age limit or age range that really is more influential or Can be more directed than others, you know in there in a process we We had career connections couple weeks ago and we likened educating the young mind to a sponge Because students don't have those predispositions because they don't have that the information they get the absorb from all different areas But when you start educating the mature mind, it's more like trying to pour water into a bottle You know, they they have things they're interested in and you have to get those interests to make sure that you can fill that bottle with knowledge And when you see that and you can know that younger minds will take absorb anything they can older minds You need to be a little more Perscriptive and you need to know that you're hitting those interest things to really make sure you're engaging them That's when you can really start saying that any mind can learn even the oldest minds as long as you hit those pieces that they're looking for And again as you touched on the research is clear that the earlier stages of our lives are the most impactful for Skills and abilities, but as Mike said, there's no doubting it ties into that personalized learning if we can hook any student whether 17 or 77 if they have interest it's engaging We can teach them My next question kind of ties into what you were alluding to Mike is you know as times have changed How has education requirements changed with it to keep up with life and more I'm going with this is I'm working on initiative that my IT position over at the city and I'm calling it the speed of life You know used to say, you know change at the speed of business or change at the speed of light Or one thing that's constant has changed, but when I've seen now through the technology and the rush of one's lifestyles You basically have to keep up with the speed of life as it's changing You know so with that in your sponge analysis. Is there some point you have to regnet sponge out so it can You know soak more or to that point, you know, I think the transition we're seeing in education right now is The whole mode and how we educate You know if you go back five years to 50 years The mode was the teacher was the person pouring the water on the sponge And then the students were the sponge absorbing it and what we're seeing more and more now is is with the information That's out there in the axis we have when the teacher can be the facilitator and the in the sponge can kind of find Their water with different ways and using technologies to use the worldwide web To collaborate with their peers That's the way education. I see changing mostly and it's not the teacher giving information It's the teacher guiding the students so they can find it for themselves Okay, I think the students are going along with the sponge here The students are the ones that will wring out the water and the students will be the ones say how much water And the students will say no I've had enough water So that's you know that goes along with that piece is we are now more than ever I think asking students what do you need and providing multiple opportunities and allowing Students to make the choices so that goes along with that personalized and again Providing engaging opportunities because the more and more you throw at somebody and that's where you come into the burnout factor How much can you absorb? How much can you take before you just start to burn out? And then you shut down that way as well With the educational system what types of distractions are you seen you know There's lots of influences out there that may take students or kids Steer them down the wrong path. What's you know, what are some of the things that you're seeing now in the schools? I think the greatest impact or distraction that we're seeing is the change in our socio-economic Peace in our in our community what we see in our community is reflecting in our schools North High School for example is Realizing the highest percent of free and reduced lunch numbers that it's ever seen Ten years ago. We're a single digit single percentages of students receiving free and reduced lunches now We're over 40% and that has far-reaching impacts of what needs our students bring to our schools and Subsequently what our families can and cannot do for their student and our learning community So for me, that's the biggest impact right now and I would agree with Jason I think that's the biggest a close second if I had to come up with one it would be just the the political World that we're living in I think education has gotten to be Platforms for people to be elected reelected. I think there's some really there's some good things going on politically in education I think we're we're needing to be as transparent as we've ever been And I think education we're doing some really good things and you're gonna see you see in the next couple years the great stuff We're doing but there's other there's other places and I'll use common core is a really good example There's a lot of political pressure saying common core is Obama core and all these other things You know common core does not tell us how to teach students. It doesn't tell us It tells us really what a third grader should know in math But because of the way the political climate is People want to say that's a bad thing and and I look at is we want to teach We want to make sure our kids leave and they're ready, you know ready to go their lifelong learners Give us where you want us to take them and we can take them there because we have people in our buildings That are that are ready to make sure our students are successful when they leave okay Our education, you know, it's a process It's a journey and one I'm going to say is they get an educational toolbox, you know by learning you get your tools You know, you become familiar with them The way life our lifestyles change especially in our community right now you hear there are jobs out there But they're all specialized jobs where you know, they need training or they need you don't special skills With the way times of change Do you see the approach change as far as how we educate our students meaning? You know used to be hey you could graduate from high school You could get a job at coal or live well and retire from there, you know, then the Method change to okay You go to high school go to college and then you get your masters and bachelor's degrees and all that Well, you see those people out there those kids having a hard time finding a job as well It's because you're almost overqualified or you don't have the technical skills Like would you go to a LTC or something? How do you see that? approach changing I don't know if it's it's an a change in their approach But I think it's a reemphasis on personalized learning again but also a Refocusing on the liberal arts comprehensive nature of a high school We want our students to be exposed to many experiences to find their niche So certainly have Experiences in tech ed playing with metals and have choir experiences and good solid Science experience and the list goes on but to find their niche and once they find their niche We can take them to the next level prepare Again if we provide engaging opportunities across the board We're confident that our students will find that niche and then we can take them And you know I think the other thing we're trying to do is is break down some of the bricks and mortars of the school and get Some opportunities for students outside the building because we know that there's a lot of learning that can happen outside of the classroom and You know what one of the things we know and I think you're with this question is we know there's going to be a skills gap looming as the generation The baby boomers start retiring There's a lot of our employers that are saying we don't know how we're going to fill these spots And a lot of those spots are mid-skill and high-skill jobs We need to make sure our students are ready for them And you know some of the things that we're doing now is is partnering with local employers and saying You know we have students that have shown an interest in engineering and they've taken some engineering classes here in our Building can they do an internship with you to take some of the things they learned in the classroom implying in in the workforce and That model is really starting to gain some momentum in our community And I'm really I've been very impressed with Sheboygan County as a whole The way people have opened their doors and led some of our students take what they're learning in high school And they're finding out that high school students can be very useful in their doors and on their floors doing some of these things and Truly the level of education we can have our kids apply those things in in a job-based work-based learning opportunity Just helps that learning skyrocket I think what we found is a common theme or a common foundation To whether we provide experiences outside the classroom inside the classroom Is that we'll be providing students are giving them every opportunity to be exposed to some soft skills That are transferable to whatever job because it is an ever-changing world So if our students can leave with certainly a level of learning find their niche, but also have some skills such as teamwork problem-solving Importance of being on time Collaboration those things will always be with them and be transferable to whatever career aspiration Journey to take some I know I had a conversation here a while back with philosophy professor dr. Lizzecki, and he was my favorite professor here and Seeing now when I was talking to him. I think it finally clicked you know of why I take why I took classes like philosophy or Introduction to filmmaking or these other things and you touched upon it. I think you hit it right on the head Jason is where Yes, I went and I got my computer skills and math skills, you know, and I've got my toolbox so to speak But I think exposing yourselves to other things and maybe I'm not a philosophy You know professor or anything But at least it's those exposures that cause you to stop and think about something in reason your way through it And I think that's where Our society as a whole has kind of fallen off it's either they're trying to make everything black and white and it's not I'm sorry, but life is not black and white there's a lot of gray in the middle and I think that's where our Education needs to come through is how do we navigate the gray area because to me life is like okay? You want to get from point A to point B? But it's filled with crocodiles in between and you had to get on the right steps And that's where the gray matter comes in or common sense is what I define it as so I think that's why the more Opportunities, you know though. I know why you know we had physical education in school You got to think about that the whole you know projects everything I think it all plays a whole role where it comes together at least that's my opinion on it So whether you agree or not sure you bring you bring back the sponge piece We want to fill those sponges with as much Different types of fluids and let the sponge make the determination of which fluid they like the best which way What's their path? In the schools What would you say are the distractions to the students what negative things are you know you that you You know constantly have the combat, you know the whole heroin presence, you know in in around in you know Other negative like gangs or anything like that you see any of that in the schools And if you do what do you do to try and you know steer the kids clear of that? You know one of the things that we've taken a big switch on this year is we call it the Red Wing way and it's really working with behavior, but in a positive way and there's There's a lot of things going on in our community We know there's that presence of heroin we know that there's you know different gangs and things like that But what we're finding is you know if you're going to make school the safe place to learn There's some high expectations that we have for students that they don't and we're gonna Focus on the positive and we're gonna correct the negative behaviors And truly it's changed a lot of the culture in our building So, you know, I know we did a presentation not too long ago. We worked with the police department and Make the right choice. I think to talk about making poor choices and using drugs and things like that And you know the nice thing is is the heroin thing we haven't seen in our schools yet But I know our kids are dealing with it when they get home I know there's some of those things going on. It's just it's too prolific to not happening So even though some of these things maybe not coming into our hallways The effects of them are coming into our hallways And those are the things that that we try to have a supportive culture in our building to make sure that our kids know That when they come to school, it's a safe place and you know, and then it comes back to education Because because you have these things happening at home education can be that key to unlock the door So you don't kind of hit those some of those same Same cycles as maybe people in your family have Think it goes back again to the impact that our change in socio-economic In our community has had so again similar what Mike has said we're not seeing heroin in our schools But we are seeing some other impacts that that decline in Income has had and similar to what South is done with the Redwood wing north has north being north It's it's the same thing different package, but we're focusing on what ownership looks like what ownership looks like in the classroom What it looks like outside the classroom? What respect looks like inside and outside the classroom, and then what does engagement look like you're a student So what does it look like to be engaged in the classroom? What does it look like to be engaged outside the classroom, and that's that's positively impacted our culture? That's great news that you're not see I mean yes, you're seeing the side effects I mean we'd be silly to say no if we didn't think it was but the side effects of there in our community All right one thing I'll mention is dr. Howard Croft over at st. Nicholas Emergency room he's a medical director, and he does a fantastic presentation working with if he worked with South and the City police as well as you know the sheriff's department on the whole heroin initiative. He's a fantastic presentation on you know the causes How do you detect it the side effects and results of it you know the side effects which you might be seeing the influence of in the schools as well So definitely Then what you had touched upon as well. I know The it almost comes down to our core values of what we believe in and teach and it's nice that the schools have a Environment where the kids can consider a safe haven and get them into these other programs like our Broadcasting initiative partnership to get him excited about it. We started out with 14 kids and now It's coming fall We've got 60 alternates, you know along the other thing and we want to do the same thing with the radio program and for my partnership So one of the core values, you know that I got from my Ten year over at st. Nicholas is their core values are respect care Competence and joy and actually that comes from Springfield down at the motherhouse for faith-based medicine, you know you got to respect each other Competence you got to be able to do and you know meet your needs Joy you want to have fun at what you do, you know, and then there's care You got to care about what you do and care about others that fits in well with the whole model of a quality of life I would think you know, so Thank you very much so for sharing that with us because that's you know was the CEO over there Very influential person and I you know I take those teachings right on to my position here, you know and with those You know you talk about the other Opportunities and I had my introduction to filmmaking class. I'm going well. This is cool Later to find out in life here. I am with WSES and I'm in front of the camera as well as you know the station reports to me So it's just weird. You never know how it's something's going to just fall into place. Oh, absolutely. Very true. So What are some of the unique programs that you know at each of your schools or a collaboratively working together that you have to help Education and you know getting our kids steered off into the right direction I Think we're limited to 30 minutes here. So You know, there's no doubting the number of programs that are ongoing and Continue the end being initiated But I think one that I would talk about between north and south is really the manufacturing pathway Looking at building relationships with our schools and manufacturers to provide again more experiences for our students and to provide Another level of experiences who have students that have gone through certain Core courses or prerequisite courses, but now we'll take those skills and apply them to real-life project-based learning and The manufacturing one is something that that Jason and I and our staff in both our buildings have been trying to build and We're very excited to get that Implemented the one at itself that I that we just got certified that I'm really excited about is our health care pathway kind of same piece that we're talking about with manufacturing, but we've worked with partners with the Wisconsin's School of Medicine and Aurora and Prevea and they've actually we've created a We call them pathways for students that are interested in any health care job. So We're seeing from the creation of this We had 50 some students sign up for classes to next year I think we have 175 students that are taking these classes because they know these are the high school classes I can get you set it up to go pre-med in college go to nursing And you know as we find things that we always say kind of jazz students up And what if they know that's what they want to do those are some things we're doing we have Manufacturing health care. We're looking at computer science Those are some of the really cool things that we're seeing in education because Employers are willing to say we will partner with the schools to help create some of these things because we know it's just good for our community Okay, I know that partnering I think is going to be definitely a way of the future because it almost works like a Recruiting area, you know, we hired Lacey Fister from Boykin South through the broadcasting group And in fact she just did her first new show the other day, you know So that's a win-win because you know it gives us a chance to teach skills or you know and let her know We're looking at and get that experience where I know she wants to go into broadcasting So it's a win-win situation, you know, so it's kind of like training but extending their education into the real world And you know one of the cool thing I'm a shaboying and native, but I've been so impressed with shaboying County We have a a new company out there called inspire shaboying County That's a bunch of educators and employers that are getting together to help with building these Relationships and build the partnerships and and the amount of our employers and schools that are involved in it Just growing on a you know every day type basis and it's just really cool to see how our community gives back to the schools And how we really can have this really good discussion between the k-12 schools the post-secondary schools and the Employers that will someday our students will land in okay We've got a couple minutes left. So if you were to speak in front of a group About education and quality of life. What would be the advice you would give? What would be the audience? Students would say a student graduation, you know Let's just say it for just you know for the sake of our time or whatever Let's say if you had a at a commencement ceremony I would talk about the Hope that I had that they left north Specifically north high school with again the soft skills such as teamwork collaboration problem-solving and I think the hope that I would have that they take those skills and Apply them to their next Thing in life whether it's work whether it's college whether it's the military and The ultimate hope that they would be happy successful productive members of their community Okay, I would go back to to my my quote. I said whatever you are be a good one and being a lifelong learner Picking the things that really interest you that give you passion Continually to learn about them and then be good at what you want to be and and if we can leave our students with That message that education is the key to help me find a job that I'm passionate about and also be good at what I am That's a that's a message. I'd like everybody to leave with okay Well, we're out of time, but I'd like to thank both of you for being on the show, you know to talk about this important subject On behalf of WSS and quality of life. I'd like to thank Jason bull and Mike trim burger I'm Dave Augustine, and if you'd like more information about the show or this program, please just visit our website at www.wscsheboygan.com Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time