State law change has Rib Lake looking at ways to break GPA ties

Sometimes things intended to be positive end up causing unintended headaches.

This was the case for the Rib Lake School District and a new state law that grants automatic admission into UWMadison for any state high school graduates in the top 5% of their classes and automatic admission to any other Universities of Wisconsin system colleges to any graduates in the top 10% of their classes.

District administrator Travis Grubbs noted that while this sounds like a good thing, the criteria spelled out in the state law states districts can only rank based on grade point average (GPA). “In theory that is a really good idea,” he said.

It becomes a challenge especially in smaller, rural schools like Rib Lake, where only a small number of students are in the top 5% or 10% of their class due to class size and the high potential for tied GPAs.

Grubbs said the Department of Public Instruction is allowing schools to file annual waivers from the rule to use alternative methods of determining the students qualifying for the 5 and 10% levels.

Grubbs recommended the board align with the valedictorian tie-breaking process spelled out in the district’s policies, noting it was about as thorough as could be in breaking a tie.

Board member Karah Grzanna questioned the validity of that process, noting that it puts ACT scores fairly high among tie-breaking options. She also noted that with the option for some students to take college credit courses, they are treated the same as those who take shop and home economics in determining a 4.0 GPA.

“It is crazy that one test takes the tie breaker,” she said, noting there are some people are who are not as good at tests as other people are.

“If you are not good on tests, how can you get an ‘A’ in every single course?” asked board member Peter Meyer, in support of the current tie-breaking process.

Board member Amanda Treffinger agreed and reminded board members that students can take the ACT multiple times if they are unhappy with their scores.

Board members questioned if it was normal to see GPA ties. Grubbs said that in his time, Rib Lake has had not had issues with the need for a tie breaker and did not anticipate needing to use it for this year’s graduating class. However, he said the current junior year, who will graduate in spring 2026 will most likely need to use the tie-breaking rules.

As far as the automatic admission into the UW schools, he said that without a tie breaker they would not be able to distinguish top 5% or top 10%, adding that there are only three in the top 5% given the class size.

“There is a big difference between what classes kids take,” Treffinger said, raising the potential for using weighted averages based on how difficult classes are.

Grubbs cautioned that the state law may require unweighted GPAs to be used. On the plus side, Grubbs said the decision has to be reviewed each year and the district can change it if they choose to in the future. Grubbs also noted that while GPA and class rank are used for the automatic admission, all students are welcome to apply and do their best and work to get in.

In the end, board members approved adopting an official resolution applying for the waiver from the DPI and adopting the same tie breaking process as is used for valedictorian to determine eligibility for automatic admission into the Universities of Wisconsin.

Substitutes

Faced with an increase in the number of special education aids, the district is seeing a shortage of support staff substitutes. Board members approved adopting changes to make the district more competitive when it comes to attracting substitutes.

Currently the district pays substitute support staff $12.50 per hour. Grubbs presented a chart comparing Rib Lake with other districts in the area, and noted that the lowest paid was at $12 per hour. The support staff substitute pay includes not only special education aids, but clerical substitutes and custodial substitutes.

“Our aids have one of the hardest jobs out there, and $12.50 is not a lot of money,” Grubbs said, proposing increasing it. He cautioned that he would not increase it beyond $15 an hour, because the school’s starting full-time rate is $15.73.

Board member Rollie Thums made a motion to raise the substitute rate for support staff from $12.50 an hour to $14.50 an hour and include providing a free lunch to substitutes. Substitute teachers already receive a free lunch on the days they are called into work. Other board members agreed with the increase.

Elementary principal Jon Dallman praised the board for taking steps to attract substitutes. He said at this point, he has resorted to calling people he knew who have sent their last child to school and might be willing to help out. “We do need to build this back up,” he said of having a pool of substitutes.

In other business, board members:

• Approved continuing the cooperative agreement with Prentice for the shared cross country team for the 2025 to 2026 seasons. Cooperative agreements are reviewed and approved every two years under WIAA rules. Board members noted the cooperative team is doing quite well this year. “I don’t know if they know how good they are,” Meyer said, noting the goal is to win state. Rib Lake will host the Marawood Conference meeting on October 17 on a course at Forest Springs Camp and Conference Center.

• Received word that the annual meeting will be held on Oct 7 at 7 p.m. with the potential for a short board meeting following to approve adopting the annual line of credit.

• Revised the facilities planning. Grubbs said about 30% of the approved referendum project is designed and they expect that to increase to 60% once they get more price estimates. School staff have been visiting other communities that have undergone similar projects in renovating older school buildings and seeing what ideas they had that could be implemented in Rib Lake. He also reported they have addressed some security concerns and had a consultant in to look at the kitchen and ways to improve workflow with equipment placement when the area is renovated.

• Approved the early graduation requests from high school seniors Kaedyn Kopelke, Kaylee Brandner, and Leah Hoffland.

• Received an update that opt-out letters have been sent home allowing families to say if they don’t want their child to work one-on-one with the school therapy dog. Eddy will have his therapy dog testing in November and the district is working to expose him to more students by being a reading buddy in the elementary levels and in the high school study halls. Grubbs said they know of eight students in the district who have identified dog allergies.

• Received an update on the summer reading program. Dallman said there were 107 readers this year, which is up from 76 last year and is the most they have had in the program. He praised the Rib Lake Fire Department and community support for their help in making the back to school spectacular a success.

• Received an update on the cellphone use policy from middle/high school principal Aimee Blomberg. She said there has been some pushback from students but that they are getting support from parents. She said they have some situations where students are close to multiple violations which results in phones needing to be checked into the high school office. She noted that there are times when students want to take a phone call and they are reminded that they can make calls from the school district office phone to contact a parent. “There are some areas we have to tighten up,” she said.