When Rhinelander voters passed a $26 million capital referendum in 2024 it gave staff in the School District of Rhinelander a rare opportunity.
They got to design science and tech ed classrooms to fit the needs of current and future curriculum.
High School Principal Shane Dornfeld says teachers worked closely with the architect to create practical spaces like one of the recently renovated biology rooms at the high school for the new veterinarian class.
“There’s a new exterior door that they put in right in there too, so that they can get small animals in from the outside and right into the room,” said Dornfeld giving a tour of the renovated spaces.
Or like the auto labs which are still being built. They’ll have more lifts and a larger space to accommodate more students and bigger vehicles.
Students can work on everything from cars to snowmobiles with the possibility of adding diesel mechanic classes in the future.
Also part of the addition at the high school is more space for the building and construction class.
Dornfeld says they’re going from offering one to two classes this year.
“That's just one example of how our interests, how our numbers are going up,” said Dornfeld. “Especially once these facilities are completed, I'm sure it's going to keep growing.”
James Williams Middle School
The capital referendum is also covering security and classroom upgrades at James Williams Middle School.
Walking into the school will look a lot different for students this year.
When completed the new entrance will include two sets of locking doors, new front offices, and an improved bus drop off and pick up.
“Security wise, with working with law enforcement or SROs, it's always try to do a double lock system into a school so they could come into this space, but they can't go anywhere but out,” said Raleigh.
The front offices will function the same, something Raleigh learned from touring other schools in the state.
“When they let people in their offices, their offices were locked down. You can't get out. So again, it's another security measure,” he said.
In addition to the new security measures a lot of classrooms in the middle school are also being renovated.
The special education, art, music, and family consumer science spaces are all getting upgrades. Like in the high school, teachers helped design the spaces.
Raleigh says the interest in arts from the students and the ability to retain teachers is a large part of this investment.
“Our band classes have continually gone up over the last five years. I think they're up to 87 kids in their seven/eight band class this year, and they usually have close to 90 for sixth graders every year too. It's going to be full,” said Raleigh.
The school is also getting a fab lab and tech spaces. Having a fab lab in the middle school will be new.
“The more that we can introduce here and get kids excited helps out when they hit the high school, because then more students want to kind of branch into there,” said Raleigh.
Meeting student and community needs
The renovations are a combination of needed upgrades like technology changes in the science and tech ed labs as well as demand from the students and the community, according to superintendent Eric Burke.
“A big piece of the referendum was having the budget to be able to buy the equipment that's going to help set up our kids for employers and the skills that they need for future jobs,” said Burke.
Most of the spaces being renovated in the high school haven’t been update since 1958. 1974, for the middle school.
“It's really cool to think about how this is going to impact now, but into the future,” said Burke. “There's going to be many, many hundreds and 1000s of kids that are going to benefit from the community supporting this project.”
The renovations and additions are being paid for with the $26 million capital referendum. Some of the updated technology going into the tech ed classrooms are also being paid for with donations from local businesses and community members like Dr. Lee Swank who donated $500,000 to the project.
That donation also helped the district secure a matching Department of Workforce Development grant.
Burke says the community’s support of operational referendums over the years also makes these projects possible.
“If the operational referendums didn’t pass so that we could be able to afford to be able to have the staffing for these things, it wouldn't be possible,” said Burke. “The art, the music, the family consumer science, those kind of classes, would be impacted.”
During the planning process, Burke, Dornfeld, and Raleigh visited almost a dozen schools and looked at plans for even more to pull ideas from.
They all strongly believe that these upgrades will put the middle and high schools at the top of state in terms of modernization and offerings.
“You're not going to find facilities, maybe anywhere, that are going to be much better than what we have and will be one of the best,” said Burke. “But I think what separates us is our staff. Our staff, and we brought in staff through this couple year process, because they're excited about what we're doing.”
Burke says the districts’ connections to partnerships and jobs through its Academic and Career Planning Program also makes the district standout.
“Our ACP program, college and career program, is maybe one of the best in the nation,” said Burke. “It's growing and growing and growing. We have all those things together, I think definitely separates us from others.”
Construction timeline
Burke, Dornfeld, and Raleigh all praised CD Smith Construction and Bray Architects for making the process easier, especially as they work around students.
The science labs will be ready for the start of the new school year.
The tech ed additions at the high school are expected to be completed around December so students can start the new semester there when the current labs renovations will start.
Raleigh says construction at the middle school is ahead of schedule. It was originally meant to wrap up in April, now it’s looking more like February.
All construction is expected to wrap up next summer.
Burke says the construction timeline was designed to not disrupt classes.
School District of Rhinelander students return to school September 8 for the 2025/26 school year.
Editor's note: The name of the construction company was corrected.
