Eleva-Strum Schools: Striving to be the best rural school district they can be

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - It’s the best part of Eleva-Strum Superintendent Corey Kulig’s day. Walking into teacher Jamie Heldt’s classroom to check in on her kindergartners. For Heldt, the new school year with her little one’s is off to a good start.

“We had no tears this year, not one kid was tearing up on their first day of school yesterday. Everyone came in, they were ready to play, get to know each other, parents were able to say good bye, feeling comfortable so it was definitely evident this year when the kids came,” says Jamie Heldt.

It’s a closer return to normalcy that Heldt says is nice to see after having to deal with some communication barriers during the pandemic.

“Just being able to hear them talk without a mask on is a lot easier, especially these kindergarten kids, it’s hard to understand them sometimes already so just not having that barrier between us has also been really nice this year,” explains Heldt.

From a comprehensive curriculum to being a source of support, Kulig says providing students with a positive experience is the goal for the district.

“Just because we’re small and a rural school district, let’s be the best rural school district that we can be and provide as many offerings, whether it be in the current education technical realm or in the academic realm, sports, co-curriculars, music programs and I think we’re doing a tremendous job at that,” says Kulig.

While many lessons have been learned by educators during the pandemic, Kulig believes there has been one constant theme.

“You realize how resilient people are, how resilient students are, how coming together, working together and not taking for granted some of the things that you typically take for granted,” adds Kulig. “I think the pandemic has been a major struggle, a major source of stress for a lot of individuals and now as we look to enter the next chapter the post-pandemic I think just understanding how to take care of each other has been an important lesson through all of this.”

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