New Arcadia superintendent strives to be approachable

Although Lori Frerk had never heard of Arcadia before a recruiter connected her to the school district’s open superintendent position, it didn’t take long for the longtime Green Bay East High School principal to see there was potential in the Trempealeau County community.

Frerk, who was hired as the Arcadia School District’s superintendent in January, began her new role leading the district this month and said she aims to be an approachable leader focused on helping kids become reliable citizens.

“I just started looking into the processing and I’m like, ‘This feels like it’s right,’” Frerk said.

Frerk, who has two Master’s degrees and a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, is from Green Bay and played college basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She taught high school math in De Pere from 1992-1996 before heading to Green Bay East High School.

She was hired in 2007 as East’s associate principal and spent one year at Washington Middle School in Green Bay, improving behavior by 67% in one year. She became head principal at East in 2013.

“After a year we went from a school that was failing to a school that was meeting expectations, and for the last three years we’ve been exceeding expectations.”

Frerk has experience with multicultural communities.

East High was 78% minority, 70% free/reduced lunch, 20% Multi-language students learning English, and there were 14 different languages at the school. East High hosts more than 1,100 students and is comparable to the entire enrollment for the Arcadia School District.

“Taking a leap of faith, I was interviewing for superintendent jobs in different areas. … and people said, ‘Have you thought of Arcadia?’ … I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll pull up the Arcadia website.’ I’m like ‘Okay, I can do this.’ Then I’m looking at the student population, and this feels comfortable. People don’t understand when you’re in cultures, it’s just natural to you,” Frerk said.

Teamwork key for Frerk

As a principal, Frerk tried to be approachable for both staff and students. Although Arcadia will be her first district-level job, she wants to carry that personality into her new role.

She said students would visit her at 6:30 a.m. for coffee and help with math. At 7 a.m. every day, Frerk began a mile-and-a-half walk throughout the building, talking to students about school, their concerns and what was happening around them.

“If there was a water spill, I’d take my key, go to the custodial closet, get a mop and mop up. The custodial staff might yell at me because that’s their job, but they have other things to do. We’re in this together. I’m not any better than you. I understand what their positions are, but I also understand that we have to work together in this building to be successful.”

She relied on trusting staff to come up with ideas and then working together.

“In organizations these days and even in the past, ‘My way or the highway’ really didn’t work. It may have worked for the short-term, but then you lose really competent people overall and people that could be successful to your piece because they have different ideas that can help tweak it and make it the best. That’s what I’m looking for is how do I work with individuals in the team we have? How do we take their ideas, build those, grow them, work with that and move forward?”

A main goal for Frerk’s first year in Arcadia is improving communication with the community, staff and school board. Establishing a clear strategic plan for the district is another focus to clarify motivations for district decisions.

“That would tell the board and community, these are the goals that we set and everything we’re doing tax dollars and levy wise—we have to be good stewards of the tax dollar—that that is focused on that need.”

She said success isn’t college for every kid, but they need the skills to be critical thinkers who can navigate learning. Staff should strive to create a connection with at least one child in their building, Frerk believes.

“What can we do to make that the best opportunity for those students at that time and make it grow so we can have successful individuals and they’re a thriving community member for Arcadia? And if they’re not a thriving community member for Arcadia, then they are for Independence, Eau Claire, New York if it comes that way. Wherever they’re going, we have to provide them the academic knowledge and global skills to be the best that they can be.”

Frerk: Steady mill rate important for budget

Frerk wants to keep the mill rate consistent in Arcadia, and she said referendums might be part of that picture. 

She referenced last year’s mill rate drop, which will likely need to increase eventually due to aging facilities and infrastructure needs in a growing community. The mill rate for 2023-24 dropped to $5.51, nearly a 50% cut to the $10.70 rate from 2022-23.

“A lot of times you can keep that mill rate steady by having referendums. It’s not increasing the mill rate for what they would do, it’s keeping it steady because that up and down, that’s where homeowners get more frustrated,” Frerk said.

A recent update from the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) on state aid shows a possible 8% drop in state funding for Arcadia this school year. There are 120 school districts seeing that drop, Frerk said, and she is working with state officials to understand the reasoning for that decrease.

“It would reduce what we can do for fund balance, and that would hurt us in the long term. People have to understand about maybe being a little more open about having an operational referendum to help buffer that part but also doing a referendum that doesn’t skyrocket the mill rate so it’s impossible.”

She said she looks forward to meeting members of the public, and she wants to reach as many of them as possible.

“Decisions I make are all about the kids. There are sometimes challenging decisions that have to be made, but the lens of how those decisions are made are all geared toward students being welcomed, being safe and getting the respect that they need and the opportunities that they need to be our next successful community members.”