January 27, 2025 • 27 mins
Episode 53 – How Strong Schools Impact Real Estate Values
Hosted by John Gscheidmeier with guest Dr. Ron Russ
Did you know that great schools can directly increase property values? Homebuyers and parents prioritize access to top-performing school districts, often paying a premium for homes in those areas. But what exactly makes a school district stand out, and how does it affect the housing market?
In this episode, John Gscheidmeier sits down with Dr. Ron Russ, Superintendent of the Merton Community School District, to discuss the powerful connection between education quality, community development, and real estate values.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Academic Excellence & Rankings – How Merton Community Schools compare to 400+ districts across Wisconsin
✅ Fiscal Responsibility – How the district outperforms expectations despite lower per-student spending than the state and county average
✅ Real Estate Impact – Why homebuyers seek out great schools and how this drives up property values
✅ Community Growth – How thriving schools contribute to stronger, more desirable neighborhoods
Whether you're a homebuyer, seller, or real estate professional, understanding how schools influence home values can give you an edge in the market. Don't miss this insightful discussion!
🎧 Listen to the full episode here: Wisconsin Real Estate Today - Episode 53
📢 Stay Connected:
🔹 Facebook
🔹 Instagram
🔹 YouTube
🔹 LinkedIn
🌐 Explore More Real Estate Insights: www.soldwisconsin.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
John Gscheidmeier (00:01):
This is John Gscheidmeier of Wisconsin Real
Estate Today, your real estateexpert. This podcast is designed
to equipping people with theteaching and tools they need to
succeed in real estate. I hopeyou enjoy this episode and
subscribe for more real estatecontent. Hi, everybody. John
(00:30):
Hill with another episode ofWisconsin Real Estate Today.
Thanks for joining us. As wenear the end of 2024, you know,
last podcast last week, wetalked about really what the
year in review, what hadhappened in 2024. And then
coming in a week or so, we'llhave an outlook to 2025. But
today, and I mentioned this aswell, I think, in a previous
(00:50):
podcast, I'm joined by DoctorRon Russ with the, Martin
Community School District, adistrict that's near and dear to
my heart because my kids gohere. But some great news, that
came out recently from theschools and from doctor Russ
kind of, prompted this idea totalk today about real estate and
schools and how they work handin hand.
(01:12):
So Doctor Russ, thank you forjoining me today.
Dr. Ron Russ (01:16):
Thanks John. Thanks for having me. So excited
to be here.
John Gscheidmeier (01:18):
Yeah. And, so let's start with your role. How
long you've been here? Maybe alittle bio of the school, a
little demographics of where weare. We do have listeners from
across the state, but also, thecountry.
We're in Waukesha County, justWest and Northwest of Milwaukee
by about thirty minutes or so.Kind of more of a rural
(01:39):
community, I would say, ofMartin. Not much of a downtown
there. We would do a postoffice. Yep.
A couple bars that have goneback and forth in names
actually. So talk about you and,the district.
Dr. Ron Russ (01:49):
Sure. So, again, I've been with the district for
fourteen years now, and I'vebeen our superintendent, and
also a community member. I'velived in our Merton community
for the last twenty one years.So, all three of my children
have come through the schooldistrict, and, we are really
blessed out here in the LakeCountry area to continue to, not
only educate at a very highlevel, but really ultimately
(02:10):
welcome families in. And we're agrowing community that, is
continuing to build andcontinuing to be very welcoming.
It's a great place to raise afamily. So for the Merton
Community School District, wehave about 900 students and
about a 20 employees. We're a kthrough eight built or a k
through eight district with twobuildings, Merton Primary School
and Merton Intermediate. So whatwe do is is again, we build the
(02:32):
foundation and then we hand themoff to Arrowhead High School.
Again, another very highquality, high performing school
district, over there inHeartland, Wisconsin, where they
handle the nine through 12aspect of it too as well.
So, what we do is, again,ultimately really try to build
that strong foundation forliteracy and mathematics, but
ultimately also giving them ahuge well rounded academic and
(02:55):
career planning program so thatthey can really decide what it
is that they want to pursue,what they wanna do ahead of high
school, and even post highschool is the things that we
talk about our kids. Here at theMerton Community School
District, we are home to,basically a very large, what we
would call, vocational educationprogram. At our Merton
Intermediate School, we've got afull fledged wood shop. We've
(03:17):
got a family consumer ed. We dobaking, home economics,
textiles, huge art and musicprograms.
So what we're really excitedabout is is our academic
achievement continues to grow,but the opportunities for our
kids here are really endless asthey think about that post
secondary option.
John Gscheidmeier (03:33):
So a couple years ago when my oldest went
here, I bugged you even beforethey started in summer. For
listeners know I was in I I wasin law enforcement for many
years but I was also a schoolresource officer so school
security and just the schooloperations were really important
to me. You were very gracious bythe way in taking me on a tour
of not only the primary schoolbut the intermediate school and
(03:54):
I love the workshop personally.Yeah. You know I frame, I do
some stuff.
Used to do woodworking back inmy younger 20s. But, you guys
have a really good reputationand I'll ask you some questions
along the way but talk about theDPI, the Department of Public
Instruction process because froma real estate standpoint,
(04:16):
especially with people that aremoving here from, let's say,
another state, another area ofthe state, I know I have got,
three or four buyers coming infrom as far away as Las Vegas
and Arizona. And, you know, Ialways ask about children. How
old are your children? Areschools, of of primary concern?
Some people will send them toprivate schools. Some people,
most people don't. So we alwaystalk about areas. And then we
(04:40):
ask about, are there anyparticular needs of your
children school wise? Becausedifferent districts have kind of
a reputation for maybe specialneeds, and special resources
available.
But from a general perspective,DPI every two years goes through
this process and you guys getgrades and you can brag about
(05:02):
this one. So brag away, howwhat's the experience like? What
all goes into it? I know beforewe went on onto the podcast
here, we were talking a littlebit about what goes into it. You
said there's a lot.
Yeah. But a quick summary onthat and then reveal your score
and your ranking.
Dr. Ron Russ (05:16):
Sure. Sure. So I think the first question though,
John, is really important aboutwhen when people call us for
information or for a tour, thefirst thing that they say is,
hey. I have your school or yourschool district narrowed down
based on what I see on ourwebsite. Either it's our
district website or they go anddo their research on how is the
school performing.
And before, because when youtake a look at our report card,
(05:39):
you won't see our wood shop, ourface room, our our art, our all
of the opportunities. They seethe academic component of it. So
it's super important andparticularly here out out in the
Lake Country area where we havewonderful schools. You're you're
surrounded by great great schooldistricts that if you can have a
little bit of an edge on thatreport card, it certainly does
(06:00):
help. So one of the pieces thatwe do and actually, John, it's
DPI does give us our gradesyearly.
So we get this Oh,
John Gscheidmeier (06:05):
they do. Yep. Every year we get one.
Dr. Ron Russ (06:08):
And, you know, three years ago, again, there's
there's a ranking that comesout. There's significantly
exceeds and they give you apercentage out of a hundred just
like a school grade would.Right? Teacher looks at your
math grade and says, oh, you gota 90 out of a hundred. So this
past year, DPI gave us a 93 anda 93.5 out of a hundred.
Our highest score ever thatwe've received and, we were
(06:28):
fortunate enough this past yearto be ranked fourth out of four
twenty two school districts. Sowe're super proud. We've been
pushing that out. But what we'remost proud about, John, is is
every year we continue toimprove. And that's part of the
report card is is, you know,academically, we do really,
really well.
We get a really high scorethere. But what we're most proud
about is that growth thosegrowth indicators that are on
(06:50):
the report card that signify howare we doing with each and every
student academically in the areaof literacy and mathematics. So
that's truly where we feel thatwe do, you know, have really
spent significant investmentwith our teachers and our
curriculums and, our resources,really working with family
families. And, I gotta givekudos to Maria Kucharski, who's
(07:12):
our curriculum director whooversees this this aspect of it.
But when we start to look atthat report card, there's the
academic grade.
How do your kids do on the statetest? Right? We do very, very
well. And that's one aspect ofit. But then they really take a
look at, are you growing kids?
And that's really the differencebetween what we would see as a
school that is verydistinguished and a school that
(07:35):
just exceeds expectations. Sothat's what we're really excited
about in at the Merton CommunitySchool District. And how do we
know that? Well, our report cardgrades continue to go up. But
when we take a look at our staterankings, three years ago, we
were tenth.
A year ago, we were eighth. Andnow this year, we were fourth.
John Gscheidmeier (07:50):
Oh, wow.
Dr. Ron Russ (07:50):
So we just continue to really try to that
incremental growth as we moveforward.
John Gscheidmeier (07:55):
Well and that's amazing. I mean, kudos to
you guys. And from what I knowand what I've seen just as a
parent, your culture here isgreat, you know, and and the
kids love it. I mean, some daysthey don't love it. Do I have to
go to school today?
Yes, you do. I have a four and aseven year old, so, you know,
they just and and now havingboth here, which is pretty cool.
(08:16):
But I think what I I think whatyou're talking about, because I
have your scores up in front.And by the way, all of these are
available for those of you whoare, who are listening. If you
just Google the Department ofPublic Instruction in Wisconsin,
and and I would imagine almostevery state has this.
But, at least here in Wisconsin,you get a you get a report card.
And to your point, it shows anoverview, grades five to eight,
(08:39):
enrollment three sixty two,which, you know, may fluctuate.
Percentage of open enrollment,16%. That seems high to me by
the way.
Dr. Ron Russ (08:47):
It's that's pretty typical. Well, it and again we
because usually we're around
John Gscheidmeier (08:50):
like 20% I thought.
Dr. Ron Russ (08:52):
Again each school district is a little bit
different and, again it'ssomething that is a variable
every year for us.
John Gscheidmeier (08:57):
Yep. The growth numbers, though, maybe
this is what you're referringto, like in English language
arts, 81.2 compared to 66% forthe rest of the state. And then
mathematics, one of mydaughter's favorite subjects,
88.8 compared to 66.
Dr. Ron Russ (09:14):
Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier (09:15):
That those are that's
Dr. Ron Russ (09:17):
Yeah. We're that's It's a good something that we've
really put an emphasis on andit's great to see as any
organization, that if you do putan emphasis on it, you you dig
into the data, you do a ton ofwork, professional development,
resources. We're actually seeinga lot of lot of results out of
that.
John Gscheidmeier (09:33):
So you've been here a while, like you
said, and unique to Merton isyou get them in fifth grade. In
eighth grade, they move to thenext level, right, which is a
different school altogether.Mhmm. So you don't you have you
got them for, you know, a fairamount of I should say
Dr. Ron Russ (09:49):
we we get them when they're four. We get them
when they're
John Gscheidmeier (09:53):
four.
Dr. Ron Russ (09:53):
So, and then we send them off, because you're
looking at Merton Intermediate.
John Gscheidmeier (09:56):
I am, now that you say that.
Dr. Ron Russ (09:57):
So, but no, we get them when they're four.
John Gscheidmeier (09:59):
Go back to the right one.
Dr. Ron Russ (10:00):
And, we get, and we send them off when they're
14. So we've got them here forabout ten years.
John Gscheidmeier (10:06):
So, you're right. Okay. So ninety three
point five, and then I, thenumbers are a little bit
different, but pretty much thesame.
Dr. Ron Russ (10:13):
I would just
John Gscheidmeier (10:15):
call them, call them equal. Do you brag
among other superintendents, youknow, when you, when you achieve
these scores? We we do. We havesuperintendent get togethers all
the time and you do this rightnow.
Dr. Ron Russ (10:25):
We do. And and ultimately, again, obviously,
like, our our the Arrowheadfeeder schools are very, very
competitive. They really, reallyare. And, because we're all
fighting for the same kids.Right?
Because if someone narrows inon, I wanna send my child to
Arrowhead, right? Because ofeither their reputation for the
the arts, athletics, academics,then they'd have to choose which
(10:45):
feeder school they want to goto. So, that's where we do most
of our benchmarking. So when wetake a look at our benchmarks,
against the other seven feederschools, because there's seven K
through eight school districtsthat feed into Arrowhead High
School. So that'd be Richmond,Swallow, Stonebank, Heartland
Lakeside, Lake Country and NorthLake.
(11:07):
So we all compete pretty muchfor the same kids. I mean, even
from an open enrollmentstandpoint, there's open
enrollment amongst what we callour Arrowhead Feeder Schools. So
this report card does matter. Itreally, really does. When people
decide where do I want to learnand live and grow, they take a
look at the report card andthat's what gets them into the
school district.
So that's when, like, even lastnight, I I took a young family
(11:29):
around that had an incoming or afifth grader and they were like,
hey, where do I wanna send mychild to school here? Showed
them the place and they're like,where do we sign up? So it it
was just it was just great. Butagain, you need to have a strong
report card to even say, hey,which feeder school do I really
want to go to from that aspect?So when we think about that,
because then Arrowhead, when youtake a look at it, like for
(11:50):
instance, when you compare us toother K-twelve feeder schools,
for mathematics, we were the topor I'm sorry, K-twelve schools,
non Arrowhead, the Cedarburgs,the Brookfields, the Pewaukee,
the Oconomowalks, theKettamarans.
Our math scores on our forward,which is grades three through
eight, were the highest of any K12 school district in our area.
(12:12):
And we were second in literacy.Cedarburg got us. So but we're
we're gonna be after them. So,Merton Community School District
outperforms the other K 12school districts.
So, when we think about realestate, when people come in and
say, Ron, tell me a little bitabout your school because they
have a lot of choices out here,right? Homes are for sale, all
different areas. We sit down andwe show them, we show our
(12:33):
community to say, Hey, this ishow we compare. We feel that
we're doing some things really,really well here. And then when
we take a look at against theother feeder schools, you know,
we rank second mathematics,third in ELA, that it matters.
And they just say, hey, I wannasee your school. And once we get
them in here, then we start toshow them the wood shop, the
face room, the art room, ourphysical education weight room,
(12:56):
which not many middle schoolshave, and just our our overall
facilities. They're like, wow.And yet we're still achieving at
a very high level too. So from areal estate aspect, we showcase
all of this to attract familiesbecause we're a business driven
by number of students.
More students we have, the moreour our revenue formulas, you
(13:16):
know, go up and, we're able tocontinue to do great things for
kids.
John Gscheidmeier (13:21):
Well, and that's obvious that you are, we,
we could, I mean, there's somany topics that we could do
with real estate related tothis, but it does matter to your
point that if I am someone whois in real estate and showing
people homes in different areas,I have to be cognizant of the
fact that they might have needs,not just special needs, you
know, a student with specialneeds. I I I just meant just
(13:43):
assessing people in general.What's important to you? What's
important in a school district?And the fact that you guys
because I don't know if I grewup if people ever did this.
Did they ever go and interviewschools back kind of in the day?
Dr. Ron Russ (13:55):
I I think they did. I mean, when I before I
moved out here, my wife and I,we bought a home in Waukesha.
And, we both were educators. Wewere teaching at Pewaukee at the
time. And, we were like, wheredo we wanna do our work?
Right? Where do we wanna live?What do we wanna do? At the time
I had administrativeaspirations, so I was like,
okay, we need to be somewherecentrally located. And, we loved
(14:17):
our Waukesha time, but we reallyloved the Lake Country area from
our teaching days out inPewaukee.
So, we did the tour of schools.So we toured. Mike Budish, I
remember. Our primary schoolprincipal here who retired a few
years ago, dear friend of mine,he took us around And we went to
Richmond. We went to Swallow.
I went to Pewaukee. You know, wedid the tour, and we just wanted
(14:39):
to hear the great things thatwere happening. What do you do
for kids? How do you supportfamilies? And, ultimately,
what's the end result?
Because like you said before,John, I'm gonna give I'm gonna
give you my four year old. Whatis the future outlook to my 14
year old? Because we wanted tomake one move and that was
important to us just to say,hey. This is where we're gonna
build our family. And, so yes.
(15:00):
So touring is still alive. Ithink it was happening, you
know, twenty five years ago whenwe did our tour too. So, and,
you know, it's interestingbecause you ask if as a
superintendent, do we, you know,as do we do we brag about this
and things like that. We'recollaborative, but ultimately,
we're all in the same business,which is we want to attract
families. We want to have greatgreat real estate to be able to
(15:23):
attract families.
And, each community is a littlebit different with who they can
attract to based on, you know,real estate prices and things.
John Gscheidmeier (15:30):
And I do wanna go back and I wanna use
Waukesha as a as a speakingexample about just the
complexities of school districtseven within one community. And
of course, Waukesha is thebiggest the biggest, city in
Waukesha County, the county seatas well. But before we go to
that, I just wanted to clarify,there you're in competition with
the other districts, but thereare also standards that you guys
(15:51):
have established becauseeverybody does feed into
Arrowhead High School. So you'renot doing you're not on an
island. You guys are all workingtogether as far as standards and
what's expected.
Like you said, from four to 14,when they hit 14 and now they're
going to Arrowhead, there'sgotta be some type of standards
(16:11):
there that when Arrowhead getsthem, they've you guys have met
the expectations.
Dr. Ron Russ (16:15):
Right. Yeah. Well, the the state of Wisconsin
outlines all of the academicstandards. So, and that's what
we're assessed on ultimately.So, the state of Wisconsin says
mathematically in each one ofyour grades, you should be
teaching this.
And this is how you should theydon't tell you how to teach it.
They just say this is what youshould teach. Fractions are
taught beginning in third grade,you know, but but mastered by
(16:37):
fifth grade, for instance.That's gonna be consistent where
wherever you go, or it should beon on behalf of children. So
that way there is a consistency.
And again, ultimately here inthe Arrowhead School District,
again, underneath the Arrowumbrella, it does get difficult
because if you've got sevendifferent kingdoms, plus some
private schools, and plus allthe other open enrollment that
(16:58):
happens, there should be acommon standard. And our goal is
to perform and to give ArrowheadHigh School the very best
product that can possibly behad. And, when you take a look
at the entire Arrowhead feedersystem, we are giving them the
best product. When I say thebest product, state scores,
report card, forward scores, wegive them a heck of a product
(17:20):
that, we're really, really proudof out here in the Arrowhead
community.
John Gscheidmeier (17:23):
Well, and you have to have a wait room here
because Arrowhead is known fortheir We do
Dr. Ron Russ (17:26):
we've got a great wait room and we've got a lot of
Phy Ed electives. That's forsure.
John Gscheidmeier (17:30):
So I by the way, I noticed on the DPI site a
few years ago, it seems likethey added private schools or at
least there's some substance toit now. Right? So with private
schools, I know, like, I went toCatholic Memorial and now
there's a report card in there.Is there a major difference
though as far as the reportingstandards? Because some of these
scores are really different.
Dr. Ron Russ (17:50):
Yeah. I'm not I'm not really sure. I can't speak
to that, John, because if you doget a report card though, you
should be held similar to the,the accountability of the,
public schools that are nearyou. I can't really speak to
that. But, again, if they'regonna go through the process,
you know, if Memorial has a a ascore a high school score.
Right? Because they just wouldbe focusing on nine twelve,
something that we wouldn'tcompare ourselves to. But again,
(18:11):
that means they would take thestate assessments, you know, the
the ACTs and things like that,that would kind of wind
everything together and givethem those growth scores and
those achievement scores too aswell.
John Gscheidmeier (18:22):
So let's talk about Waukesha just as an
example because I think it's agreat one in that, And I shared
with you before we startedrecording this that I, many
years ago sold the Waukesha, theoutgoing Waukesha, school board
president's, home. And and whenwe talk about Waukesha, it's a
great example of how complexthis can be. Because if you live
(18:45):
in the city of Waukesha as anexample, you don't have one
school district. You don't havetwo. You don't have three.
Just like Pewaukee, Pewaukee hasnumerous school districts. We
can do another episode on levyand taxes and, you know, how
that all gets into, which Iwould love to do, by the way.
But it can be complicatedbecause, like, in Waukesha, you
have so many different schoolswith different demographics,
(19:07):
with different socioeconomic,you know, components to it. But
like in Pewaukee as an exampleor Waukesha, you've got
different school districts. Kidsin Waukesha can go to Pewaukee.
Kids in Waukesha can go towherever like Pewaukee has
Kettle Moraine, Sussex,Waukesha. I I know I'm missing
(19:28):
one or two. Mhmm. Probably. Butas a parent, what advice would
you have for people that arelooking at a school district?
And we mentioned tours already.We we we talked about DPI sites,
especially for somebody thatmight be listening to this,
ready to move to a differentschool district for whatever
reason, maybe moving out of onecounty to the other, whatever it
(19:50):
may be. Or, you know, we're ayoung couple now living on the
East Side in a condo. We'velived that life, but now we're
ready to start a family. Whenyou're assessing schools, give
us some tips, give some parentssome tips.
Dr. Ron Russ (20:04):
Sure. The first thing I would say is tours are
super important. Again, once youkind of hone in on where it is
that you want to live, what youcan afford to live, and then
kind of draw a circle aroundthat or pick out those areas and
then really start to ask thequestions that I would ask if I
was a new family right now,having again, having been in
education for over twenty fiveyears and given multiple tours.
(20:26):
The first thing that I would askis is I can I see your
achievement, but what else doyou do for children? Questions
around about what is how do yougrow children?
What is your multilevel systemof support system, which is the
MLSS system, to make sure thateach and every child is their
needs are being met. And again,that's kind of again, MLSS. And
(20:49):
I also would talk about again,through that process process is
where you start talking aboutthose special needs. Okay? Is my
child gifted?
Okay. How do you identify giftedlearners? What is your process?
Is it an equitable process? WhenI say about equitable, is is is
it is is there a formal processthat you look to identify
children?
(21:09):
Or does it get do you waituntil, you know, parent x or
staff member y says something toyou? So here in the Merton
Community School District, we doa COGAT at the end of grade two.
So every child we assess foracademic giftedness. So again, I
would talk about the giftedness,but the other piece too is is if
what happens if one of yourchildren have special needs?
(21:31):
What is their special educationprogram?
What does it look like? What isyour philosophy? Because some
families want a ton of inclusionto say, hey, I just want my
child to be included. Somefamilies are like, no, I want my
child to be ready for theworkforce. If in fact, that
might be their career path giventhe gifts that they have, as a
(21:52):
child and going through thespecial education progress.
So what I would I'd recommend tosay, hey, achievement's easy.
You can find that on the paper.What else do you do for
children? And that's reallywhere, it's the special
education programming. It's theMLSS.
What is your intervention? Whathappens if my child has reading
struggle? Mathematics struggles?And on the same end, what
(22:13):
happens if they're accelerating?What does that look like?
And then ultimately it's like,Hey, what do you do for kids?
What are your electives? Youknow, like, and that's why I
kind of highlighted before inMerton, we've got a full fledged
wood shop. Walked into a class,we're soldering circuits. We've
got full fledged computerprogramming going on.
We've got robotics. Shoot, I wasin there and it was, there was a
(22:34):
competition around baking. Who,who had, who made the best cake,
I think for the day? You know,we we've got throwing, we're
throwing pottery. We've gotceramics.
We've got jewelry making. Whatelse do you have? What's the
arts program? What does thatlook like for band? If you have
a band program, what are thelesson structures?
Or is it expected for a familyto go out and pay for their own
(22:57):
lessons? So, just a lot ofthings again that the report
card will get you in the door,but then starting to ask, what
are you gonna do for my child?Or what are you gonna do for a
child who is on a range ofabilities? Because that's really
where you wanna make your youryour decision around what's best
for your family. Because again,some families may not think that
Merton is the best for them.
(23:18):
That's fine. Then we just hopethat they find a school district
that really fits their needs.
John Gscheidmeier (23:23):
Well, and I say the same thing when I'm
talking to agents who are eitherbrand new or maybe looking at
different companies. Everycompany and just as any school
has different offerings andyou've got to find the best fit
for you. And the only reason, orthe only way that you do that is
by doing the legwork, right?Doing your research. I love the
fact.
And, and while you were talking,I just thought, boy, he's got a
(23:45):
tougher job than I thoughtbecause you have three sixty
some kids roughly. We're
Dr. Ron Russ (23:50):
about 900. Oh, three sixty some at Merton.
John Gscheidmeier (23:52):
Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. We got 900.
There is nine zero nine. It'sabout 900.
So but you have but you'reexposing these kids to so many
different things. Yeah. And somany different potential
avenues. Obviously, everyone'sbrought up differently.
Everybody's different as humanbeings and their thought process
and their abilities and theirskills.
But the fact that they get to toto see it all I mean, mean, I
remember in middle school, youknow, we had a we had a we had a
(24:15):
workshop. We had a we had awoodshop, back in I went to
Horning Middle School inWaukesha, and I love those
things. I love building stuffwith metal. I didn't do it. I
went into law enforcement andthen teaching and firefighter
for a while.
Now I'm in real estate. But Ithink everything that they're
exposed to at least gets them tounderstand these are some
(24:36):
potential avenues in life that Ican go down. Right. And then
they almost always naturallygravitate toward those. But, I I
love it.
I think you guys are doing anawesome job here. I'm so happy
that you took the time to, to tospend a couple minutes and and
brag about your about yourschool. Our school, I have to
say our. Any last words when itcomes to real estate related to
(24:59):
schools or anything that youcould think of or anything you
wanted to pass on before weclose?
Dr. Ron Russ (25:03):
No. I just appreciate the opportunity to,
you know, talk a little bit moreabout our school district. But I
think it's just when when peepthe most important question I
think you asked, John, was thelast one. What should families
consider when looking torelocate for whatever reason?
It's hard work.
And don't take it for granted.It is the biggest decision that
you will make as a family iswhere you send your children to
(25:25):
school. And, we're blessed outhere in Southeast Wisconsin. You
know, wherever you go inSoutheast Wisconsin, we're
blessed. And, but again, thatthat decision and that's what we
really pound home when we tourand people are like, hey.
Where do I wanna build? Or wheredo I wanna move? You need to
make that decision what's bestfor your family because every
family is unique, and,intricate. And it's but but
(25:48):
again, it's the best investmentthat you are gonna make in your
children is where they have thatstrong foundation previously
before heading out to towhatever it is after their post
secondary option.
John Gscheidmeier (25:58):
Well, and that's great advice. On my end,
you need to also have a realestate agent that understands,
who stands, who has experience.And I, you, I'm sure there's
multiple real estate agentsyou've met or know over the
years from our area. A lot of, Ithink in our, in our area, we
have a very strong real estatepresence of experience. Top
(26:19):
producers, by top producers, Imean people who sell a lot.
We were joking around in theoffice yesterday that it's come
down to about 10% of us doing90% of the sales. We stick to
our areas that we know but wealso know how to ask the right
questions and get in touch withpeople like you to be able to
say, let me introduce you toDoctor Ron Russ over there at
(26:39):
Merton. Check that out. I've, Ithink it's a great fit for you
guys but you'll have to go downthat path with them or whoever
else. Congrats.
Four out of 422. I messed upsome of the school numbers
there. You corrected them.That's good. We always wanna
make sure we get that right.
But what an amazing job you'vedone. And and I've told you this
before when I first met you, Iwas very impressed. And I love
(27:02):
what you do for not only mykids, but everybody else. And I
appreciate your time today.
Dr. Ron Russ (27:07):
Thanks, John. I appreciate it.
John Gscheidmeier (27:08):
Alright. That's all we have for now.
Thanks for joining us. We've gota lot of really cool episodes
coming up, so stay tuned. And asalways, if you like what you
hear, please pass the wordalong, along.
Like what you do, give us areview. And as always, if
there's things you wanna hear ortopics we want us to cover,
don't be afraid to let us know.Take care, everybody. This
episode of Wisconsin Real EstateToday has come to a close. Be
(27:31):
sure to subscribe to thispodcast and let others know if
you found this content useful.
Until next time, make today yourbest day.
This is John Gscheidmeier of Wisconsin Real
Estate Today, your real estateexpert. This podcast is designed
to equipping people with theteaching and tools they need to
succeed in real estate. I hopeyou enjoy this episode and
subscribe for more real estatecontent. Hi, everybody. John
(00:30):
Hill with another episode ofWisconsin Real Estate Today.
Thanks for joining us. As wenear the end of 2024, you know,
last podcast last week, wetalked about really what the
year in review, what hadhappened in 2024. And then
coming in a week or so, we'llhave an outlook to 2025. But
today, and I mentioned this aswell, I think, in a previous
(00:50):
podcast, I'm joined by DoctorRon Russ with the, Martin
Community School District, adistrict that's near and dear to
my heart because my kids gohere. But some great news, that
came out recently from theschools and from doctor Russ
kind of, prompted this idea totalk today about real estate and
schools and how they work handin hand.
(01:12):
So Doctor Russ, thank you forjoining me today.
Dr. Ron Russ (01:16):
Thanks John. Thanks for having me. So excited
to be here.
John Gscheidmeier (01:18):
Yeah. And, so let's start with your role. How
long you've been here? Maybe alittle bio of the school, a
little demographics of where weare. We do have listeners from
across the state, but also, thecountry.
We're in Waukesha County, justWest and Northwest of Milwaukee
by about thirty minutes or so.Kind of more of a rural
(01:39):
community, I would say, ofMartin. Not much of a downtown
there. We would do a postoffice. Yep.
A couple bars that have goneback and forth in names
actually. So talk about you and,the district.
Dr. Ron Russ (01:49):
Sure. So, again, I've been with the district for
fourteen years now, and I'vebeen our superintendent, and
also a community member. I'velived in our Merton community
for the last twenty one years.So, all three of my children
have come through the schooldistrict, and, we are really
blessed out here in the LakeCountry area to continue to, not
only educate at a very highlevel, but really ultimately
(02:10):
welcome families in. And we're agrowing community that, is
continuing to build andcontinuing to be very welcoming.
It's a great place to raise afamily. So for the Merton
Community School District, wehave about 900 students and
about a 20 employees. We're a kthrough eight built or a k
through eight district with twobuildings, Merton Primary School
and Merton Intermediate. So whatwe do is is again, we build the
(02:32):
foundation and then we hand themoff to Arrowhead High School.
Again, another very highquality, high performing school
district, over there inHeartland, Wisconsin, where they
handle the nine through 12aspect of it too as well.
So, what we do is, again,ultimately really try to build
that strong foundation forliteracy and mathematics, but
ultimately also giving them ahuge well rounded academic and
(02:55):
career planning program so thatthey can really decide what it
is that they want to pursue,what they wanna do ahead of high
school, and even post highschool is the things that we
talk about our kids. Here at theMerton Community School
District, we are home to,basically a very large, what we
would call, vocational educationprogram. At our Merton
Intermediate School, we've got afull fledged wood shop. We've
(03:17):
got a family consumer ed. We dobaking, home economics,
textiles, huge art and musicprograms.
So what we're really excitedabout is is our academic
achievement continues to grow,but the opportunities for our
kids here are really endless asthey think about that post
secondary option.
John Gscheidmeier (03:33):
So a couple years ago when my oldest went
here, I bugged you even beforethey started in summer. For
listeners know I was in I I wasin law enforcement for many
years but I was also a schoolresource officer so school
security and just the schooloperations were really important
to me. You were very gracious bythe way in taking me on a tour
of not only the primary schoolbut the intermediate school and
(03:54):
I love the workshop personally.Yeah. You know I frame, I do
some stuff.
Used to do woodworking back inmy younger 20s. But, you guys
have a really good reputationand I'll ask you some questions
along the way but talk about theDPI, the Department of Public
Instruction process because froma real estate standpoint,
(04:16):
especially with people that aremoving here from, let's say,
another state, another area ofthe state, I know I have got,
three or four buyers coming infrom as far away as Las Vegas
and Arizona. And, you know, Ialways ask about children. How
old are your children? Areschools, of of primary concern?
Some people will send them toprivate schools. Some people,
most people don't. So we alwaystalk about areas. And then we
(04:40):
ask about, are there anyparticular needs of your
children school wise? Becausedifferent districts have kind of
a reputation for maybe specialneeds, and special resources
available.
But from a general perspective,DPI every two years goes through
this process and you guys getgrades and you can brag about
(05:02):
this one. So brag away, howwhat's the experience like? What
all goes into it? I know beforewe went on onto the podcast
here, we were talking a littlebit about what goes into it. You
said there's a lot.
Yeah. But a quick summary onthat and then reveal your score
and your ranking.
Dr. Ron Russ (05:16):
Sure. Sure. So I think the first question though,
John, is really important aboutwhen when people call us for
information or for a tour, thefirst thing that they say is,
hey. I have your school or yourschool district narrowed down
based on what I see on ourwebsite. Either it's our
district website or they go anddo their research on how is the
school performing.
And before, because when youtake a look at our report card,
(05:39):
you won't see our wood shop, ourface room, our our art, our all
of the opportunities. They seethe academic component of it. So
it's super important andparticularly here out out in the
Lake Country area where we havewonderful schools. You're you're
surrounded by great great schooldistricts that if you can have a
little bit of an edge on thatreport card, it certainly does
(06:00):
help. So one of the pieces thatwe do and actually, John, it's
DPI does give us our gradesyearly.
So we get this Oh,
John Gscheidmeier (06:05):
they do. Yep. Every year we get one.
Dr. Ron Russ (06:08):
And, you know, three years ago, again, there's
there's a ranking that comesout. There's significantly
exceeds and they give you apercentage out of a hundred just
like a school grade would.Right? Teacher looks at your
math grade and says, oh, you gota 90 out of a hundred. So this
past year, DPI gave us a 93 anda 93.5 out of a hundred.
Our highest score ever thatwe've received and, we were
(06:28):
fortunate enough this past yearto be ranked fourth out of four
twenty two school districts. Sowe're super proud. We've been
pushing that out. But what we'remost proud about, John, is is
every year we continue toimprove. And that's part of the
report card is is, you know,academically, we do really,
really well.
We get a really high scorethere. But what we're most proud
about is that growth thosegrowth indicators that are on
(06:50):
the report card that signify howare we doing with each and every
student academically in the areaof literacy and mathematics. So
that's truly where we feel thatwe do, you know, have really
spent significant investmentwith our teachers and our
curriculums and, our resources,really working with family
families. And, I gotta givekudos to Maria Kucharski, who's
(07:12):
our curriculum director whooversees this this aspect of it.
But when we start to look atthat report card, there's the
academic grade.
How do your kids do on the statetest? Right? We do very, very
well. And that's one aspect ofit. But then they really take a
look at, are you growing kids?
And that's really the differencebetween what we would see as a
school that is verydistinguished and a school that
(07:35):
just exceeds expectations. Sothat's what we're really excited
about in at the Merton CommunitySchool District. And how do we
know that? Well, our report cardgrades continue to go up. But
when we take a look at our staterankings, three years ago, we
were tenth.
A year ago, we were eighth. Andnow this year, we were fourth.
John Gscheidmeier (07:50):
Oh, wow.
Dr. Ron Russ (07:50):
So we just continue to really try to that
incremental growth as we moveforward.
John Gscheidmeier (07:55):
Well and that's amazing. I mean, kudos to
you guys. And from what I knowand what I've seen just as a
parent, your culture here isgreat, you know, and and the
kids love it. I mean, some daysthey don't love it. Do I have to
go to school today?
Yes, you do. I have a four and aseven year old, so, you know,
they just and and now havingboth here, which is pretty cool.
(08:16):
But I think what I I think whatyou're talking about, because I
have your scores up in front.And by the way, all of these are
available for those of you whoare, who are listening. If you
just Google the Department ofPublic Instruction in Wisconsin,
and and I would imagine almostevery state has this.
But, at least here in Wisconsin,you get a you get a report card.
And to your point, it shows anoverview, grades five to eight,
(08:39):
enrollment three sixty two,which, you know, may fluctuate.
Percentage of open enrollment,16%. That seems high to me by
the way.
Dr. Ron Russ (08:47):
It's that's pretty typical. Well, it and again we
because usually we're around
John Gscheidmeier (08:50):
like 20% I thought.
Dr. Ron Russ (08:52):
Again each school district is a little bit
different and, again it'ssomething that is a variable
every year for us.
John Gscheidmeier (08:57):
Yep. The growth numbers, though, maybe
this is what you're referringto, like in English language
arts, 81.2 compared to 66% forthe rest of the state. And then
mathematics, one of mydaughter's favorite subjects,
88.8 compared to 66.
Dr. Ron Russ (09:14):
Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier (09:15):
That those are that's
Dr. Ron Russ (09:17):
Yeah. We're that's It's a good something that we've
really put an emphasis on andit's great to see as any
organization, that if you do putan emphasis on it, you you dig
into the data, you do a ton ofwork, professional development,
resources. We're actually seeinga lot of lot of results out of
that.
John Gscheidmeier (09:33):
So you've been here a while, like you
said, and unique to Merton isyou get them in fifth grade. In
eighth grade, they move to thenext level, right, which is a
different school altogether.Mhmm. So you don't you have you
got them for, you know, a fairamount of I should say
Dr. Ron Russ (09:49):
we we get them when they're four. We get them
when they're
John Gscheidmeier (09:53):
four.
Dr. Ron Russ (09:53):
So, and then we send them off, because you're
looking at Merton Intermediate.
John Gscheidmeier (09:56):
I am, now that you say that.
Dr. Ron Russ (09:57):
So, but no, we get them when they're four.
John Gscheidmeier (09:59):
Go back to the right one.
Dr. Ron Russ (10:00):
And, we get, and we send them off when they're
14. So we've got them here forabout ten years.
John Gscheidmeier (10:06):
So, you're right. Okay. So ninety three
point five, and then I, thenumbers are a little bit
different, but pretty much thesame.
Dr. Ron Russ (10:13):
I would just
John Gscheidmeier (10:15):
call them, call them equal. Do you brag
among other superintendents, youknow, when you, when you achieve
these scores? We we do. We havesuperintendent get togethers all
the time and you do this rightnow.
Dr. Ron Russ (10:25):
We do. And and ultimately, again, obviously,
like, our our the Arrowheadfeeder schools are very, very
competitive. They really, reallyare. And, because we're all
fighting for the same kids.Right?
Because if someone narrows inon, I wanna send my child to
Arrowhead, right? Because ofeither their reputation for the
the arts, athletics, academics,then they'd have to choose which
(10:45):
feeder school they want to goto. So, that's where we do most
of our benchmarking. So when wetake a look at our benchmarks,
against the other seven feederschools, because there's seven K
through eight school districtsthat feed into Arrowhead High
School. So that'd be Richmond,Swallow, Stonebank, Heartland
Lakeside, Lake Country and NorthLake.
(11:07):
So we all compete pretty muchfor the same kids. I mean, even
from an open enrollmentstandpoint, there's open
enrollment amongst what we callour Arrowhead Feeder Schools. So
this report card does matter. Itreally, really does. When people
decide where do I want to learnand live and grow, they take a
look at the report card andthat's what gets them into the
school district.
So that's when, like, even lastnight, I I took a young family
(11:29):
around that had an incoming or afifth grader and they were like,
hey, where do I wanna send mychild to school here? Showed
them the place and they're like,where do we sign up? So it it
was just it was just great. Butagain, you need to have a strong
report card to even say, hey,which feeder school do I really
want to go to from that aspect?So when we think about that,
because then Arrowhead, when youtake a look at it, like for
(11:50):
instance, when you compare us toother K-twelve feeder schools,
for mathematics, we were the topor I'm sorry, K-twelve schools,
non Arrowhead, the Cedarburgs,the Brookfields, the Pewaukee,
the Oconomowalks, theKettamarans.
Our math scores on our forward,which is grades three through
eight, were the highest of any K12 school district in our area.
(12:12):
And we were second in literacy.Cedarburg got us. So but we're
we're gonna be after them. So,Merton Community School District
outperforms the other K 12school districts.
So, when we think about realestate, when people come in and
say, Ron, tell me a little bitabout your school because they
have a lot of choices out here,right? Homes are for sale, all
different areas. We sit down andwe show them, we show our
(12:33):
community to say, Hey, this ishow we compare. We feel that
we're doing some things really,really well here. And then when
we take a look at against theother feeder schools, you know,
we rank second mathematics,third in ELA, that it matters.
And they just say, hey, I wannasee your school. And once we get
them in here, then we start toshow them the wood shop, the
face room, the art room, ourphysical education weight room,
(12:56):
which not many middle schoolshave, and just our our overall
facilities. They're like, wow.And yet we're still achieving at
a very high level too. So from areal estate aspect, we showcase
all of this to attract familiesbecause we're a business driven
by number of students.
More students we have, the moreour our revenue formulas, you
(13:16):
know, go up and, we're able tocontinue to do great things for
kids.
John Gscheidmeier (13:21):
Well, and that's obvious that you are, we,
we could, I mean, there's somany topics that we could do
with real estate related tothis, but it does matter to your
point that if I am someone whois in real estate and showing
people homes in different areas,I have to be cognizant of the
fact that they might have needs,not just special needs, you
know, a student with specialneeds. I I I just meant just
(13:43):
assessing people in general.What's important to you? What's
important in a school district?And the fact that you guys
because I don't know if I grewup if people ever did this.
Did they ever go and interviewschools back kind of in the day?
Dr. Ron Russ (13:55):
I I think they did. I mean, when I before I
moved out here, my wife and I,we bought a home in Waukesha.
And, we both were educators. Wewere teaching at Pewaukee at the
time. And, we were like, wheredo we wanna do our work?
Right? Where do we wanna live?What do we wanna do? At the time
I had administrativeaspirations, so I was like,
okay, we need to be somewherecentrally located. And, we loved
(14:17):
our Waukesha time, but we reallyloved the Lake Country area from
our teaching days out inPewaukee.
So, we did the tour of schools.So we toured. Mike Budish, I
remember. Our primary schoolprincipal here who retired a few
years ago, dear friend of mine,he took us around And we went to
Richmond. We went to Swallow.
I went to Pewaukee. You know, wedid the tour, and we just wanted
(14:39):
to hear the great things thatwere happening. What do you do
for kids? How do you supportfamilies? And, ultimately,
what's the end result?
Because like you said before,John, I'm gonna give I'm gonna
give you my four year old. Whatis the future outlook to my 14
year old? Because we wanted tomake one move and that was
important to us just to say,hey. This is where we're gonna
build our family. And, so yes.
(15:00):
So touring is still alive. Ithink it was happening, you
know, twenty five years ago whenwe did our tour too. So, and,
you know, it's interestingbecause you ask if as a
superintendent, do we, you know,as do we do we brag about this
and things like that. We'recollaborative, but ultimately,
we're all in the same business,which is we want to attract
families. We want to have greatgreat real estate to be able to
(15:23):
attract families.
And, each community is a littlebit different with who they can
attract to based on, you know,real estate prices and things.
John Gscheidmeier (15:30):
And I do wanna go back and I wanna use
Waukesha as a as a speakingexample about just the
complexities of school districtseven within one community. And
of course, Waukesha is thebiggest the biggest, city in
Waukesha County, the county seatas well. But before we go to
that, I just wanted to clarify,there you're in competition with
the other districts, but thereare also standards that you guys
(15:51):
have established becauseeverybody does feed into
Arrowhead High School. So you'renot doing you're not on an
island. You guys are all workingtogether as far as standards and
what's expected.
Like you said, from four to 14,when they hit 14 and now they're
going to Arrowhead, there'sgotta be some type of standards
(16:11):
there that when Arrowhead getsthem, they've you guys have met
the expectations.
Dr. Ron Russ (16:15):
Right. Yeah. Well, the the state of Wisconsin
outlines all of the academicstandards. So, and that's what
we're assessed on ultimately.So, the state of Wisconsin says
mathematically in each one ofyour grades, you should be
teaching this.
And this is how you should theydon't tell you how to teach it.
They just say this is what youshould teach. Fractions are
taught beginning in third grade,you know, but but mastered by
(16:37):
fifth grade, for instance.That's gonna be consistent where
wherever you go, or it should beon on behalf of children. So
that way there is a consistency.
And again, ultimately here inthe Arrowhead School District,
again, underneath the Arrowumbrella, it does get difficult
because if you've got sevendifferent kingdoms, plus some
private schools, and plus allthe other open enrollment that
(16:58):
happens, there should be acommon standard. And our goal is
to perform and to give ArrowheadHigh School the very best
product that can possibly behad. And, when you take a look
at the entire Arrowhead feedersystem, we are giving them the
best product. When I say thebest product, state scores,
report card, forward scores, wegive them a heck of a product
(17:20):
that, we're really, really proudof out here in the Arrowhead
community.
John Gscheidmeier (17:23):
Well, and you have to have a wait room here
because Arrowhead is known fortheir We do
Dr. Ron Russ (17:26):
we've got a great wait room and we've got a lot of
Phy Ed electives. That's forsure.
John Gscheidmeier (17:30):
So I by the way, I noticed on the DPI site a
few years ago, it seems likethey added private schools or at
least there's some substance toit now. Right? So with private
schools, I know, like, I went toCatholic Memorial and now
there's a report card in there.Is there a major difference
though as far as the reportingstandards? Because some of these
scores are really different.
Dr. Ron Russ (17:50):
Yeah. I'm not I'm not really sure. I can't speak
to that, John, because if you doget a report card though, you
should be held similar to the,the accountability of the,
public schools that are nearyou. I can't really speak to
that. But, again, if they'regonna go through the process,
you know, if Memorial has a a ascore a high school score.
Right? Because they just wouldbe focusing on nine twelve,
something that we wouldn'tcompare ourselves to. But again,
(18:11):
that means they would take thestate assessments, you know, the
the ACTs and things like that,that would kind of wind
everything together and givethem those growth scores and
those achievement scores too aswell.
John Gscheidmeier (18:22):
So let's talk about Waukesha just as an
example because I think it's agreat one in that, And I shared
with you before we startedrecording this that I, many
years ago sold the Waukesha, theoutgoing Waukesha, school board
president's, home. And and whenwe talk about Waukesha, it's a
great example of how complexthis can be. Because if you live
(18:45):
in the city of Waukesha as anexample, you don't have one
school district. You don't havetwo. You don't have three.
Just like Pewaukee, Pewaukee hasnumerous school districts. We
can do another episode on levyand taxes and, you know, how
that all gets into, which Iwould love to do, by the way.
But it can be complicatedbecause, like, in Waukesha, you
have so many different schoolswith different demographics,
(19:07):
with different socioeconomic,you know, components to it. But
like in Pewaukee as an exampleor Waukesha, you've got
different school districts. Kidsin Waukesha can go to Pewaukee.
Kids in Waukesha can go towherever like Pewaukee has
Kettle Moraine, Sussex,Waukesha. I I know I'm missing
(19:28):
one or two. Mhmm. Probably. Butas a parent, what advice would
you have for people that arelooking at a school district?
And we mentioned tours already.We we we talked about DPI sites,
especially for somebody thatmight be listening to this,
ready to move to a differentschool district for whatever
reason, maybe moving out of onecounty to the other, whatever it
(19:50):
may be. Or, you know, we're ayoung couple now living on the
East Side in a condo. We'velived that life, but now we're
ready to start a family. Whenyou're assessing schools, give
us some tips, give some parentssome tips.
Dr. Ron Russ (20:04):
Sure. The first thing I would say is tours are
super important. Again, once youkind of hone in on where it is
that you want to live, what youcan afford to live, and then
kind of draw a circle aroundthat or pick out those areas and
then really start to ask thequestions that I would ask if I
was a new family right now,having again, having been in
education for over twenty fiveyears and given multiple tours.
(20:26):
The first thing that I would askis is I can I see your
achievement, but what else doyou do for children? Questions
around about what is how do yougrow children?
What is your multilevel systemof support system, which is the
MLSS system, to make sure thateach and every child is their
needs are being met. And again,that's kind of again, MLSS. And
(20:49):
I also would talk about again,through that process process is
where you start talking aboutthose special needs. Okay? Is my
child gifted?
Okay. How do you identify giftedlearners? What is your process?
Is it an equitable process? WhenI say about equitable, is is is
it is is there a formal processthat you look to identify
children?
(21:09):
Or does it get do you waituntil, you know, parent x or
staff member y says something toyou? So here in the Merton
Community School District, we doa COGAT at the end of grade two.
So every child we assess foracademic giftedness. So again, I
would talk about the giftedness,but the other piece too is is if
what happens if one of yourchildren have special needs?
(21:31):
What is their special educationprogram?
What does it look like? What isyour philosophy? Because some
families want a ton of inclusionto say, hey, I just want my
child to be included. Somefamilies are like, no, I want my
child to be ready for theworkforce. If in fact, that
might be their career path giventhe gifts that they have, as a
(21:52):
child and going through thespecial education progress.
So what I would I'd recommend tosay, hey, achievement's easy.
You can find that on the paper.What else do you do for
children? And that's reallywhere, it's the special
education programming. It's theMLSS.
What is your intervention? Whathappens if my child has reading
struggle? Mathematics struggles?And on the same end, what
(22:13):
happens if they're accelerating?What does that look like?
And then ultimately it's like,Hey, what do you do for kids?
What are your electives? Youknow, like, and that's why I
kind of highlighted before inMerton, we've got a full fledged
wood shop. Walked into a class,we're soldering circuits. We've
got full fledged computerprogramming going on.
We've got robotics. Shoot, I wasin there and it was, there was a
(22:34):
competition around baking. Who,who had, who made the best cake,
I think for the day? You know,we we've got throwing, we're
throwing pottery. We've gotceramics.
We've got jewelry making. Whatelse do you have? What's the
arts program? What does thatlook like for band? If you have
a band program, what are thelesson structures?
Or is it expected for a familyto go out and pay for their own
(22:57):
lessons? So, just a lot ofthings again that the report
card will get you in the door,but then starting to ask, what
are you gonna do for my child?Or what are you gonna do for a
child who is on a range ofabilities? Because that's really
where you wanna make your youryour decision around what's best
for your family. Because again,some families may not think that
Merton is the best for them.
(23:18):
That's fine. Then we just hopethat they find a school district
that really fits their needs.
John Gscheidmeier (23:23):
Well, and I say the same thing when I'm
talking to agents who are eitherbrand new or maybe looking at
different companies. Everycompany and just as any school
has different offerings andyou've got to find the best fit
for you. And the only reason, orthe only way that you do that is
by doing the legwork, right?Doing your research. I love the
fact.
And, and while you were talking,I just thought, boy, he's got a
(23:45):
tougher job than I thoughtbecause you have three sixty
some kids roughly. We're
Dr. Ron Russ (23:50):
about 900. Oh, three sixty some at Merton.
John Gscheidmeier (23:52):
Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. We got 900.
There is nine zero nine. It'sabout 900.
So but you have but you'reexposing these kids to so many
different things. Yeah. And somany different potential
avenues. Obviously, everyone'sbrought up differently.
Everybody's different as humanbeings and their thought process
and their abilities and theirskills.
But the fact that they get to toto see it all I mean, mean, I
remember in middle school, youknow, we had a we had a we had a
(24:15):
workshop. We had a we had awoodshop, back in I went to
Horning Middle School inWaukesha, and I love those
things. I love building stuffwith metal. I didn't do it. I
went into law enforcement andthen teaching and firefighter
for a while.
Now I'm in real estate. But Ithink everything that they're
exposed to at least gets them tounderstand these are some
(24:36):
potential avenues in life that Ican go down. Right. And then
they almost always naturallygravitate toward those. But, I I
love it.
I think you guys are doing anawesome job here. I'm so happy
that you took the time to, to tospend a couple minutes and and
brag about your about yourschool. Our school, I have to
say our. Any last words when itcomes to real estate related to
(24:59):
schools or anything that youcould think of or anything you
wanted to pass on before weclose?
Dr. Ron Russ (25:03):
No. I just appreciate the opportunity to,
you know, talk a little bit moreabout our school district. But I
think it's just when when peepthe most important question I
think you asked, John, was thelast one. What should families
consider when looking torelocate for whatever reason?
It's hard work.
And don't take it for granted.It is the biggest decision that
you will make as a family iswhere you send your children to
(25:25):
school. And, we're blessed outhere in Southeast Wisconsin. You
know, wherever you go inSoutheast Wisconsin, we're
blessed. And, but again, thatthat decision and that's what we
really pound home when we tourand people are like, hey.
Where do I wanna build? Or wheredo I wanna move? You need to
make that decision what's bestfor your family because every
family is unique, and,intricate. And it's but but
(25:48):
again, it's the best investmentthat you are gonna make in your
children is where they have thatstrong foundation previously
before heading out to towhatever it is after their post
secondary option.
John Gscheidmeier (25:58):
Well, and that's great advice. On my end,
you need to also have a realestate agent that understands,
who stands, who has experience.And I, you, I'm sure there's
multiple real estate agentsyou've met or know over the
years from our area. A lot of, Ithink in our, in our area, we
have a very strong real estatepresence of experience. Top
(26:19):
producers, by top producers, Imean people who sell a lot.
We were joking around in theoffice yesterday that it's come
down to about 10% of us doing90% of the sales. We stick to
our areas that we know but wealso know how to ask the right
questions and get in touch withpeople like you to be able to
say, let me introduce you toDoctor Ron Russ over there at
(26:39):
Merton. Check that out. I've, Ithink it's a great fit for you
guys but you'll have to go downthat path with them or whoever
else. Congrats.
Four out of 422. I messed upsome of the school numbers
there. You corrected them.That's good. We always wanna
make sure we get that right.
But what an amazing job you'vedone. And and I've told you this
before when I first met you, Iwas very impressed. And I love
(27:02):
what you do for not only mykids, but everybody else. And I
appreciate your time today.
Dr. Ron Russ (27:07):
Thanks, John. I appreciate it.
John Gscheidmeier (27:08):
Alright. That's all we have for now.
Thanks for joining us. We've gota lot of really cool episodes
coming up, so stay tuned. And asalways, if you like what you
hear, please pass the wordalong, along.
Like what you do, give us areview. And as always, if
there's things you wanna hear ortopics we want us to cover,
don't be afraid to let us know.Take care, everybody. This
episode of Wisconsin Real EstateToday has come to a close. Be
(27:31):
sure to subscribe to thispodcast and let others know if
you found this content useful.
Until next time, make today yourbest day.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com