Weston Community:

Staying Strong for 150 years

R ITA

K ASTEN

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Rita Kasten joined the D.C.
Everest School Board in
1980. She is planning on
retiring from this post
soon. She has also retired
from her job as a
supervisor at the Aspirus
Hospital. Rita enjoys her
house in the country and
the wildlife surrounding it.

Can you tell us how long you have been on the D.C. Everest Board of Education?
I know its over 20 years; I think its pretty close to 30.

Are you currently still on the board?

Yes, I think I have another year left on my term.

When did you first start?

I started 29 years ago, in 1980.

Why did you run for the school board?

I had a niece who was disabled, and I thought that she was not getting correct information and
instruction, so thats the reason why.

What are the major changes youve observed in the school system over the past 30 years?
It takes a long time to make changes, and finally, I feel that our school board has gotten to the state where
everyone knows math and learns how to read. Those are the two main reasons that I ran 29 years ago,
and that I think every student should have, so Im glad that is coming aboard now.

What committees did you serve on over the years, and what was your favorite?
I was the president of the school board. I also was on the Instruction committee, and Ive been on that
ever since Ive been on the school board. I am also the Clerk of the school board, which I have been on
for about 20 years. The president of the school board runs the school board meetings and informs the
other board members of things that are happening in our school district. The Instruction committee is
made up of three people, and those people go over the textbooks at one time. It has changed now; they
go over all the curriculum guides we use in the school district.

Could you describe the growth of the school district since you first came on the board?
When I first came on the board we added Evergreen, that was a big thing. Then we added Riverside,
and now weve added the Middle School, and now weve gotten Mountain Bay. So we have had
tremendous growth during that time.

Do you have any stories about your experiences that you can share with us?
Its a hard working community of people; they are very dedicated. I dont have many stories because we

2009 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publications

Kasten, Rita

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Weston Community:

Staying Strong for 150 years

have to work underneath a school board, all of the candidates. You cant work alone and not call for a
meeting. So really, socially we never meet as a group; its always underneath the restriction of the board.
There are always funny little things that happen during the meetings, but nothing that really stands out.

How many members are on the board, and what are the other members?
There are seven members on the board. There is the president, vice president, treasurer, and clerk. And
then you have committees. One is for CESA that it has to go through, and then one connected with the
laws that are being presented to the state.

During your time on the school board how many

superintendents have there been, and who was the
most interesting?
Mr. Longo was the first one, then Mr. Machi, and then Mr.
Dodd. Now the current superintendent is Mrs. Gilmore. Well
I guess the most interesting one, was my first one with Mr.
Longo. I was new on the board, and I learned a lot. He was
the most interesting; he gave lots of information and things to
me, which helped me out for all these many years.

So you dont
always get what
you want as an
individual, but as a
group, you have a
part of that law
that you want to
see through.

What was your most important contribution you have

made on the board?
I think this one with reading and math is very important and its
very important to vote for that. You learn as youre on the school board (which I wish they would do
down-state) is that you may start out with an idea, but everyone can add to that or take away from that.
So you dont always get what you want as an individual, but as a group, you have a part of that law that
you want to see through. You cannot take a this is my thing attitude; you have to know that everyone
has input in it.

Do you think the educational system in the Everest school district, which would include the
city of Weston, draws in new residents to this area?
I am told it does. I got that information when the new hospital came, when they had to get doctors and
all that. They looked at the school system very seriously. So yes, it does draw in new residents to this area.

What has been the relationship between the school district and the village of Weston over
the years?
The relationship has been cooperative. We have worked together on many issues, so it has been
cooperative. Nothing has been negative. We always work together.

If you could change one thing about this school system, what would it be?
I think that every child should have an activity that he or she is interested in besides school, like an extracurricular activity. So after school, they can feel that they can go to some place and broaden their
horizons. I wish our school district could do this, as well as all school districts. I think its very important,
and I think that the child learns a lot by going to extra activities.

Where does D.C. Everest rank as a school system in the state of Wisconsin?
To tell you the truth, I dont know. You have financial, and usually we are close to the bottom with that.
Academically, I know we are towards the top, but not really on the very top. I dont know the numbers

Kasten, Rita

2009 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publications

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Weston Community:

Staying Strong for 150 years

though; to be honest, I dont pay that much attention to numbers. We are on the bottom for financial
reasons, but we are more like the top or the middle in other things. We do a very good job with the money
we do have.

Can you also tell us about your profession outside of the school board?
Now I am retired, but I did work for Aspirus Hospital. I was a supervisor. My main job there was to
work with students there in the evening time. I usually had about 25 students that I would supervise. Per
day, I would have about 7 students, and per day means late afternoon to evening. I also supervised the
adults from 11 oclock on, and I served food to the patients. I liked that job. I loved the idea of working
with the kids.

Has Weston been a good place for you as a

professional?
In the field I am in, you dont find many jobs, so I have been
very fortunate. I worked for Wisconsin Public Service and I
worked for the hospital, and those are very good places to work.
For Wisconsin Public Service, I was the head of the Home
Economics Program. Thats basically where we had
individuals that went into the homes, and showed the people
how to use their stoves. At that time, electric stoves were
entirely new and gas was coming up new. Thats what the job
was.

What do you like best about living in the city of

Weston?
I love my property that I have. I live out in the country and I
enjoy the wildlife and the open air that I have.

I think we are very

fortunate, and even
the teachers are
there to help support
the students. You
really cannot ask for
more than that
wealth we have
there

Is there anything else you can tell us about the school system?
I think right now you are very fortunate to have a school board, administration, and superintendent that
really care for the school children. They are there to help the students and help the school district. I think
we are very fortunate, and even the teachers are there to help support the students. You really cannot ask
for more than that wealth we have there.

Is there anything else you would like to say about Weston as a community?
I am on the planning board for the town of Weston, as the majority of the people in the town of Weston;
we dont care to have many subdivisions. They were looking into having small little farms, and acreage
around their house instead of having houses around their house.

When did you first come to the Weston area and what drew you and your family to the area?
We first came to the Weston area in around 1948. At that time I was a child, and my father had to come
to a place that did not have water, unlike Lake Michigan where we used to live. He was an optometrist
and he had to find a practice that was up for sale, and so that is why he came to the Wausau area. And
then he wanted to buy land, and thats how we got to the town of Weston.

What was the area of Weston like back then?

It was barren. This used to be a corn field; right here was a cornfield. Machmueller, the father of the

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2009 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publications

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Weston Community:

Staying Strong for 150 years

one that just died, owned this land and they also owned a garage down where Burger King is now. So
one day they took the money from the garage, and they wanted to go out, and the banks were closed and
they didnt know what to do with this money so they threw it in the corn field. It took them a day and a
half to find the money in the corn field. Weston was very barren at that time; in fact, Weston at that time
did not have money. At that time we did not have the power plant. When we came first to look at the
land that we bought, the car hung up on the road because it was all muddy, muck. They didnt have
anything paved; they didnt take care of the roads at that time until we got the public works.

What do you see for the future of Weston?

There will be more growth. I think there will be more businesses because thats what I think the village
is looking at--to get more factories in here than stores. Factories pay more than stores do. So you will
find some growth here. My understanding is, from talking to other people, that this is supposed to be
more or less a banking area, because we are in between Green Bay and Minneapolis. They feel we have
that type of wealth here in this area.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about Weston?

The people that live on the other side of the Eau Claire River, its mostly the town of Weston. Weston
was a very big township when we first came. And now were down to the six miles, so we became a very
small township. About 10 years ago on this side of the river, a group of people wanted to be known as a
village, and not a township. So there was a vote, and of course they voted to be a village and not a
township. There were boundary lines thoughout. Our area on our side of the river, plus another area
East, did not get into it. Then almost a year later, East got into it. There was never a campaign on our
side of the river to do that.

Can you describe what Weston looked like 50 years ago?

Yes, I can. We moved out in Weston when I was in the sixth grade. But we had to develop there steadily;
we had a house in the city of Wausau. Weston, we were on the north side of the river, and so you were
not connected with the people on the south side of Weston, because the only way you can get to the north
side is by Schofield Bridge, then going through Schofield and hitting their town hall, or go on J; otherwise,
you could not get to the other part of Weston. So, we had very little connection with the big mass of
Weston because Weston was mostly across the river. Weston was the biggest township ever, and it became
smaller and smaller. When the village came about, it left us only about six miles of township because we
were not really connected with Weston. I think the people on the south side of the river felt that they
were really rejected when the village formed because we were not asked to be part of that village. Lots
of that was politics of the state. They only allowed so many guidelines of how they could become a
village. And we could not become one because the voters were voted into the village. There was no one
on our side of the river who campaigned to do that, and after a while we started to like the idea that we
were still the town of Weston instead of the village of Weston. There was very little building when we
first came out. When we came out to Weston, we had to buy a Jeep with a plow to get to our home. The
township did not have any snow plows, and so they had to depend on the county to do most of the
plowing, and many times the county did not plow our road. So we plowed our own road, to get to our
driveway, to get to our house. And thats the way we had to do transportation in the winter time. After
public service came to our territory, we found out that there is money, and they brought the plows, and
then they started taking care of our roads. In fact, many times we got stuck in the mud, and we had to
get horses to pull out the car because they did not take care of the roads when we first came out to
Weston.
Kasten, Rita

2009 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publications

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What occupations were your parents involved in?
My father was an optometrist, and my mother was a homemaker.

Weston Community:

Staying Strong for 150 years

Could you tell more about those jobs?

Well, my father was an optometrist for many years in Wausau, and he was the only one in the family at
that time, that had graduated from college. My mother only graduated from eighth grade, and so that
was their educational background. As a homemaker, she took care of the home and the children that
they had, which was two.

Can you tell us about your schooling as a kid?

As a kid, I first went to Wausau grade school. Then, when we moved out to the farm, I was in the seventh
and eighth grade and I went to country school. The country school that I went to was on Townline Road,
and what is now Camp Phillips, on that corner. There were five children in the seventh and eighth grade,
and I was one of them. We did not have an eighth grade when I went there; all of us were in the seventh,
and we graduated into the eighth grade the following year. There were approximately 30 children in that
school that were in different grades. Being in the seventh grade, we would get our homework done, and
then help the lower grades with their homework. We never took homework home because we could get
it done at school. We had no special education students; we did not have the facilities for that. We had
art and music class over the radio.

How did that work?

It worked. We had fun. You didnt know it was a hardship at that time, so it was one of those things that
you did, and that was it. Also at that time the A-bomb was very important, and we would have to have
practice to hide underneath our desks, so in case there was an A- bomb, we had someplace to hide. Our
phyiscal education was recess. And all the children from first grade up to seventh and eighth grade all
played together on the playgrounds. So that was our physical education and exercise. The teacher would
come out and play with us, and organize games and things like that for us. Our bathrooms were outside;
we had a girls bathroom and a boys bathroom that we had to walk out to in the winter time with coats
and boots on. There was no running water; we had to go outside and pump the water, and we had a
bucket in the school for drinking water, with a scoop to scoop out the water. The school was heated with
an oil burner. We did not have a cafeteria; we had to bring our own lunch all the time, and our own milk.
The teacher put a big dish pan of hot water on top of the stove, and if you wanted soup or casserole
heated up you could place it in the hot water, and it would heat it until it was time to eat. We had one
day at the end of the year, where all the families of students would get together to celebrate the year at
school.

What did the school look like?

It was a one room school, with a long hallway. Where you came in the long hallway was where we put
our coats and boots, and then we walked into the school which was one big room.

How has the Weston area grown over the years?

It has grown in leaps and bounds. It seems like you turn around and more houses are going up. Look
down the old 29, when we first came here there was Jacks grocery store, no homes around it. There was
a big fox farm, and a big drive in theater as time went on. And all of that has disappeared now. Now
they are homes or buildings of some type. There was very little business in the area at that time because
most people were farmers.

Kasten, Rita

2009 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publications

Weston Community:

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Staying Strong for 150 years

Was that the primary business at that time?

Yes, farming was the primary business in the town of Weston at the time. We had little industry in it.

Were there any other major businesses?

If you were sixteen you didnt have to go to school any longer, so you could go get a job; you could go to
high school, you could go into the service, or you could go back home, and many boys went back home
to help on the farm. So you didnt have to continue your education after you were sixteen. I went on to
Wausau Junior High and then to their senior high, and the last two years when I was in the 11th and 12th
grade, D.C Everest built what you call now the Junior High. We had a choice; we could either finish up
at Wausau, or come to the new school at D.C Everest. I decided to stay at Wausau because I had lots of
friends there, and I was planning to go on to college, which I did. I thought Wausau had a better
background because they were an older school than the new school, so I decided to stay.

Can you tell us everything you can remember about Weston?

Well, the roads were horrible when we first came out. We didnt
get a telephone line running to our house until I was going to the
So you didnt have middle
school in Wausau, so I was in the 9th grade. Then we
got
a
telephone,
and our telephone had twelve different families
to continue your
on it.

education after you

were sixteen

How did that work, or how did you do that?

Well, you would pick up the phone and listen to see if there was
anybody on it or not. If there wasnt, you could use it, if there
was, you couldnt. So you had to wait and sometimes, some of these families had ten kids, and they all
wanted to use the phone, so sometimes you had to say I need to use the phone, can you please get off ?
Many times they did. Thats the only way you can work that system. We did not have a phone when I
went to the country school; there was no phone at that time. We had to wait for the phone line to come,
and also electricity. Every storm we had, we never had electricity; it just blew out the electrical lines, and
then they had to come out and fix them. This is still true to this day; very seldom do we not have
electricity. Otherwise, what has changed? The village got bigger and the town got smaller. One big asset
that came was the bridge on Camp Phillips Road. To connect the two townships, it was a fight to get that
bridge. There was a road up to the river, which was a Boy Scout camp, and on the other side of the river
was North Weston. The two did not connect, so from North Weston to Townline Road, there was no
road, and thats what they had to break new. Then, you could become one big town of Weston. Then
Weston got too large to be a town, so they had to become a village.

Kasten, Rita

Interviewers: Ben Aleckson & Alex Tarras

2009 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publications