Waterford

Super Board draws leaders to the table

By Dave Fidlin

Correspondent

Superintendents and School Board members from all Waterford area public school districts gathered at a March 31 Super Board Meeting with municipal leaders. The collective bodies discussed issues of mutual concern and interest.

On the education side, there were some correlations: technology continues to be rolled out at a rapid clip and several top personnel changes are imminent.

School representatives were on hand March 31 from Waterford Union High School and its four K-8 feeder districts: Drought, North Cape, Washington-Caldwell and Waterford Graded.

For the first time in the history of the bi-annual Super Meetings, representatives of the Muskego-Norway School District also participated in the round-table discussion.

  • Two Waterford area superintendents are stepping down from their respective districts June 30 — the last day of the fiscal 2014-15 school year.

Chris Joch is leaving his post in Waterford Graded, and Mark Pienkos is retiring from his leadership role in Washington-Caldwell.

The Waterford Graded School Board is in the midst of a vigorous search for its next leader. School Board President Doug Schwartz, who leaves the board later this month, said he was admittedly disappointed there was not more involvement in a recent focus group meeting about selecting a new superintendent.

At Washington-Caldwell, Jill Saltzmann, the current principal, special education teacher and athletic director at Washington School, will assume Pienkos’s position July 1 as part of a succession plan that has been in place.

When it comes to current and future enrollment projections, reports vary from one district to the next, but overwhelmingly point to increasing numbers in the years ahead.

  • Keith Brandstetter, WUHS superintendent, said the district has 31 more students this year compared to a year ago. For the 2015-16 school year, the district plans to build on the momentum, increasing enrollment with 15 more students.

“Even though there’s not much building going on, it seems families with kids are moving into homes for sale,” Brandstetter said.

  • Drought School, the smallest of the K-8 districts feeding into WUHS, has been experiencing annual enrollment increases of about 10 percent, Principal Carrie Reid said. Currently, Drought has a total enrollment of 94 students.

“We are increasing, and we plan to continue increasing,” Reid commented.

But some of the K-8 feeders are experiencing enrollment declines. In Washington-Caldwell, Saltzmann said the district has been losing students, year over year, and projections point to the trend continuing.

  • This school year, Washington-Caldwell has 178 students. The number is expected to dip to 171 students in 2015-16, 159 students in 2016-17 and 148 students in 2017-18.
  • Pointing out 20 percent of its student population comes from the Town of Norway, Rick Petfalski, president of the Muskego-Norway School Board, said he was pleased to be brought into the fold of discussions.

“We want to be included in this,” Petfalski commented. “We’re not just the Muskego School District.”

Petfalski outlined some of the highlights in Muskego-Norway, including a new policy concerning random student drug testing.

 

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