By Rumasa Noor
Staff writer
The new principal of Yorkville Elementary School, Amy Foszpanczyk, took charge in the first week of July.
Foszpanczyk graduated from UW-Whitewater in 1997 with an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education. She was licensed for grades 1-9 and started her career in Wilmot, where she taught language arts and Spanish at the middle school.
After five years of teaching, she decided to attend Carroll University to pursue a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on early literacy.
But this was not the only graduate degree for Foszpanczyk.
After getting her first master’s degree, she taught first grade in three schools – Wilmot, Brown Deer School District and East Troy School District.
“I switched to first grade so that I could use my early literacy background,” she said.
She then went to Concordia University to get her second master’s degree in educational leadership.
After she finished school, she went on to become the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the East Troy Community School District for three years, Foszpanczyk said.
During that time, she realized that while she enjoyed being a part of the administration, she really missed working with children.
“I am excited to be back in the school, I feel that it’s the best of both worlds. I get to work with teachers but I also still get that connection with kids and their families,” Foszpanczyk said.
She said “there is just something special about that K-8 setting.” It allows the teachers and the administration to watch the kids grow.
“They enter as four-year-olds and they leave us as soon-to-be high schoolers, and just watching that change and (being) involved in developing who they are as people and working with parents through that process is so exciting,” she said.
Foszpanczyk said she wants to develop great relationships with teachers, parents and students.
“I want to be in a school where I know all the teachers, I know all the families, and not (work) in a school that’s just so big that it’s difficult to develop those relationships,” she said. “I really want to work to develop those relationships and I felt like this was a great place to do it.”
This is Foszpanczyk’s first job as a school principal. Her goal for the first year is to strengthen the relationships with the kids, their parents and with teachers. She said she wants to “get an idea for what makes Yorkville so unique and special.”
As she takes the helm at Yorkville Elementary school, Foszpanczyk said she has a lot to learn about the school in terms of curriculum and develop a plan based on the knowledge she acquires.
The new principal also said she is extremely excited to take on her new role.
“Right now I am doing a lot of work on background and policy and analyzing data to get to know school that way,” she said. “I am really looking forward to when teachers, students and families arrive here in August.”
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