By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
For the last 20 years, Jacqueline Syens has been a proud resident of the City of Burlington.
Her children have attended the Burlington Area School District public schools, and for a while, her husband, Peter, taught science at Burlington High School.
But during that time, Syens was first a teacher, and then an assistant principal at Central-Denison Elementary School in Lake Geneva. While she loved her time there, what happened this last week was a dream come true.
Syens emerged from a pool of about 90 applicants as the recommended hire for the open Winkler Elementary School principal position. The School Board formally approved her hiring on Monday.
BASD Superintendent Peter Smet said the district first narrowed the pool of applicants to eight interviewees, and one declined the interview. From there, three finalists were named – Bennett Walshire, principal at Salem Grade School, Charles Tollefson, assistant principal at Phoenix Middle School in Delavan, and Syens.
“It was a strong group of applicants,” Smet said. A committee including Smet, other district administrators, and parents and teachers at Winkler reached the consensus of extending the job to Syens.
“This has just been a wonderful part of my life,” said Syens of her job in Lake Geneva. She started teaching second and third grade at Central School, and then moved to Central-Denison Elementary in 2003.
She became an assistant principal there in 2009, and had been happy there until the job opened up in Burlington.
“The opportunity arose for the Winkler principal, and that was just a dream,” Syens said. “I’ll be able to serve the Burlington School District.”
Her own children – John, Luke and Hayley – have all either graduated from BHS or are, in the case of Hayley, a student there now.
“Burlington is a great school system,” Syens said. “I always have felt … the superintendents and administrators have always been progressive. Very supportive of education.”
With the start of the school year rapidly approaching, Syens said her first goal is to meet with staff in the upcoming weeks, and get a handle on the many different initiatives going on within the district.
“I’m going to start a conversation with our staff in the upcoming weeks,” said Syens, who added that test scores are good, but challenges are always there.
Syens wants to meet the needs of all the students, and also meet all the initiatives being presented.
“That’s a challenge for me to ensure that is being carried through,” she said.
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