By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
They may have their own set of governing bodies, budgets, policies and staff, but leaders of the five school districts throughout the Waterford area say they are as committed as ever to work together cooperatively.
Collaboration was a buzzword when school officials from the four K-8 feeder districts – Drought, North Cape, Washington-Caldwell and Waterford Graded – and Waterford Union High School came together with municipal leaders at a bi-annual joint intergovernmental meeting held last week at the high school.
“Since we’re not a K-12 district, it takes a little more work in this configuration to get the job done,” said Mark Pienkos, superintendent and principal of the Washington-Caldwell School District, said.
“But the key is cooperation. We’re not, and can’t be, individual districts trying to find our way.”
Having smaller K-8 districts feed into a high school with a footprint as large as Waterford Union High School’s is a common practice in Wisconsin. But meeting regularly and cooperatively has a number of budgetary and curricular benefits, leaders say.
Some or all of the five districts throughout the community share or coordinate a number of services, including nursing and special education staffing and even bus schedules.
Leaders of all the districts agree that meeting regularly to discuss curriculum is a sound practice to ensure the K-8 districts are following a similar pattern.
“We can’t just hunker down and do our own thing,” Pienkos said. “If we did, the kids would all go in different directions when they got to the high school.
“It wouldn’t be fair to the kids. The stock and trade we’re all involved in is curriculum. This is something we have in common.”
With ongoing fiscal constraints and plenty of uncertainty in the areas of benefit costs and utilities, school leaders agreed last week that further exploration of shared services is an idea worth exploring.
“Quite frankly, we’re doing everything possible to work together,” Pienkos said.
“We’re counting our pennies when it comes to health insurance. Unity might make more sense in that instance to get a better rate.”
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