Whitewater’s local public school district held a board meeting last night, and one of the topics was physical change to the schools following a successful construction referendum in November. The district administrator gave an overview of some design possibilities, that one could characterize into two broad categories: design changes for students’ safety (e.g., more secure…
School District
City, Culture, Local Government, School District, University
On Lake, McHenry, and Walworth Counties
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In August, I wrote that dorm-construction wasn’t the big story at UW-Whitewater, but rather it was the federal lawsuit against former Chancellor Telfer and [then-current] Athletic Director Amy Edmonds. Even in her mundane story of residence-construction, the Journal Sentinel‘s Karen Herzog got it wrong: the bigger story was an increasing number of out-of-state students (now about…
City, Culture, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, Marketing, New Whitewater, School District
How Big Averts Bad
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
If it should be true that small-town Whitewater faces a choice between difficult times now or an extended decline before an out-of-town-led gentrification, that her decline will otherwise be slow but no less signficant as a result, that stakeholder (special interest) politics grips the city, and that this stakeholder politics is really an identity politics…
City, Culture, Economics, Politics, School District, University
Plain-Spoken in a Small Town? Not Most Leaders
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a quaint – but false – notion that people in small towns are uncommonly plain-spoken, even blunt. One sometimes sees examples of this in films or books, where residents are depicted as folksy straight-talkers (“shucks, I don’t cotton to no one abusing nobody,” etc.). I’ve never heard anyone in Whitewater speak so colorfully, and I’ve…
Education, Public Relations, School District, State Government
That From Which Dreams Are Made
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Wisconsin, like most states, publishes sets of scorecards measuring students’ progress. (The overwhelming majority of school districts – 91% – at least meet expectations. Our local district falls within this common group; a few particular schools are admirably above it.) Yesterday, the district announced the latest results, after the state’s Department of Public Instruction made them…
Conflicts of Interest, School District
Conflicts of Interest Don’t Explode, They Corrode
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Akin to fake news at the local level are myriad conflicts of interest tolerated in struggling communities. Like fake news, they often take their toll slowly. Conflicts of interest, in small towns as elsewhere, seldom lead to sudden fiscal or economic changes. Neither government (fiscal) nor a community (economic) is immediately touched. Local conflicts of…
City, Education, Politics, School District
At Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting, 10.4.16
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There are a few moments from last night’s Common Council meeting that I’ll consider briefly today. Budget. It’s fall, and so for Whitewater’s local government that means a proposed budget rollout, and Council sessions principally occupied with that subject through November. On efficiency of government services, City Manager Clapper remarked that one can expect municipal…
Elections, Politics, School District
About a Survey
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
I promised last week that I would write about a recent survey that seemed to rely on a skewed, unrepresentative sample. The survey and some printed accounts of it have been available, but the recording of the 6.6.16 meeting at which the results were initially presented does not seem to be available online for readers. …
Education, Law, School District
The Masking Effect of Act 10
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, School District
Whitewater Chooses a New Administrator
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This morning, the Whitewater Unified School District announced the selection of Dr. Mark Elworthy, currently administrator of the Wisconsin Heights School District, as Whitewater’s next district administrator. One wishes him truly the very best in our community. We have proud accomplishments, with some significant challenges ahead, but that work ahead is among the best work…
Education, School District
The Other Hiring Decisions
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
The Whitewater Schools will soon select a new district administrator. It’s an important decision, but one that’s made easier by its consequent infrequency: there are few positions available at that level, and always a few candidates for each available position. Across our state, however, hiring teachers in sufficient numbers and of sufficient quality is a…
Education, School District
Hiring a District Administrator
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over the next few days, Whitewater’s school board will interview candidates for district administrator. For the district, these last several years have been relatively tranquil if fiscally difficult. I’ve observed that, as against other districts, we have been fortunate to avoid the labor-management tension that has plagued too many districts. (‘One or more’ would be…
Education, School District
The Whitewater Schools’ Motto
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Whitewater Unified School District has a motto, a very good one: Every graduate an engaged lifelong learner. If our schools achieve this result – graduates who are engaged, lifelong learners – that engagement and that learning will take different forms for different people. People are and should be, to borrow a title from a…
City, Culture, Economy, Politics, School District, University
The City Never Sleeps
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
In the broadest, figurative sense, Whitewater never sleeps. Like any other place, she’s constantly changing, either to her benefit or detriment, but changing nonetheless. (It’s only the parochial myth that she’s already achieved a level of perfection that obscures the obvious truth of constant flux.) Glance away, for one day or forty, and when one…