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…
School District
Education, School District
The Whitewater Schools’ Motto
by JOHN ADAMS •
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 •
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…
Education, School District
Variations in Spending
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 14 in a series. National Public Radio, and twenty of its radio stations, have completed a project to see how much each public school district in America spends, per pupil on education. See, Why America’s Schools Have A Money Problem @ NPR. The study focused on spending per pupil, and found wide disparities, even when adjusted…
School District
On Eric Runez, District Administrator
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 13 in a series. Eric Runez has been the Whitewater Unified School District’s administrator since 2011 (and immediately before that was the principal at Whitewater Middle School). He’s now given notice that he’ll be leaving that position for a superintendent’s post in the DeForest School District. Many school administrators serve in more than one district during their careers.…
City, Elections, School District, Walworth County
Local Election Recap
by JOHN ADAMS •
Local elections affecting Whitewater went about as one might have expected. I’d guess there were, in the end, no surprises. There were three uncontested races for Common Council (Allen, Binnie, Langness), and two for the Whitewater Unified School District (Brunner, Stewart). That leaves two contested races in the immediate area: a Common Council race between…
Education, Government Spending, School District
Assumptions on Referenda
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 11 in a weekly series. There’s a theory – in Whitewater and other places – that good policy comes from having as many ‘adults in the room’ (that is, as many established & mature people) as possible. I’d say that’s necessary, but insufficient. Relying only on the established & mature, without specific consideration of discernment and…
Education, School District, University, UW System
A Theory About the Diverging Futures of the Whitewater Schools and UW-Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 7 in a weekly series. Before I begin today’s post, I’ll mention that there is now an announcement at the Whitewater Unified School District’s webpage about academic success at one of our schools despite economic hardship. It’s a prominent mention, and that’s a good decision – we should lead with what we have truly done. For…
Education, Poverty, School District
Whitewater’s True and Worthy Success
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 6 in a weekly series. I posted last week about a State of the Schools presentation, and planned to follow this week with an assessment of that presentation, but there’s a more recent development that should – and so does – take precedence. On February 10th, one of Whitewater’s schools, Washington School, was named a Title…
City, Culture, Local Government, Newspapers, School District, University
Whitewater’s Mentoring Gap
by JOHN ADAMS •
Looking back ten years (or nine in the case of UW-Whitewater), one finds at the helm of Whitewater’s public institutions leaders who so very much embodied Old Whitewater: Steinhaus, Brunner, Coan, Telfer (beginning in ’07). They were the perfect representatives of Old Whitewater, where Old Whitewater is an attitude, not an age: narrow, grandiose, mediocre, producing…
Blogging, City, Culture, New Media, Newspapers, Press, School District, University
Revisiting Kozloff’s ‘Dark, Futile Dream’
by JOHN ADAMS •
About a year ago, I wrote a post on an off-campus meeting at which local notables and a search consultant (Jessica Kozloff) discussed a replacement for Richard Telfer. A story on that meeting, published in the Daily Union, is one of the best accounts of insiders’ thinking. See, from that newspaper, UW-Whitewater chancellor session held, http://www.dailyunion.com/news/article_f042575e-a63a-11e4-bcd8-939679ffcc09.html.…
Education, School District
The State of the Schools Presentation at Whitewater’s Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 5 in a weekly series. State of the Schools @ Whitewater’s Common Council 020216 from John Adams on Vimeo. I’ve embedded a 2.2.16 ‘State of the Schools’ presentation to Whitewater’s Common Council, and a pdf of a brochure that school district representatives distributed at the meeting (and that is available on the school district’s website). It’s…
Education, School District
Video & Liveliness
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 3 in a weekly series. There’s an unfortunate, unnecessary gap in our schools between the liveliness of students (and many teachers) and the way in which local print media present those lively people. Although I’m opposed to being too close to a subject, the encounters that I have concerning our schools unfailingly remind of this gap.…
Education, School District
The Better Way on Standardized Scores
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 2 in a weekly series. I’ve written previously about our schools’ touting of ACT scores based on a selective presentation of those standardized test results. There’s an irony in this: I consider standardized scores an imperfect measure of actual learning, and have written about them mostly in response to others’ repeated and superficial twisting of the…