How many rights do Whitewater’s residents possess? It’s a simple question, and there’s a simple answer: They possess all the rights of residency or citizenship, respectively, of Americans and Wisconsinites elsewhere. One may express this plainly: All of America, and all of Wisconsin, for all of Whitewater. There is no local practice, no old custom,…
School District
School District
Candidate Searches for Our Schools
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The inevitable and happy risk of having talented employees is that other employers will notice them, and make competitive offers to them. That’s what’s happened for Whitewater Middle School principal Dan Foster, who is returning to Waterford Union, this time to be its high school principal. He’s paid a required early-departure penalty, and one wishes…
School District
A Handbook
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Among the agenda items discussed at last night’s school board meeting was the appointment of board members to a committee to prepare an employee handbook for the district (agenda item 13c). Two were appointed. A handbook, of course, has a much greater significance in districts that will, overtime, be without public-employee collective bargaining. (Here I…
School District
The Janesville Schools’ Cautionary Tale for Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Down in Janesville, there’s been a debate about whether to adopt a more detailed dress code. They’ve spent more than one school board meeting on the subject. Just about any other discussion within that district, in that struggling city, would be more useful than an over-analysis of what teachers, administrators, and other employees should wear…
School District
Whitewater Schools’ 2012 Community Survey
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at the Whitewater Unified School District website, one will find a community survey for residents of the district. The survey comes from a popular service called SurveyMonkey, and is well worth taking. It’s easy to fill out, offers places for comments if one would like, and is a simple and efficient way for the…
School District, Technology
Technology Support in the Whitewater Schools
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
At the 8.27.12 board meeting for the Whitewater Schools, there was a presentation from Charlie Barr, Technology Coordinator, on the possibility adding a full-time technology supervisor to the few interns now working for him. The discussion took place from approx. 38:35 to 1:12:40 during the board meeting. I well understand the need for due diligence…
Politics, School District
Local Implications of the Recall Results for the Whitewater Unified School District
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
On Friday, I asked three questions about the implications of the June recall election, and yesterday I wrote about the first of them (implications for the newly redistricted 43rd Assembly district). Today, I’ll look at what the numbers say about the electorate within the Whitewater Unified School District. A map of the district appears immediately…
City, Politics, School District
Task List: Local Implications of the Gubernatorial Election
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
There are dozens of possibilities for what the recall election means for Wisconsin, but I’m curious about three local implications, that I’ll write about after looking at precinct-by-precinct gubernatorial results. (Quick admission: in January, I thought Gov. Walker would lose a close recall election. That prediction was considerably off – he won comfortably. The advantage…
Books, School District
A Summer Reading Program
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Update 1:35 PM: There’s a helpful reminder in the comments that our library also offers reading programs for children and for adults. Many thanks for both programs and reminder. A summer reading program for the Whitewater Schools (even if only for some classes) is a good idea. It’s new for Whitewater, and so one can…
City, Politics, School District
Political Recap: The Whitewater Schools’ Referendum
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Sometimes one sees something impressive. Last night was one of those times. After all but a few votes have been counted, the Whitewater Schools’ referendum has likely passed. I wrote about the referendum on January 18th, and made two principal points: (1) the referendum faced long odds (“I’d guess that a referendum in the spring…
Education, School District
Spanish, French, Mandarin, Brazilian Portuguese, &c.
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It shouldn’t be odd that people speak more than one language. Many who arrived here, and all who were originally here, spoke a language other than English. We’ve a multicultural community, and beyond it trade with all the world, yet use of other languages seems odd to us. I remember being initially surprised when former…
School District
The Whitewater District’s Search that Wasn’t
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Months ago, at a party, someone asked me if the Whitewater Schools would conduct a genuine search for a high school principal. I said no: they’d take the interim principal, insist he was the only candidate, and make him the permanent high school principal. (That’s exactly what happened Monday night, 2.27.12. There are many times…
Books, New Whitewater, Press Release, School District, University
Mark Twain T-shirt Art Contest for K-12 Students
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Best to all the contestants, and appreciation to those supporting the contest — Mark Twain T-shirt Art Contest for K-12 Students For the fourth year in a row, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded a local partnership to bring the national Big Read initiative to Rock, Walworth and Jefferson County. Mark Twain in…