Here are a few additional links and comments on the search for a new WUSD Administrator.
First, thanks very much to all those who’ve written, or spoken to me, about yesterday’s posts on the WUSD search, public forums, and candidate receptions. I get a good bit of mail, but I cannot often tell beforehand which posts will spark correspondence. The public forums yesterday and today, and particularly my remarks on the venue, led to lots of correspondence. Thanks, Whitewater. My pleasure, I’m quite sure.
Some have asked, today, about the April 1st post on yesterday’s reception, not at FREE WHITEWATER, but another local website. I’ll answer your general question about those photos — although I cannot be sure, I do not think either the photos or commentary at that other site are meant to be April 1st teasing. I think they’re meant to be serious, actually. The lack of any irony — that’s a place where irony dare not tread — is noticeable.
It’s a perspective much in keeping with this town’s past, but — as you well know — often derided outside of a small circle.
Some additional links, not found on the WUSD website — of the candidates’ current districts —
The Round Lake School District, at which Dr. Dennis Pauli is employed, and the Isaac School District, at which Dr. Suzanne Zentner is employed.
Then, an endorsement from the editorial board of the Daily Herald, of school board candidates, and mentioning the financial status, of the Round Lake School District, “Support incumbents in Round Lake Area District 116.”
From that editorial, some remarks on the condition of Round Lake School District 116:
Round Lake Area Unit District 116 is on the comeback trail. Taken over by the state in 2002 after it almost collapsed under $14 million in short-term loans, District 116 could be the first such district ever to earn its way back to local control after the 2009-2010 school year.
School board incumbents have worked hard with schools CEO Ben Martindale to make that happen and have built their own skills through programs offered by the Illinois Association of School Boards.
They deserve to be re-elected to help District 116 face its next set of challenges….
I’ll leave it to others to consider what all this means; I offer no suggestion that any of the problems the Illinois district has faced are the responsibility of Dr. Pauli. On the contrary, in fact, based on his current area of responsibility.
I have a different point to make here — information on the status of the Round Lake School District 116 has not been widely reported locally. Has its condition had an impact on teaching, curriculum, etc., and what lesson might we learn from this, in Whitewater?
Neither of these candidates is chief administrator of his or her district — Dr. Suzanne Zentner serves as associate superintendent of teaching and learning for the Isaac School District, and Dr. Dennis Pauli is assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for Round Lake Area Schools District 116.
What they’ve done recently will always matter more than a tie to Whitewater, or Wisconsin, generally. That once, thirty-two years ago, one of the candidates ate a brat, or drew a lovely picture of a badger, is just too funny.