Good morning.
Whitewater’s forecast calls for a chance of thunderstorms, with a high temperature of eighty-three.
The Tech Park Board will meet this morning, at 8 a.m. The meeting agenda is available online.
Later tonight, at 6 p.m., there will be a community listening session about the search for a new police chief. Information on listening sessions, and a survey that the community can take, is available online.
Nearing the end of her two-year contractual tenure, Whitewater Schools’ Administrator Dr. Suzanne Zentner has tendered her resignation, for employment in Arizona.
One wishes her the best; she’ll do well.
Sadly, Zentner’s departure creates significant risks for Whitewater. Although I thought her early months as administrator went poorly, she’s proved to be a significant asset to our community. Suzanne Zentner did not have the benefit of a worthy act to follow — her immediate predecessor, Leslie Steinhaus, was an abject disappointment, who left the district drifting on most occasions, and heading in the wrong direction on those rare moments when she did act.
Whitewater’s problems during that earlier time were considerable. One could disagree with aspects of Zentner’s focus, but her manifest creativity and energy were what Whitewater so very much needed.
The district will have to consider a permanent replacement at a time when Wisconsin’s schools are beset by fiscal problems. Talented candidates from outside the state will avoid Wisconsin; candidates from within Wisconsin may be third-tier prospects who are uncompetitive elsewhere.
Although we’re a community that wisely chose Zentner, we’re also the community that foolishly chose her predecessor, Steinhaus — twice (both hired and renewed). Zentner was a welcome relief from Whitewater’s business-as-usual approach.
It’s true that fiscal policy matters for Whitewater’s schools, but it matters as a means to accomplishment in academics, the arts, and athletics. I’m more than prepared to argue over dollars-and-cents, but that debate comes in the context of higher concerns (of the extended curriculum and of fair treatment of all students).
Accomplishment will not come from dull, tired, status-quo solutions. Zentner assured a contemporary direction.
There will be much desire to shape, guide, and direct a hiring effort along the lines that Old Whitewater so very much wishes. Nothing — nothing — could be worse for this district than that approach.
Still, more than one town squire will scheme for exactly that.
Good morning.
It’s a chance of thunderstorms, and a high temperature of seventy-eight, ahead for Whitewater.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets today at 4:15 p.m. The agenda is available online.
In our schools, there’ll be a fifth-grade district-wide ban concert at the high school at 7 p.m. At Lincoln School, there will be a PTO meeting at 3 p.m.
In Wisconsin History, the Wisconsin Historical Society recalls a proud day in our past —
1865 – Wisconsin Troops Capture Jefferson Davis
Just after dawn on May 10, 1865, Col. Henry Harnden of Madison and his squad of 30 volunteers from the First Cavalry arrested the President of the Confederacy. After Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9th, Davis fled south with his cabinet and family. Col. Harnden, commanding the Wisconsin First Cavalry at Macon, Ga., was ordered to scour the countryside for him. After four days of searching, early on May 10th they caught up with Davis and his entourage in the woods near Irwinville. As they approached, Col. Harnden’s troops were attacked by soldiers in the brush. Returning fire, they killed two of their adversaries before discovering they were U.S. soldiers who had converged on Davis from a different direction. Hearing this friendly fire tragedy, the Confederate President tried to escape but Harnden “rode up, dismounted and saluted, and I asked if this was Mr. Davis. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘I am President Davis.’ At this the soldiers set up a shout that Jeff. Davis was captured.” They included about 30 enlisted men from Wisconsin who helped bring the Civil War to its close that day. [Source: Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles]
Dr. Suzanne Zentner will leave the Whitewater Unified School District to take an educational position in Arizona:
It is with mixed emotions that I have decided to leave my position here, as I feel we have just begun in many ways. So many of you have made such deep impressions on me, warmly welcoming me back to the community I left 20-plus years ago and helping to strengthen and support me in my position here. I will remain forever thankful for what has been a remarkable and memorable professional and personal journey.
From my very first words at our opening convocation, you heard me talk about 21st century learning. Although that concept means different things to different people and looks different among the various districts striving to capture its essence, the core notion remains deeply rooted in what we do in our schools and throughout our nation to better prepare our graduates (and ourselves) for the ever-changing world. I once read an eloquent excerpt from a writer expressing the idea of having to get deeper into his work as a way of becoming more effective. It went something like this…. “If you are going to write a book about stevedores, go work as a stevedore for a period of time.” That said, I have been presented with, and have just accepted, a very rare opportunity to get deeper into where I believe we are, as educators, as a nation, and as a society heading into the future.
In my new position, I will be serving as the National Director of K-12 Education with The Apollo Group in Phoenix, Arizona. This new setting will allow me to further combine my passions for education and business by focusing exclusively on 21st century preparedness with a specific focus on entrepreneurship and innovation to districts nationwide….
Good morning.
It’s a day of scattered thundershowers forecast for Whitewater, with a high temperature of sixty-eight.
There’s a meeting of the Library Board tonight at 6:30 p.m. The meeting agenda is available online.
The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that in 1950
On this date, in the first sporting event at the new Milwaukee Arena, Rocky Graziano scored a fourth-round TKO over Vinnie Cidone in a middleweight fight that drew 12,813 fans. The new Milwaukee Arena actually opened on April 9, 1950, but with a civic celebration rather than a sports event. [Source: Milwaukee Journal]
Can a small town’s Dems show as much discipline as the Walker GOP? Whither Whitewater’s Democrats? | FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/jlhWIA
5 May
Whitewater’s Innovation Center: ‘The die is cast’ | FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/kYIq5m
5 May
@dailywisconsin Gov Walker declares ‘State Employee Recognition Day’ Next: Burger King Declares ‘Cow Appreciation Day’ http://bit.ly/kxwANO
4 May
Photo ID requirement sure to become law – and likely to reduce Democrats’ advantage in City of Whitewater http://bit.ly/lt6WDA
4 May
A Victory in the Food Truck Wars | FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/m0qySG
2 May
MT @davidgumpert: Creepy thinking of FDA agents rummaging around private homes in DC area to confiscate milk. http://bit.ly/k99Pc2
2 May
Someone asked me about opinion-making — whether it’s possible to create and control opinion. The question was about whether a newspaper or website could push a candidate to the front, and thus assure that candidate’s success.
I’ve been writing for years, about sundry topics, but I don’t believe in opinion-making. People make up their own minds, for or against a topic (or a candidate). Americans are a literate and educated people, and often independent-minded. They don’t need someone to guide them.
The influence of writing isn’t that the writer ‘makes’ opinion, but that, upon reading something, others will consider or reject it wholly on their own. Some may say that they feel the same way as the writer does; others may object. No opinions, however, are made during this process. Changed a bit, perhaps, but not made.
That doesn’t mean — and this was the questioner’s concern, I think — that some won’t try to push their friends and allies forward, in the best possible light. They will. As long as people have been writing, they’ve been advocating. Admittedly, some of this advocacy is disingenuously and ridiculously denied, but it’s obvious enough, nonetheless.
There’s no particular reason for concern. People aren’t as impressionable as would-be people-of-influence imagine (and hope) they are. Not at all, actually. Beyond that, in a free community with diverse and easily accessible media, alternative views will emerge to challenge status-quo platitudes.
There’s a view of nineteenth-century England that’s like this: that England was the decisive European power because she balanced against Continental blocs. She wasn’t of the majority, so to speak, but rather her influence counterbalanced an otherwise powerful collection of rival powers, preventing them from overcoming all Europe. As others waxed and waned, she adjusted accordingly, to establish a new balance.
New media, emerging now and again, are like this: more than capable of preventing a single, conventional view from overwhelming a place.
There’s an AP story over at Walworth County Today entitled, Rep. Wynn pushes for earlier alcohol sales as a convenience to tailgaters.
Rep. Evan Wynn is the freshman assemblyman representing the 43rd Assembly District, a district that includes Whitewater.
I’m opposed to most restrictions on alcohol, but it’s easy to see that this is an odd proposal for a freshman legislator: to propose moving the time for off-premises alcohol sales to 6 a.m. (from 8 a.m. presently). A bill like this would have better come as a lesser concern of tenured legislator with a long record of commitment to other issues.
One can guess that the AP thinks so, too, and that’s why the story went out on their news wire across the Midwest. They likely didn’t run the story because they thought it was a good idea, but rather because it was an unusual one.
Looking at online comments to the proposal at newspapers’ websites, support and opposition seem about evenly split.
There’s a gap, though, between how commenters respond to the proposal. Supporters see this as a matter-of-fact convenience for third-shift workers. Opponents, though, simply ridicule the proposal, considering it a waste of legislative resources and an enticement to over-drinking. The greater intensity — leveled as sarcasm — seems to rest with opposition to the idea.
(This makes sense — the number who would avail themselves of this proposal is far smaller than the number of people who will comment without any likelihood of using a more generous opportunity for purchasing.)
On the merits, I think the change in time is slight and innocuous.
It’s puzzling, though, that a freshman legislator would sponsor this proposal, when it should be obvious it would draw exactly the kind of opposition that it has drawn. It’s one thing to sponsor an idea some dislike — but another for a new legislator to sponsor an idea that many will consider unserious.
