Superintendent’s Corner

By Rick Parks

January is typically a time of reflection, resolutions and renewal. As we begin the new calendar year, our district is in the midst of the 2023-24 school year.

January is also the time when the Wisconsin School Board Association, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators and Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials, co-host the State Education Convention at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. The state convention is filled with keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and an exhibit hall where school board members and school officials are able to learn and gather information to help guide their pursuit of making a difference in their respective school districts.

For over 100 years, the Wisconsin Education Convention has provided the single most-attended gathering for educational leaders in the state. Each year our own school members have had representation for Marathon at the convention. This is one of the most consolidated professional development opportunities for our school board to gather information, learn about new topics and meet with representatives from other school districts or vendors our district works with on an annual basis.

When our school board returns from the convention, they spend time reflecting on the takeaways from the convention and begin the next phase of the school year planning. Though we will only be halfway through the current school year, we are fully engaged in making decisions that head the planning phase for next school year. This planning includes some specific beginning areas such as class sectioning/ enrollment, staffing and ultimately, budgeting.

Our school board has always maintained focus on high quality education for our students, quality of our staff and working to stay competitive in this new era of teacher and staff shortages. This is accomplished through their efforts to keep our District Mission and Vision at the forefront of the decision-making process and knowing they desire to be good stewards of district resources that have been entrusted to them by our community.

In the fiscal realm, our district has a history of being responsible stewards and communicating with our community when needs arise where support is needed. In 2005 and again in 2018, our district held community-supported referendum questions for facilities and operations. Operational continuity is extremely important for maintaining quality education. The 2018 question was anticipated to give the district a five-year window for maintaining funding. We are currently in our sixth year and have now begun the process of deficit budgeting that was anticipated in year three. Additionally, our district has been able to pay down debt that has saved our taxpayers nearly $675,000 in interest to date.

While our community holds the expectation for our families that we will continue to provide high quality education to our students, our school board does the same while being great stewards of our resources at the same time. Thank you for your continued support in educating our children!

Our Children, Our Community, Our Future.

Rick Parks