WE are Burlington Proud: September 24, 2023

District KUDOS!!!

The following staff have been recognized by the administrative team for their positive contributions to students, their colleagues, and/or to the system as a whole! Thank you all for the amazing work you do on a daily basis!!!

Kristen DuPuis, Dave Wagner, Amy Kerr, Mike Wallace, Jessica Bailey, Chris Beyer, Connie Zinnen, Ashley Schillman, Carol Harry, Teri Bryant, Sally Nie, Gena Aspinall, Jennifer Heelein, Lois Cramer, and Lori Ullenberg!

District Wide Updates!

Strategic Planning / Studer

On September 18 we had 5 focus groups (2 community, 2 parent, 1 student group). All five of the groups were AMAZING and it was so AWESOME to bring community members and parents to the table to learn from them when it comes to their beliefs about BASD! What I learned was that we have some amazing individuals within this community that truly care deeply about the success of BASD and really want to help continue to move BASD forward! It was a GREAT day, one that was/has been needed for a very long time!
If you recall... the questions asked of all focus groups were:

What are the strengths of Burlington Schools?
What are the areas where we can improve?
In five years when we've been successful, what have we done?
What values are important to Burlington?

On October 3 our Steering Committee will be coming together to analyze all of the focus group data in order to assist with coming up with the districts pillars (areas of focus for the next 5+ years).

Members of the Steering Committee:

Peter Turke, Board President
Stephen Quist, President of Experience Burlington
Jon Schultz, President of City Council
Rebecca Faust, Parent
Alison Sergio, Parent
Joel Graham, Administrator
Patti Tenhagen, Teacher
Kerry Sett, Instructional Coordinator
Jeff Erickson, Business Member - WVA

Once the pillars are determined then the administrative team will start the work of crafting and developing goals within the pillars to gain feedback again from the Steering Committee.

Staff Surveys:

Starting October 2 through October 13 staff will be asked to complete 2 surveys.

District Services Survey: This survey will be providing feedback in relation to how all the district level departments are doing when it comes to support for the system.
Employee Experience Survey: This survey will be providing feedback that relates to either building principals and/or direct supervisors.
Therefore, this is more of an FYI that two surveys will be coming to staff to complete starting October 2. This data will be very important to gather as we work towards continuous improvement of our systems and processes across the district. Both surveys will provide us with valuable feedback to further understand our strengths along with areas for improvement.

Parent / Student Surveys:

Starting October 16 through October 27 parents and students will be asked to complete a survey to provide the district with feedback.

Within the parent survey will also be three questions that will help us with some operational referendum information.

BEA Negotiations

The personnel committee met with the BEA this past week to begin the process of negotiations. The board will be taking the feedback from the BEA back to the full board for further discussion and then we will set up another meeting for the personnel committee to meet with the BEA again. The negotiations are for the 2023-2024 school year.

Rounding Conversations:

The practice of "rounding" is something our administrative team will be starting during the month of October. Rounding is a great strategy to utilize in order to gain feedback from employees, parents, and the community!
The intent is to gain insight and information so that we can continue to improve BASD in becoming an even more effective and high-quality educational school system!
Our directors and principals will engage in rounding conversations with those they work directly with either because the staff member is in their department and/or in their building.
I will be conducting rounding conversations with randomly selected staff throughout the school district along with parents and community members.
A rounding conversation should take approximately 6-8 minutes. Therefore, if you see an invite for a rounding conversation please know... it will be a great opportunity for you to share your voice and insights about the system!

Board of Education Information

Board Workshops:

The board continues to meet and learn together in regards to the upcoming operational referendum.
On Thursday, September 28 each board member is going to be bringing 3 community members with them to a board workshop so that we are able to gain some feedback when it comes to the referendum dollar amounts that are options on the table for the operational referendum ask. The board feels strongly that we should be asking community members for some feedback prior to putting out an ask, I cannot agree more!!! The more we engage the community the better!
On October 4 the board will then meet again to synthesize and discuss what was learned from the September 28 workshop as we continue to get closer to an agreed upon decision for the operational referendum.

Board Meetings:

Monday, October 9

Items on the board agenda that are not on every board agenda every month are:

District Sponsorship Guide

There had been talk in the past about creating a sponsorship guide for the district to utilize in the event we have people either we reach out to or that reach out to us asking to have naming rights within the school district. This sponsorship guide will assist as we move forward when it comes to the costs associated with specific items, locations, etc within the district to have a naming right.
This is a great step in the right direction as we need a system and process for sponsorships so that we can start to focus on utilizing this practice more in the future!

Winkler/Lyons - School Improvement Plan & Updates!

The board wanted to continue to have dinner with staff prior to a board meeting along with hearing from our schools about their progress from year to year.
Therefore, starting in October we will have one school per month come to a board meeting to share all the amazing work that is taking place across the district along with sharing their school improvement plan goals.
Prior to the board meeting staff will have dinner with board members with the start time being 6:00-6:45 for dinner with the board meeting starting at 7:00.

Monday, October 23

Special School Board Meeting to set the budget and tax levy for the 2023-2024 school year.

Additional Information!

School, of course, is underway! Buildings have all begun their fall universal screeners in PreK-12.

We are utilizing new to BASD screeners for 4K-1 with EarlyBird to assess reading and Fastbridge to assess math.
At the high school level staff have begun utilizing Horizon!

This past week was Homecoming week! Thank you to everyone who participated district wide to infuse the spirit of BASD across all buildings! So awesome to see the Burlington pride throughout!
Waller and Winkler will be getting some new playground equipment in the weeks to come.
District Office - Who does what?

There have been some adjustments as to who assists with what component across the district when it comes to district office staff. To assist with knowing who to reach out to please utilize THIS document. We will be putting this on ClassLink for ease of access for everyone!
Also, Please welcome Nora Rangel-Kubacki who will be starting October 2. She is the new administrative assistant to the Superintendent and the Board. Therefore, when you see an email from Nora you know who she is!!! When you are in the district office next, please stop by her office to say hi!

Safety Month

Safety Month for the district will be the month of October. Communication has been sent to all families outlining the plans for October. HERE is a letter for your reference.
As a district we decided to create one reunification team versus having separate reunification teams for each building. By having one we will be able to be more efficient and intentional with our training practices to ensure the district is ready in the event a reunification with families is necessary. Those who are on the reunification team have been asked by either building principals and/or district directors already, so... if you are on the reunification team you already know by now :).
Then, at the October 26 inservice we will be holding a reunification training from 1:00-3:00 with everyone that is on the reunification team. We will train at DPW (the reunification site) and administration will be acting as parents and/or students to assist with the training.

District Radios

It has been determined by the team that we will be shifting to using people's names over the radios versus call numbers. Meaning, instead of calling "662" for Amy Levonian the high school team would call for "Amy" or "Levonian" in lieu of a number. This is just an FYI that we will be switching district wide to calling by name versus by number. The only person staying a number is our police liaison, Dan Hayes (number "96").

Discover Wisconsin

BASD is going to be filmed as part of a piece on Ardagh for Discover Wisconsin!!! The filming will be taking place on October 4 at Ardagh and on October 5 at Karcher Middle School in partnership with Ardagh and the City of Burlington!

Start of Marketing Efforts

We will be working with CESA 7 to develop an "Identity" video (along with other items) to start the forward momentum of getting positive messaging out into the community and beyond in relation to BASD! More to come as things get finalized!

Pictures from the last few weeks!

The students and staff at Karcher wanted one of their peers, Sergio who is battling childhood cancer, to know they are behind him and thinking about him everyday! Such an amazing example of compassion and commitment!!! We are all behind you Sergio!

High School Homecoming Court!

Underground Railroad Dedication on September 24 in Burlington! If you haven't noticed the addition of the three signs by Lincoln School check them out! All in relation to Burlington's role in the Underground Railroad!