by Scott Jentsch

The School Board met February 27, 2023 at Eisenhower Middle High School. A closed session was held before the public meeting to discuss items that included staff employment, performance, and compensation, the Employee Handbook, changes to employee benefits, athletic coaches, and administrator retirement benefits. Jeff Kurth and Renee Koneck were not in attendance.

The meeting began with a recognition of Meghan Schultz, a senior at New Berlin West, who is the WIAA Shot Put State Champion after her first season. She is ranked first in the state and 16th in the country. For more information about her achievement, read the Waukesha Freeman article titled "The unstoppable Meghan Schultz". Kelli Kwiatkowski, Director of Secondary Teaching & Learning, presented Zachariah's Acres for recognition. According to Kwiatkowski, the organization provides our students with "meaningful and accessible access to learning through nature and wildlife in a universally designed campus."

Petition to Alter School District Boundaries to Include More New Berlin Residents

The public comment portion of the meeting saw one person present at Privilege of the Floor. A New Berlin resident came forward to speak about a petition that has been submitted to the School Board pertaining to a neighborhood that is in the City of New Berlin, but is not in the School District of New Berlin.

As you may or may not know, portions of New Berlin are not within the School District of New Berlin boundaries. An area south of National Avenue and along 124th Street is actually in the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District, which is an arrangement that goes back many decades. The petition is representing about 160 homes that would like to alter their School District designation to the School District of New Berlin.

The School Board voted unanimously to approve the petition. It is now up to the West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board to consider the petition. School Board member Krislyn Holady-Wondrachek mentioned that a previous petition was approved by the New Berlin School Board, but rejected by West Allis-West Milwaukee, and that the appeal that needed to be filed with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction was not filed on time, so she recommended that the petitioners pay close attention to the deadlines if they need to file an appeal.

You can watch the Board discussion, which includes process information for the petition, by starting at the 1:36 mark in the meeting video, which is included on this page.

Power Outages Cause Disruption at Schools

Superintendent Joe Garza mentioned in his report the steps that were taken when power outages delayed school at West Middle/High School on February 27. Fortunately, the power outages were brief and students were able to come to school. Power interruptions seem to have become a fact of life as WE Energies continues to have trouble delivering reliable power during any kind of inclement weather (and sometimes even on sunny days). Even though both high schools and Ronald Reagan Elementary have solar panel installations, they do not provide any backup power even when the sun is shining because of the way they are connected to the electrical grid. In the future, storage solutions could be put in place so that the District properties that have solar power installations can utilize them for backup power when the need will inevitably arise in the future. The arrangement the School District has with WE Energies has always been a little bit of a mystery, so it's possible that such a reconfiguration would not be allowed.

 

This is just a summary of the meeting and is not an exhaustive record of everything that happened. Please see the meeting video included here, as well as the meeting documentation made available by the School District for supporting documents, reports, and information.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2023

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