Summer Superintendent Letter
Dear South Milwaukee Parents and Guardians,
It has been a great year for our School District of South Milwaukee community! We have many positive things to celebrate and have a clear focus on the things we need to prioritize for next school year. As we head into the last week of school for our students, I want to share some updates.
Board News:
We welcomed Andy Simmons to our school board this spring. He replaced the seat vacated by Jon Shelenske, who we want to thank for his six years of service on our board. Angie DeFord was reelected for another three-year term and will continue to serve as our School Board vice president.
Strategic Planning:
Our strategic plan is now complete and approved by the School Board. It is starting to drive our work to ensure we provide the best experience for our students, staff, and caregivers while remaining fiscally responsible to our community. You can read the full plan here: STRATEGIC PLAN.
Referendum Update:
We are grateful to our community for the support in passing a referendum this spring. We have already taken steps with the dollars to increase safety, work to retain staff, and add opportunities for our students. We are working with the City of South Milwaukee and an engineering firm to do a traffic study on 15th Avenue and the area in front of Rawson Elementary School. Our planning team has already met a few times to discuss some options. They will use the information from the traffic study to make the needed changes so we can have safe drop-offs and pick-ups for our schools.
In addition, we have added three Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teachers to our elementary schools. This will provide our students with a new STEM marker’s space and an hour-long special each week to inspire students to create, problem-solve, and collaborate through STEM topics.
Lastly, we were able to offer our teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, and other staff a salary increase that brings us closer to the area average. We will continue to work on our salary schedule and other retention strategies in the coming years to ensure we can provide as much continuity of staff for our students as possible.
Family/Caregiver Survey:
On Monday, you will receive an email with a link to our family/caregiver survey for the 2023-24 school year. We are anxious to hear your feedback on what we are doing well and the things you would like us to work on in the 2024-25 school year. The survey will open on Monday, June 3rd, and stay open until Friday, June 14th.
High School Principal:
We are excited to share that Mike Arendt has accepted the role of high school principal. He comes to us with five years of principal experience and three years of athletic director experience at St. Catherine’s High School in Racine. Mike shared that he was drawn to apply for the position based on our new strategic plan, our vision, and our mission. He is passionate about shifting instructional practice to a student-centered lens, increasing academic outcomes and attendance rates, and getting students more involved in school activities.
New Positions:
Our elementary schools will have support from a new position in the fall. We have added a behavior support specialist who will work with our teams on developing behavior intervention plans for students who struggle to stay regulated at school and will also assist our special education staff in ensuring Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) are compliant. At the high school, we will have a new academic dean who will assist with monitoring credit attainment, guiding our Professional Learning Communities, and ensuring we are making strong academic progress and closing gaps for all students.
New Elementary Literacy Resource:
When our kindergarten through fifth-grade students return to school in the fall, they will be using a new literacy resource. Our board has approved the purchase of Wit and Wisdom based on the recommendation of our literacy team, which spent a lot of time this year reading the research and piloting materials to help us make the best decision for our students. You can see an excerpt of the recent School Board meeting where the resources were explained here SCHOOL BOARD MEETING, and learn more about the entire process and why we're introducing a new literacy resource on our PODCAST. It is on the approved list of resources from the state, so it meets the requirements of the new literacy legislation and is aligned with the goals of our strategic plan. We appreciate all the time our team spent choosing the right resource for our students.
We are grateful to each of you for your support this year and wish you a safe and healthy summer!
Deidre Roemer
- Superintendent Letter
- superintendent