School board receives strategic plan update with focus on ‘community distinction’

By Kim McDarison 

The School District of Fort Atkinson Board of Eduction during its January meeting received a strategic plan update from District Superintendent Rob Abbott. 

During the presentation, Abbott reminded board members of three of the district’s goals, including “high performance,” “inclusive culture of growth,” and “community distinction.” 

Aided by slides, the superintendent elaborated on the meaning of each goal, noting that to achieve high performance, the district has determined that it plans to reach within each school building a State of Wisconsin accountability rating, as published annually by the Department of Public Instruction on its “report cards” of “significantly exceeds expectation” by the 2025-26 school year. 

An inclusive culture of growth is “exemplified” through “growth responsive to our learner and community needs,” Abbott said. 

Community distinction would be achieved by the district through evidence of annual growth in pupil count and open enrollment, with a goal of making the district “the preferred education option in the region,” Abbott noted. 

Within his update, Abbott cited open enrollment statistics as reported by the district in October, 2022. 

Citing a bar graph showing open enrollment history between the 2010-11 and 2022-23 school years, Abbott said: “We are pleased to see an uptick in open enrollment numbers. Those are students choosing to come from other school districts to ours, while few of ‘our students’ are choosing to leave and go elsewhere.” 

Abbott said a need for “robust, creative, contemporary and evolving programming,” would continue to be “valid and necessary” as the district worked to “align the market and recruit learners.” 

Getting a message out to the community about opportunities and achievements found throughout the district also was among goals, he said. 

He pointed to a new marketing and communication effort, which, he said, was designed to make the community aware of the district’s 4-year-old and 5-year old kindergarten programs. 

Wide range of programming

Abbott noted the district’s wide range of learning opportunities found in varied programming, including clubs and community-building activities. 

He cited the achievements of students participating in the district’s athletic programs, which, he said, “have long been a sense of BlackHawk pride in Fort Atkinson.” 

Student, faculty achievements 

Among student athletes with recent achievements, he named Mary Worden, Ben Stricker, and Anthony Henrichon, each of whom placed in the 2022 State Cross Country Meet, in 14th, 34rd and 79th place respectively. 

Athletes participated on a “grueling course,” he said, adding: “Overall, the entire cross country team had a phenomenal year with great improvements physically, mentally and emotionally by all athletes.” 

Student athletes participating in golf, with coaching provided by Jerry Shoup, also had a successful year, he said, noting that Rachel Edwards and Abigail Peterson each finished the season with Academic All-State honors, and Lauren Wessels finished with High Honors for Academic All-State.

Abbott said that last spring, several of the district’s K-12 multilingual students participated in a statewide contest hosted annually by an organization called “Wisconsin Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages,” which “celebrated multilingual writers and artists.” 

The top three students within each category were selected for an award and cash prize. Winning submissions are published in a booklet that is distributed statewide, he said. 

Eight of the district’s students were named as winners in the contest. They are: Yahir Payan Alvarado, who won the grand prize in the category of K-12 and adult student art; Andrea Meza Garcia, who won first place in the category of K-2 art; Sofia Vega, who won first place in the category of K-2 writing; Loran Neziri, who won third place in the category of K-2 writing; Zuri Tomas, who won first place in the category of grades 3-5 art; Giselle Sanchez, who won first place in the category of grades 3-5 writing; Marifer Reyes Villegas, who won second place in the category of grades 3-5 writing, and Yaneli Gonzalez, who won third place in the category of grades 3-5 writing. 

Abbott next shared that the Fort Atkinson High School Esports team, which, he said, is a form of sport competition using video games, emerged from organized competitions as the state champions. It was the team’s second year of receiving the title of state champion within the last three years. 

“We also had Payton Wiesen win the state individual tournament and Cam Bethard finished in the top eight,” Abbott said. Along with Wiesen and Bethard, members of the team include: Gabe Gustin, Emilio Calzadas Espino, Wyatt Lisuis, Aiden Janecek, Cal Tamblyn, Hadi Yafai, Connor Tamblyn and Danny Fuller. The team is coached by Tyler Sarbacker. 

Turning his attention toward the districts Advanced Placement (AP) scholars, Abbott said that 14 of the district’s students received the “AP Scholar” designation, earned by receiving scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams. Six of the district’s students earned the designation of “AP Scholar with Honor,” earned by receiving an average score of at least 3.25 on all of the exams taken by the student and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of the exams taken. Twelve of the district’s students received a designation of “AP Scholar with Distinction,” earned by receiving an average score of at least 3.5 on all the exams taken by the student and a score of 3 or higher on five or more of the exams taken. 

Additionally, Abbott said, the Associated Press (also identified by the initials AP) selects annual pieces for the creation of an AP Art Exhibit. Some 50,000 portfolios, totaling some 600,000 pieces of art, are assessed each year. Only 50 of the assessed pieces are placed in the exhibit. 

This year, the work of Fort Atkinson High School 2022 graduate Elee Sharp was included in the exhibition, representing “the best of the best in the world,” Abbott said.  

Teachers, too, were among those reaching levels of distinction, Abbott noted, citing Wisconsin Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages board members Kari Johnson, a district teacher who serves as the board’s president; Tracey Koeppen, a district teacher who serves as the board’s treasurer, and Catherine Wilson, a district teacher who serves as the board’s secretary, whom, he said, “were in charge of planning, organizing and leading the fall conference for educators around Wisconsin.” 

Also representing the district at the state level, Abbott noted the work of the district’s Director of Technology D.J. Scullin, who served as a presenter at the Supporting Learning and Technology in Eduction (SLATE) conference, and the district’s Director of Business Services Jason Demerath, who was named as a person of distinction by the Government Finance Officers Association at the Alliance for Excellence in School Budgeting meeting held in Chicago in December, 2022. 

The district’s Director of Human Resources Mandy Turnbull was selected to serve on the Wisconsin Association of School Personnel Administrators (WASPA) as a board member, Abbott said. In that capacity, she will be assisting in planning the WASPA state legal conference, serving on committees and as a mentor to new statewide HR directors, he said. 

The Wisconsin School Public Relations Association (WSPRA), named the district’s Communication Director Marissa Weidenfeller as the recipient of three awards. Awarded for work done during the 2021-22 school year, Weidenfeller was chosen for “high-quality public relations efforts produced by or on behalf of Wisconsin school districts,” Abbott said. 

Weidenfeller and Demerath made a presentation to WSPRA members about transparency to stakeholders, with emphasis placed on the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding project, he added. 

Districtwide awards, recognitions 

Among distinction earned by the district, Abbott cited “Sprout Social,” a tool, he said, “which connects all of our schools’ and district’s social media accounts, allowing for analytics, mass post publishing and (providing) a student voice.” 

In 2022, he said, a summary from Sprout Social provided data which, when comparing school districts of all sizes across the country, showed high activity across the social media platforms used by the district, with “total impressions” coming in at 1.8 million, posts published coming in at 2.6 thousand, and total engagement coming in at 220.5 thousand, all of which, Abbott said, are “higher than average.” 

Data also showed, he said, that new followers, coming in at 672, were below average, which, he said, is 973.  

In 2022, the district was named among Best Communities For Music Education, a distinction which has been earned by the district for the last 10 years, Abbott said. The designation is awarded annually by the National Association of Music Merchants. 

Abbott also made note of the district’s 2021-22 school year average ACT test score, noting a recent comparison made and published by Fort Atkinson Online, comparing 10 school districts across our readership area. The School District of Fort Atkinson showed the highest average score in the region, coming in at 19.3. 

In addition, Abbott noted an achievement of the Fort Atkinson Middle School, which, he said, received the “highest overall school score on the Wisconsin Report Card among 17 middle schools in our district-identified comparable schools for our compensation system.” 

Use of ESSER funds 

Abbott concluded his presentation by sharing information about a new literacy program which will be implemented at the 4K level. The program, packaged by Fountas and Pinnell, offers classroom resources to teach interactive read-aloud and shared reading for a literacy-rich and play-based approach to 4K programming, he said. 

The program is made possible through the district’s ESSER resources, he added. 

Several of the students and faculty members named in Abbott’s presentation were present at the January meeting and were invited to stand and receive recognition by the board. 

They received a round of applause.