SUN PRAIRIE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS NEWSLETTER |
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Lexi Vanden Heuvel
Supporting Community Schools
608.318.8109
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Site Leadership Teams
This month our team is sharing with you an update on their site leadership teams. Our site leadership teams are diverse groups of people, coming together to create innovative strategies that support the success of their community school. Using school goals and community needs assessment data, site leadership teams develop annual goals and craft action plans, utilizing the full potential of team members and community partnerships, working toward a shared vision. As you read below you will see that our teams are in varying levels of implementation, with our new site this fall at Creekside with Katrina Collins and a new site coordinator at Bird Elementary, Jenny Divney, who joined us last month. We are thankful to all of our site leadership team members and look forward to the new year and our continued collaboration!
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C.H. BIRD ELEMENTARY
From Jenny Divney, Site Coordinator
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My first three weeks at Bird have been busy and productive. I am in the process of re-engaging my Site Leadership Team and also inviting new members to join us. We hope to meet every other month starting in January and will focus on the goals that Bird has set for the year.
Bird’s goals this year are:
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Goal 1: If students know they belong, know their value in our school community, and are authentically engaged in their learning,
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Goal 2: Then all students will see their success in improved outcomes and engagement, eliminating the gap for our most vulnerable students (SWD, ED, Black students).
So far our team consists of:
- Nicole Toepfer - Principal
- Kristen Witzling - Associate Principal
- Olivia Jones - School Social Worker
- Makayla Allan - After School Program Coordinator
- Anna-Cheri Simler - SCO President
- Bryn Horton - School Board Member
If you or someone you know would be interested in joining our team please let me know. I am really looking forward to working with this team to reach these important goals.
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CREEKSIDE ELEMENTARY
From Katrina Collins, Site Coordinator
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Our site leadership team was established this fall and continues to grow as we look to engage community partners in the conversation. In our first two meetings, we reviewed our building goals around literacy, collaboration (Professional Learning Communities), and the Coyote Way. Additionally, we reviewed our caregiver’s needs and perceptions, by looking at various surveys. As a team, our conversations center around developing new and innovative ways for us to achieve our mission.
As a site leadership team, we decided to focus on absenteeism and how to support our school community’s work to increase our families' sense of belonging. As part of our work, we identified a need to look at the family engagement of our students who are chronically absent. We are now reaching out to families that have not been able to attend and looking to reduce any barriers or create new ways of welcoming them into our space. Our January meeting will focus on discussing how we can engage families in addition to our monthly family nights.
Our current team includes:
- Kia Sims - Social Worker
- Maiwa Lor - 4th Grade teacher
- Katie Mould - Title 1 Teacher
- Elisabeth Berry - Reading Resource Teacher
- Maureen Crombie - City Council Member
- Laura Nagel - Parent, Creekside SCO member
- Karen Palmstein - Instructional Coach
- Kyle Walsh - Principal
- Jacquie Gouldthorp - Associate Principal
- Katrina Collins - Creekside Community School Site Coordinator
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NORTHSIDE ELEMENTARY
From Stacey Christenson, Site Coordinator
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The Site Leadership team is a team of community leaders that lead and help drive the shared vision and goals of Community Schools; specifically, the goals set at Northside.
The goals we have this year are:
- Northside will increase the sense of belonging for our students as evidenced by: reduced absenteeism, student and family survey, relationship mapping with students and family, and overall school event participation.
- Northside will increase a sense of belonging for our staff as evidenced by: reduced absenteeism, staff survey, relationship mapping with staff, rounding and distributed leadership opportunities.
The Northside Site Leadership Team was selected to be reflective of the Northside Community. Each member was asked to join this team because they are already doing impactful work in our community, their voice is respected and valued and because they have a deep desire to have a thriving community. My vision for this team is that together we create, support and sustain programs that have been established based on a thorough needs assessment specific to the Northside community. My job is to offer transparent leadership and report to this team on the programs that are in place, the programs we want to create and always leave room for new ideas and feedback. Every voice is heard and valued.
The Northside Site Leadership Team has been in action just about a year as that is when I began this work. We have added a few new members in the past months as I get to know more community leaders. We met monthly in our first year and will meet every other month starting in January.
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I am so thankful for this remarkable team of leaders and the honor it is to work alongside them to be a part of positive change in our community. |
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PATRICK MARSH MIDDLE
From Brian McKenzie
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The Site Leadership team is a team of community leaders that lead and help drive the shared vision and goals of Community Schools; specifically, the goals set at Patrick Marsh. The goals we have this year are:
- By June 2023, we will see a decrease in overall absenteeism, specifically targeting Quarter 2 absenteeism as it was the greatest in the 2021 school year.
- By June 2023, we will write grants to obtain funding to provide enrichment learning opportunities for our Black Student Union by going on two after-school field trips.
This team has been a great help to me this year taking on roles of grant finding, being a linear connection for our community folks, and also being able to explain our vision and goals to other stakeholders when we partner with other organizations. We will be bringing in some amazing enrichment learning opportunities for our students and families coming next semester! Our team members meet every other Month.
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Members are:
- Nehemirah Barrett - Principal
- Poonam Verma - Parent/Liaison
- Margen Anderson - UW Professor/Parent
- Priscilla Jones - Walmart Manager/ Parent
- Tyron Poore - Parent
- Becky Volenec - Education Coach/Parent
- Lindsey Rasmussen - Educator
- Latonia Hughes - SP Bank Manager/Parent
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PRAIRIE PHOENIX ACADEMY
From Tenisha Winn, Site Coordinator
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The members who support Prairie Phoenix are:
- Brent Wray - SP Community Resident
- Erin Long - Social Worker PPA
- Angels Hawkins - The Faith Place
- Marilyn Ruffin - SP Community Resident
- Dania Cannon - SPASD Employee
- Nina Knorr - JAG Coordinator PPA
- Nikole Sconiers - Principal at PPA and other alternative forms of education
- Passion McClain - SP Community Resident
- Rea Solomon - PPA Advisor
- Chandramathi Vemuri - SPASD Employee
We are stronger together…….than ever divided. 🙂
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WESTSIDE ELEMENTARY
From Stacy Darga, Site Coordinator
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A Site Leadership Team (SLT) is the focused planning committee behind every successful community school. Our Site Leadership Team at Westside Elementary is responsible for creating a shared vision for the school, identifying desired results, and helping align and integrate the work of partners within our school. Our specific goals this school year are to help our school reduce our chronic absenteeism and increase our family and community engagement. Our team reviewed our attendance data during our meeting this Fall and will then compare that data when we meet again in January. We also learned what the baseline measurement was for Family and Community Engagement at our school and the team is committed to working to increase that measurement by volunteering at events such as Family Fun Nights, After School Programs, and Wacky Wednesdays Neighborhood Outreach, continuing to engage community partners as well as continuing to build relationships with our entire school community.
Our SLT has a long history. It was this team that began studying the community school model to determine if and when it should be brought to our school district. It was also this team that helped launch Westside Elementary as one of the first community schools in our district in 2012. This was also the team that when our initial funding source ran out three years later, kept programming at our community school running and completed “road shows” promoting the community school model to various partners until the new funding source could be found, which is the SPASD and the City of Sun Prairie. While in past years, our SLT has meant monthly, we have moved to a quarterly meeting this school year, however, an update is sent to all members monthly.
This past summer, I attended a community schools conference and one of the sessions I attended was all about having an effective Site Leadership Team and having representation from all areas that impact a community school. While our team is great and incredibly engaged, I realized that we had some folks missing from the table - local businesses, specifically businesses located within the Westside boundary area. When I returned from the conference, I reached out to Deanna from Summit Credit Union (Main Street location) and Monica Titley from AllState Insurance (Main Street location) to join our SLT and they immediately agreed! We are truly blessed to now have our local businesses that have relationships with our Wildcats and their families on our team!
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We thought you might be interested to know everyone on our team, along with their role in our community! Members of our SLT are below and an * indicates if they are from the original 2012 SLT team:
- Nikki Harcus - Westside Elementary Principal and has been a part of the team for six years
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Maureen Crombie * - Alderperson for the City of Sun Prairie and Optimist member
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Deb Gill * - Westside Grandparent
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Paige Abitz * - Door Creek Church
- Haley Solberg - Westside Social Worker and has been a part of the team for two years
- Emily Goddard - Westside 4th grade teacher and is new this year to our team
- Barry Mahlum/Venard Johnson - Neighborhood Navigators
- George Chavez - Sunshine Place and has been a part of the team for four years
- Alwyn Foster - Westside parent, Member of the Board of Education and has been a part of the team for four years
- Jill Dorfler - Westside After School Program Coordinator and has been a part of the team for three years
- Joanne Marquez - Second Harvest FoodBank and has been a part of the team for three years
- Alley Ballmer - The Sensory Zone and has been a part of the team for three years
- Deanna Popke - Summit Credit Union and is new this year to our team
- Monica Titley - AllState Insurance and is new this year to our team
- Two members of our 5th grade Student Council will join us for the second semester
Here are members of our SLT team helping at our SpringFest last April!!!
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January Community Schools Programs & Events |
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Wacky Wednesdays in the Neighborhoods |
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Wednesday, January 4, 11, 18, and 25th |
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Martin Luther King, Jr Day Celebration |
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January 16th from 3-5 pm at Prairie Phoenix Academy |
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Adult ESL Classes with the Literacy Network |
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Starting the week of January 23rd, 2023 |
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Eating Smart and Being Active |
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Beginning mid-January at Prairie Phoenix Academy |
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SP Police Department at Prairie Phoenix Academy beginning mid-January |
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CONTACT US
Jamie Racine
Community Schools Director
608.318.8109
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Jenny Divney
C.H. Bird Elementary Site Coordinator
608.834.7320
Katrina Collins
Creekside Elementary Site Coordinator
608.834.7714
Stacey Christenson
Northside Elementary Site Coordinator
608.834.7160
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Brian McKenzie
Patrick Marsh Middle School Site Coordinator
608.834.7629
Tenisha Winn
Prairie Phoenix Academy Site Coordinator
608.834.6934
Stacy Darga
Westside Elementary Site Coordinator
608.834.7546
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