The Whitewater Unified School District School Board has provided staff, families and community members with updates this fall on the several initiatives in progress, including teacher licensing, highlights from the superintendent’s report and an overview of the upcoming referendum.
Teacher licensing could be facing a major update. It was proposed to expand teacher licensing pathways through additional Department of Public Instruction (DPI) approved programs. The purpose of the proposal is to satisfy an increasing demand for licensed English as a Second Language (ESL) and Bilingual/Bicultural teachers, expanding partnerships through teacher cohorts, and extending the opportunity to any teacher in the district.
The current pathway is through CESA2 programming, which can take up to two years to complete. Teachers receive either an ESL or bilingual/bicultural certification and coursework in statutory requirements is available at additional cost. The current route is a structured route with coaching provided.
The proposed additional pathway takes up to three semesters to complete and has credit transfer options. Teachers receive both an ESL and bilingual/bicultural certification with statutory requirements and a grade band extension included, and the program is customizable with weekly access to professors.
“The idea is that ESL certification on your license does not mean that you’re teaching students non-native language,” Dr. Anthony Brazouski said. “It’s really best practices, what we had were all of our regular classroom teachers were all eligible to get certified, meaning that they took best practices in teaching kids who struggle with learning language at the same time as learning the context. The beauty of ESL is that it’s open for everyone.”
Another update centered around the strategic plans led by Donovan Group partner Dr. Lori M. Mueller. The multi-phase strategic planning process has guided recent decision making and incorporates feedback from parents, taxpayers, educators and community partners to determine the district’s most important needs.
Data collection, such as student performance, budget, operations, facilities and enrollment, aids the recommendations that are presented to the board of education. Stakeholders are a part of this process as well, using surveys and student focus groups to get results.
“If we are completely successful with the strategic planning process, what will come as a result is that we’ll have really strong community wide interests and engagement in our continuous improvement well into the future,” Mueller said. “We’ll have deepened transparency and trust from our community.”
The superintendent report focused on ongoing priorities such as student achievement, community engagement and safety. Titled “Celebrations; look, listen, and learn update,” superintendent Samuel Karns embraced National Bus Safety Week thanking bus drivers for getting kids to and from school safely on a daily basis, thanked a few 2025 WASB Business Honor Roll partners and shouted out National School Principal Month.
Karns met with various community stakeholders and partners to continue to listen and learn.
“I enjoyed it a lot, just being able to engage with our families and see the amazing programs that are happening in different sections,” Karns said. “I’ve also begun to expand my reach into neighboring communities that have students that attend the Whitewater Unified School District. I’ve been to the town of Lima, town of Cold Springs and town of Koshkonong”
A brief update on the 2025 referendum was presented. The final construction schedule is due in February 2026. The preliminary design and development budget was presented and is on track. Engineers will be visiting the district to begin fine tuning the scope of the work for the capital maintenance projects, and the construction schedule is currently being worked on to determine the number of phases necessary to complete the project.
