Amuse Bouche #23 - Superintendent Search

Hello, this is Amouz Bouche and I'm Bridget. Welcome! Did you miss me? I know it's been a little bit, but this is where you get your weekly little bit of Bridget before our Dinner Plus Drinks release on Sundays. Today we're gonna talk about school superintendents. Super exciting. I know, but listen in. So this wouldn't be a topic that I normally would say, hooray! How exciting? Let's let's talk about it. But it's current and happening in our life right now. And I am um I think you know, we I was thinking earlier about some of Moose Bouge episodes that I had done previously, and uh I was thinking back to the waiting for Superman, waiting on Superman episodes um and about the public school system and just in general got me to thinking. Um, and as of recent, this past week, there was um, well, let me back up. Our school system is looking for a new superintendent. Um, thank God. But our current superintendent is um retiring, which is great. Um, he we could use a refresh, but I our plan was to not ever live in Lake Geneva uh to raise our kids when when we had kids. So as you probably know if you've been listening for a while, um Elliot was born in Milwaukee, and it just happened that we ended up moving back here to Lake Geneva. And that was not when we were thinking about schools and things, you know, wasn't necessarily something we were thinking of. So our plan was um school in Milwaukee. So when we moved back to Lake Geneva, there was no real question. It was like, oh hey, any school in Lake Geneva, any option, is better than many of the schools in the Milwaukee area, specifically, obviously, um Milwaukee public schools. So we didn't have to think too much about it, our perception was that we didn't have to think too much about where we should send our kid to school. So when it became time to put our kids out of daycare and into the school system, we talked briefly about it because I went to a private Catholic grade school here and my husband went to the public school. And basically we're like, either one of them were great. We have no problem, you know, we have no compelling enough reason to not put our kid in the public school system and see how it goes. And then of course we could change if we need to. So we put him in the public school system and didn't see many problems. Uh, to be fair, much of our school existence has been during the COVID-19 pandemic. So I can't judge everything, but we've had preschool and kindergarten two amazing teachers. Uh, so that's the thing I care about most. Uh, you know, are they handling situations well? We did have one, you know, situation where Elliot was being a little naughty and the teachers handled it exceptionally well, you know. So all things considered, great. We're happy with our school system. But as of recent, um, with the note that our superintendent um so there's a unique thing here in Lake Cheneva. There is a joint one, which is all of the schools, like the um, that's the middle school, the whatever's in between, elementary school. So there's three different schools before you get to the high school. Joint one uh covers those schools, and then there's a separate school board and situation, if you will, for the high school. So there's two different school boards, one for joint one and one for the high school. Um the superintendent is the superintendent of both of those uh schools, so the whole district. Um that's a very quick, crude, rudimentary way to explain it, but um that's one thing to note. So anyway, he's retiring. He, to be frank, is a boring middle-aged white man, which is just for uh some context here, that is a quick way for me to explain that there's not a lot of visionary thinking, in my opinion. Now, I didn't think much about that until we were asked recently to um, there's a search committee to hire a new superintendent, and they put out a survey and opened a forum, uh, had an in-person forum this past week to say, hey, what do you want to see in a new superintendent? And again, like there has been, I've had some personal issues with the school system when I worked with the city. I think that uh specifically the superintendent did a really ridiculous, ridiculous thing that stifled an incredible learning opportunity for the students because he was too selfish and being a bit of a uh not, I don't know, wasn't being open-minded. Uh so he stifled a really cool learning opportunity that the kids could have had by having this basically a science experiment in their backyard outside. Um, for anyone locally, that's the ice castles. So the ice castles were going to want to open near a school. Um, and they work with school systems throughout the other locations in the country and allow them to come on field trips and learn about the science behind building these completely um man-made ice castles. So, anyway, that was a missed opportunity in my opinion, and kind of set my uh brain in one way of thinking about how our school system and city in general is pretty uh closed-minded and just like generally scared of new things. So um we we got this survey and it was very simple, but really the thing that has made me consider our school, like really think a lot about our school system, is my mom challenged me uh to a question. And we have a cousin in the northern Illinois area. I don't want to be too specific to protect her privacy, but um, she is what you will you would say is a librarian. I think that's her title. I I I think it's called Learning Commons. Um, but essentially she's a librarian. Uh she's very well educated, she's extremely good at her job. But when you think librarian, I would guess traditionally you are thinking that they check out books and maybe they have a couple STEM kits or some pans. You know, our library has some cool, like fun pans you can rent out. You know, my point is traditional libraries, right? That's a librarian. I would say that's the that is the library at my kids' school. There are lots of books, there's a large open area with some fun seating for them to read in. The end. Now, librarian, when I refer to my cousin and her job, means these kids who I believe, um, and Jess, if you're listening, I'm sorry if I'm wrong here, but for general purposes, um, I believe our first grade up until at least fifth grade. And then beyond that, I'm not exactly sure. Uh, I may be younger or older, give or take a few grades. But um, the point is very much where my son is headed, those age groups, in her library at her school district, they are learning to code, they are 3D printing, they're learning about green screens, they're sewing, and yes, they're also reading and checking out cool, amazing books and being thoughtful about what they're doing. And they want to, they are choosing to skip recess to hang out in that learning commons, that library. And I'm doing air quotes feverishly here at my microphone. Um, so this has become in quickly, very quickly, my concern for our school district is from the outside, I would venture a guess that everybody thinks the Lake Geneva School District is pretty wealthy and nothing to worry about and doing fine. But like our test scores are terrible, which to be completely frank, I don't really care about because I was not a kid that tested well. I think the fact that we base like so much, including funding on standardized testing is ridiculous. But what I'm very concerned about is that we're not even considering the fact that our that the school where my kid is now, he's only in kindergarten, but he 100% could be learning these things that my cousin's school is teaching. I I again, I don't know if she has kindergartners, but I'm almost positive she has first grade, and that is one year away for my kids. So I'm suddenly, you know, and then I have another kid younger. Um, many people, I you know, like my sister's kids are younger, so in general, here fighting for the future of all the kids in this town. Uh why the heck? I I am sure, I am confident the school system will say, well, we don't have the money for that. I am also confident that if they said, hey, we want to put a 3D printer in our library, uh, two families would come together and fund it. One family would donate it. I am sure of that. I would be one of those families that I would happily pledge a large enough amount of money, whatever we are able to afford, towards a 3D printer. And then perhaps we could get some talent here that, you know, unfortunately, I like our librarian at Central Denison. Honestly, I don't really know her. She seems perfectly lovely. I would hate to not, you know, I of course I want her to keep her job, but we need to then employ someone that knows how to teach kids very basic coding skills and 3D printing skills. So we then, it's cyclical, right? We could perhaps then get some talent here that maybe there is someone who just graduated a couple years ago, is starting their family, and Lake Geneva is a very desirable place to live, but they're concerned that there's not a job market here. So I went through this when I lived in Milwaukee. Milwaukee was not a place people wanted to be. So we are having a problem recruiting talented people to a handful of the large companies there. Well, why? Our city is right by a lake, it's accessible, it's easy, it's affordable, etc. So that's what I worked on a lot when I lived in Milwaukee as part of one of the organizations I was with. And I'm seeing it again now, just on a smaller scale in Lake Geneva. Like, not that we have a problem recruiting people to live here. It's not like something we're trying to do. Plenty of people want to live in Wisconsin because they're fleeing here from Illinois. But this faction of, I'm gonna say young again in air quotes, because I don't feel like I'm young anymore, but young families, you know, I have, I have this almost three-year-old, almost three-year-old, and almost six-year-old, and and the families like me of okay, our kids are going in the school system, but why are we not looking actually at the future? Which like is STEM learning, STEAM, whatever. I'm not up to date on the trendy things like that. Um, it is that it's tech schools. We I think everybody has talked about that, the trades, like, well, my kid is going to be behind. And yes, our our high school has this equipment. And honestly, maybe our middle school does. I have no idea. I'm pretty far away from that. I don't honestly I do care, but I care mostly that at a young age when they're super formidable, and my kid is just a sponge learning everything he can right now, he would be so excited and into learning things like coding, 3D printing, sewing. He loves to make crafts, like all of those things are our critical skills. So language is another one, but I won't even go there because definitely that's not a strong suit of mine. And I don't know, maybe we have a great language department. I really don't know. But if you are in the area, in the Lake Geneva area, specifically in the school system, or not, even if you're not in the school system, go on the Lake Geneva School's website and please fill out the survey about the superintendent. And maybe you have a passion somewhere else. I just think that we're falling behind in terms of technology at our schools, and that's something that's really hard to catch up on once you're once you're behind. Um, so I feel passionately about it because I have a kid at the age that's being affected by it crucially immediately. Um, but hey, if not, this is a great way to get involved. You don't even have to go to a forum, you can just quickly fill out a survey and um uh make it known that like you are interested in our next superintendent having technology at the forefront of their brains, perhaps. Or, you know, there's a I have a list of a few other things, but uh that's something that's really important to me. So I'm using this platform to spread that knowledge. And also, you may not know about it. Like my sister does not have kids in the school system, she has no idea the survey exists, I don't think. So here you go, PSA parents. If you have kids that will soon be in the school system, have your voice heard now. Okay, that's my soapbox, Bridget for President 2022. Just kidding. I just feel like I'm suddenly preaching at you guys. So thanks for listening. As always, tune in to our weekly edition of Dinner Plus Drinks. It will be out on Sunday. Thanks, have a great weekend.