Month: July 2018

With heavy hearts, the Whitewater Police Department is saddened to announce the passing of current K-9 officer, Ruso.

Ruso recently developed a kidney issue and underwent a very common surgery earlier in the week. After further monitoring, it was discovered his kidneys were still not performing as expected. Sadly, Ruso took a turn for the worse Thursday afternoon and passed away Friday morning.

Ruso was officially sworn into the Whitewater Police Department June 6th, 2017 at a common council meeting. He was a high energy, 3-year-old Labrador retriever from Mexico. Ruso graduated from Little Rock K-9 Academy after months of training. The well-respected kennel has received high recognition for their K-9 dogs and training program.

He worked and lived with his handler, Officer Justin Stuppy who began his career as a Whitewater Community Service Officer in April 15, 2013. On March 9, 2015, Stuppy was promoted to patrol officer and is currently serving on the night shift.

Stuppy is a 2017 UW-Whitewater graduate with a major in Letters and Sciences with a focus on criminal justice. He currently resides in Whitewater. He is a member of the Crime Prevention Team, assists training new Community Service Officers and with the Whitewater Volunteer Cadet Program, and was the past president of the UW-Whitewater campus student organization Law Enforcement Organization LEO.

The K-9 program is a “BY THE COMMUNITY, FOR THE COMMUNITY” initiative. Along with Eric Lang and Mary Horing of M.E. & My Pets covering the cost of food for Ruso and Dr. Mike Newell of the Animal Medical Center of Whitewater covering the annual medical care, fundraisers and donations helped cover the cost of maintaining the K-9 Unit needs. A special thank you is extended to the UW Veterinary Care in Madison for assisting in Ruso’s care this past week.

A fundraiser, Run, Golf, Ride for Ruso, was previously scheduled for tomorrow, July 28th to raise funds for the unit. With his passing, the fundraiser will now take place in Ruso’s honor and memory. All funds will still go to the K-9 Unit in hopes of swearing in a new canine officer in the future.

The fundraising events all begin and end at Spring Creek Golf Center. The 5K Fun Run/Walk begins at 8 a.m. and for $20 you receive a t-shirt, 1 raffle ticket for a grand prize and a goodie bag. The Poker Run is at 10 a.m. and all vehicles are welcome for $30 for 1 rider, $25 for 2 riders and $25 per additional hand. This includes a t-shirt, lunch, prizes and 1 raffle ticket for a grand prize. The 9 hole golf tournament begins at 12 p.m. and for $120 per foursome, your golf, food, t-shirt and 1 raffle ticket for the grand prize per player and other prizes are included. Join for appetizers, DJ, and a silent auction raffle will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Register at wwcfpruso.eventbrite.com.

To make a donation or purchase a K-9 t-shirt in Ruso’s memory, you may register and attend the fundraiser, visit the Whitewater K-9 or Whitewater Police Department Facebook pages, the City of Whitewater website, or stop at the Whitewater Police Department.

“Although young, Ruso worked hard to keep the community safe,” said Chief Aaron Raap. “He was continuing to excel in search trainings at our local schools and made appearances at many city events including the recent 4th of July parade. Ruso was a very loving and hardworking K-9 officer and will be missed by the Whitewater police team and community.”

Photo by Tom Ganser

School-based Mental Health Services Grant

WUSD was recently notified that it was awarded a School-based Mental Health Services Grant. This was a very competitive grant process. 141 districts/charter schools/consortia applied requesting over $8,000,000.00. Of the 141 applications, 52 applications were funded totaling $3,250,000. Dr. Lanora Heim co-wrote the School-based Mental Health Services Grant with other area pupil service directors. In a collaboration with 6 other Jefferson County School Districts and Jefferson County Health and Human Services the $75,000 grant will provide mental health screening, staff training in Social Emotional Learning standards to be taught in 4K through 12th grade via Second Step and DBT Steps A curriculum as well as parent and community outreach to support the mental health needs of families throughout the 7 school districts.

Safety Grant

The Whitewater Unified School District has been awarded a School Safety Grant by the Wisconsin Department of Justice for $100,063.00. These dollars will augment the district’s current safety plans and procedures. The safety grant will fund a new emergency notification system, allow the district to enhance its visitor screening process, improve communication with new walkie-talkies, and increase the number of cameras in the buildings. David Brokopp, Safety Coordinator for the Whitewater Unified School District, shared that a huge benefit of this grant will be in the District’s increased communication. We will be able to alert law enforcement more quickly in the event of an emergency and we will have more efficient and dependable interdistrict communication for daily use. Our new visitor screening system will allow us to take full advantage of our new, more secure, entries and make sure that we know who is in our schools.

From Mark Elworthy, District Administrator:

Construction Update: There is a lot of progress in all of the buildings. We have heard many positive things coming from staff and students who have enjoyed the completed projects. The projects remain on target to be completed prior to the school year starting. Keep watching for future announcements about ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Here is a link to the July Construction Update.

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Actualización de construcción: Hay mucho progreso en todos los edificios. Hemos escuchado muchas cosas positivas provenientes del personal y los estudiantes que han disfrutado de los proyectos completados. Los proyectos se mantienen en camino de ser completado antes del inicio del año escolar. Esté atento a futuros anuncios sobre ceremonias del corte de listón. Aquí hay un enlace a la Actualización de construcción de julio.  July Construction Update.

WHS Sign Update

In the spring of 2018, Dr. Kelly Seichter on behalf of the Whitewater Unified School District and the School District of Fort Atkinson consortium submitted a Peer Mentoring Review Grant through the Department of Instruction.

Last week, the Whitewater Unified School District was notified that they were awarded the grant in the amount of $25,000. The intention of this funding will be to enhance the instructional capacity of our newest teachers. Across the state, 73 partial or whole grants were awarded out of 86 consortia that sent in applications. WUSD will be the fiscal agent for this grant.

These funds will be used to train veteran teachers in becoming instructional coaches for our newest hires. These “mentor coaches” will meet regularly with new teachers assigned to them to improve the instructional practices of our new teachers. This will also ensure our new teachers are supported as they become oriented to the district and to the profession. We believe this will also contribute to higher new teacher retention rates.