At its October 7 meeting, the St. Francis Board of Education selected Dr. Mark Elworthy as the Interim Superintendent of Schools of the St. Francis School District effective part time on October 15, and full time on October 28, 2019. Elworthy has served as District Administrator for the approximate 2000-student Whitewater Unified School District since 2016.

The St. Francis school district is located in the city of St. Francis, Wisconsin, a suburb just south of Milwaukee “nestled on the shore of Lake Michigan.” The approximately 1200 students of the district live either in St. Francis or in the city of Milwaukee. The district consists of Willow Glen Primary School serving grades K3-3; Deer Creek Intermediate School serving grades 4-8; and the St. Francis High School serving grades 9-12.

On April 2, 2019, voters in St. Francis rejected a $7.25 million referendum that would have closed Deer Creek Intermediate School and renovated Willow Glen Primary School to accommodate the district’s 4-year-old kindergarten through eighth-grade students in a single building. The proposal was crafted by the district’s facilities study committee and endorsed by the school board as a way to cut operational costs and address shrinking enrollments. However the electorate rejected the referendum, 63% to 37%. The St. Francis School Board announced on September 13, 2019 that Superintendent Blake Peuse had resigned for personal reasons effective as of October 8, 2019. The board indicated that it would immediately get to work on appointing an interim superintendent to lead the district for the rest of the 2019-20 school year.

Whitewater Unified School District School Board Statement on District Administrator Dr. Mark Elworthy’s Resignation

On Tuesday, October 8, Dr. Mark Elworthy notified the Whitewater Unified School District that he plans to resign as District Administrator and that his last day in the district will be October 25, 2019.

The Whitewater United School District School Board thanks Dr. Elworthy for his three and a half years of service to our community. We wish Dr. Elworthy and his family all the best in their future endeavors.

The School Board is developing a plan to hire an interim District Administrator and plans to conduct a full search for a permanent District Administrator to lead our District as we work to fulfill our mission of inspiring and empowering students to achieve excellence in a safe, innovative and educational environment.