News

From Mark Elworthy, District Administrator with the Whitewater Unified School District:

Due to snow arriving later Friday afternoon and continuing on Saturday, all after school activities for Friday, January 18, 2019, and school events scheduled for Saturday, January 19, 2019 have been cancelled.

For 35 years, UW-Whitewater faculty and staff and community and business leaders have offered free presentations to thousands of people on topics ranging from art and current events to history and literature.

All lectures are free and open to the public and are held on Mondays at 3 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of Fairhaven Senior Services, 435 West Starin Road, Whitewater. Street parking is adjacent to the building. Unable to attend? Links to videos of lectures, including those from prior series, can be found at http://www.uww.edu/ce/fairhaven.  If you have a disability and desire accommodations, please advise us as early as possible. Requests are confidential. UW-Whitewater provides equal opportunities in employment and programming including Title IX and ADA requirements. Please contact Kari Borne at 262-472-1003 or bornek@uww.edu for further information.

Spring 2019 Series:

A World at War: Taking a Closer Look at WWII

Seventy-five years ago, the world was engaged in the deadliest conflict in history. This spring, the Fairhaven Lecture Series will take a closer look at World War II — the Allies and the Axis, the international battlefields and the home front, the great powers and the greatest generation.

Fourteen lectures in the “A World at War: Taking a Closer Look at WWII” series will feature presentations by faculty from UW-Whitewater’s Whitewater and Rock County campuses and will explore topics from the atomic bomb and the film and literature of the era to women war pilots and one family’s story of surviving the Holocaust.

This weekly series begins on January 28th with:

Making the Movies Safe for War: The WWII Combat Film

Presented by John McGuigan, Professor, Languages and Literatures

Dear WUSD Community:

The Whitewater Unified School District is pleased to announce that we are now using the Raptor Visitor Management System in all of our schools.  Part of keeping students and staff safe is knowing who is in our buildings at all times, and the Raptor system will allow us to do that.  This system will better allow us to screen visitors, contractors, and volunteers in our schools and provide some peace of mind for our students, staff, and community.  

Upon entering a district building, visitors will be asked to present an ID such as a driver’s license or state ID.  If a visitor does not have a driver’s license or state ID, the visitor can work with the building principal to determine an acceptable form of identification. The Raptor system checks the visitor’s name and date of birth for comparison with a national database of registered sex offenders.  The registered sex offender database is the only database checked by the Raptor system.  No other data from the ID is gathered or recorded, and the information is not shared with any outside agency.  Once entry is approved, Raptor will issue a badge that identifies the visitor, the date, and the purpose of their visit.  Subsequent visits will not require an ID, as a new badge can be printed just by entering the person’s name.  A badge will not be necessary for those who visit our schools simply to drop off an item in the office or pick up paperwork.

The safety of our students is our highest priority and the Raptor visitor management system allows us to quickly identify those that may present a danger to our students.  Thank you in advance for your understanding and your support in enhancing the school safety protocols in our district.  If you have any questions regarding the system, please contact your building principal or District Safety Coordinator David Brokopp at dbrokopp@wwusd.org.

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Estimada comunidad de WUSD:

El Distrito Escolar Unificado de Whitewater se complace en anunciar que ahora estamos utilizando el Sistema de Gestión de Visitantes llamado Raptor en todas nuestras escuelas. Para mantener a los estudiantes y al personal seguros y a salvo es necesario saber quién está en nuestros edificios a todo momento, y el sistema Raptor nos permitirá hacerlo. Este sistema nos permitirá escanear mejor a los visitantes, contratistas y voluntarios en nuestras escuelas y ayudará a brindar tranquilidad a nuestros estudiantes, personal y comunidad.

Al ingresar al edificio del distrito, se les pedirá a los visitantes que presenten una identificación, como una licencia de conducir o una identificación del estado. Si algún visitante no tiene una licencia de conducir o una identificación del estado, el visitante podrá conversar con el director de la escuela para determinar cuál sería otra forma aceptable identificación. El sistema Raptor verifica el nombre y la fecha de nacimiento del visitante para comparar con una base de datos nacional de delincuentes sexuales registrados. La base de datos de delincuentes sexuales registrados es la única base de datos verificada por el sistema Raptor. No se recopilará ni se registrará ningún otro dato de la identificación, y la información no se compartirá con ninguna agencia externa. Una vez que se apruebe el ingreso de los datos al sistema, Raptor emitirá una credencial que identificará al visitante, la fecha y el propósito de su visita. Las visitas subsiguientes no requerirán una identificación, ya que se puede imprimir una nueva credencial simplemente ingresando el nombre de la persona. No será necesaria una identificación para aquellos que visitan nuestras escuelas simplemente para dejar un objeto en la oficina o para recoger documentos.

La seguridad de nuestros estudiantes es nuestra máxima prioridad y el sistema de gestión de visitantes Raptor nos permite identificar rápidamente aquellos que pueden representar un peligro para nuestros estudiantes. Gracias de antemano por su comprensión y por su apoyo para mejorar los protocolos de seguridad escolar en nuestro distrito. Si tiene alguna pregunta sobre el sistema, comuníquese con el director de su escuela o con el Coordinador de Seguridad del Distrito, David Brokopp, a dbrokopp@wwusd.org.

Sincerely,

David Brokopp

District Safety Coordinator

It was a job well done for the students that represented Whitewater Middle School at the Southern Lakes Advanced Learner Network Math Meets on January 15. While no trophies or medals were earned by Whitewater students they tried their hardest, had fun, and represented our school well. 

Our 5-6 team came in 3rd place (out of 8 schools in their division) behind Hartland-Lakeside and Merton. Henry Gehrenbeck and Andrew O’Toole just missed receiving high individual medals by placing third and fourth high respectively. Alex Clarkson and Ava Nygren also had very high scores close behind Henry and Andrew and within the top 12. Hartland-Lakeside and Merton also dominated the 7-8 Math Meet event. 

Our 7-8 team came in 6th place (out of 8 schools in their division) and placed above Clinton and East Troy. Jared Apgar was the highest scoring student on our 7-8 Whitewater team followed by Cole Schlicher and Emma Clarksen. Other members of the 7-8 team included Jazmin Cederberg, Peter Portwine, Silas Baker, Emerson Ellenwood, and Emilia Houwers. It was an exciting, high energy event and a tough day.

There were 72 math teams competing represented by 36 different school districts and 576 students attended the event on the UW-Whitewater campus.

Lincoln Elementary 5th Grade Choir had 8 students selected for the Wisconsin Choral Director’s Association All-State Children’s Choir. The performance was January 12 at Lawrence University in Appleton.

They performed with 5th and 6th-grade choir students from across the state for the WCDA State Conference.

Lincoln Choir Director, Christine Hayes, commented, “The music was challenging and the students worked extremely hard for a beautiful performance. It was a life changing experience!”

City crews and Downtown Whitewater, Inc. volunteers removed holiday snowflake decorations and installed new light pole banners.

In 2018, Downtown Whitewater, Inc. designed and printed new light pole banners for the downtown area. It was a unanimous decision by the board of directors to put into production something that was different from logo-based ones of the past.

Board President Lisa Dawsey Smith says, “We’ve added a message to banners because one of the most important parts of any city/neighborhood/area is a sense of community. We hope that each member of the community will feel the same sense of connection to Whitewater that we do. Whether you are simply passing through, here for a degree, or here for a lifetime we truly hope that Whitewater will always feel like home to you.”

There are four different images on the banners: One a traditional Wisconsin fish fry, photographed with the assistance of local restaurant 841 Brewhouse; one a multigenerational family image photographed by UW-Whitewater graduate Leslie Jones; one a photo of a child playing with sidewalk chalk also photographed by UW-Whitewater graduate Leslie Jones; and one a photo of Fran Achen provided with permission by the family of Fran Achen whose studio was located in the Downtown.

Downtown Whitewater, Inc. is a volunteer-driven organization spearheading community efforts to re-energize and enhance our historic downtown. We are community advocates and volunteers who share a passion for Whitewater. We bring people from all walks of life together to celebrate Whitewater’s history and traditions, to care for our downtown neighborhood, and to inspire confidence and investments that are flowing toward an economically vibrant, engaging and exciting place in the heart of Whitewater – a place we love, a place we’re proud to call home, and a place where future generations can grow and take pride in calling their own.