News & Events

Submitted by Rob Boostrom, Board Vice President for Downtown Whitewater, Inc. and Associate Professor of Marketing for UW-Whitewater

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is obviously a big part of our community. Yet, often, it seems that the students don’t see much of the town and sometimes don’t feel like they’re part of it. To help bridge the gap between the students and the town, Downtown Whitewater is beginning its Classroom to Community Connection program.

To be sure, this isn’t the only effort in this area. The university’s own Community-Based Learning (CBL) program has been guiding faculty and staff to create really wonderful programs to meet the needs of area businesses and organizations for a while now. They offer many tools for connecting students to community members and Downtown Whitewater, Inc. continues to be a proud partner with this program. You can find out more here: https://www.uww.edu/ce/cbl.

That said, we feel there are two ways that Downtown Whitewater might help facilitate additional connection. First, we want to continue working with businesses and organizations to connect them to opportunities to work with students via the CBL program. We hope to act as a kind of matchmaker for organizations and instructors who want to take part in that process. Second, some instructors might be interested in trying something less comprehensive than the CBL process. We would like to help those instructors find community partners that might add to the classroom environment in a smaller way.

As such, we are now asking businesses and non-profit organizations to describe up to three different problems that might be addressed in some way by student projects. These should be projects which require the application of some expertise and the output would be some kind of strategic plan, tactical recommendations, or creative work. The problem doesn’t need to be extremely specific or lengthy but should communicate the expected area of expertise that will need to be applied.

For businesses or organizations who are just interested in connecting to students, your problem or interest area might be hypothetical. Consider asking a radical question about how something could be promoted or how a resource might be applied. This can be a way to either get help with a real problem or just connect to students from a particular class in a new way to raise awareness.

We are also asking instructors to provide a brief description of the kind of inputs you’d need (like participation of the business owner) and the outputs a client might expect (such as a plan, presentation, or creative materials). Descriptions generally would only need to be a few sentences long to communicate the basics of what is required.

For businesses, organizations, or instructors that would like to find a partner, please contact Downtown Whitewater’s President, Lisa Dawsey Smith, at ldawsey06@gmail.com. Provide either the description of what you’d like a class to help you with, or if you’re an instructor, the description of what you’d need from a partner and what you’d provide. We’ll be collecting these until August 20th. We plan to have all match suggestions sent out by August 28th.

By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com

In a 3 hour meeting on August 10, the Whitewater Unified School District School Board extended the reopening plan that it approved in its July 27 meeting for another two weeks, ending on September 25. The motion was passed 6-1, with Jennifer Kienbaum dissenting. Under the plan, 1/4 of the elementary students will each attend in-person learning with cohorts of four to eight students on the days of Tuesday – Friday from 12:30 – 3:00 p.m. 4K students will be in school two mornings or afternoons per week. Middle School and High School students will only attend a single orientation session during the first week of September, and then be online for the rest of the month. Special arrangements will be made as needed for ELL students, those who are at risk, and those who are unengaged by online learning. 

The board also voted that at a special meeting on September 14, depending upon the status of COVID in the area and the schools, they hope to affirm that the schools will be returning to fulltime in-person instruction as of September 28. (Note: the Banner story initially said “regular meeting.”)

Before making the decision, the board heard from the epidemiologist with the Jefferson County Health Department, who explained his rationale in recommending that school districts not return to in-person education until the 14-day positivity rate of COVID-19 testing is below 8%. Pam Streich, Educational Consultant with Jefferson County, clarified that the county does not have the authority to close a school; they may only make recommendations. They look at not only the positivity rate, but also the hospitalization rate, the community spread, whether the trend is up or down, and other factors. District Administrator Caroline Pate-Hefty indicated that the district is computing a positivity rate that utilizes the rates for Jefferson, Rock, and Walworth counties, adjusted for the percentage of the students who reside in each of the counties. That rate is currently 8.2%.

Dr. Pate-Hefty indicated that 658 students have registered thus far, out of an expected enrollment of approximately 1900. 22% of the enrollments have selected the virtual model. Parents will be able to change the model of choice for their student(s) at the end of each quarter of the school year.

The board adopted a policy that any students who are exempt from the requirement to wear a face mask will be encouraged to wear a face shield. (Note: the Banner story initially said “required.”) Members also voted to utilitze as a guiding document the Jefferson County Health Department metrix, retitled the “Jefferson Health Department Reopening County Schools and Addressing the Spread of COVID-19” plan which was just released on August 10.

WHITEWATER, WIS – The Whitewater Area Chamber of Commerce along with the City of
Whitewater, the Whitewater Marketing Alliance, the Tourism Council, Downtown Whitewater,
and the Greater Whitewater Committee want to support the university in its efforts to ensure that
the university students feel safe and welcome upon their return to campus and to Whitewater!
We would like YOUR help in creating a warm and welcoming environment as the university
students return for their fall semester. We have Welcome Warhawks yard signs that we are
inviting local residents to put in their front yards, and local businesses to hang in their storefront
windows or put out in front of their businesses. While starting or returning to college in a new
town away from the comforts of home can be scary, this year is particularly challenging. Let’s
showcase the warm and friendly nature of Whitewater and welcome the students with open arms
in the best social distanced way we can!

We want to paint the town purple during the move-in period, August 21st through September
2nd, to show the students they are an important part of the Whitewater family. The signs are
available now and can be picked up at the chamber offices, 150 W. Main Street, Monday – Friday, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.