Cudahy Staff Connection
In This Issue
Superintendent Message
A New Way to PLC
Employee Wellness
Celebrations
Tech Newsletter
Advisory Committee
Upcoming Dates
February 14 - Full Day of School (changed from 1/2 day)  
 
March 5 - Half-Day Inservice
 
March 17-21 - Spring Break

 

The Yeti Dash is a 3/5K snowshoe event that will be held on February 22 at Sheridan Park.  Snow shoes are available to rent - so anyone can participate!  All of the proceeds will go toward providing scholarships for families to attend Summer Day Camp through the Cudahy Recreation Department.   

Thanks to our generous sponsors:
CG Schmidt, South Shore Cyclery, and Red Star Worldwear
Cudahy district star logo
DISTRICT MISSION:
We will guarantee a quality education where students, staff, families and community work collaboratively to prepare all students to be productive 21st Century students. 

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Opening Doors, Opening Minds  |  FEBRUARY 2014
Dear Colleagues,

A number of people have asked me, "Dr. Heiden, when can we wear our red shirts (and jeans!) again?" Since I don't want anyone to catch a cold in short sleeves during this frigid weather, we'll wait until it warms up a bit. That said--watch the weather reports, and the first day the temperature climbs to 32 degrees or above, it will be Red Shirt Day! (Follow me on Twitter for this announcement, too.)

As I go around the district visiting each of our buildings, I'm once again so impressed by how you are doing a great job keeping students engaged in learning, and staying focused on student achievement, despite enduring one of the coldest winters we've seen in quite a while! Spring is right around the corner. 

Watch your email for a couple of important pieces of information. First, the Teacher of the Year and Staff Member of the year nominations will be opening soon, and there will be a nomination form available as a Google Doc. Also, additional information about the HRA (Health Risk Assessments) will be forthcoming.

Thank you for all you do for our students and keep up the great work!

James P. Heiden, PhD
A New Way to PLC
Principal Chris Haeger has started a Google+ community called "CHS Professional Learning" with the high school staff. There are a variety of different areas within the community, such as Assessment, Differentiation, 1:1 Learning. 33 members have joined the high school Community. Members can post a comment or question, learn from other's responses. It's been interesting to see/hear what members think about the variety of topics already posted.

The Middle School has also formed a CMS Professional Learning Community with about 20 participants thus far. Check out this new way to share and connect with colleagues at any time when it's convenient for you, get suggestions and feedback, and learn what others are doing to improve their instructional practice.


Wellness News and Notes
Tina Krietlow, Director of Community Education and Recreation

* We had 77 employees participate in the Holiday Weight Maintenance Challenge. The goal was to remain within two pounds of the starting weight. The first weigh-in was the week before Thanksgiving and the final weigh in was when we returned from the holiday break. Of the 77 people, 85% accomplished their goal to maintain over the holidays.

* I am excited to announce that we will be starting a Zumba class for employees as of February 12! Stay tuned for details on the class location.

* The district has contracted with the YMCA to come to each school and administer InBody Analysis' for all interested staff. The InBody Analysis provides a quantitative analysis of your body composition and will evaluate the balance between muscle and body fat. So far we have had a very positive response from those who have participated.  

Celebrations
James P. Heiden, PhD
 
Giving Back
The generosity of our students and staff continues to amaze me. Over the holidays, our Cudahy school community raised more than $4000 for a family devastated by house fire.
 
In addition, Cudahy Staff has now raised over $20,000 for area charities by having $5 Jeans days. Way to go staff! 
 

Retirements

  • Jean Lohr - Benefits Specialist
  • Jeff Zore - CHS Guidance Counselor
  • Sue Herrick - Speech Pathologist
  • Susan Oakley Sullivan - Social Worker
  • Lori Esenberg - Principal at Parkview Elementary
  • Wayne Meyer, Athletic Director

Mathematics and Science Partnership Grant

The Cudahy Mathematics Partnership (UW-Milwaukee) has has received a new competitive grant in the amount of $192,596. The partnership grant will help provide intensive staff development to help teachers deepen their content knowledge and improve teaching skills to reach all students. A big "thank you" to Karen Ebbers for helping to facilitate this grant for the School District of Cudahy!

 
 
Congratulations to Jennifer Blunt on receiving nearly $3000 in grants from PPG. The funds will be used for classroom projects!

Congratulations to Julia Goldberg on receiving a $1000 Target grant!

 

Tech Newsletter
Mickey Chavannes,
Director of Instructional Technology 

  

We have seen a huge push in regards to the use of technology in the district. Elementary schools are using applications that require students to explain their answers. Students second through sixth grade have created personal websites to display their own work. At the middle and high schools, some teachers are now able to spend more time with individual students because of video instruction; some teachers are able to go deeper into topics due to having more resources available, and almost all teachers are utilizing the sharing and folder management features of their Google Drive.

So why is this important? In a recent middle and high school survey, students commented that almost 75% of students are now able to access their work assigned at anytime. Translation: they are not losing work. Overall, 64% of students say they are completing more work than before, 56% feel they understand the material better and 44% feel their grades are better than our pre-laptop era. This survey result was extremely encouraging. As we continue down the path of technology, please continue to challenge your students and take advantage of the numerous resources now available to us.

So where do we go from here? We need to look at what is working well for teachers with their technology, what teachers need/want and what we need to revisit. We encourage everyone to contact either their building Technology Integrator or myself with all comments and suggestions. 

  

Upcoming Class Begins February 25
We will be offering a class on developing lessons on using laptops and flipping lessons in a 1:1 environment. This course will look at the flipped classroom model, creation of video tutorials for students, communicating with students, parents and staff and other web based resources for students and teachers. Due to the nature of the course, teachers will watch video instruction on their own time and use the class time to collaborate and create their lessons. The course will be again be held through Viterbo and if you are interested/needing college credit for your continuing education, the cost is $220 for the two credit class, otherwise it is free. More information on the class will be coming in an email soon.
Superintendent Advisory Committee 
Compensation Model Survey  
Thanks for taking the staff survey about compensation. We will be collecting the results over the coming weeks and we thank you for taking the survey.

The compensation committee has been working on the new compensation model and it is coming together. The goal is to create a sustainable, flexible and fair compensation model for Cudahy staff. This spring, we'll be scheduling listening sessions and "world cafe" sessions to gather more input from staff on the compensation model. Look for those dates and times to be out soon.
 
CUDAHY SCHOOL DISTRICT  | Opening Doors, Opening Minds

2915 E. Ramsey Ave. Cudahy, WI  53110  |  (414) 294-7405 | www.cudahy.k12.wi.us