Waukesha Board Hires Additional Staff at Whittier School

Editor's Note: Superintendent Todd Gray requested a clarification after a headline on this story stated the school board hired the additional staff for a "struggling" school.

This is from Gray's e-mail to Patch:

"No comments were made at all about the school struggling in any manner. It was noted that a number of students are having a hard time. This could happen in any school and in any district in Wisconsin."

The Waukesha School Board approved hiring four additional full-time staff members at during its board meeting last week.

One of the positions was new for the school – a supervisor for “positive behavioral interventions and supports” (PBIS), needed because a number of children at the school are experiencing some type of crisis and acting out, including hitting teachers.

“We are experiencing many, many students who are in crisis – emotional crisis, physical crisis – who are really impacting the learning in a number of different grades over there,” Gray told the school board when asked about the position.

Consequently, the educational focus at Whittier is suffering, despite the school having one of the best principals, he said. 

Whittier takes in a large amount of students from low-income areas and this year, there seems to be an increase in the number of students who are acting out, according to Gray,

Sixty-one percent of children at Whittier qualify for the free and reduced lunch program, an indicator of poverty, according to Wisconsin Department of Instruction data. Last year, 53 percent of students qualified for the program at the school.

The new position will provide extra support for the children, who are not necessarily identified as special education, and their families, according to Jennifer Wimmer, Director of Special Education for the school district.

The situation at Whittier has also attracted the attention of the district’s Safety Committee, which discussed worker’s comp accident reports in which teachers and aides reported being injured by students, the majority of whom had special needs.

According to the committee report by school board member Karin Rajnicek, the committee discussed whether they were providing enough support for the teachers and aides.

The salary of the new PBIS position will be 70 percent of $57,576 because it’s a one-year hire and part of the year has already passed. 

The three other positions would be 70 percent of about $159,000 and include two kindergarten teachers and second grade teacher to lower class sizes.

Funding for the positions may come from grants and other special funding, in addition to other district funds, so the overall impact to the district is lessened, according to Gray.

Even with the new hires, overall staffing for elementary staff is still lower than previous years, Gray said.

In other staffing-related business, the school board also approved hiring a full-time physical education teacher at Horning Middle School and a part-time Title 1 math teacher at White Rock Elementary; and accepted the resignation of Lisa Sigler, Director of High School Instruction effective Dec. 16.