Witt-Birn principals highlight first half of year

While entering a new position for work may be difficult and confusing for some, three local principals have found that with strong community support their jobs get a little easier in the first half of the 2022-23 school year.

Stuart Russ, Cole Irish and Nick Firari were hired to fill principal roles at Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School, Birnamwood Elementary/Middle School and Wittenberg Elementary/Middle School, respectively, before the school year began. All three principals were hired from outside of the school district, and each principal shared their experiences in their first half-year at the school district.

Russ said that one of his focuses has been to continue building and forming relationships with not only the staff and students, but with the community as well.

“Things have been going really well,” said Russ. “It is great to get to know our students and build relationships with our staff and community.”

As Russ has been integrating himself into the school district, he said that he has taken the approach of staying in line with familiar traditions and ideas that were already in place.

“There is nothing new that I have introduced — I think that part of my role in my first year is that I need to understand what systems are in place and what we are doing,” said Russ. “It is really honoring the work — that people who made those decisions in the past — that is in the best interest of our students. Honoring that and getting to understand that — I think is my role in my first year here.”

Irish and Firari both echoed Russ, with Firari saying that they want to keep building relationships and that they want to keep abiding by ideas and work from the previous administration.

“I feel like the year has been off to a great start,” said Firari. “I feel that really spending that time and building those connections with the students at the school, the staff throughout the school, families and community members has really been positive. It has just been a great start to the year and everyone has been very helpful.”

With this being his first principal position, Irish said that he constantly talks with other teachers and administration, often times brainstorming ideas to help benefit not only students but also the staff.

“It has been a steep learning curve, coming in new after being a teacher the last couple of years,” said Irish. “It has been a lot to learn, but I am also really lucky, because we have teachers that have been here for while. Stuart (Russ) and Nick (Firari) and I are all kind of in the same spot — it has been fun getting to know how the school runs and getting to know everybody here.”

In terms of news around the high school, Russ noted the girl’s volleyball team qualifying for state provided an area of excitement and school spirit at Witt-Birn. Russ said he was impressed by the amount of support that the team and the school received from students, staff and community members.

“With the volleyball team making it to state and the number of people who were looking to go to the game — we were fortunate to have the support to be able to close the school for the day and use that opportunity for our community to support our student-athletes,” said Russ. “That was new to me, and I appreciate all of the work from the people behind the scenes to make sure that went well for the community and student-athletes.”

At Wittenberg Elementary/Middle School, Firari pointed to various events, including the Trunk or Treat event, the giving tree and the Veterans Day event as things that he is proud of. Like Russ, Firari pointed to the support from the community as a major catalyst of being able to host events.

“The number of community members and people out there that are looking to help — the number of calls that I have gotten with people asking if we need help at the school, whether it be a monetary donation or just coming into volunteer to help has been the biggest enjoyment for me so far,” said Firari.

At Birnamwood Elementary/Middle School, Irish pointed to the Veterans Day program as an event that he and the staff were proud to host.

“There were over 25 veterans here, and the kids had a band concert and musical performances,” said Irish. “That was one thing that I was really proud of — to see the community come together and support our veterans.”

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com