School district expanding learning opportunities

College options, workforce development and adult enrichment mapped out in strategic plan
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

The Shawano School District is looking at strengthening relationships with colleges and other organizations to provide more education options not only to the almost 2,300 students it currently serves but to the community at large.

Robyn Shingler, director for the district’s Shawano Community Education program, told the Shawano School Board on Oct. 4 that high school juniors and seniors are able to take college-level courses for credit through the school district, which can save those students as much as $10,000 in the process, so it behooves the district to form strong ties with institutions like College of Menominee Nation and University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to expand education options.

“Relationships are foundational to all of the work that we do,” Shingler said. “All of these colleges that we have within a 40-mile radius, what can we do to expand our partnerships with them?”

The process is expected to take a few years, in accordance with the district’s strategic plan, starting with determining the existing relationships and expanding from there, finding out what community needs are for post-secondary offerings, and looking at what course options exist for the district and building upon them.

“We need to make sure to understand the dual-enrollment opportunities that we have,” Shingler said. “It’s quite impressive what’s in place and the work that has already been laid, but we know that things change.”

Offering dual-enrollment, where students are taking both high school and college courses, gives them the opportunity to have 12 college credits under their belt by the time they receive their high school diploma. One of the challenges of this program is finding ways for students to fit in college courses, according to Shingler, as many are involved in sports, jobs or other extracurricular activities.

“We’re starting conversations with the colleges on how we can potentially offer opportunities through community education,” Shingler said.

Shingler noted that the colleges are one avenue for building relationships that help students, but a second one is working with the business community to find out what their workforce needs are and trying to help students who aren’t on track for college to be ready to enter the workforce once they graduate high school. This will involve working with city, county and tribal governments, along with civic organizations in the community and beyond, she said.

“We’ve met with Shawano County Economic Progress, as an example, and we’ve talked about the local economy and business needs,” Shingler said. “I’ve met with and spoken to the city of Shawano, and we will be offering a city series through community education, where our community can learn about what our city does and how to get more involved in city government.”

The district is also reaching out to financial institutions to look at teaching students about financial literacy, according to Shingler, and it recently allowed private businesses to use the school facilities to help their employees get through a certification process.

“We hopefully act as a resource center and a liaison between civic organizations, businesses and the community,” Shingler said.

Businesses are already reaching out to the district for help in building their future workforces. Superintendent Randi Anderson noted that Aarrowcast, a foundry in Shawano, has already approached officials for assistance.

“Businesses across every entity are having a difficult time hiring people, so we’re looking at an opportunity to create pathways for certain positions that they have inside their organizations,” Anderson said. “We’re continuing the conversations to see where they go for career pathways.”

A third effort to improve learning is to expand enrichment options offered through the community education program, according to Shingler. She said the district wants to expand its traditional role and create more connections to homes and students.

The district is working with various organizations to expand its community education offerings. Shingler noted that the Shawano Area Young Professionals have offered to teach life skills classes, as an example.

The district is also working to help parents with classes to learn about Skyward and Skylert, their online programs that connect students and parents with the school. The district is also offering training on the Apple computers that it has switched over to recently for student use.

“We’re offering multiple opportunities for families and students to come in and learn more about these devices,” Shingler said.

The district has also been looking at improving its communication with the community in general and revived its communication and community engagement committee to develop a comprehensive plan to look at how it gets information out to the public.

“That’s going to include crisis communication, internal and external communication, media and community relations and parent engagement,” Shingler said. “We’re going to look at things like updating our website. We’re going to reconvene our Hawk Talks, make sure we do a better job with both external and internal communication strategies.”


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com