Schools

A New School Year And A New Era of Leadership In Menomonee Falls

Dr. Patricia Greco took over the district while education policy across the state is storming with controversy, but her focus is on preparing students for the complex job market of the future.

Thursday marks the beginning of a new school year in Menomonee Falls, but it also marks the first school year under the leadership of Superintendent Patricia Greco.

It’s been a busy summer of transitions both professionally and personally for Greco. She said this summer has been “professionally engaging,” organizing and meeting with the School Board, staff, and business leaders to prepare for the start of the school year.

Greco, formerly Herdrich, also spent eight days with her family in Turks and Cacaos where she celebrated her wedding with Joe Greco Jr., whose father was former Village President Joe Greco.

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As her first school year as head of the Falls district fast approaches, Greco’s plan as superintendent is less about implementing sweeping change and more about focusing deeper on long-term strategic planning that’s been key to success in Falls.

“I have a significant amount of background in strategic planning and measuring results for programming and learning,” Greco said. “It’s one of the major areas of emphasis that I’ve had professionally. This district has a strong tradition of seeking community members to plan for long-term success in the district.”

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Central to her long-term goal for the future success of the district is preparing students from an early age for the highly technical labor market of the future. Students’ preparedness for complex jobs is key, not only to individual success, but to the recovery of a struggling state and national economy.

“As we know, our state economy is directly tied to preparing students well for engaging in highly technical fields, and fields that the job market will be able to support for the long term,” Greco said.

Greco said statewide the goal is to have 40 percent of high school graduates prepared to enter into a bachelor’s degree program by 2023. Those children are currently in elementary school, and Greco said that work will begin at a young age to prepare a larger proportion of students for post-secondary success.

Many of the pieces are already being set in place to move the district toward this goal. A three-year program will launch again this year at Menomonee Falls High School. The program provides the necessary background to prepare students to enter the healthcare profession by incorporating a variety of relative classes and activities.

Greco said the district is also looking this year to advance a number of other tailored career academies, and strengthen individualized career counseling to advise students from middle school through their high school years.

To ensure that the district as a whole moves forward, Greco said the officials are adopting the Baldridge Business Model to measure results and identify areas of improvement in all facets of the district from student success to buildings and grounds.

Entering the job amidst controversy

For the past several months education, both statewide and locally, has been the target of heated controversy. Shortly before Greco as superintendent, that left a foul taste in the mouths of many residents.

Although many who were in attendance at the meeting in May voiced displeasure at the contract itself, an equal number were alarmed by the manner in which it passed. The vote sparked to file a complaint with the district attorney alleging board members violated the state's open records law.

District Attorney Brad Schimel determined that there of wrongdoing to bring any charges forward, however.

To avoid a similar situation, Greco has made headway to ensure openness and clear communication between the district and taxpayers.

“One of the things that we are trying hard to do is to keep a discussion-then-action sequence on big items that come to the board,” Greco said. “These will come to the board as a discussion item so the community can understand the background and the issues before the board moves forward for approval.”

Greco has also tweaked how information is presented at board meetings. Now, in addition to the agenda, executive summaries outlining the key information and background behind items considered by the board will be available at every meeting.

Greco said administrators will continue to refine the district's website to make it an accessible location for important district information. The district is also exploring the right balance between using the call system versus emails to inform parents.

But larger controversies are also at play statewide for education. This year marked the , which removed most collective bargaining rights for teachers. It also sparked a series of across the state that sent voters to the polls in a summer election.

With all the controversy brewing this summer, would there be a hangover into the new school year? Greco said there won’t be any locally, so long as the focus of students, parents and the district remains in the right place.

“All a typical 14-year-old is thinking about now is freshman year. They aren’t much worried about what’s happening in Madison. But they do want to know that teachers are reaching out to them, that they feel accepted in school, that they have the ability to learn and have a friend base,” Greco said. “That’s on the immediate radar screen for the children, and the immediate radar screen for the families, and we are doing that very well here.”

However, Greco said education would remain a hotbed issue with a weakening economy acting as a catalyst to fuel much of the debate. She said the key is for education professionals and policymakers to cross the aisle and strike a balance between the educational needs of children and taxpayers alike.

“I think the issues are going to stay significant as a nation until the economy settles down,” Greco said. “We need to figure out how to work through policy issues on both sides of the aisle to ensure the needs of communities and taxpayers are met without sidetracking it from the students and learning.”


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