Port Washington-Saukville School District superintendent plans to retire at the end of the school year
The Port Washington-Saukville School District is searching for its next superintendent after current Superintendent David Watkins announced he is planning to retire at the end of the school year.
Watkins has been superintendent since July 2021, when he was hired to replace Barry Weber, who retired after 21 years as the district's superintendent. Before coming to the Port Washington-Saukville School District, Watkins was the superintendent of the Saint Paul School District in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The School Board on Oct. 3 unanimously approved his resignation, which takes effect June 30, 2023.
In a Sept. 30 letter to the School Board, district staff and community members, Watkins noted that his wife's father died in July 2021 and that his father died in October 2021.
"These losses have provided us with an opportunity to reflect and prioritize our thoughts around the future," he wrote. "This last year of reflection has helped me look at things with a more objective lens and appreciate my journey in education.
"Thirty years in the field of education have provided me with many memorable moments. Even though my wife and I have been met with an emotional return to Wisconsin, I want to thank the PWSSD community for making my professional time here a highlight during a very difficult personal time. My time in PWSSD has helped balance out the emotions of our return to Wisconsin."
The district's human resources department will communicate the next steps for finding the next superintendent "in the coming weeks," Watkins said in his letter. A number of questions are under consideration, including whether to fill the position with an internal or external candidate, recruitment options and the potential use of an outside consultant, community input and more.
In a letter to the community, School Board President Brenda Fritsch said that under Watkins' leadership, the district has established a human resources department, re-worked school board committee meetings, created a school board executive committee, overhauled the employee handbook, established an improved process for policy updates and utilized a new hiring process for key district roles.
"We have also focused on communication throughout our district by upgrading software for staff and students for greater uniformity and access, working on updating our District website to be more user friendly and phone app ready, and by providing better access to Board meetings by moving to on-line access and School Board document sharing," Fritsch wrote.
Watkins also created a strategic planning process for the district, according to Fritsch, which she said will allow for improved student achievement and will "provide a tool for future budget decisions." Fritsch also said that, during Watkins' tenure, each district building has added a building leadership team to define the needs of their students and buildings.
"These teams not only have autonomy in their building’s direction, but are also collaborators in the district vision. We believe this team allows for greater voice, greater vision, and greater success overall for our students," Fritsch said.
Fritsch said the board also appreciated Watkins' vision to include all stakeholders in those processes, to use data to assist in direction and decisions and to provide the district "a solid foundation and positive direction" for the district's staff, students and community.
Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Port Washington-Saukville superintendent announces retirement
