Emily BerryJul 11, 20188 minWalls have a way of getting political.UPDATE/POSTSCRIPT: The special Friday the 13th meeting resulted in a reversal - the wall has indeed been knocked down. Lots of wasted tim...
Emily BerryJun 27, 20182 minSpending plans for 2018-2019Tuesday's regular meeting was much shorter than usual and was missing two board members, but the remaining three voted on significant pla...
Emily BerryJun 26, 20183 minNo summer break - school district work is in full swingThis week's school board meeting should be a revealing and busy one, as the board takes up topics that should be of keen interest to ever...
Emily BerryJun 12, 20186 minLaying the groundwork for a big pile of debtI'll start this post with a positive: a room full of people showed up last week to hear about the district's facilities plan and the role...
Emily BerryMay 23, 20189 minIf a meeting happens and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?If you knew that the school district had a dozen work groups meeting regularly to discuss specific issues and advise school district lead...
Emily BerryMay 10, 20184 minA Small Town HallThe school board hosted their final linkage of the year Tuesday night, welcoming anyone and everyone for a Town Hall immediately before t...
Emily BerryMay 7, 20189 minFull email thread: our Superintendent on Student TransfersReaders, our district superintendent Bryan Davis emailed me earlier today taking issue with the way I framed my recent post on transfers ...
Emily BerryMay 3, 20185 minAre students of color and their families giving up on Shorewood School District?A few months ago, I started hearing talk of several African-American students leaving our high school and transferring to other nearby sc...
Emily BerryApr 25, 20184 minTwo people with big, new shoes to fillOur district leadership has decided to create two new positions -- one at each of our elementary schools -- whose jobs will come with wei...
Emily BerryMar 19, 20186 minA vision for technology absent teacher insightNote: you can watch the video of Tuesday's regular meeting here. This week's school board meeting was full of news, including a preview o...
Emily BerryMar 13, 20185 minMaintenance and Operations: How Shorewood Measures Up[Important edits made to this post Tuesday, March 13 regarding the data cited here] Spend a lot of time in any of our schools, and despit...
Emily BerryMar 7, 20186 minA shooting puts school safety and facilities choices into sharp reliefLet's get this out of the way: I'm one of those Moms Demanding Action. I haven't volunteered with them in a long time because I decided t...
Emily BerryMar 6, 20182 minA response to my criticism of consulting, travel and coherent governanceThanks to everyone who took the time to read my original post about Coherent Governance and the money we spent on travel and consulting e...
Emily BerryMar 6, 20183 minDo School Rankings Matter?This archived post appeared on my original blog site Feb. 25, 2017 (Update added May 9, 2018: Our most recent ranking is #30) Shorewood h...
Emily BerryFeb 28, 20188 minAn Open Letter to our School LeadershipI understand that only two of you -- specifically, our board president and our superintendent, are really supposed to speak for you all i...
Emily BerryFeb 14, 20184 minA quickie for Mardi GrasIt was a mercifully shorter meeting tonight for the School board compared to the last one, and not action-packed, but still included a few...
Emily BerryFeb 5, 20184 minWho knows what a "yogurt pak" is?There are a lot of big, important conversations about big important topics going on in our school district lately, but I want to make sur...
Emily BerryJan 24, 20186 minI confess, I left.Three hours in to tonight's school board meeting, just after 10 p.m., I realized that I was so tired and mentally spent, that I wasn't su...
Emily BerryJan 23, 20183 min14 Ways #8: Yes to Mental Health Services in Schools, But Don't Stop ThereThis post first appeared on my original blog March 28, 2017. I'm proud that our district has made the mental health of our students a top...
Emily BerryJan 23, 20183 minA sentence I would like to never write again.A Shorewood High School student has died by his own hand. His name was William Pemberton. His mother has asked for help paying for memori...