Transition program promotes student success

Cadott School Board

The high school transition program was spotlighted during a Cadott School Board meeting Dec. 19, where board members learned about the ongoing efforts to promote student success.

Special education teacher Kasey Podoll and special education paraprofessional Dani Winchell were on-hand to talk about the transition program.

“Really, we’re here to talk about some of the really unique things we do as a building, within this district, for our special education services,” said Podoll.

The Cadott School District was selected to present at the Wisconsin State Transition Conference in February. Podoll says the goal is to help other districts learn how to build a transition program of their own, using resources they already have. Podoll says the reason behind the program, is to ensure student success during school and after graduation.

“Instead of working toward graduation, we needed to set a high bar for students once they walk out of our building,” said Podoll.

He says they do that by making sure every student with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) has an individualized postsecondary transition plan.

Podoll says the district is on year four or five of co-teaching, where special education staff goes into the general education classroom setting and is available to help every single student in the classroom.

He also says he appreciates the commitment to C3 Teams (co-plan/co-serve/ co-learn), where special education teachers have time set aside to meet with their coteaching partner. “That’s time where we utilize intentional planning,” said Podoll. “We’re looking at student data. We’re figuring out where students are struggling.”

That way, they can decide if they need to re-teach something and can plan what to cover going forward.

Winchell says paraprofessionals have also gotten involved in the collaborative time.

“The last four/five years, building that relationship with the teachers that we support, has just made a tremendous impact in being able to support our students in the classroom,” said Winchell. Podoll also says he works with teacher Keith Becker to make sure they are on the same page, when it comes to getting special education students involved in the work study program and says the number of students involved has increased every year.

“We have data that backs up that student achievement has increased since we’ve committed to this co-teaching model,” said Podoll.

Winchell says the focuses of the transition class are to teach skills not traditionally taught in school, but that are important in adulthood; develop resilient and confident young adults; provide social/emotional support; and identify a variety of career pathways for students to explore.

“Every single month, we go out into the community for a week or two, and do a service learning project,” said Podoll, which he added can help students build their resumes, besides building relationships with the community.

The students also visit technical and fouryear schools, during the class.

Podoll also shared the next steps for the program, which include hosting another Cadott Job Olympics in the spring, continuing to build partnerships with the community for potential job placements, increasing involvement in CVTC high school academies and adding more athletes for each Special Olympics sport.

Board members also heard an update on facility planning, after a workshop the week before. District administrator Jenny Stark reported work on drafting the referendum question is in the works and will hopefully be available for board members to view, ahead of the regular January meeting.

“And right now, she talked about just doing a single question,” said Starck, which was based on board feedback.

They were also able to see updated plan options.

“Basically, some of the things that were considered heavy renovation, moving to light renovation,” said Starck, adding that would allow renovations by the commons addition, to make the area cohesive.

Board member Brad Sonnentag said he would also like to see what a potential Phase 2 and 3 would look like, to get more things done that didn’t make the cut this time, as part of a 20 or 25-year plan.

“I guess I would like to see all of that laid out before we for sure make any other decisions,” said Sonnentag. Board member Becca Blanchette says she thinks it would be worthwhile to look at those projects they would like to do in the following years, but also doesn’t want to tie it in so closely that people think the plan is already set.

“Obviously, we would have to do a whole other survey and find out if people would support it at that time,” said Blanchette.

Kevin Roshell, board member, says he has concerns with the timing of everything, given the state of the economy.

“It seems like we still have a lot of questions and there are some other options that we would like to look into,” said Roshell, adding if they are going to do something, he wants to do it right.

Blanchette recalled the survey results, where the two projects rated as the highest importance, were the capital maintenance and safety. Board president Cory LaNou suggested they could look into other things to improve safety and security, without moving the offices.

“Based on the last meeting, I really felt like we couldn’t come to a conclusion on what we wanted to do for the office,” said LaNou.

Starck also said there are some ESSER funds available, about $800,000, and if they for some reason decide not to move forward with ventilation/air conditioning, which falls under the capital maintenance section currently, that money needs to be spent elsewhere before the time limit.

“There are a limited number of things we can do with those funds,” said Starck.

Roshell says he would hate to see those funds go to waste, so he would be for using that money to upgrade HVAC as much as they can.

Starck also says at some point when they start renovating, it sometimes makes more sense to do it at the same time, which is something the architects would be able to break down better.

“When we started this initiative, it was a 25-year plan,” said LaNou. “It was to make sure, when we started ripping things apart, that we didn’t do something we were either going to rip apart again in 10 years, because we’re going to put another addition on, or whatever. And I feel like we fell short of that goal.”

Blanchette says she feels like they had a 25-year plan, but the survey results showed the community would not financially support all of those things. LaNou says he thinks of that as a potential plan, but a phased plan was never solidified. He says it still feels like they have a lot of questions going into a crunch time, with the deadline approaching quickly.

“I just don’t think we’re ready right now,” said LaNou.

Ced Boettcher, board member, says they need the whole board to support a referendum, if they decide to do one, and if board members have doubts, thinks they should wait to move forward on it. He says there is nothing wrong with waiting a little bit, to make sure questions are answered and everything is clarified, so it gets done right.

The capital maintenance/air conditioning improvements will be on the January agenda for further discussion for this election cycle, with work continuing on a longer term, phased plan.

District parent Rod Tegels also stated during public comment, that he thinks the grading manual should be more easily accessible to parents and guardians.

“I was unable to find it,” said Tegels, who says he tried looking online first.

He says he was eventually able to find it through a staff member.