CLINTONVILLE, WI – The Clintonville School District is actively working to bolster its student support team, with several key positions currently being filled ahead of the upcoming school year, Superintendent Troy Kuhn confirmed this week.
The district is in the process of hiring reading and math interventionists at the middle and high school level, a new elementary school counselor, and a full-time social worker, moves Kuhn said reflect both the growing needs of students and promises made to the public during a recent referendum.
“As we promised the public in the referendum, we needed a focus on school counselors as well as supporting the middle school and high school in math and reading with extra support services,” Kuhn said. “So we’re fulfilling our promise that we did during the referendum.”
The elementary school counselor position, Kuhn explained, is tied directly to the district’s social emotional learning curriculum, an initiative designed to build critical life skills in students at a young age.
“We want to supplement our curriculum, our social emotional learning curriculum, in which students get to meet with the oversight of a school counselor in order to do resiliency, conflict resolution, those types of things,” Kuhn said. “We felt that building those skills at a young age was extremely important.”
The full-time social worker position has also been posted, and Kuhn said interviews are expected to begin very soon. That hire, combined with the counselor and interventionist positions, represents a broad investment in wraparound student support across all grade levels.
When asked why the district is moving on these hires now, Kuhn pointed to a deliberate process his administrative team undertook to assess both personnel and programs heading into the new school year.
“The biggest thing that we need to do as an admin team is assess not only our personnel, but also our programs that we run,” he said. “Then you put in retirements and if there’s going to be any internal backfills, and that ultimately determines job postings.”
From there, Kuhn said, timing becomes everything. The spring hiring season, he explained, is when the strongest candidates are on the market and districts that hesitate risk losing out.
“Now is the critical time of year where you can catch quality individuals looking to leave other districts, maybe get closer to home, or maybe come to Clintonville because they hear about the good things happening here,” Kuhn said. “It’s really essential that you don’t miss out on an opportunity or a quality individual. So that’s why you want to get things posted as quick as you can.”
Once contracts are signed, Kuhn said the district’s focus shifts immediately to onboarding. Rather than bringing new hires into a summer school setting before they’re fully prepared, the district prefers to give incoming staff time to decompress and get oriented before the school year begins in earnest.
“Let any employee that’s going to be coming to the district do a mental reset, and then get ready for that mid-October new employee orientation,” Kuhn said.
That orientation is organized by curriculum director Ellie Brzezinski, who oversees the district’s mentor-mentee program. Kuhn praised the program for its ability to meet new employees where they are, whether they’re seasoned veterans making a career move or first-year teachers stepping into a classroom for the first time.
“The way we run our program is very different for a seasoned veteran coming to Clintonville versus somebody brand new out of college that’s never been in a classroom before,” Kuhn said. “We feel that we meet the needs of all new employees and we do a great onboarding program for them.”
Kuhn also used the occasion to recognize the district’s existing staff, expressing gratitude to the school board for following his recommendation to prioritize competitive compensation for current employees.
“I’m very pleased with the board that they followed my recommendation of taking care of our quality staff that currently exist in our district,” he said. “They gave raises to our employees that are higher than most districts around, and that was my recommendation, because we want to keep the quality people here. We need to take care of the people who have put their time in at Clintonville.”
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