Behind every great school is a great administration. School quality is almost always centered upon the educators themselves – as well as funding, student enrollment, etc. However, what plays an even more significant role in the quality of a school’s overhead decisions often lies with school officials, school administrators, and board members, something that is often overlooked or flat-out ignored.

As an administration, the Elmbrook District school board lacks recognition in many of the crucial things they do in school development, financing decisions, and student/teacher success.

In one of Administration’s many board meetings, Stephanie Hopkins, who served as a School Counselor for Arrowhead Union High School, was accepted as an Associate Principal for Brookfield East High School by the district’s Board of Education. There was also direct coverage for other issues such as highlighting accomplished athletes like Connor Thorpe, a student at Brookfield East who was voted “Greater Metro Conference Wrestler of the year”, as well as spotlighting alumni.

As an overall picture, the District’s Board of Education has a variety of responsibilities. These may include, but are not limited to, setting district goals, such as the ones developed for the 2016-2019 school years, which tried to retain staff rates of up to 90% as well as achieve 95% Proficiency in MAP Reading by the end of 3rd Grade by 2019.

To further, they are also responsible for hosting board meetings which are typically held at the District Office (3555 North Calhoun Road, Brookfield, WI 53005) and begins at around 6:00 P.M, and usually lasts for about 3 hours.

Within the school board, a number of committees have been divided up into specific subsections. These include the Community and Legislative Engagement Committee, the Finance and Operations Committee, the Personnel Committee, and the Teaching and Learning Committee.

The school board’s objective focuses for every year to include nurturing healthy employees such as teachers and other forms of staff, preparing students for leadership, building trust among the rest of the community members, as well as providing a safe and caring learning space for all.

What will the next board session look like? So far, there are a variety of planned topics and necessary conferences. Typical board meetings will start with an approval of the agenda, in which staff members have designated specific topics and duties for the rest of the board to cover, with issues covered by various staff members of the different schools in the district.

On April 13, 2021, specific highlights of the meeting were the introduction of two new Board Members, Mushir Hassan, who was sworn in as an at-large member, and Jean Lambert, who was sworn in as vice president of the committee. Newly sworn members will serve three-year terms beginning April 26, 2021, through April 21, 2024. Usually, specific schools will have representatives present information regarding school events, such as Sydney Munnagle (12), who represented Brookfield East.