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Rick Monroe

Monday, February 20, 2012

Nicolet Notes

Invitation for 10th Annual Knight on the Town

A gala event to support Nicolet High School.

Editor's Note: This is a formal invitation from Nicolet District Administrator Rick Monroe. You are cordially invited to attend the “10th Annual Knight on the Town” gala to support Nicolet High School. This special evening which will feature delicious food, live entertainment, silent and voice auctions, casino gaming, great fun, and will be held at Cardinal Stritch University. Please join me and my wife Kathy plus a host of parents, and community friends of Nicolet, for this fund-raising extravaganza to support our students. Registration for the event is quick and easy; just click the link here and walk through the user-friendly process. After you are registered, get your friends and neighbors to register as well - the more the merrier! …

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Fox Point-Bayside Patch Year in Review

The Best of Patch: August

A look back at the top headlines from Fox Point-Bayside Patch in 2011.

At year's end it's nice to take a look back at where you came, which offers a good look at where you're going. At Patch, August brought a feisty recall elections, a tough arrest of a very angry drunk driver, a perfect bone marrow match for a Fox Point native and so much more. Take a look at the controversy, passion and memories that were made in August at Fox Point-Bayside Patch. Art Trooper: Faith and a Little Luck Save Studio As local business struggle through the recession, Patch took a look at a handful of places in Fox Point and Bayside in our Surviving America series. In this piece, we took a look at Art Trooper in Audubon Court. When Ann Deuser opened Art Trooper in 2008, she had no idea that the recession would victimize many …

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Two Nicolet Students Killed in Glendale Accident

Sophomores tried to elude police and died after car ran into tree and utility pole, police say.

Two 15-year-old sophomore girls at Nicolet High School were killed early Saturday in a one-car accident in Glendale, authorities said. Halee Ludowise-Fischer of Glendale and Jennifer Geren of Fox Point died in the crash, which happened at about 1 a.m. at West Good Hope Road and North Seneca Avenue, Glendale police said. Ludowise-Fischer was driving her parents' car in River Hills when a police officer attempted to stop the vehicle for a traffic violation, police said. The two took off at a "high rate of speed" in an attempt to elude police and the officer did not attempt to pursue them and turned off his lights and siren, Glendale police said. The car kept speeding east on Good Hope Road for several blocks before crashing into a utility …

Amber

2:34 pm on Sunday, November 20, 2011

Rose i am so sorry parenting and children just wont be the same anymore. i'll see you monday friend and i will hug you. i love you and RIP halee and jenni   more ›

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Districts Take Divergent Approach to Developing Teacher Evaluations

Nicolet and Fox Point-Bayside have joined state consortium, however Maple Dale-Indian Hill is designing their own.

The Nicolet and Fox Point-Bayside School Districts aren't waiting for the state to tell them what to do regarding teacher evaluations. They are among 30 districts who have joined the Southeastern Wisconsin Teacher Evaluation Consortium, in response to Gov. Scott Walker’s initiative in school accountability. "That's the goal, to tie teacher compensation with the evaluations to make the evaluations more meaningful," Nicolet District Administrator Rick Monroe said at the October School Board meeting. He explained that part of the evaluation process will be things like student growth and progress. Fox Point-Bayside District Administrator Rachel Boechler said it's about support for both teachers and students. “In the advent of the changing …

Dave Koven

10:33 am on Thursday, November 10, 2011

Stop tinkering with education. The problem doesn't lie with the schools and teachers so much as it does with the intersection of the media, the internet, and poorer parenting. Parents now work in an environment that has been so speeded up electronically, that they are forced to do the work of one and one half employees. They are constantly on call. They are getting burned out. They don't have a …   more ›

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Freshmen's Art Brought to Life at Nicolet After Her Passing

Students make dresses based on designs by Laura Miller, who died from a brain tumor in 2009.

Holding hands and tearfully watching speeches by Laura Miller's mother and father, dozens of Nicolet High School students, faculty and staff gathered at Nicolet on Monday to remember the freshman who passed away from a brain tumor nearly three years ago. "She had a personality that transcended different groups. She was just well liked by lots and lots of kids. It really affected the entire school," Principal Greg DePue said. Laura Miller was only 14 years old when she passed. Her mother, Susan Miller, said she was in class on Tuesday and by Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, was in intensive care. "It was that quick," she said. By that Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009, she was gone. On Monday, dozens gathered at the C and D wing intersection at Nicolet for …

Friday, October 21, 2011

New ID Policy at Nicolet Nearly Eliminates Tardiness

Students say they don't mind because if you're on time, there's nothing to worry about.

The tardy bell at Nicolet High School rings each school morning at 7:23 a.m. Thanks to new technology, administrators this year have a new and more efficient way to deal with students who arrive late. “Rather than having a back log of kids at the front door, filling out tardy slips, there’s technology out there - since they have barcodes on their ID cards - they scan their ID cards,” Superintendent Rick Monroe said. The new policy mandates that tardy students show and scan their school ID cards upon entering the front door of the school, which creates an electronic record of the when the student arrives on campus. The computerized system also keeps track of how many tardies the student has for the year. Administrators have also put new …

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Nicolet Works to Remodel Portions of Employee Handbook

School Board approves changes to dress code, complaint procedures and professional workday policies.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Video: A Red Carpet Welcome at Nicolet High School

Students were welcomed Thursday for their first day of school at Nicolet.

As the busses rolled in Thursday, dozens of students hopped down the stairs and strolled down the red carpet at Nicolet High School, welcomed with a professional quartet and a round of applause from teachers, administrators and staff. This is the fifth year that Nicolet has continued their red carpet welcome and while a few students made interesting faces as they were not expecting a red carpet and applause at 6:30 a.m., many were shaking hands with teachers and smiling the whole way in.  So, while some parents may breathe a sigh of relief now that their kids are back in school - and others may be in mourning - either way, it’s time to hit the books.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Nicolet School Chief Not Worried About Falling ACT Scores

Board president says 15-year low in scores may be a result of some incoming students not being ready for high school.

For the second year in a row, ACT test scores have dropped at Nicolet High School, but school officials say one needs to look beyond the numbers to get a clearer picture of why that's happening. The district's composite score on the college-admittance exam in 2011, which was released last week, was 24.0 - down from 24.4 in 2010 and 25.2 in 2009. Not only was this year's score the lowest at Nicolet in at least 15 years, but it also was lower than other area high schools. For example, Shorewood had a composite score of 24.7 and Homestead High School in Mequon scored 25.6. Whitefish Bay had the highest score of any school in the state this year: 26.6. Among North Shore schools, only Brown Deer had a lower score than Nicolet, coming in at 20.7…

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acm

4:35 pm on Saturday, August 27, 2011

Larry--did you read anything above??? I never said that OE at the high school was to blame. By the time the 8th graders get to the high school the damage has already been done to them by the effects of the mess that OE causes in the middle schools, rendering alot of these kids not ready for high school. Plus, you're not reading the data right at all! The Shorewood OE number is the OE total for …   more ›

Despite Referendum, Nicolet Still Facing $1.7 Million Shortfall Five Years Out

But school officials believe they should be able to close the gap by saving money on health insurance and other benefits.

After slogging through a $15 million flood in July 2010 and surviving statewide reductions from the revenue limit, and passing a $10 million referendum, the Nicolet School District will still be facing a $1.7 million shortfall in the fifth year of the referendum.  After a plethora of rallies and letters, voters passed a $10 million referendum to exceed the revenue limit at Nicolet. Just a month later, Gov. Scott Walker released his budget repair bill, eliminating collective bargaining rights for public employees like teachers. Then, not a month later, the final blow: The state budget was approved, reducing district revenue limits and state aid by 5.5 percent, specifically for Nicolet by $874 per student. The combination of these multiple …

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