Watertown Unified School District -

**2025 Retiree Recognition** The Watertown Unified School District extends its sincere appreciation to all staff members retiring this year. Thank you for your dedication to our schools, and for working so hard to make not only our classrooms, but our community, a better place. Today we recognize retiring staff member Peggy Hisel for her 13 years of service to the WUSD. Thank you, Peggy, we wish you all the best in your retirement! 💙

The Watertown High School Orchestras presented their final concert of the year on May 8 in the WHS Auditorium, including senior recognition and awards. Our graduating seniors are: Caroline Belisle, Sam Bernhardt, Toron Fritz, Sara Ly Rodriguez Machado, Amenn Martinez, Phoenix Miller, Al Zietlow, & Joao Mitraud. Awards presented include: National School Orchestra Award: Sara Ly Rodriguez Machado Director's Award: Caroline Belisle Resonance Awards: Jack Sullivan, Iris Raabe, & Mack Christian PIT Orchestra Award: Leah Salva Congratulations, and thank you to our Orchestra students and staff for a wonderful performance. Tradition. Innovation. Transformation. #WatertownWay!

**2025 Retiree Recognition** The Watertown Unified School District extends its sincere appreciation to all staff members retiring this year. Thank you for your dedication to our schools, and for working so hard to make not only our classrooms, but our community, a better place. Today we recognize retiring staff member Cory Dittmann for her 24 years of service to the WUSD. Thank you, Cory, we wish you all the best in your retirement! 💙

On Wednesday morning, Riverside Middle School 8th graders toured Watertown High School to become more familiar with the layout of the building, and to learn about specific programs, courses and organizational opportunities offered there. The 8th graders were led in small groups by current WHS junior students who had been recommended for this role by staff. Juniors and seniors were stationed throughout the building to share program highlights and to answer questions. Tradition. Innovation. Transformation. #WatertownWay!

**2025 Retiree Recognition** The Watertown Unified School District extends its sincere appreciation to all staff members retiring this year. Thank you for your dedication to our schools, and for working so hard to make not only our classrooms, but our community, a better place. Today we recognize retiring staff member Annette Caine for her 24 years of service to the WUSD. Thank you, Annette, we wish you all the best in your retirement! 💙

Tradition. Innovation. Transformation. #WatertownWay!

Watertown High School students Kylie Tripp, Henry Zimmerman, Jack Sullivan, and Allison Howlett were elected to lead La Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica for the 2025-2026 school year.

The Watertown High School Music Department hosted a fantastic POPS Concert this past Saturday. Students in grades 9-12 performed a variety of songs from hit Broadway musicals such as Wicked, West Side Story, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Hamilton, Dreamgirls, and more. In addition, time was set aside during the 7 p.m. performance to recognize outstanding senior students. Those honored included: 🎶 Laura Thielke & Chloe Crawford - MOM Award (for care and leadership within the music program) 🎶 Ava Otto, Julian Byrne, & Aubrey Keddington - Directors Award for Carolers 🎶 Lauren Neu & Teagan McGuire - Director's Award for Show Choir 🎶 William Wrolstad & Addie Nass - National School Choral Award/Outstanding Senior

Three Watertown Wrestlers Named to Academic All-State Team The Watertown High School Wrestling team continues to add to its strong run of on the mat performances with three athletes named to the Wisconsin Wrestling Association’s Academic All-State Team. This time around the awards were earned both on the mat and in the classroom. Joe Logan (Junior), Nathan Rocole (Junior), and Caleb Bardenwerper (Freshman) all received honorable mention academic all-state awards for their performances during the 2024-25 Varsity Wrestling season. Each athlete compiled a superior winning varsity record and a grade point average of 3.75 or above. The varsity team boasts several other honor roll students with superior records and a tradition of high performing student athletes.

The Watertown High School Music Department is wrapping up the 2024-25 school year with incredible performances. During the 54th annual Massed Band concert on May 10, seniors Slade Bohlman, Drew Kaufmann, and Julian Byrne were recognized for their outstanding achievements in music. On May 1, Senior Addie Nass conducted the Concert Band at its spring concert, and the WHS Jazz Ensemble I performed recently at State and received a first-place rating under the direction of Mr. Martin. 🎶 Tradition. Innovation. Transformation. #WatertownWay!

Students in Mr. Thorpe’s AP Human Geography class at Watertown High School recently took a field trip to Rosy-Lane Holsteins LLC to study how a dairy farm operates. During the Agriculture unit of the class, the students learned about different categories and types of farming. The tour was led by Rosy-Lane partner Sam Peetz, who did a great job connecting students to what they had learned in the classroom to the farm operations. Mr. Thorpe said as an added bonus, our foreign exchange students Julieta Morales Pico, Joao (Jon) Caldas Mitraud, and Ander Maroto Martinez enjoyed experiencing this agricultural aspect of Watertown’s culture.

Schurz Elementary School held its annual Tiger Run yesterday where students had a blast running with their classmates under a sunny, blue sky.

Students in Riverside Middle School's AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program recently learned about practicing medicine and law as careers following presentations by Dr. Steven LeGrow from Watertown Family Practice and Attorney Allen Larson from Bender, Larson, Chidley, Koppes, Hetfield & Associates. Dr. LeGrow spoke with students about his journey to become a family medicine doctor, highlighting the education necessary to be successful in a medical profession. Atty. Larson discussed his professional background, as well as aspects of criminal justice and law with the students. The students asked many questions of both professionals to identify if one of those fields could be a future career pathway for them. Thank you to Dr. LeGrow (pictured at top) and Atty. Larson (pictured at bottom) for sharing your expertise with our students. Tradition. Innovation. Transformation. #WatertownWay!

It was a perfect, sunny morning last Friday for the annual Douglas Dash at Douglas Elementary School. Pictured are our kindergartners running as students in the upper grades cheered them on. There were also many parents, grandparents and guardians present to support the students.

🔥 Hot off the press - The Watertown Unified School District is pleased to share the Spring 2025 edition of its official newsletter, The District Download. Read all the news here: https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/2120/WUSD/5645519/The_District_Download_Spring_2025_Updated.pdf.

Lincoln STEM Elementary School hosted its annual Showcase Night on Wednesday, May 7. During this special event, students proudly shared their unique talents and displayed projects created over the past several weeks. Many of the projects were informational and some were interactive. The students did a great job "showcasing" their talents and projects to parents and guests.

The Watertown Unified School District Board of Education will host three committee/sub-committee meetings this week. The monthly Board of Education regular meeting will take place next Monday, May 19 at 6 p.m.. To read the meeting agendas for this week, visit https://go.boarddocs.com/wi/watertown/Board.nsf/vpublic?open.

Webster Elementary School held its annual Spring concert on Tuesday evening with performances by third, fourth and fifth grade students. They did a fantastic job and sang beautifully!

🌱 LEAP Elementary School Teacher Melissa Prochaska Awarded Grant to Boost Ag Learning 🍃 Eight Wisconsin educators have received scholarships to attend the 2025 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference this June in Minneapolis. This three-day conference helps educators use agriculture to teach subjects like math, science, and social studies. It includes farm tours, hands-on workshops, and the chance to meet other teachers passionate about ag literacy. The scholarship winners are: Melissa Prochaska, LEAP Elementary School, Watertown; Barb Pliner, St. Mary School, Richland Center; Michelle Perzinski, Stevens Point Area Senior High; Nia Frisch, Saint Mark, Newman Catholic, Wausau; Angelique Manvilla, River Trail School of Agricultural Science, Milwaukee; Andrea Thompson, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau; Irene Kutz, Green Lake County AITC, Ripon; and Yolanda Woloszyn, Green Lake County AITC, Princeton. Each scholarship is worth $1,050 and covers registration and lodging for the conference. Funding is provided by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Foundation, with support from Compeer Financial, the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board and AgCountry Financial. Congratulations Mrs. Prochaska!

There's only 22 days of school left 🙂. Time flies when we are learning and having fun!