Greetings Wildcat School Family and Community!

Thank You!

As always, THANK YOU for your ongoing support for our students and staff. Your encouragement keeps the instructional mission of Walkerville Public Schools moving forward.

While the last 2+ years have been challenging for every organization and family, you and our community have consistently stepped up to meet every obstacle which stood in the way of our district fulfilling its instructional mission. This is a big reason why I am so proud to be serving as your Superintendent.

We’re “Walkerville Strong”

We’ve kept our focus on what’s best for our students’ future – and when we use the phrase “Walkerville Strong” we have a track record that backs up our words.

The joy I’ve experienced in serving you as Superintendent has almost made me forget that this school year marks my 5th year in WPS. And if you include the first time I was here (2000-2004) this totals nine years in Walkerville.  All in all, I have been a Superintendent for 23 years and the  nearly nine years I’ve served here have been the best!

We’re Growing School Leadership

Your ongoing support is helping WPS grow our capacity in SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

Good leadership in schools keeps learning, positive behavior, and operational support on course – so you won’t be surprised to learn that one of the biggest indicators of school success is the longevity of its leaders.

With this in mind, we’re fortunate to have had Assistant Superintendent & Principal Joe Conkle and Assistant Principal & Director of Student Services Ashleigh Droste directing our school for five years running.

And to add to the talents and skills of Mr. Conkle and Mrs. Droste, the Board and I are very pleased to welcome Mr. Marc Pascavis to our WPS leadership. He will serve as our new Athletic Director and Student Support Administrator. Marc is an excellent addition to our school leadership team. Please join me in welcoming Marc to our Wildcat school family.

WPS has an Excellent Staff

Your ongoing support is helping WPS maintain and grow our EXCELLENT STAFF

As I’ve reported to you recently, school districts in Michigan have had to deal with higher levels of staff turn-over. In working with Mr. Conkle and the rest of our leadership team, however, we are now approaching our staff vacancies as opportunities to attract the kind of teachers and support staff who are fully aligned with our unique vision.

It’s been gratifying to see how we’ve been able to add to our roster of talented and dedicated teachers. I’m confident our new staff members will fit right in and make their own contributions to our instructional mission.

The Board, Mr. Conkle and team, and I are very excited about our new staff members – and I hope you’ll find time to warmly welcome them whenever you get the chance.

We’re Committed to Quality Teaching & Learning

Your ongoing support is helping WPS elevate our TEACHING and LEARNING

Good news! Our school’s PLCs – our Professional Learning Communities – will continue for the 5th consecutive year. Thanks to your flexibility in our school day calendar, we will continue our worthwhile weekly meetings that allow our staff to have regular conversations about the learning needs of each one of our students. When excellent teachers are able to share their experiences, strategies, and best practices with each other, there are great benefits for our students.

We’re Steadily Improving Our Facilities

Your ongoing support is helping WPS continue to IMPROVE FACILITIES

We’re continuing to make steady progress in renovating and updating our facilities and infrastructure. Thanks in large part to our community supported Sinking Fund, our designated projects are moving forward despite the hurdle of lining up quality contractors due to the impacts of the pandemic.

• We are tackling our roofing issues by replacing the main street side roof of our middle school gym this summer.
• We are remodeling our small gym’s old locker room to create a new athletic training/weight classroom. By moving the old weight room out of our bus garage, we will free up much-needed storage space.
• We are also continuing to spruce up our baseball and softball complexes, which has been a concern for many in our community.
• And the list of improvements you’ll see when classes begin on September 6 goes on!

Let’s Look Ahead to Future Needs  

I’m grateful for the support you showed us by passing the Sinking Fund. Although this fund cannot be used for new construction, it gave us extra resources to work on areas which you and other community members have mentioned over the past several years.

These resources were much appreciated because as we began our building improvement projects, we discovered even larger mechanical upgrades and replacements were needed.

As the Board and I assess areas where we will need new construction to update our school to better serve the needs of our students, we will be asking you for continued support in November. Now that we’ve solidified the district’s ability to respond to major repairs and maintenance issues, it’s time we consider new construction and a serious overhaul of our antiquated HVAC system.

This will help us better prepare our children for their next future steps and careers as well as ensure the health and safety of our students and staff.

I’ll share more about this in detail soon.

For now –

Welcome to the 2022-2023 School Year in Walkerville!

Thanks again for all YOU do to keep our community “Walkerville Strong.”

You’re helping WPS fulfill its instructional mission for many years to come.

Sincerely,

Dr. Tom Langdon
Superintendent