A Message from Mr. Brunner

I have had a few questions come my way from families, so I thought I would take a moment here and tell you a bit about the principal replacement process.

Shortly after I announced my retirement, VASD’s Central Office began their process to recruit, interview and hire the next principal. I personally play no role whatsoever in any step or part of the process, awareness of candidates / interview questions / interview teams, decisions made, or anything else related to this - it is entirely removed from the school level. That said, I am certain they will select a strong final candidate to be your next principal, and I will actively support the transition process to the greatest extent that is allowed. I want nothing more than to know that Sugar Creek is in good hands.

Thursday, March 5th

Community Gathering

Tuesday, March 10th

Imagination Fair and Parent Teacher Conferences

Monday, March 23rd-Friday March 30th

No School-Spring Break

Our Physical Education class has engaging units - some of which are unique to Sugar Creek - including our super Snowshoeing Unit. This is, of course, a weather-dependent unit, and we’ve had years where we were not able to snowshoe. This year, we delayed it for a week because it was too cold (that’s never happened before!) but we were able to start it on February 3rd.

Our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) has helped support the purchase and maintenance of the snowshoes (we even have small ones just for Kindergartners), which is yet another way the Fun Run helps enrich the learning experiences for all!

This is an important safety message about dropping off children at Sugar Creek in the mornings. We have a remarkably fast, efficient and safe system, considering we are the largest elementary school in the county, but it only works if we ALL abide by this system.

We’ve noticed an increase in people parking in the drop-off lane, and dropping off in the parking lot. This creates an unsafe environment on our school grounds for children. Remember:

• If you plan to park and exit the vehicle, then you should be parked in the parking lot.

• If you plan to drop your children off without exiting the vehicle, then use the drop-off lane. Do not stop in the middle of the parking lot and have your children run out.

Please obey the crossing guard, but ALSO be situationally aware when you are in front of a school, where there are also hundreds of small children. Sometimes they make errors in judgement, and it’s our job as adults to all be on the lookout for them and their welfare.

We also want to say thank you: we have seen great improvement in adults not getting out of their cars while in the drop-off lane, and instead having their children quickly exit. This is helpful!

Our PTO uses Fun Run proceeds to support all-school enrichment activities (among many other uses to benefit our school). On February 11th, they arranged for the Stoughton Norwegian High School Dancers to perform for our school. Our students and staff loved it! (As one teacher noted afterwards, “Wow - that was NOT what I was expecting!) One example - pictured here - was when one row of dancers jumped up onto the shoulders of another row of dancers and spun around as more dancers circled them and clapped to the music. Thank you, PTO!

On Friday, January 30th our Student Council had the opportunity to interview Dr. Clardy, VASD’s Superintendent. Our members really made him think! Among the questions they asked him were:

“How does it feel to serve all the schools and know all of them?”

“Does it take a lot of work to do your job?”

“Do you go to many schools to visit?”

“What’s your schedule like?”

“Do you ever get tired doing the work you do?” (That one made him think!)

In return, they answered questions he had about them and our school, such as the best things about Sugar Creek, what they are doing as Student Council members, what are their outside interests, and more.

We are looking forward to the Imagination Fair and Book Fair March 10th. It is always an exciting night to join and explore the projects done by our students and stock up on new books. Pizza will also be served! Our PTO is always looking for more volunteers to help run these fun events. If you'd like to join as a volunteer please sign up using this link:

Imagination Fair/Book Fair 2026

There are many new items and updates to our teachers’ Amazon Wish List. If you would like to support their work, please check it out. We appreciate your support!

The Verona McDonald’s donated breakfast items for our staff to enjoy at our February 2nd Professional Development day. This was greatly appreciated.

Our administrators, school-based leadership team, and a variety of staff members collaborated to create a day of important learning for all staff on February 2. This included learning around the state standards for teaching and how to make our teaching more effective; time to review academic data and put into place next steps to help further the learning for all students; and time for advanced learning options unique to certain job categories, which was very helpful.

VASD has only one Professional Development day of the year, and at Sugar Creek we deeply appreciated it and made strong use of this opportunity.

108 (!) 4th and 5th graders recently competed in the VASD’s district-wide Battle of the Books competition. It’s an exciting activity that inspires and motivates kids to read, and work together. Winners at our school included:

First Place: team Stuffy McPickles (5TWI)

Colvin Curran

Cayla Hopp

Graham Johnston

Lucas Schienebeck

Second Place: team Girls 4 Greatness (5TWI)

Anabel Switzky

Ameila Schieve

Katie Kaehny

Dafne Chávez

Third Place: team The Wild Readers Return (Aria Sprain, Kira Dyreby, Peter Compuesto, and Lilyanna Schrimpf) and team W.E.P.S. (Samantha Ferwerda, Emmerson Dorn, Penelope Berg, Westley Kjeldahl.)

The winning teams from all participating schools across the state of Wisconsin (including Stuffy McPickles) will have the opportunity to compete in the state-wide Battle of the Books competition (kids do not need to travel for this competition, as it is an online test).

A big shout out to Nurse Borelli and former Sugar Creek student Olivia Meyer for this recent news story.

Check out the Winners of our Golden Award Trophies at the January Community Gathering

Golden Shoe: Mr. Rippl's Class

Golden Recess: Ms. Miller's Class

Golden Lunchtray: 2nd Grade TWI

Golden Dustpan: Ms. Strand's Class

We have a network of families who have expressed a readiness to support other Sugar Creek families, anonymously, when needs present themselves. If you want to join / help, please sign up here.

We take great pride at Sugar Creek in our high-quality related arts classes (Art, Music, Physical Education and Library). These educators team together, meet together, plan together, review data together, and also discuss their curriculum together. See here for more information and their newsletters!

Among other things, we celebrated Crossing Guard Appreciation Week by announcing it on the intercom to all students, and our Student Council wrote and delivered cards of appreciation to them. Pictured are some Student Council members with one of the recipients, Ms. Linda. (She has reported that our kids are great!)

Coincidentally, at the very moment our Student Council members arrived to present the crossing guards their cards, the National Operations Manager and the area Operations Manager for All City Management Services, who oversee the crossing guards of Verona, were present as well. They were very happy to see how much we at Sugar Creek appreciate their employees!

Elementary school kids lose their teeth (of course!) It’s just part of growing up. Some days, though, it seems to all happen at once all over the school! One day recently, for instance, these six students in our Fifth Grade Two Way Immersion classes lost a combined SEVEN teeth!

While these are limited at any elementary school, we pride ourselves on a strong offering here, and our website is the perfect place to start to look. Most are more focussed on older students. Some of these - Wordmasters, Continental Math League, Extended Day, Battle of the Books - each enroll many dozens or even over 100 students!

In addition, we offer Futura Language Program on Monday mornings, VAFFY Birth - to - Five playgroups, the largest YMCA after-school program in Dane County, and partner with the Verona Rec Department whenever they need a night time location for their own events.

At our February Community Gathering, the Men of Blackhawk (including our own First Grade Teacher, Mr. Shrader) performed a few special songs for us. The students and staff absolutely loved this opportunity to experience live music!

Friends outside of school since they were in preschool, Wesley and Wally share a strong interest in chess. They entered as a team in the 2026 Shorewood Hills Sharks Chess Championship, and came in 5th place!

You may have seen recently in the Verona Press that Sugar Creek has created another way to promote literacy in our school: we’ve opened up our own Free Little Library inside our school!

This has been a huge success, we are giving out many free books to our students, and we would LOVE your support year round! We are accepting donations of good quality children’s books, especially Spanish books. Here’s how your family can help:

• children can bring a book to the free library in the morning

• families can donate books to the cart in the office

• families can send books to their child’s classroom (please label books “free little library donation”)

Thank you! And a special thank you to the Madison Needs Network for their support!

Our Third Graders are in the midst of a unit in their social studies curriculum about government. On February 20th, they got to learn straight from the experts: Fitchburg Mayor Arata-Fratta, Fitchburg City Council Member Maldonado and Verona Mayor Diaz, who came to talk about the ways our local governments operate, AND to answer questions from the kids.

Ms. Xavier recently learned she received a $650 grant from the Verona Area Educational Foundation (VAEF) for materials for our Music classes. She is pictured here with a class of Fourth Graders, celebrating the big news with a representative from the VAEF.