Welcome from the 26/27 Sugar Creek Principal

As you probably saw in my welcome message a few weeks ago, I am absolutely thrilled to be stepping in to the Principal role at Sugar Creek for the 26/27 school year. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from Mr. Brunner these last 5 years at Sugar Creek and cannot wait to continue growing my relationships with our families, students, and staff. My door is always open! I plan to send my entry plan to families over the summer and will send a family survey as well at that time. I look forward to getting to be in spaces with all of you in the near future!

~Kirstin Houghan

Current Associate Principal

Incoming Principal

Monday, March 23rd-Friday March 27th

No School-Spring Break

Monday, March 30th

Late Start Monday

Thursday, April 2nd

Community Gathering

Monday, April 6th

Late Start Monday

Tuesday, April 7th

Summer School Registration Begins

Monday, April 13th

Late Start Monday

PTO Meeting 6:30 pm

Our amazing teachers are great at finding ways to bring joy into the classrooms - and sometimes the kids jump right in with their own ideas! Ms. Fagan recently told her class they were going to celebrate the 100th day of school with some special activities. As you can see, one student, all on her own, came to school that day dressed as … a 100 year old, with her own name ("Rita") and had a whole, fun life story for Rita!

Pictured here is Fourth Grader Vivian, who was one of only 41 Fourth Graders in the United States who achieved a perfect score in a recent WordMasters Challenge competition involving over 125,000 students.

WordMasters has been lead by Ms. Jamie Schultz (also pictured here). A big shout out to Ms. Schultz for her great teaching and motivating of her students!

Ensuring the safety of your children is always our top priority. This week, we completed a school-wide practice of our emergency safety procedures.

Our teachers led class discussions to review routines and make sure students know how to stay safe at school. We use the Standard Response Protocol (SRP), which is a strategy used by all schools in the Verona Area School District, and many across the county and nation. You can find more information about the protocol on the district’s website.

This morning, we held a practice, focusing on three specific responses within the protocol: Secure, Hold, and Lockdown. Rather than enacting scenarios, our goal was to talk through our safety plans so students would know where to go and what to do. All of our staff members were in classrooms and throughout the building to support students during these discussions.

The students did an excellent job listening and staying calm throughout the practice. If you have any questions about the lessons or the practice, please let us know.

If you have not already done so, please take a moment to fill out this Spring Conference Survey to let us know how the changes our teams made to conferences went for you!

Families, please remember our school district’s policy on Apply watches, other watches, personal communication devices, and cell phones (VASD Admin Rule 533):

“We acknowledge cell phones and other personal communication technology (ex. smart watches) as safety tools for families. With phones available in all of our classroom environments, we expect these devices to stay powered off and safely secured during the school day. If a child feels that a device cannot safely be stored during the school day, they may ask a staff member to store this for them.

“Any calls home that are needed during school hours must go through a district phone, facilitated by a staff member. This ensures that needs (ex. illness, peer conflict) are being addressed in time and safely monitored.”

We are so thankful to our Extended Day teachers! Extended Day, which is coordinated by Mr. Rippl and funded through Epic, our school budget and the Sugar Creek Fun Run, allows any staff member at Sugar Creek to offer an after school activity for kids (typically 4th and 5th graders). This year, a total of some 235 students participated in session 1 and 2! Pictured here is Ms. Covert’s group, which in one afternoon had a great time as they completed 37 puzzles with over 1,500 pieces!

The activities offered this year included:

• Paddle Up With Pickleball with Ms. Borelli

• D&D with Mr. Westberg and Mr. Daniels

• American Sign Language with Ms. Page

• Hip Hop Dance with Ms. Middleton

• Cooking without Heat with Ms. Castellanos

• Health and Wellness with Ms. Espinoza

• Fundamentals of Volleyball with Ms. Ehle

• Musical Passport with Ms. Xavier

• Puzzlin’ Around with Ms. Covert

• Coding With Microbits with Mr. Geissal

• Soccer Skills with Mr. Beirowski

At times, a teacher will need a guest teacher to cover their class should they be absent. One person who routinely accepts substitute teaching positions at Sugar Creek is Ms. Kim Weum (pictured).

When asked why she likes to be a Guest Teacher at Sugar Creek, she told me, “You all always make me feel welcome and I am so supported. This school is like a warm blanket!”

Good News for girls in grades 3-5! Our Girls on the Run program at Sugar Creek has a few openings for our Spring season, which begins on Monday, March 30th. Girls on the Run is a program that builds confidence and life skills in girls grades 3-5, in the context of training for (and running!) a 5K. For more information, or to register, please use the link below. Girls on the Run is led by Ms. Abrams, Ms. Duff, Ms. Verhagen and Ms. Pustina.

Girls on the Run South Central Wisconsin Website

Recently, Ms. Lisa Ahner, who is serving as a principal practicum student with Mr. Brunner, made the rounds delivering birthday books. The birthday cart, an idea of Ms. Houghan’s, was funded through the generosity of our PTO with Fun Run proceeds!

We have amazing colleagues at Sugar Creek - some you may know, and some you may not. One such person is Monique, one of our fantastic night time custodians, who came in very early recently to surprise our staff with a large fruit tray she made (see picture) Thank you, Monique!

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

Golden Shoe: 5th Grade TWI

Golden Recess: 3rd Grade TWI

Golden Lunchtray: 4th Grade TWI

Golden Dustpan: Ms. Lenzlinger's Class

In March we celebrate AmeriCorps Week, the perfect time to highlight the two amazing Reading Corps tutors who support our kindergarten through third-grade students. They have made an impact on many students and are an important part of the Sugar Creek family! To celebrate their impact, we asked them to share what they love about the work they do:

“I love working with Sugar Creek students and staff as a Reading Corps Tutor! The students are motivated and curious about topics we read, and the staff are all so helpful and great to work with. Sugar Creek is a great community to work in.” - Emily

“I enjoy volunteering with Americorps because it gives me an opportunity to help children read. This is something I am passionate about. The thought of a generation not being able to read affects me deeply. Here at Sugar Creek I have the ability to give students the boost they need in order to succeed. I am grateful to both Americorps and Sugar Creek for the chance to follow my dream.” - Patti

The grand finale of our recent “Read across Sugar Creek Week” was an all-school “Gush and Glow” reading event. Our Step Room was redone with black lights and reflective decorations, and students were given temporary reading tattoos, glow sticks and Gushers to enjoy while they read. It was SO much fun, and one more way we work to inspire kids to be readers! A big thank you to Ms. Doberstein, Ms. Hoffman and Ms. Martin, as well as our wonderful head custodian Mr. Meyer, for their planning and preparation.

March 10th was a busy night at Sugar Creek! Our teachers spent a long night at school, following district parameters, preparing for and leading our elementary Spring portfolio conferences. It’s an exciting time where students, teachers, and families all have time to share and ask questions. Pictured here are Mr. Soto Aleman and Mr. Rivera, in between conferences.

The same night, we also held our always- fun Imagination Fair! Our Science Fair and Author Fair and Scholastic Book Fair, and the cafeteria, were packed with families! We really want to thank each and every person who gave however much of their time to make this night such a wonderful time to strengthen our school community while inspiring kids to be scientists, to be authors, and to be readers.

Our morning announcements always end with a joke - because it’s so important to start each day with a smile. Pictured here is Kindergartner James, who eagerly arrived with a new one for Mr. Brunner to use!

In the coming months, we will share more about our school’s enrollment, budget, and staffing plans for 2026-27, once we have the necessary information from our Central Office.

Meanwhile, and directly related to this, if your family will be moving away please let us know, so we can help ensure a smooth transition process to your child’s new school; and if you have a new neighbor with children, be sure they contact VASD’s Registrar ASAP at 845-4301 so their children can receive the free public education to which they are legally entitled.

VASD has had two weather-related closings this year: January 23, due to extreme cold, and March 16, due to the blizzard. Often on such days, administrators and custodians do report, to make sure things with the building and grounds are in a good place. Here’s a picture you might enjoy of Sugar Creek in the midst of the heavy, drifting snow on Monday. You’ll notice on the left side the snow drifted over the large garbage can, and on the right side, drifted up to all the windows

It’s very important for us as leaders to keep our fingers on the pulse of the school. Our staff are dedicated professionals doing their best work, and supporting them is important to us. One way we do so is by holding periodic one-on-one check-ins with everyone available to see what’s going well, what’s not, and what else is on their mind.

We thought you might be interested in what we heard. Several themes emerged for “What is going well at Sugar Creek?”:

* Love my job / colleagues (“I had no idea what to expect here, but everyone’s been so helpful and welcoming.”)
*|Student growth and engagement (“My kids have made so much progress.”)
* Good student behaviors (“The students I work with are doing great.”)
* SAVVAS ELA Curriculum going well (“I feel better with SAVVAS.”)
* February 2 PD Day (“We really liked the structure of the day.”)

As for “What has been challenging at Sugar Creek?” there weren’t clear themes, but responses included:

* Communication gaps amongst some staff.

* A wish for more support for certain students or at certain times.

* Staying on top of the curriculum, small groups, and lesson planning.

Please see information about our Verona Smiles Event below