Door County Attracts Another Family of Educators

Emily Stousland is the new math interventionist for the Sevastopol School District.

When one Door County school district gained a new superintendent, a neighboring district also benefited from that recruitment.

Sevastopol’s school board this month approved the employment of Emily Stousland for three years as a K-12 math interventionist, and the Gibraltar Area School District hired her husband, Brett, as its superintendent.

“Things fell in place for the both of us,” Emily Stousland said.

Sevastopol Superintendent Kyle Luedtke said Stousland currently teaches fifth-graders in the Mequon-Thiensville district. The 27-year veteran educator has experience not only in teaching advanced math, but also in analyzing data, finding ways to help individual students and helping to coach teachers at all grade levels.

Luedtke said the district added an interventionist position after educators noticed students developing learning gaps and difficulties with various math concepts. He said even though Sevastopol tried to keep children in school as much as possible during the COVID-19 protocols of 2020 and 2021, the district linked the disruptions and lost classroom and one-to-one time with teachers to shortfalls in achievement and understanding.

“With the pandemic, there were definitely gaps in learning,” Stousland said, “and this is a great opportunity for me to repair some of the lost learning.”

She said those gaps, at schools nationwide, are becoming more evident over time.

“Anything that was not 100% mastered – that affects each grade after that,” she said.

Stousland will spend the next three years helping to boost math understanding and learning skills for students of all abilities, either in one-to-one settings or small groups.

Brett Stousland Is New Gibraltar Superintendent

Incoming Superintendent Brett Stousland saw plenty of openings for superintendents this winter, but Gibraltar’s was the only one he pursued.

“Since I was a year old, my family has always gone to Door County to vacation,” he said. “We’re very familiar with the area.”

He said he’s attracted to the smaller size and setup of the Gibraltar district compared to his current Germantown school district. Gibraltar has one campus and about 550 students, whereas Germantown has about 4,000 students, and Stousland works in an office that is not in a school building. Prior to 2020, he served for five years as superintendent in the Barneveld district for its 460 students.

“Where I came from before was a smaller district, and I like the close interaction with students and families,” he said. “I realized I’m at a point in my career where you want to do the work you’re most passionate about.”

Stousland’s impression of the district is that it has good teachers and is high performing.

“I did a lot of research on Gibraltar,” he said. “I wasn’t necessarily looking to jump from Germantown, but when this came up, I needed to take a closer look.”

Part of the district’s search for a superintendent included a survey of community members, teachers and board members. Stousland said all of the needed improvements that came up in the survey “are doable.” 

He said making decisions related to COVID-19 protocols during the past two years was difficult for superintendents statewide and nationwide. Gibraltar’s board kept masking and other COVID-19 protocols in place long after other school districts had relaxed those standards.

“It’s hard to fault a school board for that,” he said. “I feel like the board took a stance and stayed with it, and that’s important.”

Stousland said he wants to be visible outside of the school, whether that’s participating in community efforts and organizations, or setting up times to meet with people to discuss school happenings and issues over coffee. He said he would welcome residents and educators to contact him about their concerns or to get information.

The Stouslands recently drove to Door County to see local band students play at Memorial Day ceremonies and to put some items into a storage unit, and they were pleasantly surprised to find a house to buy in Sister Bay, Emily Stousland said.

“It was built in 1980, so it needs a little TLC, but we’re looking forward to making it our home where we can stay forever,” she said.

Calendar Concerns Linger at Gibraltar

Gibraltar Area School Board members Stephen Seyfer, Jeremy Schwab and Don Helm held listening sessions with more than a dozen teachers and three bus drivers last month, and Schwab remarked that “we need to do this more often.”

He said “a number of teachers” raised concerns that revolve around the number of work and school days in Gibraltar’s 2022-23 academic calendar. The board members heard teachers say the calendar inserted days for professional development and planning that some considered unpaid days.

Board president Seyfer said the board recently approved increases to starting pay and base salaries for various years of experience that should serve as compensation for most teachers. However, he said, some of the teachers with more experience and higher certification levels did not receive the salary bump and could say they were not compensated equally.

Noting that teachers can prepare better, receive and absorb training, and analyze student needs better if they have full days to focus, Seyfer promoted a calendar this spring that set off blocks of days for professional development. That schedule would have kept students in school into mid-June and teachers until late June.

Instead, the approved 2022-23 calendar will have students in class Sept. 6 – June 9, and teachers reporting for full-day professional development, planning, preparation and data analysis Monday-Friday, Aug. 29 – Sept. 2.

“The additional training/PD [professional development] has been scheduled by the district and is not required by the state,” Superintendent Tina VanMeer noted.

There’s no school for Gibraltar students – but professional development for teachers – on the following days: Monday, Oct. 10; Monday, Nov. 7; Friday, Dec. 9; Monday, Jan. 9, and Wednesday, Jan. 25; Friday, Feb. 10; Tuesday, March 7; and Friday, April 21.

Winter break is Dec. 23-30, 2022, and spring break is April 3-7, 2023.