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Gibraltar School Board Extends Offer for Principal Position

Southern Door reveals campus map of wish-list improvements 

The Gibraltar Area School Board voted Monday in favor of hiring former district English teacher and former school board member Lauren Ward as the elementary school principal. If she accepts, her duties will also include helping to direct the 4-year-old kindergarten program, which will have morning sessions next year for some youngsters on the Gibraltar campus in Fish Creek and some at Northern Door Children’s Center in Sister Bay.

School board president Stephen Seyfer said the board “would be advised to seek a local person for this position” and found that in Ward. He said that out of more than 20 candidates, the board found two finalists associated with the district who were both well qualified and “provided a quality interview to the school board.”  

About Ward, Seyfer said she is “well versed in our school, this community and the needs of our children.”

Ward has served as managing director of Write On, Door County since 2019. She also taught secondary English at Gibraltar for 15 years and coached volleyball, and she served on the Peninsula Preschool board for five years.

Ward holds a master of business administration degree in educational leadership and is a National Board certified teacher and licensed school administrator. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in English literature and composition.

Seyfer said the board will forward “nearly identical” administrator contracts to Ward, current secondary principal/athletic director Jim DeBroux and current elementary principal and director of learning Lisa Wing as pupil services director for 2022-23. He urged them all to sign on. The board approved the offers.

As for the superintendent search, the board forwarded an offer to one of two finalists and is awaiting the results of background and reference checks, Seyfer said.

Taxpayer Input Wanted for Southern Door Capital-Spending Plans

A semimonthly newsletter on internal school construction work, refurbishment and improvement planning will start arriving soon in the mailboxes of residents and everyone who pays property taxes in the Southern Door School District, Superintendent Chris Peterson said Monday.

Peterson said the board also wants taxpayers and residents to complete an upcoming four-page survey, attend community meetings and provide ideas of their own for other enhancements.

This week, Peterson publicly showed a campus map of ideas from school officials and Miron Construction for a wide variety of classroom improvements, storage changes and enhancements to the career, agriculture, technical education, fitness, greenhouse and bus garage areas.

The initial wish list has no cost estimates, but Peterson said the district will scale the project budget to stay “tax neutral.”

The initial brainstorming calls for changes that would allow for 125 parking spaces directly in front of the school instead of the current 45. It also shows ideas for work on various parts of the building and campus, such as a fully functional tech-ed kitchen and ways to increase a couple of classrooms’ dimensions by moving storage elsewhere.