At the July meetings, the Badger High School and Lake Geneva Joint 1 School Boards approved the resignations of two administrators, Russ Tronsen, principal at Badger High School, and Tami Martin, principal at Eastview Elementary School.
Both Tronsen and Martin taught in the district prior to their appointments as principal.
District Administrator James Gottinger said Jennifer Straus, Badger High School’s associate principal, has been named interim principal for the 2019-20 school year.
In an email announcement to the Badger staff, Straus wrote, “I am excited and looking forward to working with our amazing staff to ensure that our students have access to rigorous curriculum, instructional equity, and all the opportunities Badger has to offer. We will continue to move forward with our school culture, literacy and data teams to do what is in the best interest of all our students.”
“Jenny Straus will be up to the challenge to lead Badger High School during 2019-2020 school year as the Interim Principal,” Gottinger said. “She has been in her current role for 10 years and that experience bodes well for her to be successful in her new role as principal for the 2019-2020 school year. Badger is truly in good hands.”
A search is underway to find a principal for Eastview; and the position is expected to be filled by the end of July.
“They both have provided outstanding service to our school community,” Gottinger said. “I know we all will miss them and wish them the very best as they advance both their professional and personal interests in their new environments.”
Tronsen has accepted a position as principal at Beaver Dam High School.
Back in the classroom
Martin will go back to teaching after accepting a position as a fourth-grade teacher at Traver Elementary School in Lake Geneva.
Martin said she believes that through teaching one has the power to build up children academically and emotionally. The calling to be a teacher lured her back into the classroom after spending the last three years as principal at Eastview Elementary School.
“The desire to return to teaching has been something I have wrestled with over the past two years and not an easy one to make,” Martin said.
In an email to the staff at Eastview she wrote, “You have the power to build partnerships with families and you have the power to work together to make a school stronger so that all children succeed. For these reasons, I feel called to teach again and partly because working alongside you all has truly inspired me.”
Accomplishments during Martin’s tenure included working together with the district to create a 5-star school and Wisconsin School of Recognition.
“We have created systems to address the social emotional needs of our students,” Martin said.
She said she strove to raise academic expectations, have more consistency in curriculum, challenge average and above learners and engage students in learning.
“Most importantly, we teach the whole child. I am very proud of our work over these years,” said Martin, who commended her staff for all they have done for kids.
Martin began as a teacher in 2006 for Lake Geneva Schools. She was in that role until 2014 when she accepted the position of assistant elementary principal at Central-Denison Elementary. In 2015 she was hired as principal at Eastview.
“Her exuberance for education cannot be missed and she is a highly regarded professional. Her passion for students led her to return to her calling in the classroom for the 2019-20 school year,” Gottinger said.
