Schools

6 Teachers Leaving District Next Year

School Board approved retirement requests of Shorewood elementary schools, high school veteran educators.

The Shorewood School District will lose some familiar faces next year, after officials approved the retirement requests of six teachers on Tuesday.

Educators from Shorewood’s two elementary schools — including a counselor and teachers of kindergarten, sixth grade and fourth grade — and two from the high school will call it quits after this year.

Superintendent Blane McCann said the teachers have a combined 149 years of service to the district. They are:

Find out what's happening in Shorewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Brenda Dell
  • Penny Forchette
  • Judith Higgins
  • Patricia Hildebrandt
  • Kathy Kopperud
  • Roger A. Woods

The district saved about $305,000 in its recently approved budget from a turnover of staff. As veteran teachers — who are at the top of the district pay scale — retired this year, it made the way for younger teachers to enter the district at lesser salaries.

The School Board historically approves the requests of five teachers each year, according to Business Manager Mark Boehlke, but that number doubled last year in the wake of the conversational change in state law, which eliminated most bargaining rights for public workers, including teachers.

Find out what's happening in Shorewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

, some teachers said their decision to retire was driven by the new measure.

The district typically approves all retirements by December, but decided to field more requests last year after the repair bill was introduced to the Wisconsin Legislature in mid-February.

The district also approved the retirement requests of maintenance employees Michael Totka, or "Mike the Driver," as he is known around the district and Michael Harris and secretaries Laura Dossett and Terry Kumakura.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Shorewood