Incoming Madison Schools’ Superintendent Dan Nerad made a few remarks at Saturday’s Memorial / West area Strings Festival. Watch the video. Much more on Dan Nerad here.
3 thoughts on “Dan Nerad’s Remarks at the 2008 Madison Memorial/West Area Strings Festival”
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It is awesome to see Dan Nerad coming to Madison events prior to beginning his job in July. I am really impressed with him so far. My cousin is a 5th grade teacher in Green Bay and has nothing but great things to say about him. He also came to the East band parents jazz dinner/dance fundraiser a few weeks ago. He certainly seems to like to be out in the community. It was great to hear his commitment to fine arts. My kids are both in orchestra at East, so I attended my 9th consecutive eastside strings fest yesterday at LaFollette. Great event!
I, too am pleased that Dan is spending time in the community.
Thinking ahead a bit, however, the challenges remain, including curriculum issues (math, reading, the ongoing move toward one size fits all programs), conflict with the teacher’s union over educational options for our students such as charter and virtual schools/courses and pre-k programs, school climate/discipline/leadership, high school “reform”, report card changes, hiring and of course financial matters (mmsd spends more per student than most districts, but is subject to state imposed spending growth limits and a teacher compensation growth floor along with flat enrollment).
In short, many challenges lie ahead and one person will certainly not be a savior.
I remember visiting with friends some time ago. We all wondered who might be interested in taking on the Superintendent position.
My view – a glass half full one, for sure – is that Madison has unprecedented community resources (curricular, volunteer and financial). It will be an interesting next few years.
P.S. Props to the Madison School Board: Carol Carstensen, Maya Cole, Lawrie Kobza, Lucy Mathiak, Beth Moss, Arlene Silveira and Johnny Winston, Jr. for a smooth and successful search process.
This was the 41st Strings Festival – quite an annual Madison spring tradition! Congratulations to the children for their hard work and to the teachers for all the work with the children and their work behind the scenes putting this event together. It’s truly amazing and heartwarming to see a gymnasium filled with children all playing wonderful music, from around the world, together.