Two schools in line for new leaders

Jane Gennerman, the Port Washington-Saukville School District’s longest serving current principal, will retire at the end of the school year, but it won’t be just Lincoln Elementary School that is in store for a new leader.

Dunwiddie Elementary School Principal Elyse Voskuil will be transferred to Lincoln Elementary to succeed Gennerman, which will be a homecoming of sorts.

Voskuil was a Lincoln Elementary School teacher and math specialist when in August 2023, just 11 days before the start of classes, she was tapped to lead Dunwiddie because of the eleventh-hour resignation of Joanna Bannon.

The decision to bring her back to Lincoln Elementary School on July 1, this time as its principal, is intended to ensure continuity at the school, Supt. Michael McMahon said.

“She has a familiarity with the culture, staff and families at Lincoln,” McMahon said. “We didn’t want to skip a beat at Lincoln Elementary School.”

Because of Voskuil’s hasty appointment as Dunwiddie principal in 2023, the district didn’t have the opportunity to develop a principal profile, a key step in the district’s hiring process, McMahon said. That has now been done and more than 30 people have applied for the job. The district intends to submit a finalist to the School Board for approval by the end of March.

One person who couldn’t be happier about Voskuil’s transfer is Gennerman, who has served as her mentor and knows Lincoln Elementary School will be in good hands with Voskuil at the helm.

“She understands the culture of this building, the players, the staff, the families,” Gennerman said. “When I found out this was happening, I cried I was so happy.

“I wanted to make sure someone would take care of my people, and Elyse will. It’s a blessing she’s coming back. The school won’t miss a beat.”

Although she will miss Dunwiddie Elementary School, Voskuil said, she is happy to return to a school she knows well.

“I feel I have a strong understanding of the school and strong relationships with the staff and even some of the families,” she said. “I’m very excited.”

Gennerman will retire on June 30 from a 34-year career in education during which she was a principal for 21 years and the leader of Lincoln Elementary School for 14 years.

“Retirement is a little exciting because I don’t know what I’m going to do next, but it’s also a little scary,” she said. “All I have ever done since I was 5 is get up and go to school.

“It’s a good time for me to retire, but it’s definitely not going to be easy to say goodbye.”

Gennerman attributes the success of Lincoln Elementary School to its focus on the individual needs of students and its emphasis on, as she calls it, teaching with heart.

“We’re not making lug nuts; we’re growing people,” she said. “Lug nuts are all the same. People are not. They are going to need different things.

“It’s special to be there for people on their best days and on the days that are not their best.”

Shortly after Gennerman was hired by the district in 2012, she described being principal of Lincoln Elementary School as her “dream job” in an interview with Ozaukee Press.

“It is still my dream job to this day,” she said this week. “It has been everything I ever dreamed and that much more.”

Gennerman said she doesn’t know what she will do in retirement, maybe something to do with health care or animals, but she knows it won’t be a full-time job.

“Maybe just a part-time job that doesn’t require 12-hour days,” she said.

Voskuil, who has worked either under or alongside Gennerman for 12 of her 13 years in the district, said she will miss her.

“I’m very happy for Jane, but we’ll have to get used to not having her in the district,” she said. “I’m sad to see her go, but I know she’ll always be just a phone call away.”