WOW! I don't know about all of you but I cannot believe the school year is coming to a close in TWO days! We are so proud of the growth and achievement our students have taken throughout the course of the 2025-2026 school year!!!

We are BEYOND proud of our Class of 2026 and have been already celebrating or looking forward to celebrating with all of our graduates at our four graduation ceremonies across the district: PAC House graduated 6 students, Fox River will graduate 25 students, BHS will graduate 186 students, and WisCo will graduate 20 students - for a total of 237 Class of 2026 graduates!!! Additionally, we are excited for our 8th grade students to engage in their recognition ceremony as they take the jump across the river next year to BHS. So much to celebrate and be proud of in BASD!

Additionally, as a reminder we still have A LOT of awesome opportunities and activities that take place over the summer. Check out all of our Community Education offerings, Summer School, and Spark Squad (formerly Summer Rec) programming - all noted below (keep scrolling!). Summer doesn't really slow down for us! Almost all of our summer programming will be taking place at Karcher Middle School this year as it is, as you probably know, our only air-conditioned school building in the district. Again, check out the information just below regarding our summer offerings!

Also, School Guides were sent to all families for the school your student(s) will be attending next year as our hope is to continue to provide you with enough communication and information to feel confident and comfortable with what is next as your student(s) progress forward in BASD. The district office will be open all summer with hours from 8:00-3:00 Monday-Thursday.

Lastly, on behalf of all of the staff across BASD we hope you have a fabulous summer with your students and families and we so look forward to seeing you over summer and/or at the start of the 2026-2027 school year!

Go Demons!

Dr. Jill Oelslager, Superintendent

Looking for childcare during the summer? Look no further as we have a program for you!

Join Spark Squad this summer from June 1 – August 14 for more fun, friendships, and activities. Click on the orange link below for more details about Spark Squad (formerly Summer Rec).

Spark Squad will be located at Karcher Middle School this year, the same location as summer school.

We are excited to celebrate all FOUR of our high school graduation ceremonies! Below is a list of when each event is taking place along with the number of students graduating within the Class of 2026!

On May 6, BHS celebrated an incredible Scholarship Night recognizing the hard work, dedication, and achievements of our seniors.

The evening resulted in:

Congratulations to all of our seniors and thank you to the families, donors, organizations, and community members who continue to support Burlington students and their futures.

Students enlisting in the military were recognized with a Wisconsin state flag, U.S. flag flown over the State Capitol, a certificate, and a personal letter from Board President Taylor Wishau in recognition of their service. 

Recipients included 

The evening also highlighted career pathway successes, including Welding Diplomas, CNA certification, EMT training, and Youth Apprenticeships, showcasing the many ways BHS seniors are preparing for bright futures beyond graduation.

As we approach the end of the school year this is a good time of year to remind staff that we are in the time frame where students, especially 4K students, can enroll in BASD for the start of the 26-27 school year. A flyer will be going out to all residents within the BASD area regarding enrollment - be on the lookout for that and encourage people to enroll!

Members of Burlington High School’s National Art Honor Society recently visited the Racine Art Museum. The trip allowed students to experience diverse artistic styles and connect contemporary pop culture with traditional art forms, bringing classroom learning to life through real-world exploration.

BHS students are hands-on with the future! Through our partnership with Microsoft, Burlington Area School District is expanding innovative learning experiences to prepare students for a world shaped with advanced technology and the integration of AI into everyday life. 

BHS Freshmen students experienced the “Hour of AI” (formerly known as the "Hour of Code:) with Angie Thole—exploring coding, problem-solving, and real-world applications through engaging platforms like Minecraft, Adafruit and Sphero. These experiences help students move beyond just using technology to become active creators and critical thinkers. We’re proud to continue building opportunities to connect classroom learning to future careers and ensure every student is ready for what’s next. 

Thank you to Microsoft Volunteers Ana, Dan, Kurt and Michelle for sharing your experiences and for supporting our students!

Congratulations to our Burlington High School Forensics team on competing at State! We’re proud to share that they represented BHS incredibly well! Competing at this level is a huge accomplishment, and we couldn’t be more proud of their effort and professionalism.

Congratulations to all participants on a successful experience! 

HOSA had an amazing time at the State Leadership Conference held at the Kalahari Resort & Convention Center! 

Students competed in events, the Anatomage (uh-nat-uh-mage) Tournament, and engaged in subject tests (ATC), and explored healthcare careers through breakout sessions.

Congrats to our finalists: 

Special recognition: 

ATC Subject Test Honors: 

We’re proud of all our competitors and look forward to possible ILC opportunities this June in Indianapolis!

Students from Burlington High School’s SHARE Club visited the America’s Black Holocaust Museum. Through exploring the exhibits, students learned about important parts of history that many were not previously familiar with. The experience was powerful, eye-opening, and incredibly impactful. We’re proud of our students for taking the time to learn, reflect, and grow from opportunities like this.

Winkler students celebrated Earth Day by helping clean up the school grounds and participating in a creative “Trash to Treasure” activity. Students worked together to care for the environment while turning everyday recyclable materials into imaginative creations

Winkler School’s 3rd and 4th grade students recently took the stage at Waller for their Spring Concert, showcasing their hard work and musical talents for families and staff.  We hold our Winkler concerts at Waller to assist with ensuring all families are able to have a seat along with enough parking to accommodate everyone.

Spring testing season wrapped up with students across the district. participating in AIMSweb, ACCESS, ELA Diagnostics, FastBridge Math, iReady, and Forward Testing. 

As a reminder, required state testing for public schools is 

We are so proud of our students and appreciative of their attention to detail, effort, and dedication to showing what they have learned this year!

Spring season brings a fair amount of field trips for students across BASD. At Winkler, the 4th graders went to Old World Wisconsin and the 2nd & 3rd grades went to the Milwaukee County Zoo!

The Special Needs Resource Fair is an opportunity for any families who may be looking for additional opportunities and avenues to assist their student outside of the classroom.

This year’s event was our biggest turnout yet, with BASD families and staff showing incredible support. Our team welcomed 98 agencies and approximately 275 attendees, including families, educators, community members, and students.

Nearly 30 local businesses donated prizes, food, or gift cards, and 17 sponsors helped make the event possible. The energy and collaboration throughout the evening highlighted the strength of the BASD community!!!

Thank you to all who assisted with creating an awesome night for families and our students!

A special thank you to the Burlington Kiwanis for hosting the annual Student Art Show Banquet at the Cotton Exchange. Awards were presented to 28 BASD students, totaling nearly $1,000 in gifts.

Congratulations to our talented artists, and thank you to Kiwanis and Jeff Osmolak for their continued support of the K–12 Visual Arts program! We are so proud of the amazing work our students produce and develop and love seeing their artistic pieces!

Our BAC (Before After Care) Aftercare Program held our very first ⭐ All-Star Aftercare Awards Ceremony ⭐ where every student received a special award celebrating what makes them unique and amazing!

We are so proud of the incredible year our BAC program has had and cannot wait to see everyone again next year!!!

Thank you to our students, families, and staff for making this year so memorable!

The Burlington Area School District shares information from community organizations as a service to families. The events and programs listed below are not sponsored, endorsed, or supervised by the district, and the district assumes no responsibility for their content, operations, or activities.

Burlington Area School District (BASD) is so grateful for the continued generosity of our community. This month, we have received over $72,000 in donations that directly support our students, programs, and schools. These gifts make a meaningful difference in the lives of our students and staff. BASD is truly fortunate to be surrounded by such a caring and supportive community.

Larger donations to note:

The school board was informed about an the agreement with Quick Mart that will start on June 1 where they would like to support the district by giving .02 cents per gallon to BASD to support our local schools!

Thank you to Quick Mart for support for BASD!

I gave an update to the school board about the 496 building to continue to move this project forward.

We plan on doing the construction project in two phases - the first being to build out the permanent home for the BASD onsite clinic. This clinic is for our employees to assist with decreasing our health care costs while providing quality health care to our employees. We are building the clinic to have up to 6 exam rooms so that we can offer this service to additional organizations and businesses in the area to assist with their health care costs as well. I am in the midst of all of those conversations and the feeling is extremely positive and collaborative. This will be a win-win for BASD and other organizations in the community as the goal is to assist with lowering health care costs for BASD and other Burlington organizations/businesses.

Our goal is for the school board to approve the first phase of construction (the clinic) at the June board meeting which falls after the finance committee meeting has time to discuss.

The administrative team wanted to adjust the number of credits required to graduate from BHS from 23 credits to 24 credits. Additionally, the team wanted to remove the .25 credits for Academic Career Planning (ACP) and .25 credits for participation in the club DRIVEN as they are not tied to academic standards.

Additionally, a few board members wanted me to also bring up the idea and possibility of allowing students to take extracurriculars for credit in lieu of a PE credit. However, this was not recommended by administration and was not approved as part of the adjustments to the board policy.

Dave Wagner, Director of Technology, shared the four proposed bids for the next 48 month printer lease with the board with the recommendation of going with Forward TS. Forward TS was the most cost effective while still providing all of the functions needed to properly support the district.

The proposed Forward TS contract includes several updates from our current agreement. It introduces new functionality to improve efficiency and security.

One key feature is secure “badge release” printing. Employees will need to scan their ID badge (fob) at the printer to release their print jobs. This provides two major benefits:

Additionally, the new system simplifies printing access. Currently, the technology department must manually install specific printers on each employee’s device. With the new system, employees can send a print job and release it from any printer in the district by scanning their badge and selecting the document from their queue.

It was recommended to the school board to maintain the registration fees as they are for the 2026-2027 school year. Information was provided to the board in regards to the history of increases to registration fees and how much is collected per year.

Additionally, Aramark shared that there will be a 4% increase in food prices and a 5% increase to milk prices come the fall of 2026.

I believe is it important to ALWAYS provide families and staff with a school calendar that is two years out to assist with planning around school to maximize our time spent with students during the school year.

Just so everyone is aware, the following parameters were noted in the development of the 2027-2028 school calendar:

Additionally, I will be meeting with local private schools to share our calendar and encourage alignment whenever possible. As a reminder, BASD is mandated by the state to pay for transportation for both public and private school students. The more closely calendars align, the more efficient and cost-effective transportation services can be for our community and taxpayers. We will continue working collaboratively to maximize that alignment whenever possible.

Click on the orange box below to access the 2027-2028 school calendar.

We are rounding out year 3 of our 5 year district strategic plan. We have been working with Studer Education to support our work and plan on still utilizing Studer to assist with our survey collection.

However, to assist with reducing costs I suggested shifting to Excel Leadership as they are a small consulting company who used to work for Studer along with Baldrige (both focused on strategic planning) but are local and in the area. The proposal is to work with them for the next two years to continue to support our leadership team with our continued focus and alignment to our strategic plan.

The school board selected the date, time, and location for the next Annual Meeting: August 24 at 6:00 PM at the District Office (209 Wainwright Ave).

It is that time of year where capital improvement items are put on the agenda for approval. Capital improvement items are items that need to be replaced across the district in relation to our maintenance and building needs.

One of the items that went to the board for approval was the replacement of the water softener at BHS.

In case you are curious... BHS is part of the city and Jess Warren (Director of Buildings and Grounds) was able to gain data from the city in regards to the hardness level at BHS (ensuring there is a need for a water softener).

BHS's reading was 32 gpg

So... a water softener is important to assist with decreasing the impact on all of our equipment.

Therefore, Jess gained two bids with a third one that was on it's way. Because of that we asked that the school board approve a new system not to exceed $31,000 as the two bids we did get were just under $31,000.

Jess Warren, Director of Buildings and Grounds shared the need to replace the fire panels at the high school. This is another capital improvement project to be taken care of over the summer.

Johnson Controls Simplex 4010 Fire Alarm Panel was discontinued for new sales at the end of 2014.

With the uncertainty of service part availability for the 4010 going forward, it is recommended

that we upgrade the system now to avoid the potential of expensive fire watches and an unplanned emergency upgrade.

Due to Johnson Controls being our contracted vendor for fire services, we do not have options for another vendor quote.

Wisconsin put into law ACT 42 addressing the desire to not allow any PCDs (personal communication devices) to be used during instructional time. So much so they even stated that devices should be shut off and not even on vibrate mode during class time.

Every school district has to submit their changes to policy 5136 by October 1, 2026.

The board engaged in a second reading for the following policies:

Policy #3122.02 - Nondiscrimination Based on Genetic Information of the Employee

Policy #3124 - Employment Contract

Policy #3132 - Vacancies

Policy #3210 - Staff Ethics

Policy #3131 - Reduction in Staff -

NEOLA Recommended Review

0100 - DEFINITIONS -

0142.7 - ORIENTATION -

1210 - BOARD - SUPERINTENDENT RELATIONSHIP -

1230.01 - DEVELOPMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE GUIDELINES -

This is a good time to remind everyone that Lyons Center is for sale and we are currently not utilizing a broker. If you know of anyone looking for a 26,000 square foot building on 7 acres please have them reach out to the district office. We are taking offers to purchase and/or offers to lease the space.

The school district had an offer to purchase Lyons Center. I gave back ground information about the building to the board and then we shifted into closed session to talk about the terms of the offer and board negotiation strategies.

BASD Proud,

Dr. Jill Oelslager, Superintendent

Taylor Wishau, Board President

Marlo Brown, Vice President

Paul Kobernick, Clerk

Ben Puffer, Board Member, Treasurer

Andrea Brewer, Board Member

Rosanne Hahn, Board Member

Kate Johnson, Board Member