Kristy Casey to run unopposed for open School Board seat

Running unopposed for the Wauwatosa School District seat Thomas Jarosz is vacating, is Kristy Casey. Although she will be a newcomer to the board, she is not a newcomer to the district.

The election is April 1.

Casey has served seven years on the Governance Council for the charter Wauwatosa STEM school for seven years, including last year as president, and is a founding member of the school.

She is chairwoman of the Curriculum and Innovations Committee for the school, and said she worked closely with the district to bring STEM programming to the district's two middle schools, Longfellow and Whitman.

She also was on the original planning committee for what has come to be called the University Lab School, a charter school of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a project of the Forest Exploration Center.

Casey, 43, has a seventh-grade son in the STEM program at Longfellow, and a fifth-grade son and a third-grade son in the STEM elementary school.

A certified teacher, Casey taught in elementary schools in the Chicago area and in Elm Grove for seven years, and last year completed a master's degree in Educational Leadership at National-Louis University, and has a principal's license, among other certifications.

Last year, she said, she gave a presentation on governance and sustainability before the Wisconsin Charter Schools Association.

Casey said she has no particular agenda, and her educational interests are not to limited to charter schools. She sees herself as a supporter of the district, which "is a great school district."

"I really, really am about creating opportunities for students," she said.