ELLSWORTH — The Ellsworth Community School District has announced the hirings of two new principals, one for the high school and the other for the elementary school.

Marcy Burch, the newly hired high school principal, most recently served as the 6-12 principal at Glenwood City. Burch has over 25 years of experience in education.

According to a post from the district, during Burch’s time as principal in Glenwood City, the school’s ACT composite scores rose to the top of CESA 11, which covers much of west-central Wisconsin.

“Having a K-12 understanding of education is a big asset,” Burch said. “I’ve worked in school districts that have high schools with 1,700 students, and then obviously, just came from a very small one. I think having all of those different experiences has really prepared me for anything.”

Burch helped expand career and technical education opportunities in Glenwood City and is ready to take that to Ellsworth with the referendum construction currently underway.

“I’m really hoping to increase our community involvement,” Burch said. “Our CTE spaces are going to be state of the art, and I’m hoping to partner with local businesses to provide a pipeline for our students to go right into the world of work if that’s what they’re interested in doing.”

She said showcasing what the new rooms can do will allow members of the community to see the opportunities the students will have, in turn encouraging businesses and organizations to step in.

The Hudson resident thanked the Ellsworth community for a warm welcome. She has fallen in love with the community and is excited for the first school year.

“It was an opportunity to work in a little bit bigger district,” Burch said. “The community is a beautiful community that really supports the school, which I think is a fantastic asset, and it’s a little bit closer to home.”

Burch wants to be present and interactive with staff, spend a lot of time inside classrooms and use an open-door policy.

“I’m a teacher at heart, so I plan to bring an energy,” Burch said. “I think the key to success is listening Listening to the needs of the staff. Listening to student voices is so important.”

Elementary Principal

The new elementary school principal, Jeremy Nygaard, has spent 18 years in the Baldwin-Woodville Elementary system. Nygaard was recommended by a coworker to strive for principal requirements and decided to go for it. Nygaard has served as the assistant principal and transportation director at BW schools. He also spent time teaching a mixed third and fourth grade class. During that time, Nygaard learned sometimes catering to individual students can be more beneficial than barring entire classes into one expectation.

“The thing that became obvious through the year last year, though, was [that] I’ve wanted to be involved in education,” Nygaard said. “The transportation stuff pulled me away from the school quite a bit.”

Nygaard wants to create an environment where students want to come to school, and where teachers want to grow and feel comfortable. He has learned over time that students want to come to school during elementary school, and if they create a positive environment during the early years, they can keep the love alive.

“You want to send kids from the elementary school to the middle school ready to be good middle school students so they are ready for the high school,” Nygaard said. “That’s ultimately the goal, right? To make good people out of our graduates, but that starts somewhere.”

Over time, Nygaard wants to instill character traits of responsibility, hard work and cooperation.

“I’m not going to say that I’m super strict or a stickler for things, but it’s like, if you set the expectations for students on how you want them to behave and then hold them accountable, there’s some lessons there,” Nygaard said.

With some of Nygaard’s children still in the Baldwin-Woodville school system, Nygaard thought Ellsworth was the right place to be, and feels comfortable staying for the long haul.

“I couldn’t just go anywhere,” Nygaard said. “This opened up, and I was like, you know, I’ll certainly throw my hat in the ring.

“Consistency,” Nygaard said. “I could have seen myself in my previous district staying there until I retired. I am not one to change. I look at where I am and what my age is, and it’s like, this would make a lot of sense to just stay here until I retire.”

Nygaard lived on the same floor as Middle School Principal Olin Morrison during college, and is excited to get to work with the administrative group at Ellsworth. When he got the offer, it was an easy decision.