The 10th Annual Wisconsin Public Education Network Summer Summit, hosted by the Madison Metropolitan School District, is a behind us! But our work is just getting started.
With critical state, local, and national elections on the fall and spring horizons, and the 2025-2027 biennial budget cycle already underway, it has never been more important for us to come together.
Photos courtesy of La Follette High School graduate Nevaeh Jackson-Winters: Nevaehphto
The Summit couldn’t have been a success without the many volunteers and sponsors who supported the event; Civic Media and Tim Slekar of BustEd Pencils for promoting and covering the event live at the high school and encouraging members of the public to support our work; Micah Davis and Steve Betchkal of Soul Shine Creative Studios as well as Public Schools Unite Us video subjects Luke Zahm and Jenny Carr (online video launch coming soon!); and those who donated gifts to our auction and drawings.
We also appreciate the panelists and presenters who shared their stories and expertise with us! Thank you!
And a particular thanks to the volunteers, administrators, staff, and educators at the Madison Metropolitan School District and La Follette High School for hosting the 10th Annual Summer Summit! We so greatly enjoyed celebrating the district and its student community.
The energy at the Summer Summit was palpable: hundreds of public education champions from across the state and representative of so many of the roles that have an impact on our public schools — from administrators and board members to educators and staff to parents and community advocates to elected officials and more — gathered, listened, learned, shared, asked important questions, and came away from the day with new resources and connections to recommit to our shared work of demanding and delivering educational equity and budget justice so that every student in every public school has the freedom to thrive. Wisconsin has the resources to meet the needs of all of our students – it’s up to us to demand the will to do it.
SUMMIT TESTIMONIALS:
“I am so excited to come away with a better grasp on school funding (and its many shortcomings) in Wisconsin. I would highly recommend the Summer Summit to anyone looking to learn more about the complexity of funding schools and ways to best support and strengthen our public schools for the betterment of our kids and communities!”
“”A strong community of passionate people can make a positive difference in public education in our state. I will tell future attendees that the conference is well worth their time and that the energy and support for public education is amazing!””
Follow-up resources:
Our full Summer Summit program is available here.
Summer Summit Archive! Almost all sessions and some breakout sessions are already archived on our website. Follow this page to access video recordings and other resources from the Summer Summit to refer back to sessions you loved, check out the ones you missed, and ensure that what was learned last Thursday stays with us moving forward. (We are continuing to update this page.)
If you attended or if you watch via the archive, please fill out this short feedback form so we know how to make our Summer Summits better!
