Admin Corner: September 2026 Insights from the Office
Image design by Elias Callen.
Welcome back, Chargers! Whether it’s your first year at Hamilton or your last (or maybe both), these first few weeks are always rough as everything is getting settled into place. However, change can also be very exciting, and our school's administration is enthusiastic to celebrate some of the new improvements and additions being made for the 2026-2027 school year.
As always, this Admin Series aims to interview our administration on a regular basis to celebrate accomplishments, give admin an opportunity to address questions, and allow everyone at Hamilton a chance to submit their own questions and inputs!
Do you have any updates on AVID and the alternative pathways? How are those rolling out at the beginning of this year?
Overall, our Hamilton administration felt that these new programs have been successful, and they noted significant gains and the promotion of both the SPARK and AVID (a school-wide program that implements universal teaching practices and focuses on college and career readiness) programs. In the coming years, admin hopes to put more emphasis on the AVID program as a move to put more focus on career readiness after high school and college.
Goike explained more about the SPARK program: “We are building two more strands that are going to start next year: Global Business and Future Teachers.."This program is different in that students work directly with industry partners on real-world projects rather than completing traditional classroom work. So yes, goals have been met. We are still rolling and creating and teachers are amazing and doing all the things.".It coaches how you get your commerce credit through it, but you're doing projects with industry professionals. So yes, goals have been met. We are still rolling and creating and teachers are amazing and doing all the things.”
She also described a new Charger Manufacturing class in the works, where students apply their engineering and construction skills to “make projects for the community, for the schools, for businesses.”
What's one thing that you wanted to celebrate about last year that you thought went really well and are continuing into the 2026, 2027 school year?
“[The] continuing evolution of students feeling comfortable coming to us with things,” says Mr. Bauer, in regards to the administration’s commitment to making student-faculty relationships smoother and more approachable. He continued by noting that, “...we have a PTO now, that's trying to really enhance the oncoming experience for kids. So, like, just more and more people bringing ideas to make the experience that much better. I think that's probably something we're most excited about continuing.”
What are some changes and new things that you're looking forward to implementing at Hamilton this year?
Goike began by stating, “I'm going to go with Future Ready Day… We had the financial simualtion here last year. [This year] we're going to kind of package it on a date. November 12th is the practice ACT for juniors, so we're going to make a day out of it. Seniors are going to do the financial stimulation. Sophomores are going to get a career workshop, where we're bringing in speakers that will do practice interviews, talk about resumes, and then freshmen are going to get some sort of Future Ready experience too, but we're going to package it and spend that half day preparing kids for what's coming up next.”
She continued by explaining, “We have a very big focus on academic career planning or ACP in general right now. So we offer field trips for kids during school and outside of school; for different industry partners, we're expanding that with more opportunities and more people coming in. We're building career exploration events with different pathways. Our first one is law enforcement coming up in October [as well as] fire and Mercury Marine coming in. We've got some really big, cool companies that are coming in to share different pathways. We're really trying to build that up. And then we have a hiring day coming up in March where we're inviting not just our high school students, but all high school students in the area, along with all companies in the area to come prepared, ready to interview for resumes. And you can get on-the-spot jobs, whichever kind you're looking for.”
Are there any areas/weaknesses that you want to focus on building up? Specifically, any that people might have concerns about that you're wanting to address?
This time Mr. Doyle answered, describing, “I don't think a lot of our student body and/or staff completely understands what our AVID program is here at the high school. This will now be the first year where we have it running grades 9 through 12. So, working with our AVID site team, we're trying to find ways to not only have things school-wide, but also to have some other events sprinkled throughout the school year, so students who are a part of this program can be able to either speak to things or be represented. That way, it's not just on its own, but it's a part of what we have here at Hamilton.”
Have there been any new programs/plans over the summer? What are your new programs?
Goike responded by talking about new student tech teams. She explained, “Starting next year, students can work with the IT department and help repair chromebooks, and they get credit for it. And they get an industry-recognized certificate along with it, which will follow them. So a whole block will be dedicated to helping work with the IT team.”
We then asked about the general expansion of internship programs at Hamilton. Goike followed up, “We have quite a few opportunities. We've got some with HEF already, the Hamilton Education Foundation. We have two students working there, [helping with] marketing, social media, marketing, revamping their website. We created a business administration internship where students are in charge of announcements, communicating with the student body, and doing various projects around the office. And then the other one is that student tech team working with our IT department.”
Finally, Goike brought up the IMC: “If you've been in the library pit, you'll notice it's completely painted and revamped. IT has moved out of there and that whole space is now turning into our career development center. SPARK will be taught there. Other various career center programming, field trips, guest speakers will be happening there... [It will be its own] classroom environment. [Also, the] aviation room [moved] down there. We're going to have a ribbon cutting for it in June. We're inviting Waukesha County Business Alliance, and companies.” She continues stating that in the coming year, the IMC at Hamilton will take up a larger function and a kind of hub for the SPARK/career building classes, and will also include a brand new greenscreen room, which like all the other new resources in the IMC, will be open to the entire student body.
Big thanks to our admin team for agreeing to do this interview, and an even thanks to everyone who’s been working hard to make this school year even better than the last. With many exciting prospects and goals for the the 2026-2027 school year, we at Charger Press hope every student at Hamilton has a great and fulfilling year!
