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Thursday, May 17, 2018 • Vol. 53, No. 52 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
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Principal’s exit follows years of complaints Concerns included discipline, communication, academics
‘I think it’s time for a change, and I hope Mike Pisani has just over we’re headed in the a month left at the princiright direction.’
SCOTT GIRARD
Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Amber Levenhagen
From left, Luke Logan and Ben Solomon are two of the founding members of Live Undiscovered Music, a music streaming app designed to promote local artists instead of mainstream musicians.
VAHS grad develops music streaming app Designed to promote up-and-coming artists
Elijah Isenberger, Luke Kollman, Derek Zenger and Curtis Rollo, and created a music streaming app called Live Undiscovered Music that restricts bigname artists and instead works to promote the music from artists and producers at a local level. The app was born from a “think tank” session the group of friends had in November 2017. All students or recent graduates from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, they wanted to find a unified direction to head after graduation and decided to start their own business
AMBER LEVENHAGEN Unified Newspaper Group
The music industry is a harsh one. A select few artists rise to the top each year, while the rest struggle for attention. Ben Solomon, a Verona Area High School class of 2014 graduate, wanted to make a difference and root for the little guys. He joined with a group of lifelong friends, including Luke Logan, Max Fergus,
within the music industry. “We’ve known each other for so long, we’re not afraid to critique someone or give some harsh feedback,” Solomon said. “We realize what needs to be done and it’s a good environment to be in.” Free to use, the app is in its beta stage and is planned to be released in full in August, when it will be ad-supported. In the meantime, the group is working on fundraising and finding more artists and investors to be a part of the project. “We started in November and by winter break we already had a full business
plan, so we went into the semester already reaching out to people and artists,” Solomon said. “The support we have gotten has been amazing.”
Addressing a need Solomon said the app was a response to an unmet need in the market. An avid music fan, he b eg a n t a k i n g a c l o s e r look at streaming services through the winter to try to learn more about shortcomings in the industry and how artists feel about them. “We’re all into live music
Turn to Music/Page 2
pal of Stoner Prairie Elementary School. The news that he would be leaving the school after Pisani f iv e y e a r s , announced in January, was not a surprise for a group of parents who have been complaining for a few years about him. They claimed he was not responsive to complaints and a poor communicator and behavior was spiraling out of control. While their complaints began as far back as 2015, including in front of the school board in public meetings at the time, the only changes until this year were the district hiring a pair of coaches for Pisani with a goal of improving the situation at the school. But after parents brought their concerns to the board again – this time through an October email – action was taken within two months. Though the board was not directly involved in the action last fall, board president Noah Roberts told the Press, Roberts expressed concerns over the situation when responding to the
Lesley Steffin, parent initial email, emails and other documents obtained through an open records request in December show. The documents, which include one note of positive feedback from a Stoner Prairie staffer, sheds light on the process that led to Pisani’s departure and the history of complaints. Those have focused especially on behavioral incidents among students since 2015, when the district as a whole began changing its discipline system. Superintendent Dean Gorrell, who is responsible for personnel decisions, offered praise for Pisani in a recent interview with the Press but declined to comment further. “I’m very grateful to Mike for his work there,” Gorrell said. Pisani, who announced Monday he will take over as the principal at Lodi Elementary School next year, declined to comment for this story beyond a statement attached to the Press’ records request, which touted the school’s test scores
Turn to Pisani/Page 7
Verona Area School District
VAHS ranks top 10 in state by U.S. News annual survey Unified Newspaper Group
Verona Area High School is the 10th-best high school in Wisconsin, according to a set of rankings released
May 9. The U.S. News & World Reports annual national high school rankings gave the school a silver medal and ranked it 661st nationally.
“ To p - r a n k e d s c h o o l s succeed in three main areas: exceeding expectations on state proficiency tests, offering challenging coursework and graduating their students,” Anita
Narayan, managing editor of education at U.S. News, said in a news release. The rankings use performance on state standardized tests and measures of college preparedness to
measure schools. VAHS was one of 154 schools ranked in Wisconsin. The 10th-place ranking put VAHS just ahead of
The
Verona Press
Turn to Top 10/Page 2
On the Web To see the rankings for Wisconsin and the United States, visit:
usnews.com/education/ best-high-schools
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SCOTT GIRARD