Burmaster Selects Top Assistants

State Superintendent-elect Elizabeth Burmaster Monday (June 11, 2001) announced her choices for eight key positions in her new administration at the Department of Public Instruction.

The appointments are:

• Tony Evers, deputy state superintendent. Evers has served since 1991 as chief administrator of CESA 6, which serves 42 districts in east-central Wisconsin. Before that, he was superintendent of the Verona and Oakfield school districts.
• Tricia Yates, executive assistant. Yates returns to DPI, where she started in 1990 in Bert Grover's administration as chief of the Bureau for Policy and Budget and served as special assistant to John Benson from 1993 to 1999. For the past two years, Yates has served as legislative consultant and federal and agency relations coordinator for WEAC.
• John Kraus, special assistant. Kraus was communications director for Burmaster's campaign. He has worked as the communications director for Gore/Lieberman 2000 in Wisconsin, executive director at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, aide to U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, and aide to Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist.
• Steve Dold, assistant superintendent for finance and management. Dold has served at DPI as deputy state superintendent, director of the Bureau for Policy and Budget, and assistant state superintendent for educational accountability and policy.
• Jack Kean, assistant superintendent for academic excellence. Kean is an associate dean emeritus and professor of curriculum and English education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Margaret Planner, assistant superintendent for reading and student achievement. Planner has served as principal at Henry David Thoreau School in Madison since 1994. Prior to that, she was principal at Orchard Ridge School in Madison, and elementary principal for the Verona Area School District and Deerfield Community Schools.
• Cal Potter, assistant superintendent for libraries, technology and community learning. Potter has been an assistant state superintendent since 1998. Previously, he served more than 23 years in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate, where he chaired the education committees.
• Carolyn Stanford Taylor, assistant superintendent for learning support: equity and advocacy. Stanford Taylor served the last six years as principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Madison. She also has served as lead principal at James C. Wright Middle School and principal at Marquette Elementary School in Madison.

"Today is a new day for education in Wisconsin," Burmaster said. "Together we will meet the challenges we face as a state, united by our shared commitment to put the children of Wisconsin first.

"We will hit the ground running on July 2," she said, "bringing people together to improve education for every child in Wisconsin. Our focus will be on ensuring quality classroom teachers, improved student achievement with an emphasis on reading, and increasing parental involvement."