Winnifred Aitch, Assistant Principal for the Manufacturing Small Learning Community at Bradley Tech High School, is retiring.

She began her career in Milwaukee Public Schools as a substitute teacher at North Division and Marshall High Schools, and continued as a Special Education/Home Economics teacher at Pleasant View High School. She went on to become Acting Assistant Principal at Marshal High School and then a Vocational Supervisor at the MPS Central Office, an Instructional Generalist at Bay View SDA 6, an Assistant Principal at Washington High School and later Administrator of the Health Academy and Opportunity Center at Pulaski High School.

The largest segment of her career, however, 1990-2006, was spent as an administrator at Washington High School and then as director of the new small school, WHS of Information Technology, on the Washington Campus.

Aitch has worked in a myriad of capacities--programming, recruitment, student services, staffing, professional development, grant writing for school reform, to name a few. She was a strong force in the development of the WHS Career Academies that laid the groundwork for the three small schools—Washington High Schools of Information Technology and Expeditionary Learning and the school of Law, Education and Public Service(LEAPS)—that currently share the WHS Campus.

“Ms. Aitch was a cheerleader for Washington!” said Linda Ward, former WHS Campus head secretary. “Her efforts always went far beyond the job. She did things because she wanted to, not just because the job required it.”

The campus Media Center Coordinator, Lea Scruggs-Parker, added, “She was always cheerful and supportive with a strong work ethic. She was always looking for ways to motivate students to work hard to achieve their career goals, and her mothering instincts have helped many students through difficult times.”

Aitch says of her time at Washington, “It has always been a special place…. there is not a better school staff in the city with each one having special gifts, working hard and supporting students and each other.”