Wisconsin Heights “exceeds expectations” in District report card

The Dec. 9 Wisconsin Heights School Board meeting was a busy one. The board discussed new initiatives, upgrades and the school district’s report card, among other things.  The Wisconsin Heights Middle School and High School Pupil Services team received a grant to help students with mental health challenges. The program will utilize Screenings, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment. The program will start with a standardized screening to see if a student is at risk. If a students’ screening shows moderate to high risk, they will initiate the next phase which is Brief Intervention. Brief Intervention is a protocol guided method of motivational interviewing. If a student in the high-risk category does not respond to brief intervention, there will be a referral to treatment. Julie Horner, School Psychologist and Kat Swanson, School Social Worker will be heading this new program and upon completion of the trainings in May 2020 they will receive the $1800 grant.  The school board did a survey to 59 families in the district regarding preschool/before and after school care. Of the 59 families that were called upon, 48 responses were obtained. Only a few questions were asked, and the results are as follow. The families were asked if they would enroll their child or children in a 4k program; 42 percent responded with a yes. The families were asked if they would like the program to be all day/every day or half day/everyday; 60 percent of the families would opt for an all-day/everyday program. Before and after school care utilization had a split vote with 29.1 percent of families saying they would utilize it but, 43 percent of families said they would not. If these programs were to be implemented, it would cost approximately $5,000 to upgrade the facilities to house these programs. It would also cost approximately $130,000 to hire 2.5 staff members to run these programs.  Rachel Elliot, District Technology Integrator gave a presentation on 1:1 Digital Learning and the implementation plan for the district. The middle school will begin implementation in the 2020-21 school year. The students’ devices will be kept at school at all times. The high school will begin implementation in the 2021-22 school year, and they will be able to take their devices home if they choose to. They will also have the option to check-out mobile hotspots to take home as well. There will be information and guidelines for all students and parents regarding the Chromebook that the students will be utilizing. The technology committee is working to see where the district is and where it is going in terms of technology. The team is also working to understand what great teaching with digital tools looks like through research and findings.  The district received its yearly report card. The district received a score of 78.5 which falls in the exceeding expectations area. This is up nearly 2 points from last year’s report card. Of the four focus areas, Student Achievement, District Growth, Closing Gaps, and On-Track and Post-Secondary Readiness, the highest scoring area was On-track and post-secondary readiness with a score of 90.2 out of 100. This is well above the state average of 84.8 in this area.