Area school districts exceeding goals
By Melanie Boyung - News Graphic Staff
OZAUKEE COUNTY The statewide release of Department of Public Instruction school report cards show the districts of southern Ozaukee County are exceeding expectations across the board.
The Cedarburg School District received a districtwide rating of 86.8, and Mequon-Thiensville School District received 86.5; both fall into the five-star significantly exceeds expectations category of 83 or above.
The Grafton School District received an overall score of 80.7, exceeds expectations. Each district and school receives a report card, including a total rating and four section ratings.
Grafton Superintendent Jeff Nelson said the district was pro! ud all five of their schools had exceeded expectations. Woodview Elementary School scored 91.4, "significantly exceeds expectations," and was ranked 20thin the state of the about 600 elementary schools that were rated, according to Superintendent Jeff Nelson.
"We are proud of our districts results and that we are recognized for achieving at a high level. The results allow us to celebrate the efforts of our students, parents, and staff of reaching our goal of Every Student, Every Day. This data point is used in conjunction with other internal data points to help us move forward with our continuous improvement model at each level," Nelson said in an email.
Graftons schools individual scores ranged from 77.3 at John Long Middle School up to Woodviews 91.4. All five Grafton schools had "on-track and post-secondary readiness" scores in the significantly exceeds expectations range, and all but JLMS had student achie! vement scores in the five-star category as well. JLMS received four stars.
MTSD Superintendent Demond Means told School Board members Nov. 21 that their 86.5 score was the highest in the state for school districts with more than 3,500 students.
"There are some smaller school districts who had higher scores, but generally speaking, I will take our 86.5 score and scream at the mountaintops that Im proud of our staff, our kids and our parents," Means said.
Assistant Superintendent Matthew Joynt discussed specifics of the report card later in the meeting. He said Homestead High School was only one of two high schools in the state to meet the "Significantly Exceeds Expectations" standard; the other was Kohler, a much smaller high school.
In addition, he said Oriole Lane Elementary Sch! ool had the second-highest overall score a 95.7 for an ele! mentary school.
MTSD school scores ranged from Steffen Middle School exceeds expectations at 81.8 to Oriole Lanes 95.7. All six MTSD buildings had five stars in student achievement and on-track and post-secondary readiness.
Cedarburg schools received scores ranging from Westlawn Elementary Schools 79.5 to Parkview Elementary Schools 89.2. All five Cedarburg schools also had section scores significantly exceeding expectations in student achievement and on-track and post-secondary readiness.
Cedarburg Superintendent Todd Bugnacki sent a letter to district parents sharing that Cedarburg rated as the top district in the county by the DPIs report cards, and in the top 2 percent in the state. He commented in an email that while the report cards are a data tool used to gauge student achievement and progress, there are also many oth! ers that the district makes use of; similar remarks were made by members of all area districts.
"The DPI could do us a favor by allowing districts to report on other indicators that speak to student success. One state report card does not do justice in capturing all the success indicators of challenging every student to achieve their goals and dreams," Bugnacki said.
Three of CSD schools were five-star rated, with the other two rated four-star. All three area districts had all four- and five-star ratings per building.