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A letter from District Administrator, Terrance Slack
December 2023,
Dear School District of Wisconsin Dells Community Members,
December is certainly a busy month due to it being compressed by winter break. Specifically, winter recess will begin after a full day of school on Friday, December 22, 2023, and classes will resume on Tuesday, January 2, 2024. Before winter break begins, it's vital to encourage all students to demonstrate excellent attendance patterns. Simply stated, students who exhibit regular attendance perform better academically than those who do not.
In mid-December, the district will host WDHS alumnus Tim Decorah, who will present to our student body and the public on the mental health topics of anxiety and panic. We welcome the public to listen to his presentation on Wednesday, December 13, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. in the Nelson Performing Arts Center, where he will share his personal narrative about his struggles with anxiety and panic and how he has developed coping strategies to "survive and thrive" by overcoming challenges he faced during his time as a student-athlete and coach. We hope you can join us to hear his story!
As a reminder, inclement weather will likely occur in December, and the district will utilize the following four methods as our primary ways of communicating with the public. The first will be the school messenger service. The messenger service will call the number you have provided to the district within the Skyward student management system. The other media sources are the district's Facebook page, WISC-TV 3, and WNNO 106.9 FM. If the district deems it necessary to release students early because of inclement weather and you have elementary-age children, please ensure that we have your alternative daycare arrangements in advance and on file at one of the elementary offices. Doing so will significantly assist the office staff as well as the classroom teachers and aides who ensure that your children are on the correct bus or any alternative pre-approved arrangements. This updated information will ease some confusion on an already hectic day!
Please take note of the 2022-23 school report cards that have been publicly released, and listed below is a quick summary of how the district and each school have fared.
|
2022-23 DPI Report Card Scores |
||
|
Building/District |
Score |
Rating |
|
District |
68.4 |
3* |
|
WDHS |
73.5 |
4* |
|
WDMS |
62.5 |
3* |
|
LDES |
76.9 |
4* |
|
SHES |
65.5 |
3* |
These annual report cards indicate what items the district and, more specifically, our students are collectively performing well on and what areas need greater attention. Often, the district is well aware of the areas of strength on the report cards and the areas the district strives to improve upon. While the report cards provide a great deal of academic data detail, they do not measure any of our educators' work with social-emotional learning; thus, as a reminder, the district has always taken a measured approach to reporting the details in the report card. One of the best measures we do, however, is take a great deal of pride in the growth of individual students. For the most part, this is an area the district has done an excellent job at and, in turn, has resulted in good ratings for individual schools as well as the overall district score. Thanks to our students, parents, and our teaching staff for your efforts to produce these outcomes!
In closing, we hope you take a few moments to enjoy the monthly edition of our e-newsletter. Our students and staff strive to achieve our vision statement of cultivating academic excellence today for a stronger community tomorrow, and we recognize there will always be challenges to improving. We thank you for the opportunity to serve our communities’ children, for they are both our highest priority- it is our privilege to do so!
Sincerely,
Terrance R. Slack
