Superintendent Brad Brzezinski told the Winona Area Public School District Board of Education that graduation requirements are set in board policy 6-13 and any change would require a formal policy update.

"Our graduation requirements are outlined in policy 6 13," Brzezinski said, framing the presentation and explaining that the current 21.5-credit requirement aligns with state minimum standards but has evolved over multiple policy changes since 2005.

Principals at the high school and the Winona Area Learning Center (ALC) described how the district moved from older unit-based counts to a credit system; the current structure resulted from several policy revisions and a 2021 board action that standardized many requirements. The board was told the class of 2026 is the first WSHS graduating class subject to the 21.5-credit requirement; the ALC has operated at 21.5 credits since a prior change.

Principal Wernke (Winona Senior High School) and Principal Denka (ALC) reviewed barriers to graduation and how credit totals interact with schedule models. "Most failures are going to occur in your math or English," Denka said when asked which credits most commonly keep students from graduating on time; she added many ALC referrals arrive two or more years behind in credits.

Wernke and other staff advocated moving the comprehensive high school requirement to 24 credits (with a proposed graduation capstone or portfolio requirement placed in advisory time) to align students with regional peers and to encourage completion of career- and college-readiness pathways. They argued that 24 credits would better incentivize students to use course opportunities (CTE, arts, concurrent enrollment) and would strengthen the district diploma in comparisons with neighboring districts in the Big Nine conference.

Board members raised several operational questions: whether the district's current schedule supports 24 credits without adding staffing or changing the master schedule, how many students currently reach the theoretical 28-credit maximum under a full schedule, and whether ALC students would be disadvantaged by a higher comprehensive-school requirement. Principals said the ALC runs a six-period day and students have different needs; increasing the ALC requirement to match a 24-credit comprehensive diploma would likely force many ALC students to take every available course and in some cases to travel to the main campus to access electives.

Directors asked for additional data before any policy action: (1) distribution of credits earned by current students (how many students currently earn 28, 27, 24, 21.5, etc.), (2) graduation-rate breakdowns by program (ALC vs. comprehensive high school) using the state's published cohorts, and (3) comparative information from other Big Nine districts about how their ALCs and comprehensive high schools set credit requirements and schedules. The superintendent and principals agreed to provide those data and to return the item to the operations committee for further review.

Ending: No policy change was approved at the meeting. The board directed staff to supply enrollment/credit distributions, recent graduation-rate figures by program, and additional context from peer districts; the operations committee will review the material ahead of any formal policy revision.