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Wadawitz Elementary reports literacy gains and attendance challenges to board
Summary
Wadawitz Elementary principal Donna Katz told the Racine Unified board that the school is prioritizing early literacy and reported growth metrics, but noted attendance rates and medically fragile students limit full-year benchmarks.
At the March 17 Racine Unified School District board meeting, Donna Katz, directing principal at Wadawitz Elementary School, outlined the school’s literacy targets, recent growth and ongoing attendance challenges.
Katz said Wadawitz has focused on foundational early literacy and set a kindergarten benchmark goal of 90 percent of students meeting letter-sound expectations; she reported the school reached about 87 percent last year and that this year’s data is trending toward the 90 percent goal. She told the board: “Every single year, we wanna make sure that 90% of all of our kindergarteners ... are at that benchmark of knowing all of their letter sounds, uppercase, lowercase.”
Katz said the school exited lower-performance designations by building interventions and implementing Act 20 reading plans; she described growth measured on the state report card and said Wadawitz is “outpacing roughly 70% of the K–5 schools in the state” in growth rate. She pointed to an example where a literacy benchmark moved from about 10.2% to 25% within a school year, which she cited to show velocity of improvement.
Board members pressed on practical constraints. Katz told the board that families of medically fragile students often must keep children out of school for therapies and appointments, and those absences count toward overall attendance. She said overall student attendance last year was “just a pinch below 90%” and the school set a goal of 91% for the current year. District officials described home visits and social-worker outreach to address barriers to attendance.
Board members also asked about teacher retention and staffing. Katz estimated long average staff tenure and said turnover since last year was small; she noted staff longevity with multiple 15- and 30-year service recognitions. Board members praised the school’s literacy coaches and Title I reading teachers and Katz warned that losing those positions would be a major blow to the program’s sustainability.
Katz said Wadawitz uses common interventions, benchmark assessments and formal reading plans; when students arrive midyear, staff benchmark them and assign interventions. She told the board the school is intentionally building sustainable practices that translate across curricular areas.
Board members thanked Wadawitz staff and invited further conversation about attendance and services for medically fragile students.
