Lincoln students present career-day projects; principal reports academic growth and expanded interventions

Four fourth-graders from Lincoln School described what they learned on the building's March career day, and Lincoln Principal Jane reported academic gains and changes to intervention schedules at the Port Washington-Saukville School District board meeting Monday.

Principal Jane introduced Killian Shea, Hadley Granrath, Emerson (Emmy) Weiss and Kendall Allen, who spoke about careers they encountered on March 7 and what they might want to do when they grow up. “I learned about many very different and unique jobs that I might want to excel in in my future job,” Killian said. Emmy said she "would like to be a photographer," and Hadley said she would like to be an engineer who "designs buildings." Kendall said she hopes to be a baker and noted that creativity and practice are important.

In the principal's report, Jane summarized Lincoln's four school goals: academic growth (one year of growth in ELA and math), improved culture and climate (5 percentage-point gains on staff surveys), school safety, and behavior (target that 85 percent of students have zero or one behavior incident). She presented iReady interim-growth figures showing movement toward grade level: mid-or-above rates rose from 21 percent in fall to 49 percent midyear in reading and from 8 percent to 31 percent in math; students one grade level or below dropped from about 46 percent to 20 percent in reading and from 72 percent to 38 percent in math.

Jane said the school has increased some intervention groups from four days a week to five to provide more consistent support, noting the change followed a recommendation from district leadership. She described interventions and programs in use, including UFLI Foundations, Just Words, Barton, AVMR, targeted progress monitoring, and enrichment rotations run by related-arts teachers. She said the school has completed 29 learning walks this cycle and uses teacher-led professional development and coaching.

On behavior, Jane said the school uses PBIS (being respectful, responsible and safe) and is transitioning toward a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). She reported that, as of Feb. 27, staff recorded 103 minor incidents and 59 major incidents in the district's behavior tracker (NextPath) and that 93 percent of students were meeting the goal of zero to one behavior incident. The school's tier-2 team meets regularly to review students who need additional support and manages a check-in/check-out process for about 10 students.

The principal thanked staff and volunteers who organized career day and said the school is already planning next year’s event, tentatively in March.