RUSD officials describe Starbuck K-8 merger progress, set goals for narrowing achievement gaps

Starbuck International K-8 leaders told the Racine Unified School District Board of Education on March 17 that the school’s first year after merging West Ridge, Jefferson and Starbuck elementary programs is focused on closing achievement gaps and building a unified school community.

The school’s head of schools, Sarah Obleski, said Starbuck’s data show nonwhite students were not meeting the same proficiency levels as white peers and that the school has set targets to narrow that gap. "We create it together, and I feel like it's most successful when we're all in," Obleski said, describing efforts to gather staff, family and student input on goals.

Obleski outlined two main goals: narrowing the academic opportunity gap and increasing students’ sense of belonging. She said the district data showed that when the incoming cohorts were pooled, "88 percent of them were not proficient," and that the school aims to "improve on their Forward math scores from 12 to 20% this spring" (as stated by the presenter). The school also reported that it exited the state’s Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) designation at the end of the prior school year after several years of consistent improvement.

Obleski described steps the school is taking to support the IB (International Baccalaureate) authorization process at the primary level, including teacher training requirements. She said the IB World Organization requires primary years program teachers to complete at least a Category 1 training, and that Starbuck plans to host a trainer on site this spring and to use online offerings as well. "We are required when we go up to authorization to have every one of our PYP teachers at least have done one Category 1 training," Obleski said.

Board members asked specific operational questions. Miss Ford asked which two or three actions have been most helpful; Obleski pointed to listening to staff and families and building shared vision. Board member Mister Coway asked whether surveys measure whether students have trusted adults in the building; Obleski said counselors already include that item in student surveys and that it is being added to student learning objectives for counselors. Mister Coe pressed about scheduling and prep time; Obleski said elementary and middle-school IB programs have common planning time and that middle-school staff have a seven-period day with two prep periods, including dedicated IB planning time and PLCs (professional learning communities).

Obleski and board members also discussed implementation of IB-aligned collaborative planning, staff training for IB authorization, and family engagement strategies. She said the school is running three Title I events annually, has an active parent ambassador group and is embedding IB learning frameworks into professional development.

Board members thanked Obleski and asked to visit the school to observe PLCs and intervention models.

Short-term details: the presenter emphasized continuing to establish baseline data, build staff IB capacity and strengthen family outreach. No formal board action was taken on the Starbuck presentation at the March 17 meeting.

Sources: Presentation and Q&A by Sarah Obleski, head of schools at Starbuck International K-8, Racine Unified School District Board of Education meeting, March 17, 2025.