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Renaissance Charter Academy highlights literacy push, no-phone policy and enrollment gains
Summary
Renaissance Charter Academy leaders told the River Falls School Board they met three annual goals — academic, behavioral and community — including a literacy initiative requiring student choice reading and a no-cell-phone policy that administrators say reduced classroom violations. They also reported modest enrollment growth and new community partnerships.
Jerry, the school counselor at the Renaissance Charter Academy, told the River Falls School Board the school set three overarching goals this year — an academic goal, a behavioral goal and a community goal — and described concrete steps and early results. On academics, he said the school set a modest reading objective: "by each quarter, 100% of students will complete one book of choice," and that ninth- and tenth-grade students used ReadTheory while eleventh- and twelfth-grade students focused on independent-choice reading. Jerry said the school lacks historic library access but has built a library this year and is working with Mary Miller, the district librarian, to gather fuller library-use data.
Miss Webb and Peggy (Renaissance staff) described the school's behavioral goal: a no-cell-phone policy implemented for the 2024–25 year. Miss Webb said the policy's discipline sequence begins with returning phones to lockers at first violation, moves to office referral for repeated violations, and on a third infraction results in a five-day surrender. She summarized term-by-term counts, saying term 1 recorded about 32 violations, term 2 fell to 11, term 3 fell to 5 and term 4 rose slightly to 12. "Everybody bought in," Miss Webb said, and staff and families provided support that helped reduce classroom distractions during guest presentations and other instruction.
On enrollment and community connections, presenters said the school exceeded its growth goal, reporting roughly 14.2% growth from term 1 to term 4, and outlined partnerships with Meyer Middle School and River Falls High School to identify and recruit students who may benefit from the Renaissance program. Jerry described outreach to counseling teams and said the program is working to change the "last-resort" narrative about alternative education by showcasing student work and community events hosted in the new building.
Board members praised the staff's effort. One board member called the no-phone policy "courageous," and another noted the program's effect on graduation-rate statistics and broader district comparisons. The presentation closed with the board moving on to the night's reports.
The board did not take any formal action about the Renaissance presentation; the item was informational.
