WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) One of the Wausau School District’s 13 elementary schools is listed as ‘failing’ under the Department of Public Instruction’s report cards that were released Thursday. Franklin Elementary School, which serves the neighborhoods around downtown Wausau, received a score of 50 out of 100, or 1 star on a 5-star scale.
Tom McCarthy with the Department of Public Instruction says the report cards are a tool to let school administrators and parents know how individual schools are doing. “This is by no means the end of the conversation when you see a score like that,” he told WAOW NewsLine Nine.
Franklin principal Elizabeth White says this measures the school as a whole. She says there are many individual students who are doing quiet well, and she believes the entire school will do better.
White told WAOW, “We are putting into place procedures and changes in structure with our professional learning committees, and are working with our district resource specialist to improve our students’ achievement.”
Rib Mountain and Stittin were the best-graded elementary schools in the district.
The other Wausau school that’s on the failing list is an alternative school, The Enrich, Excel, Achieve Academy, which is run out of Wausau East High School. It received a 39.9 out of 100.
The Wausau School District as a whole scored 70.9 out of 100 and is listed as ‘meets expectations’.
The Cambria Friesland district had the lowest performance score in the last school year – 46.5 on a scale of 100 – and the Bayfield, Cassville, Racine, and Menominee Indian districts also failed to meet expectations. Most of the failing schools are in Milwaukee and other high poverty areas of the state.
Under the system, schools can face sanctions if they receive a failing grade for two years straight.
