​Progress: Mishicot schools note growth, success

The School District of Mishicot has been enjoying an exciting time in our history, with a successful 2016 characterized by growth and success on many fronts. We saw our enrollment continuing to increase, including the number of students choosing to enroll via the open enrollment avenue, and our student achievement outcomes continue to climb in a positive fashion.

After a number of years as a successful leader in Academic and Career Planning at the high school level, we extended it to the middle school level last year with parent/student/school planning beginning in fifth grade and academic and career exploration taking place throughout middle school.

With added dual enrollment options in 10 of our 11 academic departments, our students can now choose from more than 130 technical and four-year college credits while in our schools, thus shaving time and money off the college experience of their choice.


The Mishicot Middle School Robotics Team in action. (Photo: Courtesy of School District of Mishicot)

Students are able to complete coursework in all of the 16 nationally established Career Clusters, and we are able to offer 23 pathways for students to explore while in high school. These pathways are utilized by students, parents and teachers in the development of each student’s individualized Academic and Career Plan.

We are one of 54 of 425 districts in the state to earn the rating of "Significantly Exceeds Expectations" on the 2016 state report card, our middle school was ranked ninth best in the state by Milwaukee Business Journal, and our district was ranked 45th best of 425 districts in the state by Niche.

Third-graders climb a rock wall at O.H. Schultz Elementary School in Mishicot. (Photo: Courtesy of School District of Mishicot)

To track our efforts and further advance our outcomes, we adopted a comprehensive district-specific report card on career and college readiness factors and now look to add similar performance indicators at the middle and elementary levels.

We were awarded a Standing Up for Rural Wisconsin Schools, Libraries and Communities award for our M.E.C.C.A. Trail Revitalization project, which provides a rich outdoor learning lab for our students across grade levels and content areas.


Mishicot schools was awarded a Standing Up for Rural Wisconsin Schools, Libraries and Communities award for our M.E.C.C.A. Trail Revitalization project, which provides a rich outdoor learning lab for students across grade levels and content areas. (Photo: Courtesy of School District of Mishicot)

We are now undertaking an effort to expand our greenhouse to provide hands-on work experiences for every middle school student while expanding supervised work experiences at the high school level to strengthen career and college readiness indicators for all of our students.

Additionally, our residents voted to pass a $10 million referendum to update our facilities, and that work is progressing well toward an anticipated fall 2017 completion goal.

With our renovated facilities and a strong academic foundation, we look forward to continuing the work of graduating every student with a well-examined and carefully considered plan that will situate them for success in 2017 and beyond.

Dr. Colleen A. Timm is district administrator of the School District of Mishicot.