Mercer School reviews state report card

By ZACHARY MARANO

zmarano@yourdailyglobe.com

MERCER, Wis. — The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction recently produced report cards for every publicly funded school as part of the state accountability system. The Mercer Board of Education discussed the Mercer district’s scores on the report card at its meeting on Monday.

School Board President Bob Davis said the accountability score on the report card was 50.8 out of 100. According to the department’s website, a score ranging from 48 to 57.9 places the school district into the two-star accountability rating category — meets few expectations. District Administrator Sheri Kopka said that the school’s report card can be viewed on dpi.wi.gov.

Kopka noted that the report card includes a disclaimer saying to exercise caution in interpreting the scores and ratings because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She added that because they are one of the smallest schools in the state, they do not have the necessary students in each category to allow the report card algorithm to work properly.

She said that the department averages the scores from the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21 school years to reach the required number of students. They did not use data and scores from the 2019-20 school year because of COVID-19. There were also changes to the report card algorithm.

Kopka said the school has previously acknowledged that they need to work on their mathematics category and put significant resources into hiring math interventionists and additional math teachers to support their students. She said they also put significant funds into developing their teachers by improving new teacher practice.

There is incorrect information on postsecondary education in the report card, Kopka said. She said that in the 2019-20 school year, six high school students participated in advanced placement courses including 25 dual enrollment and 38 art and design courses. She also said that the school district continues to be above the state average in achievement for reading.

The district administrator said that the school district’s goal is to make all students college and career ready and whatever students’ passions are, they will help them make their hopes and dreams come true. She said that great education is here for the students.

Board Vice President Jim Hanneman said that when he was first exposed to the report card system, he thought that the Department of Public Instruction hadn’t done enough to make the report card work for smaller school districts.

“Every time they change the algorithm, the smaller schools are the ones that are going to suffer,” Hannemann said. “This administration is much better equipped to explain to the citizens what our plan is and why the results are not accurately reflected in this particular report card.”

Davis said that Mercer School District has a total enrollment of 139 students and when he only viewed other schools with low enrollment – less than 175 students – the school is still only average at best. He said that he doesn’t believe that the low accountability score is just the result of small testing numbers because the school has had to address staff issues.

“Why is this? Is it the students? They don’t care, they don’t want to learn or they’re not putting the effort in? I don’t know, but I don’t think so. This school is small enough where it has the opportunity to really influence individual education to a great extent,” Davis said.

Davis said that he didn’t want to stand in front of their constituency and say that the school has made changes that are not reflected in the report card. He said they need to prove it through better scores. He added that there is no reason why Mercer shouldn’t be ranked among the best schools in the state.

In her administrator’s report, Kopka said that Covid Clinic is continuing to provide COVID-19 testing at the school from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays. Per testing procedures, students are required to take rapid tests before coming into the school.

“As a precaution, we were conducting COVID testing this week,” Kopka said. “We did have some positive cases (on Monday), but we are happy that we were able to catch them before they went in the school. The testing did exactly what it’s designed to do. I did contact Iron County Health Department this morning as well for some guidance and we’re following their recommendations for sports and testing athletes this week.”

Kopka said that when rapid tests are positive for COVID-19, they have the students confirm the results with a PCR test. She said that the students have submitted PCR tests but they will not receive the results until Wednesday.

The COVID Clinic at Mercer School District is also open to the community, Kopka said. She said that this is convenient for area residents because otherwise they would need to travel to Hurley, Ironwood or Minocqua to be tested for COVID-19.