Kennedy Elementary earns state nod for Title 1 recognition
By Brandi Makuski
Kennedy Elementary has done it again.
One of 135 schools across Wisconsin that raised testing scores in an area with a high number of economically disadvantaged families, the school has earned a 2017-18 Title 1 School of Recognition. The designation formally opens the school to some additional federal funding.
Kennedy is part of the Stevens Point Area Public School District but located in Junction City, and previously earned a Title 1 recognition in 2012.
Clover Schmitt, the school’s principal and psychologist, said educators at Kennedy simply put extra emphasis on digital learning environments for the school’s 230 students.
“Our students were achieving based assessments on paper, but our online assessment skills were something we needed to focus on,” Schmitt said, who’s been at the school for seven years.
Schmitt, along with reading teacher Sally Crane, was in Madison on May 21 to receive the award from State Superintendent Tony Evers.
“Partnerships among teachers, parents, administrators, school staff members, and the community contribute to the academic success of students in schools that receive this honor,” Evers said in an email.
To qualify as a High-Achieving Title I school, the achievement gaps between student groups had to be fewer than three points, according to the Department of Public Instruction.