RIVER FALLS — River Falls High School and Meyer Middle School representatives presented their Wildly Important Goals (WIG) for 2024-25 at the Nov. 18 school board meeting. The high school analyzed a projected decrease in reading ACT scores based on PreACT results. River Falls’ Class of 2026 took the PreACT as freshmen and sophomores, with projections dipping between the attempts.

A target range for the district is a score of 20-23, and the Class of 2026 had 31.2% of students falling into that range and 26.6% above the range. A year later, the students had 18.7% projected into that range and 22% above it.

High School Assistant Principal Heidi Link said some of the students felt overwhelmed by the amount and the depth of the reading in the test in not only the reading category but also categories like science.

“We knew that reading needed to be the focus of not only our Wildly Important Goal, but we also were asking what are the current practices that are being used across content areas,” Link said.

The high school came away with the following goal:

“By 2027, ALL students at River Falls High School will achieve and sustain mastery of reading comprehension or will achieve at least 10% growth each year as they progress towards reading mastery.”

To accomplish this goal, the school plans to use read and response questions across all content areas to analyze progress. The students will read passages and answer nine ACT-style questions. A 1-3 score would mark a 16-19 on the ACT, a 4-6 would be a 20-23 and a 7-9 would be a 24-27.

They believe improving the students’ reading will have a positive impact on the scores from all subjects.

Meyer’s WIG is as follows:

“By May of 2027, 90% of Meyer Middle School Students will be proficient on 80% of the

standards measured by their end of the year assessment.”

To evaluate the goal, each grade level core teacher will create assessments based on the standards for the middle of the year and the end of the year. The school is putting an emphasis on retention of learning as they found many things taught during first quarter were not remembered by the end of the year. The school uses standards-based grading, and they have received feedback that parent/teacher conferences have much deeper conversations about the standards than when it was a singular grade.

Educational Program Committee

The board approved a new course called Civil Discourse and Dialogue which is a one term, half-credit course.

“This is a course that really addresses this ability to talk about a variety of issues in really constructive manners,” Board Vice President Alan Tuchtenhagen said. “It’s a good social studies course, but we also talked about, it’s good for practicing skills, for understanding skills for the business world.”

In addition, the board approved the Squads Abroad Global Medicine Academy, a trip from June 7-16 of 2026 to Athens, Greece. The proposal document states students would gain 30+ hours of documented medical service hours and community service to help end rural poverty. The trip would be for students that passed 10th-12th grade that year and are Health Occupations Students of America members. Expenses for the trip would be $1,400-1,800 for flights and $1,900 for in-country expenses.

“This would be students who are interested in a medial career would actually be able to go abroad for a week or more and get experience in a foreign country doing medically related services,” Tuchtenhagen said.

Parental Choice Program

For the first time, River Falls has been affected by students receiving vouchers and going to another school. Three students fell into that category and by law they do not know who they are or where they are going.

“The impact for us [for] three students was about $30,000 less in school aid that we’ll get next year from the state,” Board Treasurer Mike Miller said. “The way it works then is the district is then allowed to increase our levy by that $30,000.”

The burden of the voucher is not felt by the district, but it is felt by the taxpayers as they fund the difference.

Other business

• Gave Wildcat Pride Awards to the Meyer Middle School counseling team of Sam Dusek, Gary Campbell and Jordan Seifert after they were honored with the 2025 Wisconsin School Counseling Team Award at the Wisconsin School Counselor Association's annual conference. The award is given out to just one counseling team in the state each year.
• Approved 2024-25 School Safety Evaluations after hearing reports from the lockdown procedure drills.
• Went through another wave of first and second readings for policy updates.