by Kate Shunney
Morgan County’s largest elementary school is driving up attendance among young scholars and offering support services as students get used to the structure of school and its rules.
Widmyer principal Rhett Beckman told school board officials in his annual strategic plan update that attendance rates at the K-2 school was around 92% in January, despite the prevalence of flu and other illnesses circulating in classrooms.
Widmyer Elementary serves 449 students in grades pre-K to grade 2. Of that figure, 385 students are in classrooms in the Widmyer building and the rest attend pre-K and HeadStart classes at other locations in the county.
Beckman told school board members that this year he has a large class of kindergarteners – six classrooms of new students. He said 80% of them attended pre-Kindergarten, giving them a preview and foundation of what school is.
In reporting the number of behavioral referrals for the year, Beckman said most of those instances are normal adjustment behaviors.
“In Kindergarten, we have a lot of referrals. A lot of it is kids coming to a structured environment at school with a set of rules,” he said. “It does decrease as they develop their social maturity in grades one and two.”
Boosting attendance at school is about making the environment at Widmyer welcoming and fun, which staff strive to do in various ways. Students are also encouraged with attendance rewards, like the possibility of getting a free pizza from Mythical Pizza if they collect enough stickers from coming to school every day.
Other activities are making school a positive place to be, including evening family activities like student/parent yoga once per month, cooking classes with parents and the involvement of high school students in welcoming students in the morning.
Beckman also mentioned the “Stuff a Bus” partnership with Food Lion that collects food and hygiene items for students in the community, and distributes supplies to other schools as well.
“It’s become a huge success with all the food the community provides for the students,” he said.
Among the goals for Widmyer Elementary are building a curriculum and teaching methods for writing skills. Beckman said 15 of 19 teachers at the school have gone through or are doing the LETRS training on the science of reading.
A future need for the growing school is a major playground renovation. School staff has sought grants for some improvements but that is an ongoing need.
The school also has a need for a storage building and more classroom space, said Beckman.
“We’re growing, not only with students, but it feels like we’re always adding support services for students. We need space for all of those entities. We’re quickly running out of room,” he said.
Widmyer students continue to show skill growth in math and language skills as measured by the i-Ready tool. Widmyer students do not take the West Virginia Summative Assessment Test, which is used to measure subject proficiency in older students.
