October 2020
Dear USD #416 Wildcat Family,
I continue to be amazed at the awesome school year we have had so far! We have almost completed our first quarter of teaching and learning. Sure, we have had many challenges with COVID-19, but our staff, students and community have illustrated that we can work together to educate our kids through the toughest times! I sincerely appreciate and thank our hard-working teaching and support staff that have been instrumental in pulling this school year off! I love to hear from families how appreciative they are that we are in school. It will continue to be our number one goal of keeping our schools open to our children of our community. There will be more bumps in the road, so having your positive partnership and support will be invaluable as we continue to navigate through a pandemic, while having school.
As we draw close to the end of 1st quarter, I imagine you are aware of the Fall break and parent-teacher conferences. If you haven’t signed up for conferences, and would like to visit with a teacher, please reach out to the teacher or building where your child attends. Even though this year’s conferences will be held remotely, we still value the positive communication and teamwork to help each child succeed to their full potential. Conferences will begin on October 7th and conclude on October 8th. There is no school on October 8th, 9th or the 12th. We will begin our 2nd quarter of teaching and learning success on Tuesday, October 13th.
We continue to strive to offer our students as many activities as possible. We are still doing extra-curricular activities, planning concerts, Veterans Day celebrations, Fall celebrations, etc. We want to make sure we provide our students as many fun and rewarding experiences as possible. I know some of the activities will require us to reduce access of parents and visitors. We apologize about these new social distancing requirements, but they are a must if we want to continue to provide enriching extra-curricular and co-curricular activities to our students during the pandemic.
Once again, we are so excited and proud that we have nearly completed a quarter of our school year. We can’t wait to see what excitement our next quarter brings us. Thanks for your support!
Go Wildcats!!
Congratulations to USD #416 for being assigned a Meets Requirements level of determination (LOD) through the IDEA State Performance Plan Report for FFY 2018. "Meets Requirements" is the highest status level for district IDEA levels of determination. The district earned this LOD by meeting substantial compliance on all 14 State Performance Plan (SPP) district-level indicators including the submission of Timely and Accurate data.
Click on the link below to view the Congratulations Letter received by Dr. Biermann for the District:
Kansas is quietly one of the best states in the nation in terms of K-12 education, achieving high outcomes while spending less money per pupil than other high-ranking states. This standard of excellence is reflected in the state’s five best school districts, as each one excels academically, and has earned its share of merits. Louisburg USD #416 School District made the list taking the #14 spot. The list is provided by backgroundchecks.org. You can view the full article and list of the Top 100 Kansas Schools 2020 on the link below.
https://backgroundchecks.org/top-school-districts-in-kansas.html
Another website schooldigger.com ranked Louisburg USD #416 as one of the Top 10 Schools in Kansas. Schooldigger.com uses the following information to rank area school districts.
To see the full article from schooldigger.com click on the following link:
https://www.schooldigger.com/go/KS/districtrank.aspx
Each year, USD #416 selects an Elementary and Secondary Teacher of the Year.
This year, Tracy McCombs, 2nd Grade Teacher at Rockville Elementary, was selected as the Elementary Teacher of the Year! Tracy was selected because of her dedication to her profession. She not only wants what is best for her classroom students, but all students at RES. You will never see Tracy complain about her teaching. She loves working with all students and goes above and beyond to find ways for her kids to get their work accomplished and to be successful. Tracy is the first one to try something new to engage her students in the lesson. Her caring attitude and wonderful smile make all of her students feel loved! Any student who gets to work and learn with Mrs. McCombs is one step ahead!
The Secondary Teacher of the Year is Mr. Jarrod Worthing, Math Instructor at Louisburg High School. Mr. Worthington is involved in Louisburg beyond the classroom. He is a coach, mentor, academic resource and great teacher. When students state they are doing well in math at LHS, it is no surprise when they state they have Mr. Worthington as their teacher. The impact that he has had on his students, nurturing a desire to learn in many, is a testimony of his teaching style, ability and character. Each year, Mr. Worthington has always nominated another colleague for this award. He has never missed a year of nominating someone else. This is just another way that Jarrod is always putting others in front of himself.
More information regarding the Kansas Teacher of the Year Program can be found at the following: https://www.ksde.
The Kansas State Department of Education recently released their annual K.S.A. 72-5178 Accountability Report for the 2018-2019 school year for every school district across the state. Each longitudinal achievement report provides the achievement rates on the state assessments for English language arts (ELA), math and science for all students. When compared to the nine school districts that makeup the Frontier League, Louisburg ranked #1 on the state ELA assessment, #1 on the state math assessment and #3 on the state science assessment. In addition, the ACT average score for the class of 2019 was a 22.5. This score ranked #2 in the Frontier League and was .9 points higher than the state average. When combining all four of these data points the Wildcats ranked #1 in the Frontier League.
Congratulations to all of our students and staff that challenge themselves everyday to reach their highest potential.
Recently, ACT released ACT scores for school districts and the State of Kansas. The 2019 graduating class of LHS had an overall composite average of 22.9. This was an increase from 22.5 the previous year. The State of Kansas saw the state composite score decrease from 21.6 to 21.2. This means that Louisburg went from being 0.9 higher than the state average to 1.7 points higher! The high school saw gains in all areas. Below, you can see the improvements.
English
District: 2018 - 22.3 2019 - 22.9 increase of 0.6
State: 2018 - 21.0 2019 - 20.5 decrease of 0.5
Math
District: 2018 - 21.0 2019 - 21.5 increase of 0.5
State: 2018 - 21.1 2019 - 20.7 decrease of 0.4
Reading
District: 2018 - 23.7 2019 - 24.0 increase of 0.3
State: 2018 - 22.3 2019 - 21.8 decrease of 0.5
Science
District: 2018 - 22.5 2019 - 22.9 increase of 0.4
State: 2018 - 21.6 2019 - 21.2 decrease of 0.4
We are proud of these increased scores and appreciate the hard work and dedication of our students and staff for making this improvement. We know the work is not finished, but it is nice to see solid improvement in the ACT scores!
Each semester, Emporia State University sends school district progress reports on graduates attending ESU. This year, our former graduates continue to do well in their studies at ESU.
For the 2019 Spring Semester, the average Louisburg High School graduate earned a 3.51 GPA for the Spring Semester. This is compared to a 3.10 GPA for all other ESU Undergraduates. We appreciate hearing about our former Wildcats and the great job they are doing to further their education and life careers!
