“Even though schools are back to ‘normal’ and are operating, we know that many of our students have been impacted — particularly socially — with just being out for so long,” Nichols observed. “We’re still working hard to leverage a lot of the mental health supports. We have federal funds that we’re calling Esser Funds. They allowed us to bring in new and additional resources around mental health. We’re hoping that those additional resources along with the more stable staffing levels will hopefully make this year feel like a more emotional, social stable year for everyone.”

Another impact of the pandemic has been on student reading proficiency and other skills where student skill levels declined. Former MMSD Superintendent Carlton Jenkins wasa overhauling the district’s reading instruction, which Nichols hopes will result in improvement in student reading skills.

“Over the last year, our board definitely approved new curriculum for our K-5,” Nichols said. “We have supported the district’s focus on doing a lot of the professional learning around the science of reading. That’s though our teach program called LETRS. We’re hoping that we are going to see the payoff of that this year and in the following years. There was a lot of training, a lot of new adaption of the curriculum in the last year or so. I don’t think we’ve been able to see the fruits of that. But I think if we can stabilize our teaching force and really bring some of those social-emotional supports as well, I think we’ll start to see some of the benefits of the science of reading and the K-5 curriculum adoption in this next year or so.”

 

What is exciting is that by the end of the school year — with many projects already completed — the physical plant at the MMSD high schools will be significantly modernized and prepared to compete with the public and private schools in the area.

“At Vel Phillips Memorial High School, they are having a new video production studio, new art classrooms and new artificial turf in the Mansfield Stadium with the Regents and the Spartan logos on each end zone,” Nichols exclaimed. “There’s a brand new commons area and upgrades to the auditorium. At Capitol High, which was the old Hoyt Building, that whole building has just had amazing restoration. They have a new gym. They have a culinary arts cooking classroom. The classrooms are gorgeous. They’ve added an elevator and the lower level adds a new addition to the building that will be used for our SAIL Program. At West High School, they have a brand-new pool. They have new gyms. They have flooring being added to the weight rooms and the wrestlers’ area. They have a new library and welcome center. East High also has a new welcome center, a new kitchen and cafeteria serving area, and new music rooms. La Follette has a new field house and practice gym. They have a new front entrance.”

MMSD also has a new elementary school that was added onto the Badger Rock Neighborhood Center off of Rimrock Road.

The core of the funding for the school district is the per pupil funding that it gets from the state of Wisconsin on top of local property taxes. MMSD is facing several trends as it works to shore up and increase its student population. The proliferation of charter and private schools, the continued growth of the suburban school districts and use of online learning spurred on by the pandemic each challenge the district in their own unique ways.

“Schools usually have the most accurate number on the third Friday of each semester,” Nichols said when asked about student enrollment. “So we will have a better idea of where we are on the third Friday of September. But generally speaking, we are seeing our enrollment slowly declining over the last few years. We’re trying to still better understand all that is happening around our enrollment. We did see the first enrollment declines during the pandemic when I think families were choosing to not send their students back to schools as they were reopening and maybe choosing some alternatives. That is pretty understandable because we were at a time when things were very uncertain about the impact of COVID-19 virus. Now that we’ve been back in a more traditional school year, I think we are still waiting to see if we are going to find families feeling more confident about returning to schools. We also know that there are some families who are choosing to send their children to some of the newer 2X charter schools. We are seeing the enrollment grow in those schools. And so we are continuing to monitor what is happening with enrollment.”

It has been estimated that Madison and Dane County will grow by 35 percent by 2050. With all of the in-fill construction going on throughout the MMSD attendance area, one would assume that this foretells a growth in the MMSD student population. But the impact of the physical growth will be determined by who eventually moves into that housing.