By TRAVIS ANDERSON | N-O-W School District Superintendent
Wow, another great quarter and semester of events have taken place at the Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School District! Our students are learning at high levels, and our staff continues to do an amazing job helping our kids learn and grow. We can all feel very proud of our school’s accomplishments this past quarter and throughout the entire first semester of the 2023–2024 school year.
It’s always difficult to condense all of the great things happening at N-O-W into one article, but here goes! Our fine arts department continues to thrive and gives students many opportunities beyond the hallways and classrooms at Brookwood. For example, our theater production of “Antigone Now” advanced to the sectional competition for the Wisconsin Interscholastic Speech and Dramatic Arts Association Theater Festival, our Elementary and High School band and choir students performed their annual holiday concerts in front of hundreds of spectators, and we had 15 students from the Junior and Senior High School band selected to be part of the All-District Honors Band. The All-District Honors Band students had to be nominated, and then chosen to be recognized by area band directors. This is a very prestigious honor, and congrats to those students and teachers for that outstanding recognition!
Brookwood also had five students represent our school district at the Dorian Honors Vocal Festival at Luther College, where they participated with over 1,000 students from the Midwest in a two-day event. We are very proud of our fine arts department, and if you ever have a chance to watch these students perform, please take advantage of those opportunities. Their performances are very well done!
It is always exciting to see the great things our students are doing on a daily basis, not only in the classroom, but also on a global scale to broaden their educational horizons. We had students in our high school Advanced Spanish classes rewrite recipes and create translated cooking shows with the use of technology tools in the classroom. This was a great experience to strengthen their bilingual speaking skills.
Furthermore, our junior high school science class raised and then donated a monetary amount that provided a pair of live goats to a family in Bihar, India; a flock of ducks to a village in rural Kenya; and a hive of honeybees to a village in Central America.
Our Diversity Club students also chose to sponsor five Monroe County children this past holiday season to provide necessities and holiday gifts for those children in need. Students worked on budgeting, balancing funds, and even wrapped the items purchased, which were delivered to the Sparta Police Department, who then delivered the items to the families in need. What a great gesture by our students to help families in need during the holidays!
Not only are our students contributing positively to our community, but also they are also focused on becoming career ready. Many of our students had several opportunities to tour colleges, universities, and technical colleges to help them become career ready and prepare for their futures. By assessing the talent and skills of Brookwood students, the future of society is very bright!
Throughout the school year, our students are doing very well academically! Credit goes not only to the students, but also to the staff and parents/guardians who work tirelessly to help our students succeed.
The N-O-W’s recent State of Wisconsin report card results are now publicly posted, and our school is representing our school district very well. It is hard to highlight all of the achievements on the state report card, but one very important statistic from the state report card that should be highlighted shows that N-O-W is exceeding the state average in academic growth in the content area of both math and reading/language arts, which is amazing!
Both our elementary and junior/senior high schools are either exceeding or meeting Wisconsin DPI academic expectations as represented on the Wisconsin State Report Card. Congratulations to our students and staff for achieving positive marks on the Wisconsin State Report Card.
We also want to highlight and congratulate the class of 2024 valedictorian, Amelia Muellenberg (daughter of Matt and Krystal Muellenberg), and its salutatorian, Kylie Powell (daughter of Chad and Dawn Powell). Congratulations to both Amelia and Kylie on their outstanding academic accomplishments! Well deserved!
The gifted and talented program within our district also is doing very well! Our district recently had over 17 students participate in a variety of high-level academic opportunities, such as math competitions, leadership events, performing arts competitions, literacy events, and knowledge competitions. In all events, our students have represented our school very well! Congratulations to all of the students and staff involved in those opportunities. Continuing to challenge students academically to reach their full potential is a goal of all staff members at N-O-W. Our staff and students work hard daily while striving for perfection.
Cocurricular events at N-O-W/Brookwood are in full swing as always, and our student body represents our school extremely well. This past quarter/semester, we have had numerous students who were nominated and selected as students of the month, artists of the month, and athletes of the month for their outstanding achievements. Check out our district Facebook page and “like” our page to see all of those individual and team accomplishments in academic and cocurricular areas.
We recently had some major milestones achieved by a student-athletes this past quarter as well. Katherine McElhose became the first Brookwood High School female wrestler in school history to capture first place at a recent wrestling tournament, and Vanessa Anderson became the fourth-ever Brookwood basketball player (boys and girls) to eclipse the 1,000-point scoring mark.
Another facet of our cocurricular programming that is thriving is our Falcon Outdoors activities. Within our Falcon Outdoors program, one of the opportunities offered to our students a trap-shooting team. For the spring league, our district has 26 students (boys and girls) already signed up to participate!
Our district also is expanding our Falcon Outdoors program, with the help from two local volunteers and school staff, to add a new archery program, known as NASP (National Archery in Schools Program). This program has also shown good interest and is just another option our district wants to offer our students. The Falcon Outdoors shooting-sports programs are of high interest to our students they are going great!
At N-O-W, we are always very thankful for the school-community partnerships that are in place. These partnerships allow our school to support the community and the community to support the school. It is an amazing experience for our students to be a part of these great partnerships. One example of this was at our Veterans Day Program on Nov. 10. We had a large population of local veterans, tons of community members, and our entire student body in attendance for the program. Our students did a tremendous job throughout the entire program to show our school’s appreciation to all of the veterans who have or continue to serve our country. If you have never been to a Veterans Day program at N-O-W, please mark your calendars to attend next year. You will be in awe!
With the second quarter/first semester behind us, the N-O-W School District would like to thank you our community for your continued support of our students. We look forward to seeing you at some upcoming school events! We truly have an amazing school district with a supportive community, and thank you for helping make the Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School District a destination for education!
Go Falcons!
