By Scott Uppena | Royall School District Superintendent
It is a great day to be a Royall Panther! On Wednesday, Nov. 26, we did something that has never been done at Royall. We held an all-district academic pep rally to celebrate the results of our school district’s report card. We celebrated the fact that every school increased their scores substantially from the previous year. There are many factors that account for the final numbers on the school report. Some of these factors include student achievement on state exams, student growth, students being on track for graduation, and attendance rates.
Here is a breakdown of each school’s scores as well as the score for the Royall School District:
2024-25
• Elementary — 68.6 (meets expectations)
• Intermediate — 58.8 (meets expectations)
• Middle/high school — 56.1 (meets few expectations)
• District — 57.5 (meets few expectations)
2025–26
• Elementary — 79.4 (exceeds expectations)
• Intermediate — 67.2 (meets expectations)
• Middle/school — 68.1 (meets expectations)
• District — 68.1 (meets expectations)
That type of growth in one year at EVERY level is almost unheard of. It is a testament to every student and staff member who bought into “Achieving Excellence Together … Whatever It Takes!”
Not only did we jump over 10 points as a district, but we have the top district report card score in our entire conference, including other neighboring school district that are not in our conference.
On Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, 2025, we held a two-night community event where we invited anyone who was interested in giving us input in developing a strategic plan for the Royall School District. A lot of great ideas were shared by the more than 130 people who came both nights, but a resounding message was that the communities wanted to see our district report card increase and us be toward the top of our conference and with other area schools. I am proud to share with you that we have made great strides in working toward the goals you set out for us.
This type of accomplishment needs to be celebrated and shared with our entire school district. I am also the first to say that we are not satisfied with where scores currently are. While we are going to celebrate today, but we will continue to work and push for even better scores next year!
During the strategic planning meetings as well as our referendum informational meetings, we continued to listen to your concerns and address issues that were brought to our attention by our community members. Another concern that came through these meetings was a better line of communication from the school district to the community. In an effort to increase these lines of communication, I have introduced the following opportunities for this communication to increase:
• Coffee with the Royall Superintendent — Every third Thursday at the Elroy Eatery (7:30 to 8:30 a.m.). I will buy coffee for anyone who attends and wants to talk about the school district.
• Monthly WRJC Radio Report – I will be live on the radio every fourth Wednesday of the month, talking about the Royall School District.
I have hosted evening community events over the past year about subjects pertaining to the Royall School District, including academic programming, the financial picture, and the school safety plan. I also have an open-door policy and would invite anyone to contact me to set up a time to meet to discuss any issues of concern with the Royall School District. And, of course, at our monthly regular school board meetings, there is an opportunity for public comment.
Last November, we asked the taxpayers to continue to support the Royall School District in a time of desperate financial need. During the time leading up the referendum vote, we held over 20 different informational meetings to discuss the future of the Royall School District. We listened to your concerns and we were transparent with what that meant for you.
At the start of the 2023–2024 school year, our fund balance was at $399,530, and we were projecting to be at a -$321,570 at the end of the 2024–2025 school year if the referendum did not pass. This was far below the 15% fund balance required by state and board policy. With the passing of the referendum, we projected to put $778,900 back into our fund balance, but due to decreasing budgets wherever we could and absorbing staff through attrition, we were able to put $936,321 into our fund balance last year. This puts us back on a path of better financial stability.
We also projected that the mill rate for the school district would drop from $10.17 last year to $8.85 this year. Due to receiving almost $200,000 less in state aid from last year to this year as well as an increase in the required voucher school payment back to the state, our mill rate dropped to $9.12 district wide. Though it was not what we expected, we are still pleased that this drop is more than $1 less on our mill rate from last year.
This increase in funding through the passage of the referendum has allowed us to put resources into our academic programming that has positively impacted our student achievement on our school report card.
We listened! We heard! We were transparent about our goals and how we planned to achieve these goals. We have a lot more that we will continue to strive to accomplish. I only hope that through the accomplishments listed above, we have gained your trust as a school district as we will continue to put our students first with every decision we make. As I said to the entire district at our academic pep rally, “It is the BEST day to be Panther!”
Thank you to all that support the Royall School District!
