LIHUE — Terry Proctor, principal of the Elsie Wilcox Elementary School, received good news when school opened. It took until last week that he shared the news with his student body, teachers, and staff. “Wilcox School is the top school
LIHUE — Terry Proctor, principal of the Elsie Wilcox Elementary School, received good news when school opened.
It took until last week that he shared the news with his student body, teachers, and staff.
“Wilcox School is the top school on Kauai, based on the new Strive HI results which were released in August,” Proctor said. “Based on the five Strive HI Performance Steps, Wilcox School falls in the Continuous Improvement category.”
This is an improvement over its 2012-13 school year when Wilcox was one of six schools on Kauai in the “Restructuring” category of the Annual Yearly Progress reports.
Wilcox School is also one of 14 schools on Kauai in the “Continuous Improvement” category.
“I am elated to see the significant improvements in our complex area schools on key college and career-readiness indicators as we set a higher bar for students, teachers, and administrators,” said Bill Arakaki, the Kauai Area Complex superintendent. “The new Strive HI Performance System allows us to do a much better job of measuring, understanding, and supporting school progress. The results are very encouraging and a testament to the hard work of our students and teachers.”
Proctor said following several frustrating years for the school’s teachers and students, it was gratifying to see Wilcox emerge with a Strive HI index of 265.3, the highest score on Kauai.
“This just reinforces all the hard work and effort our teachers have put forth for all these years,” Proctor said. “The teachers and students have been working hard, and after falling short of the AYP by, in one year, just three students, they felt so defeated.”
Proctor said under AYP, there are 19 cells for which the schools are measured. “Almost every single year, Wilcox missed by one cell,” Proctor said. “Because of that one cell, Wilcox failed to make the cut.”
Following Wilcox School, Hanalei Elementary School comes in with an index of 254.1 followed by Kauai High School at 240.8 in the top three spots.
“I am proud of all schools on Kauai,” Arakaki said. “I am proud of our students, families, teachers, support staff, administrators and community partners.”
Proctor said despite being rewarded with the top Strive HI index on Kauai, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done at Wilcox School.
“It is good to be recognized for our growth,” Proctor said. “We keep telling our kids, Wilcox is a really good school, and now, we have something to show them.”
• Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
