Schuyler Central High School, located in a primarily Hispanic community, has shown enough progress to be removed from the Nebraska Department of Education's list of schools needing intervention.
The Nebraska Board of Education voted Friday to remove its designation of the high school as a "priority school," selected from among the lowest-performing schools in the state's classification system.
Schuyler Central High School landed on the list in 2018 because of a number of factors, including its dropping graduation rate, chronic absenteeism and the number of English language learners not proficient on state assessments.
State law requires the Department of Education designate priority schools for intervention. Schools identified for help work with the state to draft an intervention plan to identify goals and areas for improvement.
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After three years, the board can vote to extend or amend the progress plan or remove the priority school label. The 2019-20 school year was not taken into account because of the pandemic.
"It's not easy to name a priority school from our standpoint," said state education Commissioner Matthew Blomstedt.
Schuyler set out seven measurable goals — in addition to strategies for staff — to demonstrate improvement, which the state used to quantify the school's progress.
School officials pointed to a number of tangible changes, including raising the graduation rate from 82.7% in 2016 to 86% in 2022 and reducing the chronic absenteeism rate from 16% to 11%.
A nearby meatpacking plant owned by Cargill has drastically changed Schuyler's demographics over the past two decades. Schuyler Central High School serves just less than 600 students, 93% of whom are Hispanic.
This year alone, the school welcomed 39 students from Central America and Africa, 27 of whom had no prior educational experience.
When Schuyler first landed on the list, 25% of its students were English language learners but none were proficient on standardized assessments. This past school year, 9% reached proficiency.
The number of ELL students classified as emerging — the lowest classification on English language proficiency assessments — dropped from 86% five years ago to 38% today.
Schuyler instituted a number of strategies over the past four years, including devoting professional development time to supporting ELL students across all content areas.
The mood was one of celebration at Friday's board meeting in Lincoln. Board member Maureen Nickels recalled when Schuyler landed on the list initially.
"That was a tough, solemn day," Nickels said. "And to sit here on my last year on the board and know we made the right decision and you all took the bull by the horn ... this is what we want. This is what education is about."
Schuyler Superintendent Dan Hoesing said the process is an expensive one for schools that take it seriously. The district received $2 million from the state for support, Hoesing said, and the district also passed a bond to build a new gym, cafeteria and fine arts center.
"While this process started out being uncomfortable, it doesn't have to be, but there is a certain amount of uncomfortableness that will push you to change," Hoesing said. "What we want is to change your belief in who we are, remove a label because the label is not who we are."
The state is required to have no fewer than three schools on its priority school list. Santee Community Schools' elementary, middle and high schools on the Santee Sioux Nation Reservation in Knox County are the only remaining ones on the list.