Valparaiso Community Schools is touting its highest graduation rate in recent memory. The graduation rate for the 2021-2022 school year was 98.53 percent.
Dr. Nick Allison, the assistant superintendent for secondary education, attributes the rate to a number of factors — including the district's alternative programming and regular monitoring of student data. "We can kind of tie it to some of the testing data that we also see out there, to start to get some of the early warning signs, along with talking to our middle schools about whether or not a student would make a great candidate for the alternative school coming into their freshman year, rather than waiting until junior or senior year, where they're so credit deficient that they can't make up the ground," Allison told the school board Thursday.
This comes as the district's enrollment continues to grow. September's official count showed about 6,406 students, an increase of about 16 from last year.
Superintendent Dr. Jim McCall says each school's enrollment data will be combined with population forecasts to help determine future attendance zones. "We don't want to be lulled to sleep by what is and then be affected by any particularly pernicious impacts with any growth in our enrollments," McCall added.
The September enrollment count also determines how much Education Fund money the school corporation gets from the state.
