During the Storm Lake School District Board Meeting this week, Superintendent Dr. Stacey Cole discussed Storm Lake’s graduation and dropout rate. Pertaining to graduation, Cole detailed last year’s rate as well as the five year average.
Cole dove deeper into the graduation rates explaining that all the graduation rates across the state were down last year, with the Covid-19 pandemic having a big impact on that. At that time, some districts chose to forgive graduation requirements but Cole highlighted that Storm Lake didn’t want to follow suit because they did not believe it was in the best interest of the students.
As far as dropout rates, Storm Lake’s came in at 4.29 while the state was at 3.91. Cole said that they used to question what classified as a dropout because some students would move away and might return. Board Member Melea Raveling asked if a student begins the school year with Storm Lake and then moves away to a different school, does that count against the district? Superintendent Cole pointed out it’s the process of how they move.
President David Skibsted praised Cole’s comments about holding students to a higher standard regarding graduation leniency during the pandemic. Storm Lake High School will be holding its graduation this Sunday, May 21st, at 2 pm at Buena Vista University.
