Welcome to our website! White River Valley School District is proud to enter the 2023-24 school year with plenty of choices for our students and their parents/guardians. There has been plenty of renovation and construction going on throughout the district over the course of the last two years. With the new paving at the elementary school, the renovation project at Worthington has been completed. Paving and electrical work has taken place at the middle school in Lyons. The HVAC renovation has been completed at the high school in Switz City along with the varsity locker room renovation. Students and staff greatly appreciate the completed work and facility upgrades!!
We are excited to enter year four of our Regional Opportunity Initiative “Ready Schools” Implementation program and year two of our IDOE 3-E grant! We continue to strengthen our work-based learning initiatives. Wolverine Enterprises LLC is a student-led business model that is making headlines across the state for its innovative approach to teaching soft employability skills. We have been fortunate to receive grant funding from the Career Pathways department at the Department of Education to continue to build great learning opportunities for our students. We have also forged a partnership with Wagler's Education and Training Center, which will allow our students to take industry certification testing in welding and precision-machining during the 23-24 school year!!
We will continue to immerse our students into more STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) academic programming as designed by Mr. Jacob Graham, our WRVSD STEAM district coordinator. Mr. Graham will be organizing the Jr. Wolverine Enterprise program at our middle school and Mrs. Jacilyn Totten will be teaching full-time STEAM at the elementary school. We will continue to train all PK-grade 8 teachers/staff in the Trust-Based Relational Intervention program to help our students with trauma and other tough situations in their lives. We will also continue educating our students about careers and opportunities at all levels. The middle school launched our partnership with the Indiana University School of Public Health late last Spring. That partnership will go into full effect this year with IU faculty and students working hand-in-hand with WRV teachers and staff to help build our health and wellness curricular programs and activities!
It will be another exciting year at White River Valley High School as well. The Wolverine Enterprises LLC, a series of six student-led businesses, enters year three of operation for all juniors and seniors. This focus on the building of our local workforce talent will help give students entrepreneurial skills, soft skills, and a focus on future careers. Through our acceptance into the Conexus Apprenticeship program, opportunities to gain actual salaries for their work is a great learning feature for our students. It really is “earn, while you learn!” We recently distributed almost $25,000 to students involved in the program for their efforts last school year. We thank our many business and community partners who are helping us give our students great life experiences! True “hands-on” work experience is helping to build our local workforce for the future, while also preparing students to be enrolled, employed, or enlisted upon graduation.
Other highlights at the high school…freshmen and sophomore students will continue to participate in eight different LIFE mini-courses to gain “real life” experiences that aren’t always taught in the classroom. Topics like financial literacy, etiquette, car maintenance, resume writing, application completion, SAT/ACT preparation are among the mini-course curricula. WRV HS has also grown our AP program offerings to include ten different courses across our curriculum, helping to build the rigor in our courses that will help students prepare for life after high school. Our recent graduating class earned a 92% pass rate on Advanced Placement tests last year!!
Student safety will continue to be a priority at WRVSD. 2023-24 will be year one for our newly created WRVSD Police Force under the direction of Chief of Police Officer Michael Coy. He will be assisted by Officer Jim O'Malley. We also continue to make building improvements with student and staff safety in mind! New safety glass has been installed at every entrance at the middle school and the main office at the elementary school has been shifted in plain view of both sets of doors.
As you can see, there is PLENTY to be excited about at WRV! I am excited to see what our students can do in this new school year under the direction of highly-skilled faculty and a dedicated staff! I invite you to come and be a part of WRVSD…a place where DREAMS are GROWN…and students excel!
Regards,
Dr. Bob Hacker
Superintendent of Schools