Some of those concerns were reflected in the recent Iowa State Assessment report card that compared the schools throughout the state of Iowa.

In most areas, all the schools in the district were scored higher than the state average. The one area that was below the state average was English. It’s not hard to understand that proficiency in the English language is needed for all other classroom work to be managed. The teachers are making great progress with the younger classroom work, as reflected in their five-year average.

As concerning as this might be, the teachers are dealing with a large number of students who are identified as English Language Learners (ELL), or students whose first language is not English.

There are currently 1,805 students enrolled in the Webster City Community School District. The number of ELL students has changed during the past four years as follows:

• 2022 — 256 students.

• 2023 — 288 students.

• 2024 — 314 students.

• 2025 — 333 students.

Today, 16.4 percent of the Webster City population is Hispanic or Latino.

Just 25 years ago, the U.S. Census reported 1.32 percent Hispanic or Latino residents living in Webster City. That change is dramatically reflected in the students attending schools. The teachers are trying to meet that challenge with a number of tools, but there are few bilingual teachers available to hire.

“Hiring teachers in general is difficult,” said Wedgbury.

Hisler made a presentation to the school board in October, highlighting the celebrations and challenges that face each of the schools in the district.

The principals from each school in the district also added their individual input. The principals in each school are Rachel Chamberlain at Pleasant View, Sarah Nachazel at Northeast Elementary, Teresa Van Epps at Sunset Heights, Rob Brecht at Webster City Middle School, and Wedgbury and Ayn Eklund at the high school.

Hisler explained that 95 percent of the teachers are part of a collaborative team, and all the schools have a leadership team. They share ideas and concepts that are working with their students so that this will follow the student as they progress through school.

“We want to have multi-tiered levels of support in our classrooms,” said Hisler.

One of the terms repeated often was “interventions.” Hisler explained that all of the students go to different classrooms for targeted interventions, so if a student is struggling, they split off from their normal classroom and focus on the area of study where they need the most help. This could be a learning disability, behavioral issue, or specific classroom skill set, such as math or English, that is challenging to the student.

This is used heavily in the elementary schools, where they are targeting the most critical foundational skills, but seems to be a key to working at every level of education.

Webster City’s report card in general was very optimistic, with the Webster City Middle School considered a high performing school.

“We were a top 25 middle school,” said Hisler. “None of the top contenders had the same demographics.”

The areas which hurt the ranking the most were chronic absenteeism, attendance growth and graduation rates. The frustrations from students who have to cope with language challenges seem to have a direct impact in those areas.

“We’re focusing on work-based learning, such as internships,” said Wedgbury. “If we can find career pathways or college coursework with a purpose for students, it gives school more value.”

“We’ve started advanced placement programs for high achievement also,” he added. “Our structure is pretty solid; students are following procedures. We’ve taken a pretty strong stand on order and discipline.”

The Iowa School performance profiles rank each school in the state as exceptional, high performing, commendable, acceptable, needs improvement or priority/comprehensive, with exceptional as the highest level, and the lowest identified as priority/comprehensive.

The Iowa School Performance Profiles for the Webster City Community School District are as follows:

• Northeast Hamilton Elementary School: Commendable.

• Pleasant View Elementary School: Commendable.

• Sunset Heights Elementary School: Commendable.

• Webster City High School: Acceptable.

• Webster City Middle School: High performing.