Last week, Superintendent Dr. Reginald Lawrence gave his annual State of the Schools address to the Rock Island-Milan School District, focusing on building what he calls the "Pipeline to a Productive Future."
The initiative focuses on narrowing the achievement gap and increasing graduation rates by emphasizing opportunities at all ages, and not just the end of high school.
"We really do have to go back and focus on not only our kindergaten students, but all those students, first grade through eleventh grade—trying to meet their social-emotional needs, making sure they have the confidence to get back in school. And so we want the focus to be not just on the end product of students being prepared to graduate, but what we can do additionally to help those students get to that point."
In pursuit of this goal, the district purchased routers and computers for community distribution, and partnered with MediaCom to offer school WiFi in Mediacom hotspots around the district, making it easier for students to connect to the classroom.
The Rock Island-Milan School District is also focused on building back after the pandemic--with 88% of teachers and 70% of the staff fully vaccinated, and plans announced for renovating a new middle school and administrative building.
