A Decade of Excellence and Continuous Improvement

•  The average ACT College Entrance score in Whitefish Bay surpassed 25.0 on a 36 point scale for the first time in the 1998-99 school year and has remained above 25.0 for the subsequent decade. Meanwhile, participation in the ACT grew from 180 students to 215 students while the size of classes remained relatively stable. Few, if any, other Wisconsin schools have attained this high benchmark.
• The lowest quartile of Whitefish Bay student scores on the ACT College Entrance Exam exceeds the state average for all students despite Wisconsin’s ranking among the highest in the nation on ACT performance. 
• The number of Advanced Placement Exams taken by Whitefish Bay students has grown from 263 exams in the 1999-2000 school year to 530 exams in 2008-09, more than doubling this decade. Meanwhile, the average score obtained by Whitefish Bay students has remained at 4.0 on a five point scale.
• The array of co-curricular opportunities available to high school students has grown from 59 in 2003 to more than 75 in 2008-09. Meanwhile, the number of students participating in co-curricular activities has grown to over 80% of the high school student body.
• Whitefish Bay students score in the advanced range on both the math and reading portions of the 2007-08 Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam at a rate higher than any other K-12 district in all of Southeastern Wisconsin. Scores have consistently been in or near this range for a decade.
• Energy saving efforts during this decade have resulted in $1.1 million of cost avoidance, allowing the school district to go five years with no increase in the utility budget, despite increasing energy costs. Further, no increase in the utility budget is projected for the 2009-2010 school district budget. 
• The school district carried more than $14 million of long term capital debt and prior service liability in December 31, 1999. Today the debt is just $1.2 million and will be completely retired in 2010.  
• Enrollment projections made in 2000-01 predicted a decline of 8% or 200 students by the middle of the decade. However, eight years later student enrollment has actually increased by 3% or 80 students despite no significant new housing construction. The two largest sources of enrollment stability and increase have been families with school aged children moving into the school district and transfers from local private and parochial schools. From a financial perspective, the swing from a projected decrease of 200 students to an increase of 80 students accounts for an increase of state allowed annual revenue of $3,150,000 per year.