GOSHEN COUNTY – The year 2024 has officially begun, the holidays are in the rearview mirror and warm weather spring will surely be here before we know it.

The Goshen County School District  has safely made it through the fall semester with gracious flying colors despite interesting new changes; most notably a four-day school week which at first was met with unsure feelings.

New staff have settled in comfortably in their new roles, the Torrington High School (THS) football team experienced long overdue glory, National FFA Organization chapters only continues to gain more strength and the arts have shown immense discernable talent.

Moving forward, the time has come to examine the vast number of possibilities when it comes to the spring semester for the district.

Superintendent Ryan Kramer sat down recently with The Telegram to reflect a bit on the highs and lows of the first semester, as well as what the district can expect with things to come headed into the spring months.

“We had a good start,” Kramer stated. “There were some big changes with the four-day school week, those type of things and moving into that kind of change. That probably was the biggest challenge moving in. We have been able to adjust some things through this process going into Friday’s intervention extension and fine tuning it a little bit. I think it will be interesting this next semester to see how those adjustments have changed, how we are focused and what we are doing. Overall, I think it’s been a success.”

Kramer made it a priority to touch base more on the matter of the introduction to a four-day school week. Once again met with minor concerns on the matter at first, Kramer believes students having one extra day off to focus on academic and extracurricular progress will only benefit them greatly in the long run.

To Kramer and every staff member within the district, it is not an extra day off but more about extra help and focus for those that need it with challenging courses.  

“That was such a significant change moving from a traditional school week to a four-day intervention extension,” Kramer continued. “It isn’t just the four days; we’ve had 21 total Fridays that we offer intervention extension. It’s over half of the Fridays that we will still have sessions. I would love to see more kids coming in for extension at the middle and high school levels, but that is one of those things that we have to figure out. It’s about how to adjust and attract them to come in and figure out how to use that time the very best that we can.

“I think the biggest piece was having that consistency of change,” Kramer added. “Also going back to a traditional percentage grading scale at the middle and high school level, that was a big adjustment. I think teachers adopted to that very quickly and seemed comfortable in that process.”

Although Kramer spoke highly and in depth of both the middle and high school curriculums, one piece of notable improvement according to the superintendent was the vast acceleration in reading and writing with elementary students.

“I think the biggest piece of student achievement so far this year is what we saw in our K-5 universal screening data from this winter. It shows some great growth in the area of literacy, and we are really excited about what we are seeing in all grade levels. This winter screening was the highest number of students showing proficiency since we started. We are really excited with the improvements we have seen in the area of literacy in our district. That’s a result of teachers really working hard, while focusing on the nine instructional strategies they have learned over the last two to three years with the science of reading Orton Gillingham.”

Although the district changes have seen positive results thus far, it would be fair to acknowledge certain aspects are still fresh and in the early stages of district education.

Being well-aware of that concept, Kramer and his staff are open and prepared for any issues or concerns that should arise in the upcoming months. Additionally, they are always open for a dialogue with residents who have suggestions and are ready to make any necessary modifications as summer draws closer.

“I think as we are still in the first year of the four-day intervention extension calendar, we have to make some adjustments to keep improving that in the process,” Kramer said. “Each time period of the school year brings new challenges to it such as winter weather. It’s how we deal with those things, activities, and just kind of our little challenges that we have to make adjustments to throughout the year. I’m excited about the opportunity for the school board to continue their work on a strategic plan and have that completed by the end of the school year.”

In some closing words for all students, families and residents of Goshen County and the district, Kramer had some final thoughts of excitement and optimism for the second semester of the 2023-2024 school year.

“I’m just very excited to see how we can finish out this school year and see all the hard work that our teachers have put in is really paying off with our student achievement. I think we are always interested in hearing feedback, how we can make adjustments to what we are doing in school with our parents and how we can have the best district possible.”

If you have further questions or would like more information pertaining to the school district, feel free to call 307-532-2171 or go to www.goshen1.org.