Kalamazoo Times

The principal of Comstock Middle School presented Comstock Public Schools with an update on the campus at a recent board meeting.

Mark Wilke said that he was utilizing the presentation to also introduce parents and families to the building, so the board could also see the communication tools they were using to connect with families.

Among the things he shared were efforts to improve the school’s electives and non-core courses as a way to bring more students into the middle school, in order to improve its standing in the community. The school had expanded their electives to include industrial tech, photography, yearbook, home economics and numerous art classes.

He also discussed that their intervention classes help address learning loss or gaps in achievement. Moreover, a young author’s course helps with low literacy rates in 6th and 7th graders. Students are placed in the class based on standardized test scores or performances, and they are working on having students graduate out of the class and into the regular level courses.

“It's not a secret that we have some test scores that need some work that needs to be done,” said Wilke. “And this is a main focus of myself in my team’s work this entire semester: what can we do to really target our students and really support their academic needs. We have many students, especially at the 8th grade level, that are working at 4th grade or 3rd grade level, do not have an IEP, do not have any type of support. We need to give them some type of support. So right now, what we have is we have elective classes.”

Wilke added that, although the middle school has had its struggles, students attending the campus have a unique set of challenges to that of their high school and elementary peers. The school has filled every single one of their certified instructor positions, including all special education positions. Some of the support that they have are directed to mental health and emotional support after covid, including their certified service dog Augie, who loves all of the students and staff. Augie was recently nominated as staff member of the month by some of the building employees.