RENVILLE -- In the last couple of years the Renville County West School District has closed its middle school, trimmed its staff, and clawed its way out of an operating deficit.
All the while, it continued to provide its students with a level of education that exceeds community expectations, according to U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
The senator presented the district with his "award for excellence'' in a ceremony before more than 330 students Thursday at RCW High School in Renville.
After citing the financial struggles the rural district has faced -- including cuts in state and federal support -- he told the school's students and staff: "You are really deserving of this award.''
Dayton similarly recognized academic achievements at the Paynesville Area Schools with an awards presentation there earlier in the day.
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Both districts have seen budget challenges in recent years, but perhaps none so difficult as those facing RCW. It has gone through a series of consolidations in the last two decades as enrollments have steadily declined.
Dayton pointed out that despite these challenges, the district has been able to demonstrate a steady improvement in student test scores and other measures of student achievement. It has also continued to improve opportunities for its students, he said.
The senator made a separate trip to the district's elementary school in Sacred Heart to underscore that point. Despite the budget challenges, the district has added an all-day kindergarten program and a transitional reading classroom. The latter provides small-group instruction to students needing extra help with reading.
Dayton said the true measure of the district's accomplishments comes from its students and their own view of what they've realized. He quoted high school senior Molly Forkrud, who wrote about the "wonderful education'' she received in all four of the original schools in the RCW district. "This education did not come from the walls, halls or classrooms of a certain building, but rather the consistent ambition of the teachers and staff who instructed me,'' she wrote.
Asked afterward how the school has managed to improve its academic performance during a period of fiscal cutbacks, Superintendent Doug Conboy cited a variety of factors. He pointed to a tradition of valuing education and a steady focus on academics. But most of all, he credited what he called "dedicated and very highly skilled artisans.
"The government treats teaching as a science, but that's wrong,'' said Conboy. "Teaching is an art. We have skilled artisans.''
RCW High School social studies instructor Daniel Rohman had urged the district to apply for the award for excellence, and joined high school Principal Lance Bagstad in accepting it from Dayton. Rohman retires this year from a teaching career with the Belview and RCW schools.
