WAUPACA – The Gifted and Talented Program within the Waupaca School District has continued to see success with students improving in reading and math.
The Gifted and Talented Program was created in the district to help students who have shown an aptitude for learning to be able to refine their skills and talent.
The Gifted and Talented Guidebook, revised in 2021, states: “All children have strengths and positive attributes, but not all are gifted and talented in the educational sense of the terms. The phrase ‘gifted and talented’ in a school setting means that when compared to others their age, a child shows evidence of high achievement capability to learn and apply what is learned in one or more of the following five categories: academic, intellectual, leadership, creative and/or performing/visual arts.”
Melissa Durrant, a gifted and talented teacher, was present at the Sept. 22 school board meeting to update board members on the program.
Durrant explained what the program looks like, with 30-minute time periods where gifted students meet to further foster their talents.
They meet every day for 30 minutes for reading, if the student is also in the gifted math portion they also will meet every day for the same amount of time.
Currently, the enrollment at the Waupaca Learning Center (WLC) is seven kindergarteners and first graders, nine second graders, 12 third graders and 14 fourth graders.
Mark Flatten, the Waupaca district administrator, noted that the enrollment is higher as the grade increases, asking whether it’s a resource issue or a growing separation of learning style among students as they grow.
Durrant said it is more of a separation issue, as teachers watch test scores and aptitude for learning as students pass through the classrooms.
Steve Thomaschefsky, director of teaching and learning, career and technology education coordinator and the gifted and talented coordinator, agreed.
“With the referral process, as a kindergartener, maybe they’re not quite there yet, so they keep track of all those scores and all of a sudden as a second or third grader they might have reached that level, where they have enough information where [the student] can be in this,” Thomaschefsky said.
Some of the success that the (WLC) gifted and talented program saw this past school year includes 100 percent of the students raised their Math i-Ready score as well as 91 percent raised their aimswebPlus scaled score.
The high school also has students in the gifted and talented program with ten in ninth grade, 11 in tenth grade, eight in eleventh grade and 11 in twelfth grade.
There were also 152 students enrolled in advanced placement classes (AP) over the last year, with 65 percent of the students passing their AP exams, twelve AP scholars, eight AP scholars with honors and eight scholars with distinction, at the end of the 2026 school year.
“It’s an interesting GT program because it’s not just a math and reading we also have the arts, we also have leadership … creativity. Those are a little harder to judge but we are always making sure we are watching those students that have those pieces because they could also be labeled and identified in those areas,” Thomaschefsky said.
Supporting and fostering these students’ abilities to ensure higher achieving students also have support within the school system, Thomaschefsky said.
“I want to give kudos to our GT team and our district, we do dedicate a lot of staff to it, and we should,” Flaten said.
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