Saint Lucas Lutheran

Miss Joanna Jacobsen will teach 1st grade at St. Lucas starting August 23rd.  Get to know her by reading through an interview with her that is recorded below.

Tell me a little about your family.

I live with my parents (Peter and Mary Beth) and my younger sister Christine, who is 18. We live in Oak Creek with our two dogs, Charlie and Sydney. I suppose I could probably refer to Charlie as another sibling, because she is my mother’s pride and joy. We joke that we’d all have to fend for ourselves in a fire, because we know who mom is saving…the dog.

Please give your educational history. (grade school, high school, etc.)

I attended grade school here at St. Lucas from K-8th grade, and then on to WISCO for high school, where I graduated in 2006. I graduated from Carroll University this past spring with my bachelor’s in elementary education, emphasizing in early childhood. My student teaching experiences included teaching kindergarten in Wales, WI, and 5th grade in Waukesha- I loved both!

Register Your Child August 4th from 4 until 8 p.m. in the gym

Sharing Christ’s light in Bay View since 1872

On Thursday, June 3rd, a full St. Lucas church witnessed yet another graduation of eighth graders from St. Lucas school. It was an emotional and upbeat night, centered on Christ and the benefits of a good education.

The excellence of a St. Lucas education was recently highlighted by a study of Milwaukee schools and gives St. Lucas members and school families more reason to give thanks for the gift of the school.

The press release touting the study was titled: “Only 13% of Milwaukee Public, Public Charter and Private School Students Are Enrolled in Schools that are meeting Wisconsin State Standards.” This finding from a study done by a Chicago nonprofit called Illinois Facilities Fund (IFF) was all over the headlines of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday, May 27th, 2010.

The story details the recently completed study that tracked performance in public, public charter and Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) private schools in Milwaukee. The study tracked the reading and math scores of the students enrolled in each school and then grouped the schools based on the students’ scores. The scores were based on the Wisconsin State Standard. The Wisconsin State Standard of knowledge for students is 74 percent of students scoring proficient or better on the Reading portion of the Wisconsin Knowledge Concepts Examination (WKCE) and 58 percent of students scoring proficient or better on the Math portion of the WKCE. For the purpose of the IFF study, a school was considered a Tier 1 school if it performed at State Standards or better. St. Lucas is listed as a Tier 1 school. Of the 353 schools studied for the 2008-’09 school year, St. Lucas was one of only 36 schools in Milwaukee that is fully meeting Wisconsin state standards in reading and math. Only one third of the studied MPCP schools are Tier 1 schools. Approximately 18% of the 126 private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program submitted data for the study.

A study of the interactive map on the website of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that St. Lucas is the only Parental Choice Tier 1 or Tier 2 school in zip code 53207.

Prior to graduation principal Koestler commented about this report that confirms the academic excellence of the school. “The Lord has certainly blessed the work of the kids, parents and staff here at school. There’s a lot of hard work that goes on here each day, and this [report] reflects that work.”  The blessings of a St. Lucas education were reflected on the faces of eighteen excited kids, a church full of families with cameras, and the smiling faces of younger St. Lucas students, thrilled at being part of the St. Lucas school family.

More information on this study can be found on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Website or on the website of the Illinois Facilities Fund.