Ladysmith High School

For a small school, it does the best with what it has, and it's perfectly fine. The school offers so many opportunities and will set your student up with a good background in whatever they are interested in (i.e. art, music, math). The school is generally very clean and the students at least aren't bullies, not saying they're all particularly mature but for the most part they are nice people. The staff is very helpful, no stupid questions EVER! They are more than willing to help anyone and most are veteran teachers (they've been with the district for several years). There are several teachers per core subject, making it easy for students to collaborate with whomever sparks their interest. I can honestly only think of one teacher who I believe does not fit these standards, he's an English professor. If you are not obsessed with the 80s and don't like anything he likes, please don't take his classes to promote his bullying. The gym classes are great in my opinion. I am by no means a fit person, but Mr. Martino understands my capabilities and allows me to work on my fitness independently in the classroom. The more advanced and AP classes are taught in such an easy manner, I believe any student with the right mindset could pass those classes. I am currently in two AP courses and the teachers are phenomenal. I'm very proud of our school district and happy to be a LHS alum soon. The teachers are just wonderful. They know how to get through everything and then some, all while having a little fun along the way. I would definitely recommend sending your students here! Did I mention the international program? We get students from all over the world! We help shape their English skills and have the opportunity to make unique friendships.

As the building principal at Ladysmith High School for the past 5.5 years, I would point out that all students who qualified for early graduation have been granted their requests. Students have always been allowed up to two periods a day for work release and, in some cases, have been granted even more time. LHS has a number of unique factors. It is one of only a few public high schools in the united states with an international boarding school. Students from all over the world attend classes with our local students. We have a health care academy in which students can earn a certification as a certified nursing assistant, emergency medical technician, and/or dental hygienist. We recently installed a distance learning lab which allows students to take additional courses to go along with the seven AP courses we currently offer. We just installed a fab lab in our technology education department which includes several state-of-the-art machines. The only reason I did not rate our school as Great is because we are always looking at ways to improve. I invite anyone to visit our web site to see the great things that are already happening at LHS. Better yet, come and visit us in person and see what we have to offer and why we love living in beautiful Rusk County.

The high school is very limited in available courses, especially by the time your child reaches their senior year. Most kids have completed all graduation requirements by the end of the 1st semester in 12th grade. They will not allow students who have jobs who have reached required credits to leave school to go to work until 2:30 pm, school ends @ 3:30 pm. In order for your child to graduate early (in January) you need to apply for this & go in front of the school board for them to decide. Most kids are DENIED this, most likely due to the fact that the district doesn't want to lose the funding that they get for this student. Even if your child turns 18 in the 1st semester & has met all credit requirements, they still won't approve an early graduation or release to go to work early.

Since they are lacking in available courses, by 12th grade you can count on your child to be put into worthless elective classes such as a 2 hour auto shop class, or an extra gym class. While your child could be taking a few elective courses, allowed to leave school early to work at their job to help save up money for college in the fall, sorry to say that at LHS they are stuck there until graduation or they choose to drop out. Better to send your child to Flambeau. At Flambeau H.S. students are allowed to leave at 11:30 am in order to go to work their senior year. This school is marginally smaller than LHS so one could assume that is why they allow their students this option.

Ladysmith High School is awesome. Please review what this school has to offer, not any other high school in the midwest offers what Ladysmith High and the Ladysmith Health Care Academy provides for their students. The classes, programs, and dual course offerings are amazing. As for test results please review the 2009-2010 WKCE. This high school is amazing.