Original Research by School Decision on Belc--renewal Head Start
BELC–Renewal Head Start is a public preschool program operating out of a single location in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and it serves only four-year-olds. The school is part of the Baraboo School District, a district that recently navigated a leadership transition and made a substantial investment in facilities. For a family considering this school, the relevant picture is almost entirely about the early-childhood experience, because the school does not teach older grades and therefore produces none of the state testing results, graduation rates, or college-readiness metrics that apply to elementary, middle, or high schools.
The school enrolls a small group of children. The student body reflects the demographic mix of the Baraboo area: about half the children are white, more than a third are Hispanic, and a small number are American Indian or identify with two or more races. A very large share of families qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a common pattern in Head Start programs, which are designed to serve households with lower incomes. Data on the share of students with disabilities or who are English learners was not available, a gap that a parent may want to discuss directly with the school.
Baraboo itself is the county seat of Sauk County, a community that mixes residential neighborhoods, a historic downtown centered on the courthouse square, and tourism tied to Circus World Museum and Devil's Lake State Park. The city has a walkable core but becomes more car-dependent outside it. Housing values are a bit below the statewide median in Wisconsin, though the local market has seen modest appreciation. The district spent heavily on construction in a recent fiscal year, which suggests families may see upgraded facilities in the years ahead. The district also hired a permanent superintendent beginning in mid-2025, after an interim period, giving the district a settled leadership at the top.
Because BELC–Renewal Head Start serves only preschool, there is no state assessment data, no chronic absenteeism rate, and no graduation rate to report. This is typical for a pre-kindergarten program; the absence of these figures does not indicate a problem, it simply reflects the grade band. The comparison with other districts in Sauk County could not be applied, because those metrics do not exist for this school.
What a parent can evaluate here is the program itself. The school offers a Head Start setting, which generally means a focus on school readiness, social-emotional development, and family support services. The small enrollment size means a child will be in a very contained peer group. The location on Center Street puts it within reach of downtown Baraboo amenities. For a family seeking a publicly funded preschool option that serves a high-need population in a small-group environment, this school fits that description. For anyone wanting to understand academic performance or secondary outcomes, those questions do not apply to this grade band. A parent considering this school should ask directly about the curriculum, daily schedule, teacher qualifications, and any support services for children with disabilities or language needs, since those details were not captured in the available data.
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