Student Leaders Drive StudentSquare Adoption

Name

Lincoln High School,
Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools

Students

1,305

Location

Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Challenge

Lincoln High School, part of Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools, struggled with StudentSquare adoption—fewer than 5% of students downloaded the app.
Staff and students relied on multiple apps, creating confusion, safety concerns, and missed communication.
Without a single, reliable platform, student engagement and communication consistency remained limited.
District leaders recognized student buy-in was essential to fully realize the benefits of the ParentSquare platform.

Solution

Partnered with Lincoln High School’s award-winning DECA chapter to lead a student-driven awareness campaign.
DECA students applied project management strategies with guidance from Advisor Nick Davis and Associate Principal Ashley Tessmer.
Campaign included posters, QR codes, grade-level competitions, and incentives.
Accessibility support through step-by-step guides, a lunchtime troubleshooting booth, and advisor training.
Ongoing engagement with weekly challenges, app-exclusive updates, and extracurricular collaborations.

Results

Student Adoption: Surged to 67.2% (878 of 1,305 students).
Advisor Onboarding: 100% of co-curricular advisors adopted StudentSquare after training and policy updates.
Student Engagement: 58.5% of students actively interacted in the app.
Unified Communication: 90% of school-wide communications now delivered through StudentSquare.
Recognition: DECA team earned first place in Wisconsin’s Community Awareness competition.

Student Leadership Drives Districtwide Value

At the start of the 2024–25 school year, Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools had already achieved strong family adoption of ParentSquare, reaching a 99.5% contactability rate at Lincoln High School. But when StudentSquare launched shortly after, fewer than 5% of students engaged. District leaders understood the challenge: without student participation, communication across the community would remain fragmented.

To change that, they turned to the school’s trusted source of student influence—the DECA program.

A Three-Phase Campaign for Adoption and Engagement

Three DECA students stepped up to lead the initiative. With Tessmer’s guidance, they designed a campaign that mirrored professional project management practices and unfolded in three distinct phases:

Awareness: Posters, QR codes, and incentives like cupcakes, candy, and gift cards encouraged downloads. Grade-level competitions with daily leaderboards created excitement and visibility.
Accessibility: Step-by-step guides, a lunchtime troubleshooting booth, and staff training ensured that both students and advisors could easily adopt StudentSquare. Importantly, equity concerns were addressed by helping students without personal devices access the app on school-issued Chromebooks.
Engagement: Weekly challenges, app-exclusive updates, and partnerships with extracurricular groups made StudentSquare a go-to hub for student communication.

Building Trust and Consistency

The shift to StudentSquare improved more than convenience. It created consistency, safety, and trust in communication. Instead of juggling a patchwork of apps, students and families now receive critical announcements, attendance updates, and club notifications in one place.

For district leaders, the benefits included stronger family engagement, reduced missed messages, and greater transparency into who received which communications. Tessmer highlighted the power of peer leadership: students are more likely to respond to peers than administrators.

“They created a professional project that not only won an award from DECA but also made a lasting impact on our school community.”

Sustaining Impact for the Future

Today, StudentSquare is fully embedded in Lincoln High School’s culture. Teachers, coaches, and advisors use it to manage classroom, co-curricular, and extracurricular communication, and students benefit from a single, transparent channel for updates.

Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools plans to expand StudentSquare adoption across other schools, applying the lessons learned from this student-led model. For Tessmer, the most rewarding outcome was seeing students take ownership:

“They created a professional project that not only won an award from DECA but also made a lasting impact on our school community,” she said.

For district leaders, the takeaway is clear: by aligning platform adoption with student leadership, schools can achieve rapid, measurable results that strengthen communication, improve safety, and prepare students for future success.