Education Edition Volume 12 • Edition 1
Independent School District No. 761
A welcome from the superintendent Dear Parents and Students of ISD 761, I would like to welcome our students, parents and staff to the 2013-14 school year. Each school year brings the anticipation of new opportunities for our students and teachers. For this coming school year, a lot of preparation had been accomplished over the last school year. Work on curriculum, lesson plans and improved teaching strategies were the focus. Those efforts will provide Peter Grant better learning opportunities for our students this coming year. We enter this school year with a renewed vision on teaching and learning. Through the leadership from the Director of Teaching and Learning Amy LaDue, our Principals and teachers, a significant amount of time and effort has been dedicated to improve how we teach and what we teach. The core of what we do is to help our students be successful learners. That can only occur when we have high expectations and believe all our students can succeed. Throughout this school year, you will read about or see in our schools discussions on professional learning communities and our teachers talking about four basic questions: 1. What should students know? 2. How will we know if our students are not learning? 3. How do we respond when students do not learn? 4. How do we respond when students do learn? This is not so much a change in what we have been doing in our classrooms but more of a systematic way of evaluating whether our students are learning. The focus on how our students are learning will guide our teaching strategies through the collection of data and how we analyze that data. There is no question that the success of our students in the classroom determines the success of our teaching
and that of our schools. As we make a physical, emotional and intellectual investment in the teaching and learning, we must be sure we are doing our very best in supporting our teachers and providing the best learning opportunities for our students. We will be entering our second year on the ESTEM initiative at McKinley, Willow Creek and OJHS. We saw great results during the past year as students and staff worked through the first year in ESTEM. Again ESTEM is not a whole new curriculum but a different way of teaching content areas in environment, science, technology, engineering and math. We look forward to the second year for these sites as we continue to improve this new learning environment. At OJHS, 8th grade will be added to the ESTEM program as a follow-up to grade 7. Although it takes time to build data to see any trends in student learning, there was no question our first year was very successful. The responses from teachers, students and parents were very positive and supportive for this new program. Last spring and through the summer, our District participated in a thorough review of our safety plans and the security of our sites. We were fortunate to work with our local Owatonna Police Department, a member of the BCA of Minnesota and the Department of Homeland Security to help review our schools. A report will have been written by mid-August for our review. This report will provide insight into areas we are effective in and in areas we need to make improvements. As the administration and Board review this report, you should anticipate some changes in how we conduct our dayto-day operations. Our intentions will be to keep our schools accessible to parents and the public as much as possible but to also improve our security. I will keep our community up to date as we proceed through this document review. Although I prefer to not write in
length about the levy referendum election coming this November, I cannot omit its importance. At the time of this writing, the Board has not identified a dollar amount to place on the ballot. Nor at this time has any kind of a support committee been put together. I would ask our community members to listen to the facts and the rationale on why we will be asking you to increase your property taxes to support our school district. There will be plenty of opportunities for the District to speak to and listen to our community through the fall. I would encourage you to contact me about any questions that may arise and to address any of the information the District will be preparing concerning the financial impact to our tax payers and to stabilizing our financial operations. School will begin on Sept. 3, 2013. We anticipate a student enrollment of more than 4,800 entering our schools. It will be just as exciting for our kindergartners entering their first formal year of schooling as it will be for the seniors who will be ending their final year of formal schooling. I find amazing similarities between these two groups of students. There will be the beginning of a thirteen year journey and the ending of another thirteen year journey. There will be incredible changes occurring for our kindergartners throughout the year and we will be looking back on the changes that have occurred over the years for our seniors. And, there will be parents not wanting to let go of either student’s hand knowing that their child is changing and growing. Please work with us to help provide the best education we can for your children. We cannot do it alone and we need your help for this to be a successful year. Peter Grant is the Superintendent of Schools and can be reached by calling the School District Offices at (507) 444-8600.
August 22, 2013
✓CHECKLIST BACK-TO-SCHOOL
School
Immunizations:
ARE YOUR CHILD’S SHOTS UP TO DATE?
To go to school in Minnesota, students must show they’ve received immunization against a number of diseases or file a legal exemption with the school. Documentation of immunization or exemption must be submitted to the school before school begins on Sept. 3. Required Immunizations: Kindergarten: 5 doses of DTaP, 4 Polio, 2 MMR, 3 Hepatitis B and 2 Varicella (chickenpox vaccine) Age 7 to sixth grade: At least 3 doses of DTaP and at least 3 Polio Seventh grade: At least 3 doses of DTaP plus 1 Td/Tdap vaccine required at age 11 or older, at least 3 Polio, 2 MMR, 3 Hepatitis B and 2 Varicella (chickenpox vaccine) Eighth grade to 12th grade: At least 3 doses of DTaP plus 1 Td/Tdap vaccine required at age 11 or older, at least 3 Polio and 2 MMR If a child received a Td or Tdap at age 7-10 years they do not need another one at age 11-12 years. However, they must receive another shot of Td or Tdap 10 years after their last one.