Letter from Superintendent/Principal

Dear Parents and Guardians:

Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year! Please plan to attend the Open House Back to School Night on Thursday, August 29th, 4:00-6:00PM. Pick up your family packet of information and important forms, pay ahead on lunch accounts, pay tech fee, purchase season sports passes, get bus information, meet the teachers, get locker assignment, bring in your school supplies, etc. There will be some information tables for elementary sports, Math/Reading Corp, etc.  The local churches are providing a free picnic at school. Plan to be in the large gym at 5:30 sharp for a presentation with the staff and myself.

I would like to welcome Kurt Kunnari (3rd/4th Homeroom and 3rd-6th grade Science and Social Studies teacher), Hanna Watson (3rd-6th Grade Reading teacher), Rachel Robinson (PK and ECFE teacher), Emma Stupke (School Counselor), Dave Rohde (Industrial Arts), Erik Root (K-12 Music/Band), Jaimen Davis (Community Education/Communication Coordinator), Melanie Skripsky (Cafeteria Assistant), and Telisha Bennett as our Medical Educational Assistant. There are also some staff changes throughout the building. Misty Waldron will work with Joy Jones as our high school special education teacher. Lori Sertich moved from our PK program to the 1st grade classroom. Amanda Fjeld will have a new role as our Behavioral Coach in addition to being our Instructional Coach.

As you know, we had to make changes based on the referendum not passing and the need to balance our budget. In doing so, we have reduced the number of staff in our building from 40.93 FTE to 35.05 FTE. FTE means full-time equivalent. There are 40 district employees, but some of them are not full-time. The staff has worked together to come up with a plan with reductions that has the least impact on our students. The community should be proud of the amazing staff at Floodwood School and how hard they work to ensure each student is receiving the best education possible.

The Minnesota Department of Education’s website has a link to all data pertaining to the Floodwood School. Our Reading, Math, and Science MCA data will be available beginning on August 28th. Information available right now is our Consistent Attendance Rate, and is an area we need to continue to improve. Our Consistent Attendance Rate for 2017 was 77%. This is lower than the state average. Any student who has an attendance rate of 90% or lower is considered to be chronically absent. Any absence that is not school related (i.e., sports activity, school sponsored field trip) contributes to a student’s attendance rate. This means even if a parent excuses an absence, the absence will count. Consistent Absences are part of the new Elementary and Secondary School Act passed by the federal government. Please help us to increase our attendance rate, especially in the high school. We have serious concerns regarding the number of absences in the high school. The struggle to increase our test scores in the high school is related to the number of absences we have in the high school. While attendance this past year was better, we definitely have work to do.

An exciting change for the year is our plan to increase STEM (Science, Technology, Electronics, Math) activities. K-12 students will have STEM class every Wednesday for an hour. Each teacher will be in charge of a STEM activity and students will be able to choose which activity they would like to do. The teachers came in this summer to plan and organize the activities.

The district leased new technology devices. The K-2 students will have iPads and 3rd-12th grade will have Chromebooks. All students and parents will sign off on the internet use policy. The students in 7th-12th grade will also sign off on the technology compact acknowledging the correct use and care of their technology device and pay a $25 technology use fee. There will be a table at Open House to collect these.

We are looking forward to a great year filled with learning that is fun, engaging, and filled with problems to solve as a group and individually!

Sincerely,

Dr. Rae Villebrun

Superintendent/Principal

 

Floodwood School: Preparing all students to succeed.