Letter from Superintendent/Principal

Dear Parents: 

The month of November seems to be flying by! There will be no school on Thursday and Friday of this week. We are also beginning our third week into 2nd quarter. Even though we just had conferences, it won’t be long before mid-quarter grades are out. 

As part of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act, attendance for the district is being calculated differently than it has in the past. The state now looks at our attendance through the percentage of students who are chronically absent. Students are considered to be chronically absent when they have an attendance rate of 90% or lower. All absences are counted toward this rate. Any time your child is absent regardless of the reason, it counts toward their absence rate. We have a total of 172 student contact days. If a student is absent 17 days or more throughout the year, this will result in chronic absenteeism.  These days could be the result of excused or unexcused absences. 

We realize that sometimes students need to be gone. When students are gone, they might not have a choice to be gone or a parent might not have a choice, but to take them out of school or keep them home because they are sick. While we understand this, we also want to celebrate the students who haven’t missed any school. This isn’t to take away from a child who had to go to the doctor or who was sick. This practice would be similar to the students who make the honor roll. A student might be doing their very best, but still miss the cut off for the honor roll. We wouldn’t stop celebrating the students on the honor roll because some students didn’t make the honor roll. If you have questions, please let us know. 

We are doing our best to celebrate our students in many different ways so that all students are recognized in some way. We are looking at grades, behavior, attendance, and effort. We recently started our Star Student and Star Teacher program. This celebrates the students who are working hard and making a difference in their lives and the lives of others. 

Basketball season is soon upon us. There will be many opportunities for students to be in the building. All elementary students must attend the games with an adult. We want to be sure all students are safe. In order for this to happen, elementary students need to remain in the gym during the game and not unsupervised in the hallway. 

We are definitely in winter gear season. Please be sure your child has all their winter gear for outside recess. 

Sincerely, 

Dr. Rae Villebrun

Superintendent/Principal 

Floodwood School: Preparing all students to succeed.