Dear Families,
Welcome back to the 2019-20 school year! We hope you enjoyed the HOT summer days and time with your family and friends. During the last few months, our teachers have been planning, participating in professional development and getting ready to provide your students with exciting learning opportunities, while our maintenance and custodial staff have been busy with general facility and equipment maintenance and repairs, doing a thorough cleaning of all buildings. We are ready to start school!
As we look forward to the 2019-20 school year, we will see new faces in staff and students. Districtwide we will continue to focus on our STEM program (Strategies That Engage Minds) and continue to work on creating Project Based Learning (PBL) Activities, while incorporating the skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity in every lesson. I am also excited to begin our journey with our newly developed Portrait of a Graduate (POG). The Portrait describes the skills and attributes that will help better prepare students for life beyond graduation, leading to either Enrollment, Employment, or Enlistment. The POG will also serve as the North Star for District, providing direction as we try to redesign the overall educational experience for students. We will spend the next year developing a plan to imbed the Portrait of a Graduate at every grade level. The POG is focused on 6 themes that will be incorporated K-12. The themes are: Self-Aware Individual, Problem Solvers, Collaborators, Responsible Learners, Respectful Citizens, and Communicators.
To help our families prepare for the school year, this newsletter will give you all the essential information you need for a smooth start. We look forward to partnering with you to ensure this is a successful, productive, monumental year for all of our students. Again, welcome back and let’s make it a great year!
Respectfully,
Jim Sotlar, Superintendent