Soft Landings

Soft Landings

On August 13, the NASA rover Curiosity made a soft landing on Mars. It was a stunning achievement in the area of math, science, and technology and the flight began in the United States of America. The experts say the flight and landing came off “flawlessly.. It is quite the achievement. What began as a daunting challenge and commitment to achieving excellence was realized through scientific research and dedication to a cause. I re-emphasize the mission was accomplished by very talented engineers in the good ole’ USA. Curiosity took off last November and traveled 352 million miles. Years of intense preparation went into the project and, when the rover landed safely, Mission Control went wild. We are not sending our students to Mars, but the preparation for and exhilaration that follows the successful launch and safe landing of our students is no less exciting. The whole mission reminds us that our students can aspire to whatever they put their hearts and minds toward. Our school district can do the same. The “rocket scientists” in the NASA control room grew up in families. Many probably attended public high school and most likely attended some of the finest universities in our nation. They are no different than the children in our schools. It all starts with aspiration and preparation. Our schools officially opened their doors on Tuesday after weeks and months of preparation. Our staff does not have very many opportunities to gather together as a district-wide staff. However, summer months and the few days before the opening day of school provide some of that valuable time. Our staff spent time working on the new common core standards in mathematics and literacy. They attended professional development on the development of better assessments, vocabulary development, reading strategies, mathematic strategies, and the integration of technology. Our 6-8 math teachers spent intensive time over the summer preparing for a new mathematics program at the middle school. K-2 teachers spent a full day preparing new strategies for writing. Elementary grade level teams met to align their instructional maps and plan for the upcoming year. Our high school staff established common assessments in all areas, which will lead to better collaboration between teachers and higher student achievement. Our 4K sites met to discuss the programming for 234 new four-year-olds, the class of 2025! Our goal as a school district is to be one of the best schools in the state of Wisconsin. It all starts with aspirations on behalf of our children. Two of our schools have recently been named Wisconsin RtI (Response to Intervention) Schools of Merit. It is a very prestigious honor. River Heights was named a 2012 School of Recognition for the second consecutive year. We are very proud of their accomplishments. All of our schools are on the “same page” when it comes to programming and student achievement. They do not all qualify for all of the same honors based upon demographics. However, they are all doing outstanding work for which the community can be proud. A new school year begins with another type of soft landing. After all of the work that goes into the launch of our new year, the students arrive with many needs. Sometimes families need assistance to provide that soft landing. Each year we implement changes that are designed to help meet student needs. This year the universal free nutrition break is new to our K-8 students. The participation in our traditional breakfast program was pretty low in some buildings. We were in danger of losing it all together due to costs associated with staffing and the new federal nutrition requirements. We have a significant percentage of children district-wide that qualify for free and reduced lunch. These families depend upon our nutrition program. The loss of our breakfast program would have been tragic. The federal child nutrition program funds the universal free nutrition break program. By providing the nutrition break to all students and being reimbursed based upon our free and reduced lunch population, the costs are fully covered by the reimbursement and there is no additional costs to our families or to the district. Each student and/or classroom in grades K-8 receives healthy snacks such as yogurt, fruit, granola bars, cheese sticks, etc. The products can be eaten as a morning nutrition snack and saved for an afternoon break as well. Uneaten packaged foods can be taken home. We have also partnered with Stepping Stones to provide a free weekend food program for over 200 children at River Heights Elementary. Stepping Stones is collecting box tops to help fund the program! River Heights will be our pilot site this year. Each participant will go home on Friday with a bag of nutritious food. It is another soft landing. As always, we are very thankful to the many agencies and families who provided back to school supplies, clothing, new gym shoes, and now food for children in need! It takes a community to make that type of difference.