The plans for each school year are established in late winter for the following school year and we originally set Friday, February 15 as a noon dismissal.   An excellent full day opportunity for staff training recently emerged and requires NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15.

Each year, our students in grades 2-8 take a standardized test, the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills) and last year I attended a principals’ workshop that provided analysis of our 2011 results that I found informative and inspiring.  On February 15, a facilitator from Catapult Learning will come to our campus to provide that same workshop, called Sustaining Excellence, just for our staff.  This will help us analyze our 2012 ITBS test results and guide us in using that analysis “to engage students and promote the most growth possible.”  This is an excellent opportunity for our staff to look at outcomes and patterns in the standardized testing results of the last five years and to continue to create plans for the overall academic program, each class, and each individual student.