Minnehaha Parents & Families,
An official welcome! to the 2018-19 school year! Heading into my fifth year at the school, I am looking forward more than ever before to the great work that is in front of us. As a Minnehaha staff, we know we are incredibly blessed to be working with such great young people, and we recognize how important of a job we have been entrusted to. You send your children to us each day to keep them physically safe, and that will remain a high priority. We will continue to emphasize and focus on creating a learning environment that is welcoming, friendly, supportive, and acknowledges the strengths, gifts, and contributions of ALL students, while maintaining and holding students accountable to respectful & responsible actions. Our teachers will continue to create learning activities that are engaging, rigorous, exciting, and applicable to our students, recognizing that our ever-shifting technological society is changing the way our students interact with the world around them. Your children are in good hands!
We are welcoming some new staff members to our staff: Ms. Griffee in Kindergarten, Mrs. Peck & Mrs. Knight in 2nd grade, and Ms. Marsh in 3rd grade. We also will be adding a paraprofessional, Ms. Huserik (familiar face to many of you!), as well as a new school psychologist who will be here Mondays and Tuesdays – Mrs. Zimmerman. Additionally, we will have a few shifts with our art & music classes, and will share those staffing updates with you soon.
Recognizing that our current mission statement & building vision was somewhat outdated, our staff came together over the course of the last few months of the 2017/18 school year and collaboratively arrived at an updated mission/vision that will guide our ongoing work – I am really excited to be able to attach a copy to this newsletter for you to check out. Along those lines, we have also identified areas as a staff that we will continue to delve into, as we embrace a growth mindset for ourselves and for ALL students and commit to being an amazing school where students thrive.
There is quite a bit of information in this initial newsletter. Please review, so you can stay connected with happenings, events, and information. To our returning families, I hope you had a wonderful summer. For our new families, I hope you also had a wonderful summer and I want to officially welcome you to Minnehaha!
Hopefully we’ll see you all at our Back to School meet-and-greet on Monday, August 27, beginning at 4:30. Class lists will be posted, and it’s always a fun time to re-connect with friends, teachers, neighbors, and staff.
Welcome back!
Troy