Fill that Truck!

At tonight's Open House the sixth grade students will begin a year long food drive. Their plan is to collect a semi trailer full of food. We won't keep the semi trailer all school year, but we are fortunate to have the trailer on loan to us as an inspiration. This photo was taken yesterday (Tuesday 8/26) which is important because thunderstorms moved through this morning and the banner look a little different. There will be more information to come including how people that access to the the collected food can get it for their families.

First Day Pt 1

I suspect that there will be two "first days of school" for me. Tomorrow is first day Part 1. Monday is the first day for all ISD 191 staff to return and will be an exciting day for me. This marks the official beginning of my first school year as an elementary school principal. I'm very excited to start the school year.

Dr .Geneva Gay is the keynote presenter at the all staff meeting. Dr. Clegg will also be addressing the group and we're in a similar spot as as this also the start of his first school year in ISD 191. I believe Dr. Clegg is going to set the tone for the school year and that Dr. Gay is going to emphasize the work we must continue to do with our student population.

First day part two is when the life of the school return and the 410 students that are enrolled at Sioux Trail come back into the classrooms. I'm very excited about that and I hope I'm well rested!

Moving Right Along

And I thought we weren't going to move! At the end of the 2007-08 school year we met at a staff meeting and after reviewing several plans for the layout of the building, decided to go with the "as is" plan. That plan made us through most of the summer - all the way until Monday.

On Monday we began moving classrooms within Sioux Trail. Here is where we are right now:

• Both first grade classrooms moved to room 109 (Mrs. Mosher) and room 110 (Mrs. Horwart). These are affectionately known as the "portables".
  
• The science classroom is in room 118. Most people that are familiar with Sioux Trail know this as the "old" art room. It is now the "new" science room.
• We also have a new science teacher. Pat Mosey applied for a transfer to Hidden Valley and Dan West is joining us at Sioux Trail. Mr. West has been teaching for over 12 years with a passion for science and is a welcome addition to Sioux Trail.
• Margie Podominick is moving is to room 215 (a.k.a. Mr.s Horwart's old room). Mrs. Podominick will be teaching fifth grade with Ms Brandon and Mrs. Laatsch. Mrs. Podominick is new to Sioux Trail, but not new to teaching, she has been working with elementary students for over 20 years.

We have one more week until school starts - keep checking the marquis!

Still going . . .

The countdown until the first day of school continues! It isn't dominating the marquis, but it front and center in many of our minds! On the marquis you can look for the countdown in the lower right-hand corner. There were 22 days left when I took the picture. Thanks for the votes.

September 20

These smiling faces belong to some of the members of the final summer meeting of the environmental club. We re-scheduled the July meeting because of rain and met on Thursday, August 7. The transformation is amazing. We began work along the front of the school near the first grade classrooms and I noticed the biggest difference in cutting and then digging out the trash trees that have planted themselves there.

September 20 is the Sioux Trail Clean up event and I am optimistic that we will have a high turnout from members of the Sioux trail community. My hope is that there are enough folks to get all of the clean up completed and then make fine tuning the landscaping a regular thing.

Like the smiling faces in the photograph we will have fuel to keep the work crews going.

The Countdown

Mr. Glende started "the countdown" on the marquis shortly after the 2007-08 school year came to an end. He has been updating it every weekday throughout the summer. We gotten mixed reviews on the countdown. My philosophy on countdowns is that we countdown to good things, like the beginning of summer or the new year. As educators we see that start of the school year as a good thing, this is an opportunity to continue our work with students and to help students increase their academic achievement. At the posting of this blog there is less than one month until the start of school and I am looking forward to having a school full of students and staff.

Landscaping

You wouldn't know it by looking at the grass in the pictures, but our "weeding party" got rained out today! We have had two weeding parties this summer and today was to be our third and final party. We had some thunderstorms that came through and rained out the party. The rain was badly needed and we still need a lot more. We're going to reschedule our weeding event for Thursday, August 7 from 9 to 10 a.m.

The two pictures are as close to before and after shots as I can get. The photograph on the top is one of the landscape beds directly in front of the school that needs some serious help. The photograph on the bottom is one of the landscape beds along the main sidewalk. This landscape bed has some small weeds in it, but has made dramatic improvements from the beginning of summer when it was very overgrown.

The PTO has scheduled a Sioux Trail clean up event for Saturday, September 20 from 2 to 5pm. All are invited and I'm optimistic that we'll have a terrific turnout and go from landscaping that needs a lot of help to landscaping that needs a little clean up here and there.