New Teacher

In this Friday's folder I sent home a letter to the families of Third and Fifth Grade students announcing our newest addition to the Sioux Trail team! Here is the letter I sent home. As soon as I can I will post a photo of Katie so that you can help me welcome her when you are at Sioux Trail. Here is the letter that went home on Friday:

Dear Families of Sioux Trail Third and Fifth Grade students,

I am writing to provide you with an update on our class sizes and our staffing for grades three and five. As you probably know both third grade and fifth grade classes have more than 30 students in each classroom. I have been well aware of these class sizes, but I did not have access to additional resources to hire an additional teacher or teachers. I have been submitting updated enrollment to the superintendent's office weekly.

On Monday, October 19, the Superintendent and his staff reviewed our enrollment and recommended that additional staffing be allocated to Sioux Trail because of the large class sizes. On Thursday, October 22, the school board authorized this recommendation and assigned one additional full-time teacher to Sioux Trail. I had anticipated this possibility, completed interviews in early September and I forwarded our hiring recommendation to the Human Resources office earlier this week.

I am very excited to welcome Katie Mulvahill to Sioux Trail. Ms. Mulvahill is recent graduate from the University of Iowa. She has a degree in elementary education and journalism and she is an avid soccer player. Ms. Mulvahill will be working with students in both third and fifth grade and she will start work on Monday, November 2. Ms. Mulvahill will not have a traditional elementary classroom; instead she will be working with students in small groups or teaching in one of the classrooms so the classroom teacher can meet with small groups of students.

At the third grade level her focus will be reading and at the fifth grade level her focus will be with mathematics. She will have an office in room 214 and once she has an email address and telephone number she will share that information with you. Adding Ms. Mulvahill to our staff will help reduce the class sizes in third and fifth grade. She will be great asset to Sioux Trail as we continue to strive to be the best we can be.

Several of you shared your concerns about class sizes with Superintendent Clegg and me. Thank you for taking time to do this. As we continue with the 2009-10 school year please continue to stay in touch with me to share concerns or successes.

Thank you for your continued support,