Photos from the First Day of School!

ISD 191 Communications Director, Ruth Dunn, visited Sioux Trail on Tuesday as we kicked off the 2011-12 school year.  This was an exciting day.  Here are a couple photos from her visit to Sioux Trail.

Safe Routes to School Grant includes Sioux Trail

Five (or so) years ago Dr. DeeDee Currier (Sioux Trail Principal at the time, now ISD 191 Board Member) and Denise Engberg (Media EA, Transportation EA and Technology EA) worked in partnership with the City of Burnsville to develop and apply for a Minnesota Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School Grant.  The initial grant application was a partnership between the City of Burnsville and ISD 191 to add a sidewalk along Highway 13 and install a path which connected the sidewalk and the school.  The City of Burnsville ended up allocating funds and completing the project two years ago with out funding assistance through the state of Minnesota.  Denise Engberg continued to submit the Sioux Trail portion of the grant proposal and worked with City of Burnsville staff, ISD 191 staff, contractors and other supporters to collect all of the required information for each application.  The feedback from MnDOT was positive, but the grant was never awarded - until now!

In a recent press release MnDOT announced 3.8 millions in grant awards and Sioux Trail is one of the sites receiving an award.   Sioux Trail was fortunate to have direct support from Jon Deutsch (ISD 191 Properties and Operation Director) as well as staff from Dakota County. The list of grant recipients, details about improvements at Sioux Trail and a story from KARE 11 are listed below.

There are many lessons here and this is an exciting opportunity for our students and families.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) announced Thursday the recipients of about $3.8 million in federal grants for projects to improve conditions for bicycling and walking to school.
The 16 grants come from the federally funded Safe Routes to School program.
"These projects will help make walking and biking to school easier for children and more acceptable to their parents," said MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel. "The grants will mean safety improvements in routes to school so students will be more inclined to walk to school. And walking to school is another way to increase exercise for healthier kids."
Of the 16 projects, 12 are in Greater Minnesota and the rest are in the Twin Cities metro. All of the grants will be used to improve or build trails and sidewalks for walking and biking.
MnDOT announced the availability of the grants in May and received 82 applications requesting $83 million in project money.
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)

The Sioux Trail award as listed from MnDOT:
Burnsville $107,100
Construct a trail from the Highway 13 multi-use trail to the school, build new concrete sidewalk around the bike racks and install in-street school crossing signs.

Bus Safety

KARE 11 did a story reminding everyone to watch out for school buses.  The segment was recorded at Sioux Trail and includes several Sioux Trail students and their principal.  Thanks to the Haddorff family for volunteering to get the word about bus safety out there.

KARE 11 Bus Safety Video

Here is the story from the KARE 11 web site:

BURNSVILLE, Minn. -- On any given school day, there are 14,000 school buses on Minnesota roads, each carrying children and an important safety message.
The Haddorff siblings have enjoyed their summer off. But with the new school year about to start at Sioux Trail Elementary in Burnsville, the kids are enjoying their sneak peak at what could be their next sweet ride - the school bus.
"It's fun to ride the bus and see all your friends," Brooke Haddorff said.
They walk together to meet the school bus every morning which is relatively uneventful on a quiet street. But when the bus gets to busy Highway 13, traffic changes.
"There's a lot of adults rushing to get to get to work. There's maybe a little bit of chaos," says Luke.
There are so many distractions for drivers. Schools try to make it obvious kids are around, but it's tough to compete with the rush to catch a green light.
Authorities investigate hundreds of crashes involving school buses every year.
Tuesday, officials offered a reminder: When school starts, watch out for the big yellow buses.
Doug Grisim is president of the Minnesota School Bus Operators Association and has been behind the wheel for more than 30 years.
"It's a passion," says Grisim.
Doug has several tips for drivers:
1. Amber lights on a school bus mean a stop is imminent so slow down.
2. Red lights on the bus mean stop.
3. And when you stop, make it at least 20 feet away.
4. And don't forget to be wary of the ten foot danger zone around the bus.
"The basic site lines are really good, but the areas right up in front can be very difficult to have a sight line to see when kids are crossing," Grisim added.
Also, pay attention to kids walking to the bus stop. You will likely see them before they see you.
Grisim also added something else for parents to keep in mind. Despite some crashes, he said school buses are still eight times safer to ride in than passenger vehicles.
"If they are properly seated in front or rear crash, the seats are made to absorb the energy made by a body moving," says Doug.
"This is our most precious commodity that's riding the bus," said Sioux Trail principal Taber Akin. "We want them to be as safe as possible on those buses."
For more information about school bus safety and to see inspection numbers for your child's school district, visit the Minnesota Department of Safety's website.

(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)

River Hills Elementary School

The Sioux Trail Cafeteria is getting a facelift and the serving line is being retrofitted.  As part of this the roll-up (or roll-down) door that separated the kitchen from the cafeteria is being replaced.  The previous door was installed when Sioux Trail was built around 1964.  When the contractors removed the old door assembly there was a surprise.  Sioux Trail wasn't always "Sioux Trail Elementary School".

Hopefully, you can see from the photograph that the name was "River Hills Elementary School" at one time.  I had heard rumors that the name wasn't always Sioux Trail, but I hadn't seen anything to verify the rumor.  Now the rumor has been verified.  

The school is named for the trail (now Highway 13) used by the local Dakota people (historically known as the Sioux) as they moved along the Minnesota River from village to village or to the confluence of the Minnesota River and Mississippi River and Fort Snelling.

Good-bye Portable Classrooms

Room 109 and Room 110 at Sioux Trail have long been known as "the portables", but I've always gotten a chuckle out of this label as the classrooms haven't been portable for over 30 years. That changed earlier today when a backhoe arrived at Sioux Trail and began the demolition of the portable classrooms.

The portables were added in the 1970's because the school needed additional space.  The portable classrooms have been used as Kindergarten classrooms, a Senior Citizen center, a science classroom, storage space and their most recent use was two first grade classrooms.  In recent years, our enrollment has declined and the demand for space hasn't been as high. The physical condition of these classrooms had declined and it was not cost-effective to correct these physical issues.  Several years ago ISD 191 created a task force and evaluated the boundaries of the district and the space needs of each school.  Through the process used by this task force it was determined that the portable classrooms were no longer needed at Sioux Trail and several other sites.

I have included a couple photos of the process; starting with a photo from this morning when the equipment arrived.

Teaching Assignments

At the last PTO meeting in May I had the opportunity to present information on where individual teachers have been assigned for the 2011-12 school year.  Not everyone was able to attend that meeting and many are interested in knowing which teacher is teaching which grade.  I have provided that information here and I hope that it is helpful.  I'm always happy to talk so please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns or comments that you have.

Half-day Kindergarten  - Christine Peterson
Full-day Kindergarten - Bobbie Kunkel

First Grade - Nancy Mosher and Andrea Beegle.  Andrea has been teaching at Harriet Bishop Elementary in 191 and she is currently re-assigned to teach at Sioux Trail in the fall.  I'm excited to add her to our team and she is excited to be here and work with Sioux Trail first graders.

Second Grade - Karen Otremba and Sacia Williams.

For the 2011-12 school year the staffing model has changed and the decisions about how many sections each grade level will have is no longer made by the building principal. It is now determined by the Superintendent.  For the 2011-12 school year Sioux Trail is assigned 2.5 sections of first grade and 2.5 sections of second grade.  A part time teacher provides valuable services and meets an important need.  In this case I determined that two part time teachers was was not the best situation. I paired the two 0.5 positions and I asked Sonia Boche to teach a multi-age classroom.  Multi-age classrooms are research proven and a great way to integrate differentiation strategies and to teach to students based on their needs.  Our multi-age classroom will be a mix of first and second grade students and will be a balanced classroom; using the same placement model that we use for all classrooms.  In early August families with students who have been placed in the multi-age classroom will receive early placement letters and invitation to attend an informational session.

Third Grade - Annie Engdahl and Mark Kleven

Fourth Grade - Debra Brandon and Katie Mulvahill

Fifth Grade - Becky Laatsch and Sarah Gant.  Sarah is an experienced teacher, who, similar to Andrea Beegle, has been teaching at Harriet Bishop Elementary in 191 and she is currently re-assigned to teach at Sioux Trail in the fall.  I'm excited to add her to our team and she is excited to be here and work with Sioux Trail fifth grade students.

Sixth Grade - Barb Istas and Duane Barton.  Because of the large number of student in this class we have been assigned an additional half-time sixth grade teacher.  This individual has not been hired yet, when hired, this teacher will reduce class sizes during math and literacy instruction by providing small group instruction. 

For the 2011-12 school year ISD 191 is adding art specialists to all ten elementary schools.  This was not true in the past and is an exciting opportunity for our students.  Sioux Trail is one of five smaller schools in the district that do not need four full time teachers and we are sharing specialists (art, music, science and physical education) between our schools. To facilitate the sharing process you will see multiple staff in each area, but the students will have the same teacher for their class throughout the school year.

Music - Rachel Lucius and a position to be hired for
Physical Education - Kevin Morrissey and Brian Moorlach
Art - To be hired
Science - Bounthavy Khamratthanome and Bjorn Anderson

Special Education - Katie Nelson, Kim Roark, Patty Tushie and Wendy Hirschey

Instructional Intervention - Sharron Stalock and Leslie Horwart

Resource and Enrichment - Jeff Gallus

ESL - Becky Fredrickson and Ann Condon

Sioux Trail does not currently have Title I for the 2011-12 school year, but we're still waiting on final numbers from the Minnesota Department of Education and this may change.

There are additional staff beyond the teachers, but intent for this blog post was to identify the teaching staff.  If  you have questions please contact me.

What do you do?

One of the questions that I often get asked is: "Do you have the summer off too?" When I say that I don't and explain that I have an allocation of vacation days (many of which I use in the summer) I'm asked the follow-up question - "So, what do you do all summer?"

I wanted to add a blog post for you with information about some of the changes that I'm working on.  hopefully this will give you a good idea of what I've been working on and what will be different at Sioux Trail in the fall of 2011. 

My first item won't be change, especially for all that know Mr. Glende!  The building is spotless and getting cleaner every day.  We have had some additional custodians assigned to our crew for a short period of time because of construction at the Burnsville High School.  This crew (nicknamed "Glende's Gang") is making quick work of many projects.  They have done impressive work cleaning all of our classrooms, moving classrooms and doing a wide variety of other projects.

Sioux Trail is hosting one of the summer school programs again and those students started arriving on July 6.  The program is called ESY or Extended School Year and provides summer service to students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) who need support through our DCD (Developmental Cognitive Delay) classrooms, speech therapy and other related programs.  We have also been hosting a cheerleader camp for Burnsville High School.  The first day the cheerleaders arrived was a big surprise as the gym was filled with carpets that were being cleaned and none of us had any idea were were hosting summer cheer camp.

With the generous support and partnership of the Sioux Trail PTO we were able to order nine SMART Boards for classrooms and those have arrived and will be installed soon.  I used the donation from the PTO along with building funds to purchase this interactive instructional technology and I'm very excited to add these tools to our classrooms.  This means that when we start the 2011-12 school year we will have a SMART Board in the classroom of each teacher who has requested one.  I believe that by adding the technology when teachers are ready for it there is a higher likelihood that the tool will be used on a frequent basis and will have a positive impact on students achievement.

The 2010-11 school year was the final year that room 109 and room 110 were to be used as classrooms.  We affectionately refer to these two classrooms as "the portables" even though they stopped being portable over twenty years ago. During the 2010-11 school the portables were home to Mrs. Mosher, Mrs. Horwart and lots of wonderful first grade students.  The buildings were added as temporary solution for increasing enrollment many many years ago and when the school board did a recent study of attendance boundaries and building capacities the decision was made to remove these buildings.  The buildings have not been adequately maintained in recent years and a decision had to be made regarding updating the spaces and doing some maintenance or removing the classrooms.   The ISD 191 school board made the decision to remove the portable classrooms at most of the elementary buildings where they are located.  Glende's Gang has removed everything from the portables at Sioux Trail that can be re-used and we waiting for demolition crew to arrive and remove the physical buildings.  If you see some heavy equipment outside of Sioux Trail it may be time to say good-bye to these classrooms.  These two classrooms have been a great addition to Sioux Trail and losing them will mean that the remaining space at Sioux Trail will be used very efficiently. 

I've been making good use of the summer to do some professional growth and I've been able to attend conferences on several professional topics including Response to Intervention and the work of Professional Learning Communities. I'm increasingly excited to work with teachers and students!

Please feel free to call or email with question, concerns or just to say hello!  I plan for another summer blog post very soon detailing teacher assignments (who is teaching which grade / subject).  Stay tuned!