Introducing New Teachers!

Each school year districts welcome new teaching staff members aboard.  This year is no different than any other year for the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton School District as we welcome seven new teachers on staff.

Stephanie Mattson will be teaching third grade for us this school year.  She was hired in the early spring to replace Liz Winters who accepted the Title I Position.  Stephanie comes to us from Lake City where she spent five years teaching 5th grade.

Layce Johnson is one of two new special education teachers for our district.  She is a recent graduate of Northwestern College in Orange City, IA.  Layce is originally from the state of California but seems to appreciate and enjoy the midwest!

Christine Manteufel is the second of two new special education teachers hired in our district this year.  She holds several special education licenses.  Christine lives in St. Peter, MN and spent time substituting in a variety of school districts.

Amy Friedrichs was hired this year to replace Lynn Gostomczik as a 7-12 Language Arts instructor.  Amy is originally from the metro area and seems to be adjusting well to rural MN.  She attended Minnesota State University, Mankato and has worked as a long-term substitute.

Nicole Olsen is also a recent graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato.  Nicole replaced Darcy Reed as our new high school counselor.  She is off to a running start trying to get a grasp on all the workings of the high school counselor along with District Assessment Coordinator responsibilities.

Penny Hage joins us from the Faribault Public School District as our new Media Center Specialist.  Penny has great knowledge of media and technology.  She is excited to begin transitioning our media center to a 21st century facility.

Aimee Miller is a familiar face to many of you as she lives in Janesville and spent last school year in our preschool classroom.  Aimee is excited to be our new 4th grade teacher.  She replaces Sandy Wiste who accepted a position in the Mankato Area Public School District.

We are very fortunate and excited to welcome these new members to our team!  Please congratulate and welcome them when you see them.

School Linked Mental Health

Program:
 
This school year the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton School District has been selected to participate in a School Linked Mental Health Services Program (SLMH).  SLMH services will be a great addition to our school district for those students and families that are in need of such services.  We are fortunate to announce that this program will be funded through a grant!

Counseling Services of Southern Minnesota is partnering with our school district to make high quality mental health services available to any student in pre-school through senior high school.

Goals of the Program:

SLMH is committed to providing holistic assessment of the child's strengths, needs, stage of development, relationship with caregivers and emotional/behavioral barriers to reaching academic, social, and developmental potentials.

SLMH strives to provide therapeutic interventions that promote the student's academic, emotional and social development.

SLMH will work collaboratively with other service providers to coordinate care and maximize support for the student and their family.
 
Services Provided: 

• Pre-intake sessions with parents/guardians
• Diagnostic assessment
• Individual therapy
• Family therapy 
• Skills counselor-practice skills in school/home
• Family skills counseling with student/caregivers
• Therapist can attend team meetings
• Therapist can engage in care coordination with other providers
• Therapist can provide consultation to include parents, teachers, counselors, and social workers

Treatment Team:

The team is made up of masters and doctorate level clinicians including psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists and professional counselors.  

Web-Site:

http://www.counseling-services.org/

If you have any further questions, please contact me directly.

adamsb@jwp.k12.mn.us
507.234.5181

Proud of JWP Students and Staff

Student Scholarships and Awards

This year we have experienced outstanding success with our students receiving scholarships and awards.  One of the highest honors to be received, the National Merit Scholarship, was awarded to Lauren Summers as she is JWP's first recipient of this prestigious award since 1997.  In addition to that award, JWP seniors will have earned over $200,000 in scholarships this school year.  Congratulations JWP seniors!

Graduation - 2014

On Friday, May 23, we had 35 students graduate from the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Public School District.  As a District we are confident these students have been provided with exceptional opportunities to prepare them for post secondary education or the workforce.  We are very proud of our graduates and wish them nothing but the best of luck in the future.  

Proud of our Staff!

This school year our staff members took on Professional Learning Communities, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, and two new curricula on top of the extensive work they do on a daily basis.  Preliminary data shows that their work this year had a positive impact on student achievement as per NWEA-MAP and MCA data.  We could not be more proud of our staff for their unswerving commitment to doing what is best for students on our continuous quest in improving learning for all.  Should you encounter a member of the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton staff, please thank them for the work they do each and every day to positively impact the children of our three great communities.
Enrollment

The Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Public School District expects to see an increase to enrollment next school year.  This year our District had 585 students enrolled in grades K-12.  Next year we expect an enrollment of 610 students in that same grade span.  That is an increase of 25 students.  This growth can be attributed to a larger incoming kindergarten class, the addition of Trinity Lutheran School students to our 9th grade class, move ins, and students returning from open enrollment.  We are happy to share this exciting news as increasing enrollment is a thing to celebrate! 

Cafeteria and Building Security Project

This project continues to move forward.  We received official approval from the Minnesota Department of Education in April.  The bidding process is complete and at this time we are awaiting approval on building permits.  We are hopeful things will progress at a steady pace so that the project can begin.  It is our hope that our secured entrance and new kitchen are completed by December.

Strategic Plan Update

During the 2012-2013 school year our district worked diligently to create a strategic plan.  The reason for that work was to create a clear vision for our district and track our progress to ensure organizational improvement.  In January, the school board engaged in a board retreat to begin planning for the 2014-2015 school year.  The board was also updated on the progress of the approved strategic plan. 

Our strategic plan consists of five vision cards:

Vision Card A: Raise Achievement; Close the Gap and Prepare Students for Their Futures

Vision Card B: Align Core Process of Learning and Best Practices in Teaching Through Collaborative Teaming

Vision Card C: Develop Partnerships to Engage Faculty, Family and Community

Vision Card D: Effectively Manage Human, Financial and Physical Resources

Vision Card E: Establish Trust Through Transparency

Within each vision card we have five levels of attainment:

Level 1 – Intervention

Level 2 – High Concern

Level 3 – Baseline

Level 4 – Progressing

Level 5 – Vision

Results:

Vision Card A – 60% of our goals were at baseline or above.

Vision Card B – 67% of our goals were at baseline or above.

Vision Card C – 100% of our goals were at baseline or above.

Vision Card D – 100% of our goals were at baseline or above.

Vision Card E – 67% of our goals were at baseline or above.

We are pleased with the progress in meeting our district’s vision.  The board made some adjustments to language in the strategic plan and also raised the bar in certain areas.  The Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton school board, staff, students, parents and communities are committed to continuous improvement.  We will continue to adjust our practice until our vision is met within each Vision Card.  Should you be interested in reviewing our strategic plan, please feel free to contact me directly. 

Our mission:

“Our district will empower learning, energize achievement and enhance community.  Excellence without excuse!”

As always, if you ever have any questions, please feel free to stop in, call or e-mail. 

Toys for Tots

We have always believed that the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton School District is a place full of outstanding individuals committed to civic leadership.  This school year we competed in a Valley Conference competition in raising Toys for Tots donations. 

Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (JWP), St. Clair and Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial (LCWM) chose to compete this school year.  Today (12/19/13) all three schools went to Mankato to deliver the donations each district collected.  In the end JWP won the competition.  The point totals (rounded) from each district is notated below:

LCWM - 700 points
St. Clair - 2400 points
JWP - 2500 points

The JWP School Community contributed roughly $3,000 in cash donations to Toys for Tots and over 1,000 toys.  Please be proud of the impact you all have made on our local and national efforts.  JWP's work will put several smiles on the faces of children throughout the local, state and national levels.  We couldn't be more proud of our District.  We are simply humbled by your efforts.  Thank you for making our district a great place to live, learn and teach.  Simply put, you are amazing!

10,000 Hours of Practice

In my days as an assistant wrestling coach we used to tell our wrestlers that they needed to practice a move 10,000 times before it would become part of their muscle memory.  In essence, practicing the move 10,000 times would increase a wrestler's ability on the mat.  However, after reading the book, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I found that my old way of communicating that message was a bit flawed.

Gladwell states that research supports it takes 10,000 hours of practice before one can become an 'expert'.  In his book he talks about three specific examples of this theory.  Bill Joy, Bill Gates and the Beatles.  In each case, these folks engaged in their area of expertise for 10,000 hours before they reached the pinnacle of their early careers.

So how does this relate to education.  Students spend roughly seven hours per day in classroom instruction for 174 days.  7 hours x 174 days x 13 years = 15,834 hours of instruction.  However, the example relates directly to practice not necessarily seat time.  Therefore, we need to begin shifting our attention to finding ways for students to 'practice' or 'apply' their learning to engage the 'expert' status.

Although this blog entry will not solve the gaps in student learning, I hope for it to start a conversation. 

Technology is Evolving in Education

From December 14th to December 17th I will be attending the TIES Conference in Minneapolis.  This conference is focused on the potential use of technology in today's classroom.  I have just completed the first day of this conference and the sessions I attended involved the use of Evernote and Twitter in K-12 classrooms. 

Evernote is managed by the cloud.  Students and teachers can utilize Evernote to eliminate paper, increase engagement, and enhance achievement.  There are many features in Evernote that can be tapped to move our educational capacity forward.  As the JWP School District continues its journey to engage the student population through technology, Evernote will be a strong contributor.

Twitter is a social media platform that many utilize in a variety of ways.  Although Twitter has received negative attention, it can actually provide a positive influence on the education of our students.  Please click on the following link to learn more about the use of Twitter in the K12 classroom: http://fluency21.com/blog/2013/02/19/60-inspiring-examples-of-twitter-in-the-classroom/

While I attended the conference I overheard educators talk about the ability our youth have with technology.  After listening to the dialogue, I came to the conclusion that educators need to begin discovering new social media tools prior to our students discovering them.  Right now, Facebook and Twitter are almost a foregone tool for teenagers.  Our students are now moving onto Instagram and Snapchat from Facebook and Twitter.  A reflective question we need to begin answering is the following:

What can we do as educators to discover the next best thing for our young learners and begin including it into our instruction? 

Although we are all comfortable with the tradition of education, we need to begin adapting our practice to meet the needs of the new learner.  This is a call for all to embark on the challenge of evolving education!

With Regards,
Bill Adams, JWP Superintendent