May 12, 2016 Vol. 1, Issue 14

Rock Star Recognition and Retiree Celebration is June 3 at Canterbury

Get your tickets today for this year’s Rock Star Recognition and Retiree Celebration at Canterbury Park on Friday, June 3. Tickets can be purchased at your school’s office or from Cindy Gregory in the District Office. Adults are $12 and children 12 and under are $5. Help us congratulate the following employees:

Recognized Staff of the Year: Central Family Center Cortney Olson Eagle Creek Elementary Kelly Bahrke Jackson Elementary Sari Flatness Red Oak Elementary Susan Kochenash Sun Path Elementary Sarah Nelson Sweeney Elementary Trudy Lynch Pearson 6th Grade Ctr. Kenneth Stromgren East Junior High Julie Phillips West Junior High Jaclyn Lissick Shakopee High School Lynnette Youngsma PARA Lori MacDonald PARA Deb Wermerskirchen Principal Doug Schleif District Office Brenda Herman Secretary Stephanie Janke Food Service Deb Rutt Custodian Neal Aho District Wide Stephanie Betley MDE Teacher of the Year Nominees Kelly Bahrke, Sara Connell, Sarah Hartman, Megan Henke, and Kristen Wilking Retiring Staff: Barbara Anderson, Linda Bierstedt, Jean Brown, Pamela Dorn, Daniel Gerold, Carolyn Hess, Mark Johnson, Nancy Jones, Barbara Kuhlman, Amy Lane, Gina Light, Jacqueline Meyer, Jane Moriarty, Phyllis Paulak, and Mary Roerick.

 

 

District Welcomes Two Equity Specialists Please help us welcome Gospel Kordah (pictured left) and Sean McMoore (pictured right), who will join the district’s Excellence with Equity (EWE) staff as Equity Specialists, beginning July 1, 2016. These positions are paid for through the Achievement and Integration budget. The EWE staff, which is led by Supervisor Ray Betton, is charged with building relationships with

all students in an effort to help close the achievement gap in the district. One of the team’s goals is to assist students in creating a pathway to excellence in all aspects of life, personally and academically. After working with students in grades 9-12 during the 2015-16 school year, the EWE staff plans to expand its reach during the 2016-17 school year to work with students in grades K-12. “The Excellence with Equity staff is excited to welcome Gospel and Sean to the team,” Betton said. “They both bring with them a unique set of skills and experiences that will allow us to build relationships and positively affect more students in the district. Most importantly, they are both passionate about connecting with students and families and helping them achieve excellence in all aspects of their lives.” Kordah is currently Dean of Students at Dugsi Academy Charter School in St. Paul, which is made up of almost entirely Somali students. His responsibilities include developing and monitoring behavior plans, teaching social skills, training staff and students on student success, training staff about multicultural education and equity in schools, leading the intervention team, and other administrative duties. He also serves as a coach for both soccer and track and field and is a former scholarship athlete in both sports. Kordah holds an Associate Degree from Lincoln College in Illinois and a Bachelor’s Degree from Augsburg College. McMoore is currently an Intervention Specialist at Harding High School in St. Paul. He serves as a liaison between students, faculty, and parents, is part of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Committee, is the 3M e-mentoring Coordinator for African American students, is the African/African American Initiative Program Coordinator, and is a Check and Connect Mentor who monitors grades, attendance, behavior, and test scores of students. After earning his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Northern Iowa, McMoore played professional football including two years with the Minnesota Vikings. He went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Concordia University, St. Paul. He has continued to be involved in football, serving as a coach at the high school and college levels. More information about the Excellence with Equity team can be found online at shakopee.k12.mn.us/EWE.

 

 

Student Learning Device Roll-out Schedule Key dates in preparation for the 2016-17 roll-out of student learning devices have been identified and are noted below. These dates will be shared with parents in an email that will go out on Friday, May 13. At the end of the next roll-out, the district will have 1:1 deployment of iPads for grades 6-8 and MacBooks for grades 9-12, or approximately 4,500 devices.

Key Dates: July 31: Infinite Campus/Revtrak will begin allowing on-line tech insurance payments for the 2016-17 school year. August 1: Physical mailing of school info packets, including technology-related forms & permission slips. August 3: Electronic mailing of school info and technology documents. August 4 and 9: Pearson 6th Grade Center parent information nights. August 17: Open House events at East Junior High, West Junior High, and Shakopee High School to incorporate parent information sessions on the 1:1 program. August 15-19: Time slots will be available for 10th, 11th, and 12th grade device pick-up and orientation. August 22: Remaining CAPS and 10th grade students – any devices not picked up the previous week. August 23: Remaining 11th and 12th grade students – any devices not picked up the previous week; 6th grade evening event for two teams. August 24: 7th and 8th grade distribution of previously assigned devices; 6th grade evening event for two teams. August 25: 9th grade roll-out. August 26: Any remaining distribution. Any questions related to the roll-out of student learning devices for the 2016-17 school year can be directed to Director of Technology Bryan Drozd at 952-496-5174 or bdrozd@shakopee.k12.mn.us.

 

 

Two Tweets Not on … By Dave Orlowsky

Formative: assessment FOR learning; allows the teacher & student to check progress and respond. Summative: assessment OF learning; tells us if the content is mastered. If the formatives are tightly aligned to summatives in content, rigor, etc. a summative surprise will be rare. (280)

Stepping Stones Preschool Registration Underway

Registration is now underway for Stepping Stones Preschool for the fall of 2016. Half day and full day programming is available for children that are three or four years old as of September 1, 2016. Parents can choose between two, three and five day options. Wrap-around childcare is also available from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., before and after a child’s preschool class. Registration takes place at the Welcome Center at the District Office (1200 Town Square), while all programming takes place at Central Family Center in downtown Shakopee (505 Holmes Street South). More information about registering for Stepping Stones Preschool is available online at shakopee.k12.mn.us/Page/7331. Questions can be directed to Kathy Savage at 952-496-5013 or ksavage@shakopee.k12.mn.us.

Accounting Students Meet U.S. Bank Mentors

Fifty students traveled to the U.S. Bank offices in Richfield on April 29 for the BestPrep eMentor Meet and Greet Day as part of the High School’s Accounting 2 curriculum. “Students have been able to gain valuable insight from their mentor as to what is important during high school, college, and in the work place,” Business and Technology Teacher Karen Reuss said.

“We have participated in this program in past years and it always proves to be one of the highlights of the students’ semester. They feel they gain so much from first-hand knowledge of successful employees in the field of business.”

 

 

Red Oak Students Run Into Healthy Fitness Zone Red Oak physical education teachers challenged the school’s 3rd-5th graders that at least 75% of them would have a mile-run time that qualified them as within or above the healthy fitness zone as measured by the Shakopee Fitness Assessment protocol. At the beginning of the year, 60% of 3rd graders, 64% of 4th graders, and 68% of 5th graders met the criteria. As of this Spring, 81% of 3rd graders, 95% of 4th graders, and 89% of 5th graders now meet the criteria.

“The increase in percentage of students improving their mile-run time was astounding. Many students improved their mile-run time by two minutes or more,” physical education teacher Wade Wittkop said. “We couldn’t be more proud of our students and the hard work they put into reaching their fitness goals this year. The accompanying picture includes the boy and girl from each class who improved their mile-run time the most.

East Junior High Students Hold Clothing Drive

East Junior High students recently collected more than 2,000 pieces of clothing to donate to the CAP Agency.

 

 

Ninth Graders Participate in Design Challenge at Hennepin Technical College Approximately 150 ninth graders in the Introduction to Engineering and Design class participated in the 12th Annual Design Challenge on Wednesday, May 11 at Hennepin Technical College in Eden Prairie. The classes are taught by TJ Hendrickson at West Junior High and Jake Toufar at East Junior High. This year’s challenge involved an Angry Birds theme that had teams of students manufacture a “launcher” incorporating parts they designed on a 3-D printer and laser engraver. Students presented their projects to engineers/judges in a science fair format and then had a chance to test out their launchers as they tried to hit objects at a distance with tennis balls. The Design Challenge is an open-ended project-based engineering capstone project.

Pearson Students Participate in Band Festival

Nine Pearson Sixth Grade Center band students were selected to participate in the South Central Minnesota Band Directors Association Second Year Band Festival. They played an incredible concert on Saturday, April 30 at South View Middle School in Edina. The nine students involved were Christina Chao (clarinet), Drew Christman (horn), Max Dehmlow (alto saxophone), Luth Khairlhuda (trumpet), Martin Koivisto (tuba), Caitlin Lassiter (tenor saxophone), Andy Lin (trumpet), Nick Serazzi (percussion), and Brooke Sorah (euphonium).

 

 

High School Students Attend Shakespeare Performance

High School ELL students from the classes of Tania Drexler and Ulysis Rodriguez first studied Shakespeare in the classroom and then were able to attend a live performance at the Park Square Theater in St. Paul in March. The teachers would like to thank SEEF for providing funding for the bus that allowed the students to attend the performance.

Pearson Sixth Grader Records Hole-In-One

Pearson sixth grader Jaden Zander, a member of the Shakopee Junior High Golf Team, recorded a hole-in-one on April 18 at Cleary Lake Golf Course in Prior Lake. Zander recorded the ace on the seventh hole, a 203-yard par three.

State HOSA Competition

A number of Shakopee students took part in the state HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) competition in mid-April. Ankith Arun took 1st place in researched persuasive speaking, 3rd place in creative problem solving, and fifth place in job seeking skills. Other results included Emily Nutter (2nd, dental terminology); Judy Panmany (3rd, creative problem solving and 5th in medical photography); Bradley Vilaychak (2nd, epidemiology and 3rd, extemporaneous health poster); Bruno Pareja (3rd, creative problem solving); Nicole Nimako-Boateng (4th, forensic medicine); and Charlize Bistodeau (4th, forensic medicine).

 

 

 

 

ALSO OPEN WEDNESDAY, MAY 18TH, FROM 3:00 – 5:30

SABER SHOP

SPRING SALE EARN YOUR DISCOUNT By Playing the Annual Bean Bag Toss Game

MAY 16TH – MAY 20TH 11:00 A.M. TO 12:15 P.M.

Earn Your Discount for the Day

1. Come to the store and get 10% discount 2. Play the bean bag toss game in front of the store and

receive 15% discount 3. Land on the bean bag board and receive 20% discount 4. Land in the bean bag hole and receive 25% discount