What’s school picture day like in 2017?

The start of the school year marked my 17^th year in education.  Of those 17 years, I’ve ran school picture day for 16 of those years between two districts.  Things sure have changed drastically over the years.

Early on in my career, I had a bad experience with a national company and vowed to always shop local for as long as I’m in charge of school pictures.  The local photographer has their name and reputation on the line, which means they take extra care to make sure each child takes a great picture.  The local photographer sends the owners of the company to take the pictures, which ensures excellent quality. The local photographer spends their hard-earned money right here in our region.

 

Photoworks of Marshall, MN, take our sports and school pictures here in Minneota.  They’ve been in business since 1981 and are a staple of Southwest Minnesota.  Randy and Shari provide a good product and even better customer service. 

  

Gone are the free combs and the mystery of how the child’s picture will turn out.  Each picture pops up on the computer screen for the photographer to approve before the child leaves the seat.  I can recall a day when “retake day” was nearly as busy as the actual picture day.  Those days are gone, too!  Very rarely do children get retakes with new technologies in place.

I will hold strong and continue to shop locally when those national companies come in with their “outrageous offers” and “free gifts for the school."           

A Motivational Day Coming Our Way!

We had a successful week here at Minneota High School!  Week 2 will mean we are at full-strength with our state fair students returning!  

I’m pleased to inform you that on Wednesday, September 6, our students in grades 5-12 will be treated to a motivational speech from Bob Bardwell from 2:30-3:00pm.  Bob’s message will be “It’s not what happens to you it’s what you do about it..”   He will stay after school and will be speaking to our faculty/staff, too.  

A little bit about Bob:

• has completed over 100 marathons in his wheelchair
• is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame
• Founder and Director of 200 acre ranch in Southern Minnesota serving 24,000 people annually at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch

• General Contractor/fundraiser of a 5 million dollar lodge called the "Miracle Lodge."
• Founder/director of OPERATION WELCOME HOME. Free retreats for soldiers
• National Motivational Speaker... It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do about it
• Took 100 wheelchairs to Ghana, W. Africa, resulting in Ghana taking their first ever disabled athletes to the Paralympics
• Counselor and Coach
• Author of an inspirational book called “Marathons of Life.”
• Founder/Director of the National Wheelchair Sports & Recreation Camp (1986)
• Author of a history of the Ranch called "Spreading Joy and Changing Lives" (2014)

http://ironwoodsprings.com/bobbardwell.aspx

A survival guide to the first day of school:

Every year, we look to improve on the previous year here at Minneota High School.  We’ve made some physical changes to the building and have some handbook/rule changes that were implemented over the summer.

A summary:

• We swapped out 32 old security cameras for 32 new HD cameras, bringing our total to 48!  I take a lot of pride in providing a safe school for our students.  The cameras help to prevent theft from lockers, physical altercations between students, and help us solve some of the day-to-day mischief that occurs in the building.  

• In July, I traveled to State College, PA, to design and create a new school website.  It’s being worked on behind the scenes on an incubation site and we hope to “go live” in mid-September.  We’ll have the same address as the old one.  I think the new website will represent the district well!  Here is a little preview of the new site! 

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• Daily announcements will be updated each day at approximately 1pm.  The announcements will be found on the school website (front page, upper right link above) and will be displayed on the two in-house TV’s.  Parents, please check the website as you see fit and encourage your child to check the TV’s and/or the website to stay updated on important information.

• The calendar on the school website will list all athletic practices and activities that happen here in the school.  It is updated frequently and will be reliable and accurate.   

• Fidget Spinners and like devices are no longer allowed here at school unless it has been written into an IEP or 504 plan.  Teachers found them to be very distracting to the learning process.

• Students who are taking PSEO classes who drop a class after the deadline (for full-reimbursement) will receive an “F” on their high school transcript for that class.  Last year, the district had to pay $5,863 for students who dropped college classes after the college deadline for full-reimbursement.  Students CAN drop classes but need to be mindful of the college deadline.  

• Part-Time PSEO students/students taking online classes have the right to be here at school, however, they will be assigned to a study hall during those hours they don’t have a class offered from MHS.

• Be sure to read through the “Plagiarism” section of the discipline matrix, it was “tightened” up quite a bit.  I will be talking with all students about plagiarism on the first day of school.  

• We installed a new water fountain and a hallway TV upstairs in the high school. Students will be able to see announcements on the TV and will enjoy the new bottle-filling water fountain.

• We painted Mrs. Citterman’s, Mrs. Boerboom’s, Mrs. Opdahl’s, Mr. Panka’s and Mr. Buysse’s classrooms.  It’s amazing what a fresh paint job can do to an old classroom!      

Tomorrow, I will update this blog with a whole bunch of important dates to remember.  

Have a great day!  

Jeremy W. Frie

High School Principal

Welcome to the 2017-2018 School Year!

I hope that you had an enjoyable summer and are excited for the upcoming school year!  My role in the district has changed a little bit with the district moving back to a more traditional administrative structure.  I enjoyed my four years as a K-12 principal and I will really miss working with the elementary staff.  I will especially miss working with the students!       

I’m very proud of our great high school here in Minneota!  We have teachers who are passionate about their jobs and offer modern instruction accompanied with high expectations.  We have students who are well-behaved and aren’t afraid of working hard in the classroom. We have a school board who holds us all to high expectations and strives to provide a first-class school for the town of Minneota.  I believe a high school is only as good as its teachers.  We have GREAT teachers!  They teach the MN State Standards with intensity and make meaningful connections with our students.

The newest data is in and I’m excited to let you know:

We are #1 out of 28 area schools in our High School Reading MCA scores.

We are #2 out of 28 area schools in our High School Science MCA scores.

We are #4 out of 28 area schools in our High School Math MCA scores.  

Ever since I got here four years ago, I frequently heard: “Minneota is where you go if you want to excel in sports.”  Each year that goes by, I’m hearing less and less of that and more and more talk about, “what a great school” we are.  The goal is to be the best in everything we offer/do here at Minneota High School.  The students deserve a school that is well-rounded and strong in all areas, not just athletics.  

We’ve had remarkable stability the last few years here at Minneota Public Schools in terms of teacher turnover.  We have only two new teachers out of 46 for the second consecutive year!  Having this stability is beneficial for a school district for many different reasons!  We welcome Matt Buysse (Shop/FFA) and Emily Citterman (Jr. High Math) to our team.  They are both excited to get started and will no doubt do an excellent job for our students!  You can learn more about them on our school Facebook.  

In the coming days, I will be updating this blog frequently with important information/changes for the 2017-2018 school year!  Each time I update this blog, I will send an e-mail to let you know it has been updated.  

I hope you are as excited as I am for the school year to start!  

Have a great day,

Jeremy W. Frie

High School Principal

Minneota Public Schools