It’s hard to believe that in 22 days, the 2018-2019 school year will begin! I hope you’ve had a good summer, filled with highlights and memories! The Frie family enjoyed a road-trip to Myrtle Beach, SC where we spent a week enjoying the ocean, the pool, and most importantly time together without the distraction of our busy lives here in Minneota! We fear it may be our last road trip as our kids are getting too tall to sit for that many hours in a mini-van! If your household is like my household, you’re probably ready for your children to get back into a routine and get back to school! There are many exciting things happening at Minneota Public Schools! I’ll be highlighting a few changes, some beefed up security procedures, and updating you on a lot of general information.
ALICE
In July, I traveled to Winona, MN, with our leadership team (Mrs. Knutson, Mrs. Rodas, and Mrs. Mahan-Deitte) to attend an ALICE Training. ALICE stands for: Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. We experienced several mock school shootings, practiced better ways to lock-down, studied previous school shootings across our country and learned about better ways to protect our students and staff here at Minneota Public Schools. We came away from the training with many ideas that we will be implementing right here in our own building. We will be spending 3 hours training every single employee of the school district at our back-to-school workshops and will be training our students very early in the school year. There will be more detailed information sent out about what exactly we are doing for lockdowns once the school year starts.
Construction Updates and School Safety Measures
The high school portion of the construction project is going very smoothly. Here is what will be new:
- Solid wood doors with no windows were installed in all high school classrooms. These doors will have a dual key locking system, which means teachers can lock the doors with a key from the inside or the outside of the room. If there is a dangerous threat in the school and we need to lockdown, teachers no longer have to go into the hallway to lock their doors to secure their rooms. The high school teachers and I chose to have doors without windows to maximize safety for our students and staff.
- New lockers were installed upstairs, replacing our old, broken-down lockers. We estimate those old lockers to be 42 years old (according to the graffiti on the walls from the class of 1975 behind those lockers)!
- Our FACS room has been expanded, giving Mrs. LeaAnne Bot more room to utilize sewing machines and her kitchen area. She typically has big classes, so this will be a nice improvement for the students!
- All new flooring was installed upstairs in the high school classrooms!
- All new windows and blinds will be installed upstairs in the next two weeks!
- The Competition Gym was painted, the piping was framed in, and the wall tiles were covered with a modern paneling. Brand new LED lights were installed, making the gym much brighter! A group of students came to school to meet with AP design on multiple occasions and designed a great new mural. That should be installed next week! The stage pad and the gym pad for underneath the basketball hoop are ordered and should be here before school starts. We need to put banners back on the walls and are waiting for the new doors to be installed, but everything should be ready for our first home volleyball game on August 28! It’s been great seeing the reaction of the students when they first see the gym! It truly has been transformed and modernized! I believe we have one of the very best gyms in the conference and our students deserve it!
- New lights were installed in the parking lot, which should help provide more safety for students, staff, and parents when accessing their cars at night. The lights also help our exterior cameras!
- 36 additional speakers were installed throughout the building to ensure that when the intercom is used, all people in the building can hear it!
- Both science rooms were painted by Mr. Skillings and look great!
There will be more information communicated regarding school safety measures in the near future.
Backpacks
For the past two years there has been an ongoing internal conversation in the high school regarding backpacks in the classrooms. Two years ago, I surveyed the students to learn “why” they carry them. Most of the responses had to do with “convenience.” Last year, the teachers were surveyed and nearly 80% of the teachers responded with wanting backpacks out of their classrooms. One teacher wrote: "The classrooms are too crowded with the backpacks in the room. Some of my classes have 28 students in them. When the majority of students bring their backpacks into the room, it is almost as if I am adding extra bodies into an already full room. Therefore, it is hard to maneuver about the classroom and offer students help when they need it or to monitor students as they work. The backpacks also become a huge tripping hazard for myself and others who are walking in the room. We are already tiptoeing around computer charging cords plugged into the walls, and the backpacks exacerbate this situation." Another teacher wrote: "I worry about school safety. If someone brings a weapon, it will be in a backpack, not a locker."
After meeting with the Policy Committee of the Board of Education, we’ve decided to phase out backpacks in the classrooms over a two-year period. Backpacks WILL NOT be allowed in classrooms for grades 7, 8, and 9 for the 2018-2019 school year with the entire high school going backpack free (in classrooms) starting with the 2019-2020 school year.
Here is the reasoning:
- The backpacks take up a lot of room on the classroom floors, making it hard for teachers and students to move around in a safe fashion. We’ve had teachers and students trip and fall in the congested aisles.
Students feel much more comfortable carrying things they aren’t supposed to bring to school if their backpack is with them all day. Teachers and I worry about students carrying weapons, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and other things that students shouldn’t have in school into the classroom. We fully realize that students may still bring these items to school, they just won’t be in a populated area.- My own child isn’t too thrilled with this “new rule” and is concerned about getting to class on time with having to go to her locker in-between classes. I’ve studied the passing time between classes and on average last year there was 1 minute, 20 seconds of leeway (completely empty hallways) during each passing time. This means that students are easily getting to their classes on time and will continue to have plenty of time to get to arrive on time without their backpacks.
- How do we keep devices safe? The best advice would be to leave the device in the locker if it isn’t needed (Band, Choir, Shop, etc.) I’d also recommend purchasing a laptop sleeve (pictured above). I will be purchasing one for my child and they are very reasonable on Amazon. You can get one for as little as $8 and they come waterproof, padded, etc.
- Students may use a school-issued padlock if they are worried about keeping the contents in their backpacks safe. Your student can check one out in the K-12 office...see Allyson for details.
- We have HD cameras that cover all locker areas, which should help prevent any theft from lockers. If there is theft from a locker, the school reserves the right to press charges through the Minneota Police Department. We have great kids here in Minneota and we don’t have a lot of theft here at Minneota High School. I don’t anticipate that to change.
- About 50% of the schools in the area have a “no backpack” in the classroom policy; however, we are seeing more and more schools go to this in light of the increase in school shootings.
Other Miscellaneous Information:
- Your student probably received their schedules in the mail. Pay no attention to the room numbers on the schedule. The rooms are being re-numbered as part of the construction project. New schedules will be issued during 1st hour on the first day of school.
- Students will be using a “fingerprint scanner” much like the ones on an iPhone for school lunch! More information will be coming regarding this change in the near future!
- You can stop in to deposit lunch money or to purchase activity passes. Stop into the K-12 office. The office is open from 7:30-4:00 each business day!
I’ve always enjoyed this time of the year! There is great excitement for the new school year, the new sports seasons are starting, and the return to a daily routine! There will be much more important information communicated via email in the coming weeks! Please be sure to check your email frequently and be sure the school has an accurate email address for you!
Have a great day and enjoy these last summer days!
Jeremy W. Frie
High School Principal
High School Principal
