I hope you had a restful holiday season and are ready for the new year! As the high school principal of Minneota Public Schools, I look back at 2018 and appreciate all the successes and exciting things that took place.
Construction Project - The gym got a facelift, the flooring in the high school classrooms got replaced, new windows and blinds were installed in the upstairs classrooms, our FACS room got a much-needed expansion, and old lockers were replaced with new ones! We are blessed to have the community support to make these upgrades!
Student Success - Our Volleyball team won a State Championship in 2018, our Girls Basketball team placed 3rd at State, and our Boys Basketball team nearly advanced to their first-ever state tournament! The fall musical was a smashing success and programs like Speech and Robotics continue to get stronger as the years go by.
State Testing - Our high school students dominated the MCA testing in all three areas! High expectations and teaching/learning the state standards are two things that are happening in our classrooms!
There were many more successes and many other great things that happened here at school in 2018! Looking ahead to 2019 we are working on exciting things behind the scenes in our high school. Before the holiday break, our staff watched the movie “Most Likely to Succeed”. We followed it up with two hours of discussion in our PLC’s and are making plans of modernizing our teaching and overall philosophies in the classroom. The movie impacted me as a principal and as a parent! The movie really called to attention the fact that the public education system has failed to adapt and modernize with new generations of students. This movie is a must watch for any educator or parent. It can be found on Amazon Prime, Google, etc. Here is the official trailer.
One thing is for sure, I refuse to let our school become complacent. We do many things well here in our high school, but there are always things we can improve and we need to continue to modernize the education we are offering our students. We need to equally focus on making sure students have SKILLS that will help them for the real world while teaching the content. As a staff, we’ve identified many skills (not content knowledge...think self-advocacy, how to interview, giving a professional presentation, importance of digital citizenship, manners/etiquette) that WE think students should have, but what do YOU think as a parent? I’d love to hear from YOU, what skills do students need to have before they graduate and join society as adults? We have a list started and we want to get ideas from you, the parent! Please e-mail jeremy.frie@minneotaschools.org any ideas you may have and we’ll get them added to the list! I will report back at a later date!
I wish you and your family health and happiness in 2019!
Sincerely,
Jeremy W. Frie
High School Principal
