School Building Projects 101

When I first moved to Minneota, my wife and I dreamed of building our dream house.  We rented a couple of different houses and narrowed our dreams to focus on one particular house plan.  During this time, we were in the middle of a building project here at school (modernizing the offices/improving building security) and ever since that project, I’ve magically lost my desire to build my dream house or any house at all!  Building projects are complicated, expensive, and are plain and simple A LOT of work!  Fast forward a few years and I’m once again finding myself headfirst into blueprints, long-meetings, and constantly asking contractors questions like “What will that cost?” and “Can that wall surface be easily damaged by a student?”  I’ve even become an expert on toilet sizes and can speak fluently about “solar tubes.” This will be the third building project in my tenure here at Minneota Public Schools and I can assure you I’m not whining or complaining about building projects. It’s just the opposite, actually!  I fully realize how blessed I am to work in a community that is supportive of its school and for a school board that aggressively attacks areas of deficiency in our school district.

What is the process like?

We have a lot of meetings with a lot of different people.  We’ve had two meetings that were long and arduous and had more than a dozen people in attendance.  In attendance, we had the head contractor from CTS Group, Joe Henn, engineers in the plumbing and electrical worlds, architects from various firms, board members, school administration, and our Athletic Director and Facilities Manager.  Making decisions in these large group meetings can be challenging as there are many different opinions at the table.  At the end of the day, we are trying to make the best “30-year decisions.”  We want to make the best decision for our current students/staff AND our future students/staff.  We’ve also had small committee meetings where we “zero in and focus” on topics like the locker rooms and the gyms.  This week, I’ll be meeting with high school teachers to select the new flooring for the high school rooms!  Picking out flooring for my own house is stressful enough, let alone picking out a floor that is supposed to last for “30 years!”  I’m glad I have a group of teachers willing to help make this decision!

I learned in the first two building projects that being extremely detailed and bold enough to interrupt and correct things during meetings is essential to this whole process.  In this building project there are new classrooms being created, offices disappearing, and rooms being expanded.  Our administration team has met to go over the potential room/office placements twice already, making sure that we don’t make any mistakes during the planning process.

Many questions like “Will the two gyms be available at all next summer?” and “Will the locker rooms be ready for the beginning of the falls sports season?” all remain unanswered at this point in time. Once the bids get opened in December, we’ll start to learn more and have a more detailed timeline!

I do know one thing, this place is going to look beautiful when this project is done! I personally can’t wait to see the kids’ faces when they first get to see the new bathrooms, new floors, new lights, and all the other improvements we hope to make!  

Solar Tubes to be used in new interior classrooms.

Welcome to October!

Greetings,

The first quarter is quickly coming to an end, which is hard to believe!  It’s been a great start to the 2017-2018 school year!  

-Homecoming 2017 had a different feel to it with all of the balancing of different sports schedules, but the students had a blast!  The participation in dress up days was noticeably better and the school spirit in general, was simply awesome!  The return of the Homecoming buttons was very popular with the Student Council selling 500 in only a few days!  It was impressive to see the students having so much fun, yet behaving so well!  We have great kids here at Minneota High School!  

-Last week, a small group of coaches/administrators toured Brandon Valley High School in Brandon, SD, and Hills-Beaver Creek High School (built a few years ago) to see their locker rooms, coaches’ offices, and gymnasiums.  We brought back some good ideas to incorporate into the blueprints as we get into the more detailed part of the planning for our upcoming building project.  

-Last summer, I went to State College, PA, to learn how to create/design a new school website.  It’s been a cumbersome experience, but we will be ready to launch the new school website on October 10, 2017.  At some point during that day, you’ll visit the school website and it will be a completely new look!  It will be the same address, just a brand new site replacing the old one.  A detailed “how to” will be coming your way just before the launch date.  

-We had our Hall of Fame ceremony on September 23 and it was a night full of live history, emotion, and Minneota pride.  For someone who is relatively new to Minneota, I’ve enjoyed the first two ceremonies where I was able to learn about the history of this school/town and witness the immense pride these inductees have for our school/community.  Our next Hall of Fame induction will take place in 2019, during Homecoming Week.

-I’ve been surveying other area schools to learn how/what they do for ACT preparation as a school.  In advance of our April 3 test date, we will be offering John Baylor Prep http://www.ontocollege.com/ as an option for students who want to really prepare for the ACT.  Our latest scores (class of 2017, where the state required everyone to take it) didn’t quite represent what we expect from our students.  Each year, we continue to hover just above or just below the state average.  The ACT’s are a little more difficult for the school to prepare students for because the test isn’t aligned to MN State Standards and it’s a timed test.  Typically, students don’t have timed tests and it’s a big adjustment to have the pressure of a clock while taking a test!  We will be working hard to make sure that our students have every advantage so they can take the ACT test, fully prepared.  

     

Some important dates/information:  

• The next scheduled grade check is October 4.
• The new school website will be launched on October 10.
• NHS Blood Drive is October 16
• The end of the quarter is October 17, a day where we will release students at 12:15.

Have a great week!  

Jeremy W. Frie

High School Principal

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

February News and Notes - High School Edition

Spring has agreed to give us a sneak preview over the next 5-10 days!  I see multiple days of 60 degree weather coming our way!  What a great gift in the month of February!  It won’t be long and the grass will start to turn green and we’ll see leaves on the trees!    

Our juniors took a practice ACT today here at school.  We made the testing environment as authentic as we could!  We turned off the bells, set the scoreboard timer, and got a good practice session in!  The REAL THING takes place on 2/28!  

I want to wish our Wrestlers good luck tonight and hopefully on Saturday!  Show them what Vikings are made of!  

Good luck to the girls and boys basketball teams as they head into the postseason!  Both teams have had great seasons and will be feared in the playoffs!

A special congratulations to Lydia Sussner for scoring her 1,000th point the other night!  Lydia is a good basketball player, a great student, and an even better person.  Many young Vikings look up to her!  Well done, Lydia!  

I got the opportunity to mock interview roughly ½ of the Class of 2017 over the past two weeks as part of an assignment in Language Arts 12 with Mrs. Opdahl.  They worked on everything from the handshake to asking follow-up questions at the end of the interview.  I asked some tough questions and they handled them quite well!  I’ve been impressed with the maturity and overall behavior of this senior class!  It won’t be long and they’ll be walking across that stage in May with their caps and gowns!

We are still searching for an Ag/Shop teacher/FFA advisor for the 2017-2018 school year.  We’ve interviewed a few candidates but we are finding that many of the recent college graduates are very Agriculture-based with their skillsets and are lacking in the shop skills.  Most of our class offerings here in Minneota are shop-related and I believe we should offer SHOP and AGRICULTURE to our students.  We will continue to advertise and will continue to be aggressive in our search.  We want the very best teacher we can get for our students...they deserve it!  

Registration season is quickly approaching!  There will be information on registration coming your way during the month of March.  

Did you know that 93 of our 7-12 students made either the A or Straight A honor roll at semester?  Did you know that 51 of our 7-12 students made the B honor roll?  It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to accomplish these feats!  I’m proud of how hard our students work.  

The last day of the 3rd quarter is March 10.  

You can follow Minneota Public Schools on Facebook and on Instagram...simply search for:  minneotapublicschools  

Enjoy the weather and enjoy rooting for our Vikings as they enter the postseason!