A Thanks and a Reminder!

If you are reading this blog, you are most likely a parent.  If you’re a parent, you’ve surely had the experience of driving around your own children in your vehicle.  Therefore, you understand on a very SMALL level, what it is like to drive a bus full of children.  Imagine driving your vehicle with 50 children in it!  Our bus drivers do this each morning and each afternoon for 9 months of the year!  Our drivers get our athletes to and from away games safely, navigate the Twin Cities during state competitions, and have to drive late at night many times!  I’m not sure HOW they manage to do it with skill, patience, and kindness but they do!  We are grateful for our bus drivers and appreciate all they do for our students!  Happy Bus Driver Appreciation Day!   

Parent/Teacher conferences for the high school are scheduled for March 12 from 2:30pm to 8:30pm in the Competition Gym.  Stop by and visit with your child’s teacher, pick up your child’s 3rd quarter report card, or simply come and have some cookies and juice!  

You know Spring is coming when registration booklets for the 2018-2019 school year come out! Your child brought home a registration sheet and you should have received the registration booklet via e-mail yesterday.  

Here are some notable changes for the 2018-2019 school year:

*10th grade PE is no longer required, but 10th grade Health IS still required.  We offer two Phy-Ed electives (Weightlifting and Fitness for Life) in grades 10-12 that students may register for if they want to take a class in that department.  Some students don’t want to be in Phy-Ed by the time they are in 10th grade and some students want to take a Phy-Ed class.  The choice is theirs!  Heath 10 is a semester class and the content is too valuable NOT to offer our students!  

*Economics is no longer a required class for seniors. The seniors’ schedules are now more open for electives. The only required classes for seniors next year is a year of World History, a year of Language Arts, and a semester of Living On Your Own. We hope this will allow seniors time in their day to take some of the new classes we have to offer.

*Seniors will have a choice between two teachers for World History.  We want students to have as much choice as possible their senior year and this option will provide students with an opportunity to match themselves up with a teacher who best suits their learning style.

*Weightlifting is a new elective to our registration booklet.  Students in grades 10-12 may take this class with Coach Johnston!  He will steer his instruction to fit the needs of a beginner-advanced ability student.

*Fitness for Life is now open to 10th-12th grade students.  Previously, it was only available for 11th and 12th grade students.

*Mr. Clausen is offering a Physics of Robotics elective. (Grades 10-12)  This class will give students a hands-on science elective.  They will be constructing robots, doing some coding, and enjoying the world of Robotics!  

*Mr. Buysse is offering an Intro to Drafting class. (Grades 10-12)  Students will explore areas of architecture, manufacturing, engineering, science, and mathematics.

*Mr. Buysse is also offering a two-hour Building Trades class. (see previous blog for more details).

*Mrs. Ruth Bot will be offering On the Job Training.  This program will offer students a work experience program (off campus) that teaches skills for a variety of occupations.  

*Band and Choir are now stand alone classes!  In our current setup, if you aren’t one of the 25 students who are in BOTH band and choir, you are forced to have a study hall every other day.  Many of our students ALREADY have a study hall a different hour, which means these students are sitting in study halls twice a day, one half of the school days of the year.  Both classes are worth a full credit now and both classes will finally be able to practice each and every day!  Our music department finally gets to take themselves to a whole new level with double the class time, double the instruction, and double the practice!  There are many things we can do in these classes with more time...marching, show choir, etc.  The possibilities are endless!  There should be room in a student’s schedule to have both band and choir as stand alone classes.

*Spanish 3 is offered for all students who have successfully completed Spanish 2.  Students will expand their vocabulary repertoire to include travel, leisure activities and more food!      

*Mrs. Opdahl is offering Digital Media as an elective in the English Department.  Photography, yearbook, digital editing, and more!  

*Kelsea Anderson (Tolk) was officially hired at last night’s school board meeting!  She joins our already talented English department!  She will be teaching English 8, Speech 11, and English 12 for the 2018-2019 school year!  

Because we are a small high school, we are limited in how many electives we can offer to our students.  We are doing our best to offer fresh, new electives to offer classes our students would enjoy.

January ramblings from a cluttered mind

• Since early December, we’ve been working hard on preparations for registration season.  I’ve met with nearly all the departments in the high school.  During these meetings we’ve strategized who should teach what next year, whether or not we split grades into two sections or three, and discussions on how to get more electives and college courses into the registration booklet. We’ve also conducted an interest survey with our 8th-11th grade students to better understand what new classes they’d like to see added to our registration booklet.

• One exciting new class we’ll be offering will be a two-hour Building Trades class.  This class will be returning to a day where we used to build garages, houses, sheds, and other on-site projects!  Mr. Matt Buysse will be looking for 10-15 students who are interested in construction (or other hands-on careers) after graduation.  A committee will be formed and will accept/decline project requests from community members.  The goal of the class will be to provide our students with a real world job site experience.  New dugouts for the baseball field (the one by the old tennis courts behind the school) will be one of the first projects this class will tackle next fall.  There will be information sent out to the community regarding project requests sometime this summer! 

• This year’s freshman class will have a brand new college offering available when they are seniors!  Mr. Darren Clausen is going back to get his Master’s Degree in Chemistry and will be able to offer a college chemistry class for the 2020-2021 school year!  My goal is to be able to offer college credits in all four core subject areas (Social Studies, English, Math, and Science).

• The new lights on the building (Monroe Street) give it a whole new look at night!  I knew it was dark, but now I realize just HOW dark it was in front of the building.  The parking lot and 5th Street/Jackson Street will be done this spring when the ground thaws.

•  We recently had a “Code Yellow” here at school.  When a code yellow is in place, it simply means that we want to keep the hallways clear of students so the administration/E-Team can deal with an emergency (usually medical).  Typically, it seems like we have one or two of these a year.  

Spring is on the way!  If you ever have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me here at school and I'll do my best to help!  

Jeremy W. Frie
High School Principal

Hello and Happy 2018!

It’s important that students have consistent attendance here at school.  However, I fully understand that from time to time, children get sick.  When your child is sick or is absent due to an appointment/other reasons and can’t come to school, it’s extremely important to report the absence to our high school secretary.  If we don’t hear from you by 8:30, we start calling all the phone numbers we have on file for you and if we don’t get an answer, we have to send law enforcement to your house to do a welfare check.  We don’t like having to do this, however, it’s our job to make sure all of our students are accounted for.  Note:  If the police do a welfare check, you aren’t in trouble.  We just want to verify that your child is safe and that parents are informed of their child's whereabouts!  

We don't know if a kid is in the ditch because of icy roads, is home sick, or is skipping school if we can't talk to his/her parents. Being excellent at communicating with each other is vital when it comes to attendance/child safety!

 

Here is an excerpt from school board policy:  

Excused Absences / Tardies

To be considered an excused absence, the student’s parent or legal guardian will be asked to verify, in writing or by phone, the reason for the student’s absence from school. Any anticipated absence from school requires written or verbal notice from the parent/guardian on the day of the absence. Parents are to call the high school secretary (507-872-6175) or extension 1100 by 8:30am. An e-mail, and/or voicemail are also an acceptable form of communication. A note from a physician or a licensed mental health professional stating that the student cannot attend school is also a valid excuse.

Welcome to December!

Greetings and Happy December!

What a great fall season we had in Minneota!  I enjoyed watching our students compete at the state level in both Volleyball and Football!  Our students represented our school and community well and served as excellent role models for our younger Vikings!  

Here are some news and notes for the high school as we approach the home stretch of the first semester:  

• We are making progress on our school website.  There are many pages to be finished yet but we are making definite progress!  Check out our Special Education, ECFE, and Testing pages...they were recently completed.

• Soon, we'll be surveying high school students to see if there are electives they'd like to see offered here at Minneota High School.  We are working to compile a list for them to look at and will be sending that out to them very soon.  As a school, I feel its important to get their opinion before planning begins for the 2018-2019 school year. 

• With having one-to-one technology here at school comes the responsibility of our teachers, tech department, and administration to make sure students are using it correctly and ultimately staying on task.  We use LanSchool here in Minneota (many districts do) to make sure students are staying engaged and on task during school hours.  You can check it out here: https://www.lenovosoftware.com/lanschool All teachers have this program loaded onto their computers and are supposed to be checking on their students from time to time to ensure students aren't playing games/watching movies, etc.  It really has become part of a teacher's classroom management responsibility.  Once students leave the building, they've left our server, which means that students have the ability to play games, watch Netflix, etc.  It also means all the sites we have blocked here are NOT blocked on the school-issued device when it is off campus.  Monitoring computer usage responsibilities fall to the parents after school hours.  Students are required to stay off of inappropriate websites (think R-Rated) even when outside of school when using a school-issued device, however, we can't actually block those sites when the computer is off campus.  You can always refer to the One-to-One Handbook for more details or contact me if you have questions.  It's good to check in on what your child is doing online from time to time to make sure they are making good decisions.  

• Our High School Announcements can be found on the front of our school website.  They are "real time" which means they are updated as information is given to us!  If you are interested , check-in frequently to stay up to date! 

• Junior Parents:  Please look for information regarding our upcoming ACT prep course (to be sent out in January)

• If you've attended a home girls' basketball game, you've noticed that the Pep Band has moved.  Mr. Voit, Mr. Myrvik, and myself met and decided to try it for the winter sports season.  There are several advantages: 1) Parents can actually watch their children participate in pep band 2) All students are together (band/non band) to create a bigger student section 3) There is more room for parents/Minneota adults to sit.  So far the change has worked well! 

• One of the new trends in education is to use Twitter for professional development.  Our teachers will be learning more about it in the near future.  It's a great way to get new ideas or to stay current with best practices! 

• Is there a teacher who you feel is doing a fantastic job with your child?  Take a moment to call or e-mail them a "thanks" for the work they do!  It will mean a lot to them.  

Some Important Dates/Events:

• December 6 - Scheduled Grade Check
• December 7 - High School Concert
• December 8 - Hats for Helping
• December 21 - Last day of Semester 1

I want to wish all of our Minneota Viking parents and community a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  It's been a great first half of the school year!  Enjoy your holiday season!  

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