Greetings Dee-Mack,
Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year, we have now been in session for two and half weeks. Students are getting settled into classes and teachers are digging into their curriculum. I want to write a post each month detailing things happening throughout the district as well as decisions made to keep all of you up to date. I also want to share pictures of events that take place at the start of the year as well as highlighting some changes we have had in the district.
Changes within the district:
Skyward - We have moved our financial and student management systems to a program called Skyward Q. We want to thank you all for being patient as we move over to this new program as it has had its challenges within the implementation phase. We tried to get information out to everyone as quickly as possible for registration but know it was difficult for some to get it completed. Thank you for the emails so we could assist in this transaction.
Copiers and Printers- We have changed companies for which we lease our copiers and printers. This change will save the district >$2000 a month.
Life Skills Kitchen- We have upgraded some of the cabinets in the life skills kitchen which is also used for a concession stand for home in door events. This was very much needed as the bottom of the cupboards were in need of much repair.
Scoreboards- We have added two new scoreboards in the gymnasium and funds used to pay for this project were either donated or fund raised.
Buses- We have traded in two buses and purchased a new activity bus which was very much needed. Our fleet of buses are aging, but we do a very good job of maintaining the buses we own. I'm giving a "shout out" to all of our drivers and Darren Adams who takes very good care of our buses so they will last. Our drivers are very cautious with our precious cargo, and they are very caring individuals.
Routes- We updated our Transfinder software that maps our routes and in doing so we were able to absorb a route. This allows us to reconfigure routes and be more efficient in the process. It takes at least a week to run a route to get the times established so I appreciate all the families who were understanding with the new route/driver changes.
New Faces:
Please help me welcome these educators to the Dee-Mack Family: .
Bethany Scroggs- Primary Life Skills; Kate Wettstein- PK Teacher; Lisa Smith- PK Para; Josie Weiler- JH ELA Teacher;
Tony Jackson- HS PE Teacher; Brian Hambleton- HS PE/Health; Rob Hinrichson- HVAC and Facilities;
Lisa Knight: IS Special Ed Teacher; Rachel Glassey- IS 1-1 Para.
New Places:
Kendra Morgan is the new PE teacher at the Intermediate School and Fallon Wall is teaching 5th grade this year at the Intermediate School.
We started our year with a special guest speaker Mrs. Heidy LaFleur who spoke to us about ways to help hard to manage, disruptive and uninterested students all through the trauma sensitive lens. She shared her very personal story with us and was very informational.
We are very excited to start the year with many events going on - there was a great turn out at the ice cream social hosted by the PTO at the Primary and Junior High School; High School students started the year with a fun day and the theme for the year of "kindness"; The Intermediate School learned about standards based grading through a presentation from Theresa Holly at the back to school night.
We look forward to a very exciting year!
Michele Jacobs
Superintendent