Letter from the Superintendent - March 2015
March is upon us and thoughts shift to the possibility of warmer weather and spring activities. We have so many things coming up that will keep our students very busy. It is very important that students get an adequate amount of sleep to be able to do their best in the classroom. It becomes very difficult when they are arriving home late from a speech meet or FFA Contest, etc. We have many students that are involved in their family farm operations so kids are just plain busy. Planning ahead is a must!
There is slow but steady progress on the elementary bathroom project and we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. It is certainly not on the timeline that we would like, but it will be great to have these new facilities for our students. The school board building and grounds committee recently met and we discussed several future needed projects, addressing everything from drainage issues at the elementary that cause safety concerns, to needed upkeep on the exterior of the school. We will continue to update the heating and air conditioning units as we evaluate the effectiveness of the new units installed this year. They have done a good job so far. We will also be looking at traffic flow issues and how to provide more parking for parents and visitors while maintaining adequate parking space for teachers and staff.
At the state level there will be a new evaluation system that will more adequately look at schools and measure them in a variety of ways. This new system will not just rank schools by how they perform on NeSA tests, but will examine a variety of areas that will give educators indicators of what is working well and where needs can be addressed. It is supportive, better structured and will help us help our kids be more college and career ready. As this program goes through the adoption process, we will be able to reveal more of how it will work for Southwest. Our goal is to always look for and implement better ways to address student needs.
Sincerely,
R. Todd Porter - Superintendent