Dear PUSD Families

 

I hope you have all had an incredible summer.  I know that for most parents your work schedule does not change, but hopefully, you were able to spend a little more time with your children.  All of mine are grown, but I still love the opportunity to spend as much time with them as possible.  This summer I was able to take off for one week and vacation with my entire family.

 

August 16th, the first day of school is upon us.  If you have not had the opportunity, I encourage you to take a drive and look at all the new facilities that are being created for your students.  We had ribbon cutting for both the Junior High and High School the past few days.  As soon as the construction is completed on the Pine Ridge Administration building we will also have a ribbon cutting.  We will keep you updated. 

 

PUSD has three main goals to improve student success this year. 

 

The first if developing Professional Learning Communities.  The purpose of Professional Learning Communities are as follows:  1. Identify what we want students to know 2. Review the data to see if they learned it, and 3.  Discuss the strategies that teachers used to get great results and share them with one another.  There is much to this process, but that is the short version. 

 

The second goal is to improve the attendance of our students.  If students are not present they don’t learn and they fall behind. In a meeting with our high school students, they stated that when you miss a day you feel like you are behind and it makes you feel like not coming the next day.  We know that when students get behind it often leads to behavior issues because they don’t feel successful.  Missing one day makes a difference.  Schools are funded by attendance so missing school can also affect the programs.  In 2017/18 we had an average attendance rate of 95%.  Last year we were about 88%.  This costs millions of dollars in lost programs for kids.  With this said, we trust our parents will make the right decision for their child.

 

The third goal is Social Emotional Learning.  While the learning is addressed in PLCs, the social-emotional part is addressed through our curriculum called RULER.  RULER stands for Understand, Label, Express, and Regulate.  We will continue to implement in all grade levels this next year. 

 

If these sound familiar that is good as we are continuing this focus from last year.

 

As we begin the school year, I hope you find your child loving school.  As educators we are not only responsible for the learning of your child, but most important their well-being.  We take pride in the work we do to serve all of you.  If you ever find that you are not completely satisfied, please reach out to us.  We are part of your team in supporting your child from pre-school to graduation.

 

I know I can speak for all of PUSD when I say thank you for allowing us to serve your family.

 

Take care,