The first day of school is one of my favorite days of the year. Students enter the building with excitement ready to tackle the day. Staff members are enthusiastic as they greet their new students, and that creates a buzz as everyone catches up on their summer and eagerly begins the new year. Thank you for making the first day and each day since a success! You are all superheroes! On August 17 the annual Meet the Indians Night also included the rededication of the District Stadium. It was a special night as many parents and patrons attended the event, providing the first opportunity for them to see the stadium upgrades. We appreciate the community's pride in our District and are excited to honor that by celebrating the renovated stadium with them. The most exciting part about the renovated stadium is the number of students who will utilize and benefit from the facility through a wide variety of District events and youth activities.
This year we want everyone to know and appreciate that Every Minute Matters when it comes to attendance. Toward this end, we have a districtwide attendance initiative to promote good attendance among everyone at Fort Osage, especially our students. District staff members worked with parents and students last spring to research and discuss the best strategies to improve attendance. Among the ideas being implemented this year as part of the initiative:
While we have much to be proud of in Fort Osage regarding student achievement and other indicators of success, attendance is an area in which we definitely have room to improve. During the 2017-18 school year, only 83.5% of our students districtwide attended school at least 90% of the time. That means that over 800 students missed more than 17 days of school. We know that this attendance issue affects not only student learning during the current year, but also long-term achievement and life skill development. Parents can learn more about the Every Minute Matters initiative at this link on the District webpage: https://www.fortosage.net/Domain/185 and staff can find supports for your role in the initiative, as well as relevant attendance data on this site: https://tinyurl.com/fortemm. We are excited about our opportunity to address this problem in our District and we look forward to partnering with staff, parents and students across the District as we work to help everyone understand that Every Minute Matters at Fort Osage. With the ribbon cutting of the renovated District Stadium behind us, five of the six bond projects are officially complete. The completed projects include improvements to District playgrounds, resurfacing the walking trails at Buckner, Blue Hills, and Elm Grove Elementary and hard play resurfacing at Fire Prairie; new warehouse freezers; roof top repairs at Fire Prairie, Blue Hills and the District warehouse; stadium renovation; and the high school breezeway enclosure. Crews are continuing to work at Woodland Early Childhood Center. The building will open in January. If you enjoy barbecuing then you will certainly enjoy this give away. Four steaks (two 6 oz. sirloins and two 10 oz. KC strips) from the KC Steak Company will be given away to one lucky winner using the RNG. If you're interested, please email me at [email protected] with the word 'steak' in the subject line by 8:00 am on Tuesday, September 4. Give Away prizes are not purchased with District funds. Only Fort Osage employees are eligible to enter the drawing. |
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