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Tuesday, May 4, 2010 Dear Parent, This is the time of year when many children are excited about the prospect of summer vacation. It is a wonderful time to renew ourselves and enjoy a slower pace of life. As we prepare to conclude this school year, we have been busy making many plans for the coming year. Now that plans have been finalized, it seems timely to share some changes we will implement in our school next year. As many of you know, we are about to bid a fond farewell to three of our teachers, Mrs. Pensick, Mrs. Erickson, and Mrs. Parsons. We are grateful for the time they have spent with our students and we look forward to hearing about their next adventures. Effective schools are always involved in continuous improvement. Each year we look at ways we may improve while continuing the excellent tradition St. Robert Bellarmine School has built over many years. From the continuous improvement process, two decisions have been made which will impact our school in very positive ways. The first is that we will apply to become an accredited school through the Nebraska Department of Education. We are currently an approved school, as are most elementary schools within the Omaha Archdiocese. As we investigated the accreditation process, it became apparent that we already meet most of the criteria for accreditation. Therefore, it makes sense to move forward with pursuing accreditation for the 2010-2011 school year. From your vantage point as a parent, nothing will look obviously different. We look forward to joining the short list of Catholic elementary schools that are currently accredited. Secondly, as part of our continuous improvement efforts, our Jr. High teachers have taken time to study best practices for educating adolescent students. A significant decision that resulted was the desire to direct our focus and practices in the direction of established “middle school” philosophies. The current junior high will now be known as our middle school, however, the most important changes are not in name only. As we studied how to best meet the educational and emotional needs of our middle school students, we understood that it would be important to capitalize upon the strengths and varied talents of our teachers. Mrs. Nancy Coffey will move to our Library/Media position. Mr. Chris Dziadus will move to the Social Studies position. Mrs. Lisa Linquist will serve our students as a Resource teacher, and Mrs. Rene Dytrych will be the Math teacher for our middle school students. We are delighted to welcome two additional middle school teachers; one to teach 7-8 Science and another to teach 6-8 Spanish. They are passionate middle school educators who will fit well into our upcoming middle school concept. We look forward to introducing them formally in August when we share more specific plans with our middle school parents. As we close out another successful school year, we eagerly anticipate the great things that are ahead in 2010-2011. We look forward to beginning anew on our path toward becoming leaders of all to Christ when we meet again in August. Please call the office at 334-1929 if you have any questions. Sincerely, Mrs. Sandra Suiter Principal |
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