October News from Barbara Wilson, Principal Falcon Ridge Elementary
Imagine it's a cold if not bright October morning, and when you walk the bustling halls of Falcon Ridge Elementary you see students skipping, high-fiving, and even hugging their teachers on their way to class. As usual, it's just another busy day at our school in New Prague!

We have a fantastic school district. We have awesome teachers, super kids, and wonderful community support. Creating a superior school system doesn't just happen all on its own. We have great schools as a result of some key factors driving our success. Here's a few of those factors we are focused on to help our students be successful and happy:
1. We know where we are going and we have a map to get there
From top to bottom, we have created a vision and set goals and strategies to keep us among the top schools and districts in our state. Our district is currently undertaking a comprehensive strategic planning process that will bring a crystal-clear focus to decision making and future planning for our schools.

2. It's all about results
We are using data to tell us how well we are doing, and then using these results to change what we teach. This is not an easy job: parents, teachers, and administrators must look closely at how each student is doing on final course assessments, national and state tests, and teacher-driven assignments. By measuring what students can do, we get important information about what we and our students need to work on next.

3. Teaching is now a team sport
We are teaching in teams to produce an excellent, consistent, repeatable, and continuously improving set of experiences for all of our children. Everyone who has played on a winning team has experienced the incredible thrill that success brings to a group of people committed to a common goal. Our common goal is success for every student – and the best way to make this happen is to coordinate our efforts and work well together.

4. Strong communities foster healthy students
We promote activities and events that create a sense of support and belonging, in good times and bad, for our students, staff, and their families. We promote community in our classrooms, our schools, and our district. We know that by building this broad sense of support, we are building into our neighborhoods, our businesses, and our future leaders.

5. Some things are more important than others
We are devoting more classroom time to teaching reading, science, and math. We understand that our students will need to be excellent at problem-solving, be creative to find new solutions, and have strong ethics to be good future leaders. We embrace helping our students master the basics while developing the needs of our 21st century learners.

6. Everyone, and we mean everyone, matters
We strive to have students make progress and succeed at ALL academic levels, including low, middle, and high performers. Every student matters in our schools. We want to design options for students so that they can participate in learning activities that meet their needs and give them the skills they must master to be successful at the next level.

7. We are taking action to do our jobs as professionals well
We have a great Staff, but we cannot afford to rest on how well we have done in the past. Instead, we must have a continued commitment to get better and better each day at what we do and how we do it! Our students deserve the very best we have to offer, but with changes in technology and an increasingly competitive global outlook, we must keep learning and growing to maintain our edge in professional excellence. We can and we want to do that for our kids!

And now I will renew an open and ongoing invitation to you: please keep taking the time and making the effort to be involved and help us create the NPAS district of the future. I know this is a district we are all proud of; your help and your involvement are essential for the well-being of our schools. If you have a free moment, please stop by any of our schools and just say hello. Come at arrival or dismissal times and just watch our students come and go in an interactive, energetic, focused, top-notch school community. Better yet, look for the countless opportunities to be a school volunteer! Whatever your level of involvement, you are sure to leave with a renewed commitment to your community and our future.