From the Principal’s Desk

August 2009

Welcome back to Midland Elementary School and to the 2009-2010 school year!

Welcome to Midland Elementary School! Midland Elementary School is a Pre-K through fourth grade elementary attendance center, serving families living in the communities of Lacon, Sparland and Varna. This year, nearly 340 children will attend our school.

This will be my sixth year as principal at Midland Elementary School. As we approach the upcoming school year, we will welcome two new teachers and new support staff. In spite of the financial woes and reduction in funds from our state government, we will still offer three sections of Starting Blocks Pre-K for qualifying students, along with our Early Childhood Special Education class.

Teachers new to our school this year include Katie Osborne (Special Education) and a kindergarten teacher soon to be named! Kyle Anderson has returned as our elementary PE teacher after Brian Yoder’s resignation. Jennifer Baker moved from kindergarten to first grade, and we are hopeful that we will soon have a new Speech and Language Pathologist and/or Speech Para-Professional to join our staff. Candi Darling joins our staff from the middle school; she will work as a special education aide, and Denise Smith will be a familiar but new face in the kitchen as she comes over from the high school. We anticipate there will be at least one more additional aide added to our staff…just waiting until registration is complete to verify class sizes at the kindergarten level. In addition, Carrie Schupp will move from the ECE/pre-K classroom to be a special education aide in Michelle Essert’s kindergarten classroom, while Terri Lambrecht will be sharing the responsibilities in our computer lab and in the library. All of these additions and changes will fit in well with our talented and caring faculty and staff.

Students at Midland Elementary School have the opportunity to learn from an experienced, dedicated and caring faculty. They participate in a wide variety of school activities, and we hope that our students develop the skills necessary to become successful, life-long learners and productive citizens in our community.

We want your child to be happy and successful at school and believe that you play a key role. That role is to continually show interest in and support for your child. The child who knows that his or her family is interested in and supports the school program will almost always have fewer problems in school and will enjoy greater success.

We believe in fair and consistent discipline that encourages students to be responsible for themselves and their own actions. At school we try to create a safe environment where courtesy and kindness prevail and where there is respect for differences in other people, customs, and cultures. This year, a team of teachers from our building will be trained in PBIS-Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. This is a building-wide discipline program in which teachers use consistent and clear behavioral expectations. We will work on training our staff this year, using a “train the trainer” model and expect full implementation by the 2010-2011 school year.

Students are most successful when teachers and parents communicate and work together to provide the best opportunities for learning—both in and out of the classroom. Please share with your child’s teacher any information regarding his/her special needs that will help us better serve your child and your family. We believe that communication among parents, students, and teachers is critical in assuring student success.

Please contact me at (309) 246-7215 or at jalbers@midland-7.org if I can be of further assistance.

We look forward to a great school year!

Sincerely,

Julie Albers