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St. Paul’s has new STEM class

Staff photo by Connor Cummiskey Carol Schoenherr, right, teaches third and fourth-grade students English at St. Paul’s Lutheran School.

NEW ULM — St. Paul’s Lutheran School started classes Sept. 5, with the addition of a new STEM class.

The addition is in part a response to a 2014 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that found STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related jobs will grow to over 9 million by 2022.

“So in order to prepare our students for tomorrow’s workplace, we are enhancing our curriculum this year with a STEM course for seventh and eighth-graders through Project Lead the Way,” Principal Greg Thiesfeldt said.

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a national nonprofit that develops science and technology-related classes.

St. Paul’s is instituting the gateway to technology class developed by PLTW for seventh and eighth-grade classes.

This year’s enrollment rose to 322 from last year’s 309 total. That counts 275 kindergarten through eighth-grade students and 47 in pre-kindergarten.

St. Paul’s has also changed how it assesses student growth. Previously the school used an assessment from TerraNova.

The new test is from the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) and is a formative test, Thiesfeldt said.

A formative test allows the school to adjust curriculum around the testing results. It can be more responsive to students’ needs.

“The neat thing about it is that the results are available immediately after you are done with the test,” Thiesfeldt said. “So you have their scores and you can adjust your instruction and prepare individual plans for students that show a weakness or maybe a strength in an area.”

Students will be tested three times throughout the year, in the beginning, middle and end.

Looking forward, St. Paul’s is anticipating expanding its one-to-one technology program. Currently the school has a Chromebook for each student in grades five through eight.

The digital tools allow teachers to forgo the heavy textbooks in favor of online curriculums such as Discovery Education, which Thiesfeldt uses in his social studies classes.

Thiesfeldt hopes the school will be able to expand the program this year. If successful, third and fourth-grade students will receive tablets.

The school’s three-year-old capital campaign, designated It’s Time to Build, now has a target for when construction should begin.

“Three years into the campaign, we have raised nearly $2 million and our goal is to begin building in 2019,” Thiesfeldt said. “Of course if God blesses our campaign, maybe we will do it sooner.”

The first minor parts of the expansion and remodeling began last summer with the road connecting St. Paul’s parking lot to Garden Street, remodeled bathrooms and a new playground.

The school hopes to add a new pre-kindergarten wing, an elevator, expand the entrance and move the offices, among other remodeling projects.

This is also the beginning of St. Paul’s re-accreditation process through the Minnesota Nonpublic School Accrediting Association (MNSAA).

This school year will be a self-study culminating in an inspection in April. The school will create a new strategic plan as part of the process.

A certification for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) is also in St. Paul’s sights.

SEVP is a program that allows schools to issue I-20 visas for international students to attend school here.

“A lot of schools do this but we never had at the elementary level. It is more common in the high schools,” Thiesfeldt said.

Connor Cummiskey can be emailed at ccummiskey@nujournal.com.

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