Staff photo by Connor Cummiskey Students play on the playground between Jefferson Elementary and the Middle School on the first day back to school Wednesday, Sept. 6.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Public Schools kicked off the new school year Wednesday, Sept. 6.

After major changes last year with the addition of the high school, this year most changes are tweaking programs and facilities.

“It is more about ‘Okay, we brought in a lot of stuff last year, let’s just tweak, adjust, get everybody used to it,'” Superintendent Jeff Bertrang said.

Some construction work was done at the high school, mostly fixing minor mistakes and finishing green spaces from last year’s construction.

The school also added new collaborative devices at some student workstations that allow students to display what is on their computer screen on a larger monitor for all to see.

Curriculum-wise, the high school added some college credit options, such as three CIS (College in School) Spanish classes so students can take language classes at 101, 102 and 201 levels.

A new reading program was added to give ninth-grade students improved reading skills for the rest of their high school years.

The theater program is shifting. Instead of alternating between a fall musical and a spring play, the high school will now do both each year.

For teachers, the high school added a few layers to its peer mentoring. Instead of being mentored on in their first year, teachers can be mentored through their third year.

“We have a peer mentor that works with all of those (teachers) to create consistency and help the new teachers understand what we are trying to do at the high school,” Principal Mark Bergmann said.

A new scholarship initiative will begin this year, probably in October or November. It is an alumni scholarship program.

The class of 1957 held its reunion this year and donated $6,425. Bergmann hopes to get it so every year alumnus will donate some money.

From that money, half will go directly to scholarships for seniors that year, the other half will go into a savings account.

The interest generated from that account will be added to funds raised to give to graduating senior as a scholarship.

“So many times you grow (a scholarship fund) and you never give it away because it is not big enough,” Bergmann said. “We want to be able to give half of it away each year so it has an immediate impact.”

Students can earn the scholarship by writing an essay about what they have done to positively impact the community.

At the middle school, repair work for the roof was completed as well as replacing the gym floor that was damaged by water.

The floor was damaged last year by a burst expansion coupler. The floor was patched then, since no construction crew had time to repair it before the 2016-’17 school year began.

The school added LED lights in the parking lot to save on energy while also getting increased brightness.

On the programming side, most of the changes are aimed at behavior education. Over the summer eight teachers were trained in Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS).

“It is really a learning model,” Miller said. “Rather than just the punishment side of it we are really working on how do we teach students because we know that they are going to make mistakes at this age and our job is to help them along the way.”

PBIS began last year in Jefferson Elementary and the Washington Learning Center (WLC). The eight teachers will train the rest of the middle school staff on PBIS.

The program teaches students acceptable behavior across the school by reinforcing positive behavior instead of just punishing those who act out.

Posters are hung in areas like the cafeteria and hallways that instruct students on behavior goals called PRIDE (Positivity, Respect, Inclusion, Dedication and Engagement).

On top of that the school is starting a school-wide Information System (SWIS) that will track locations where behavior is less than stellar.

“The idea is that we can pinpoint, through our major and minor behavior referral forms, we can pinpoint where a problem might be,” Miller said.

Other than that the middle school is tweaking PIE, (Positive Intervention and Enrichment). They have added some seventh and eighth-grade interventions as well as some reading enrichment classes, though the latter are not directly related to PIE, Miller said.

Generally, interventions are for students who may be lagging behind grade-level benchmarks and enrichments are for students who are ahead.

“After one year of trying lots and lots of new things now we are really focusing on how we can make them better,” Miller said.

Jefferson got new cabinets, sinks and counters, but other than that most changes were to programming.

For one, the school changed its assessment program from STAR (Standardized Test for the Assessment of Reading) to FAST, because the latter allows for better collection of data for the grades in Jefferson.

Both tests are nationally normed, meaning students’ scores are compared against students across the nation for a better idea of where they are.

“They also brought in STEM (science, technology, education and math) for grades one and two,” Bertrang said. “Last year it was for grades three and four, now it is for all grades.”

STEM is part of Jefferson’s rotating classes. The rotation also includes gym, art and music.

Jefferson also expanded its leveled library. Last year it had about 700 titles and this year the school purchased a Scholastic Books system that virtually doubled that.

“We are really moving toward balanced literacy in the classrooms, so really trying to individualize instruction for our students,” Literacy Coach Missy Hunter said.

The library includes collections of books at different levels of reading difficulty lettered A through Z, Z being the most difficult. Teachers can checkout a package of books to use in their classroom.

Another leveled library was also added in WLC, which purchased a similar system to what is now in Jefferson.

WLC’s exterior was painted to match the bronze on the entrance and received a new drop ceiling. Other than that WLC’s changes are basically just a greater emphasis on PBIS.