I’d like to do a loud shout out to all our school employees and bus drivers. They are focused on keeping our schools open so we can work with students each and every school day. It has been a very stressful year as COVID continues to disrupt our daily routines in the school buildings, but our staff are amazing and continue to provide what is needed for our students and families.

COVID is not going away and we are finding ways of managing our conditions and environment as we learn more on what works and what doesn’t work. We have updated our quarantine and isolation guidelines to match CDC recommendations. This will allow staff and students to return sooner. We continue to have needs for substitutes who can step in to help out as teachers or paraprofessionals. Please call the district office at 507-233-6180 if you are willing to help in any capacity.

Paraprofessionals help our students to grow behaviorally, academically, and emotionally. We really appreciate their support and efforts in our schools, assisting our teachers with the students. The week of January 24-28 is recognized as Paraprofessional Week in Minnesota. If you know of someone who works as a paraprofessional, please reach out and say thank you.

Many people live in the social media world and use the social media sites for their main news feeds. Unfortunately, not all social media postings are correct and they can be misleading. Should anyone have questions about school programs, culture, or environment, because of a social media post, please call a school office for clarification. We want our parents and community members to have correct and updated information as we work to support our students and families.

February is just around the corner. Some events that happen in February for our schools: I Love to Read Month in our elementary buildings, high school winter activities will transition from regular season competition to subsection and section play and parent/teacher conferences for some of our schools. We look forward to warmer weather, more daylight and the thought of spring!

GO EAGLES!