Congratulations to all our area graduates — from high school to college. Graduation signifies the end of one journey and the start of another. We know that all students in the New Ulm area have great chances at success because of the opportunities they received while students in our communities.

Graduation ceremony for New Ulm High School is set for Friday at 7 p.m. in the high school gymnasium. Doors will open at 6 p.m.

The last day of classes for our remaining students is May 25. Over the next two weeks our staff and students will work together to complete coursework, projects and assessments.

There will be recognition events, celebration days and goodbyes mixed in these two weeks. We have plenty to celebrate.

There is plenty of rhetoric about what is or isn’t taught in school when you follow state and national news. We follow the established state curriculum standards when designing our courses and daily instruction. Should anyone have questions about what we are teaching, please go to this link to learn more: https://newulm.k12.mn.us/curriculum/.

On this website, you will find curriculum guides (what is required to be taught in a course or grade for a specific content area), parent guides (explains what students will be taught in each of our grades — grades K-8), the curriculum review process, our annual testing calendar and what we use for software in our classes.

When we end a school year, we say goodbye to staff and students. To our staff who are leaving or retiring, we say thank you for what you have done to inspire and challenge our students to be better. For students, the end of a school year signifies promotion to the next grade and maybe a move to a new building. For our custodial crew, the end of a school year signifies the start of summer cleaning and summer building projects.

During the summer, we will conduct annual maintenance of buildings and complete capital projects that keep our facilities safe and inviting. Projects we will complete: a roof maintenance project at the CTE Center; repair and maintenance on the parking lots at the main campus and high school; finish replace classroom doors at Jefferson Elementary and updating classrooms with fresh paint in parts of each school building. With the long and hard winter, we have some work to clean up and repair our landscaping and grass areas in many places throughout the district.

I’d like to thank all our community partners for their support of our students and programs. It takes a village to raise a child. Our partnerships provide rich programming and opportunities for our students that aren’t found in many schools.

GO EAGLES!

— Jeff Bertrang is the superintendent of ISD 88