Elementary School Principal

July 31, 2024

To our DES families and community members of Delta

Junction and Fort Greely:

principal

After a record year academically, your Delta Elementary school staff is hard at work trying to keep the momentumgoing into 24-25. In addition to incredible growth in reading and math, we successfully navigated the requirements of the Alaska Reads Act and were able to fully implement its requirements. We set six SMART goals as a staff last year and met all but one of them (attendance above 90%: ours was 88%). All of our K-3 teachers have been trained in the Science of Reading and are excited about the gains that can be made from systematic, explicit instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and language acquisition skills. In addition, we were able to increase our already high math performance which is something few of us thought we would be able to do.

However, challenges and roadblocks are a reality now more than ever. Many of the issues that schools around most of the state and nation have dealt with for quite some time are finally hitting the Delta/Greely School District. Difficulties with funding, falling enrollment, teacher and staff shortages, skyrocketing costs of materials and shipping, staff turnover, and false rumors of political and social agenda changes are causing quite a stir in our little community. My goal is for none of our students or their families to notice. I refuse to allow outside influences to negatively affect the climate of this school.

So in 24-25, we will continue to do all of our in school and after school activities and host numerous community events. We will continue to celebrate all of our accomplishments and offer fun hands-on classroom projects and rich place-based learning opportunities. We will take field trips and participate in fun reading and physical education challenges. We will also continue to make DES the best choice for rigorous, state of the art educational opportunities for every student who walks through the door. That will not change. In fact, we are actually hoping to offer more this year!

Academically, we are excited to announce that we will be adding a daily English/Language Arts (ELA) enrichment program to go with our intervention block. During intervention time (40 minutes daily) the students who are at grade level will be able to receive above grade level instruction. We already do this with math and it has been so successful that we have decided to make enrichment a priority with ELA as well.

We at DES are committed to making sure that your children receive the best possible whole-child educational experience. Our staff is resilient and ready to adapt to the changing climate of education in Alaska and our nation. Our mission is “To ensure that each student has the opportunity to engage in high quality education which includes social, emotional, physical, and academic pursuits, no matter what”. If anything comes along that is contrary to this

mission, we will discard it. Alternatively, we will never stop searching for new ways to fulfill it. We need your support Delta/Greely!

Please let us know if you have any questions. I am a huge proponent of school/home/community communication. Our school Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DeltaElementarySchool) is very popular here in the community and we have a great website that has all the information, forms, and documents you will need (http://deltagreely.cyberschool.com/District/Department/16-Delta-Elementary-School). The office staff will be back in the building on Monday, August 5th. Student registration begins August 5th as well. The teachers will start August 14th, and the kids will be here Monday, August 19th. Our open house will be Thursday, August 15th at 4:30 and we can’t wait to see everyone there!

Sincerely,

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