Message from the District Administrator

Welcome Back! Or at least welcome back to thinking about the beginning of school. We’ve had a busy summer planning and preparing for the exciting year ahead, not to mention all of the building projects we have going. We are very proud of the improvements made possible by our tremendous community and the support they showed in passing our 2014 referendum. You will notice changes and updates throughout the year as we use the funds to keep our school safe and functioning.
The roofs and all HVAC units in the high school are new. The middle school, nurse’s office, and FCS room now are air-conditioned. We have all new lights (interior and exterior) and tightened up the building envelope, making us more energy efficient. We updated the 1975 clock and bell system. We have an amazing new wireless scoreboard and signage on the baseball field donated by Greenwoods State Bank.
The playground project is complete, and we have ordered two new buses. Add that to our technology infrastructure upgrades, and we have had a very busy summer.
One additional future project we are considering and would like community feedback on is adding air-conditioning to the Rehmstedt Gym. We have considered it for years and know it would make summer school and all of our spring and fall events more comfortable. We see it as a large place that the community could use during the hot months. Keep watching our newsletters and board minutes for more information, or feel free to contact me with your feelings.
Upon the departure of Mr. Lederman (35 years of Physical Education) and Mrs. Voight (10 years of Director of Pupil Services), a hearty welcome goes out to our new Director, Erikke Nystrom-Grothaus, and our new Physical Education/Health Teacher, Kenny Halloran. Please look for them at our Open House and introduce yourself.
The relationships that we have built with Albany, Brodhead, and Juda have yet again significantly increased class offerings and collaboration for staff and students. We still have common calendars and class schedules ensuring that shared classes incur less instructional time loss. For our small rural schools with limited numbers of teachers in each discipline, the commonalities have increased professional development opportunities. This year we will be sharing 15 classes. In addition, our dual credit options continue to grow tremendously thanks to our telepresence program and some dedicated teachers who put in extra time with UW-Oshkosh. 2015-2016 will offer nine different Advanced Placement classes, or C.A.P.P. classes. These classes include College English, Psychology, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Statistics, Astronomy, Physics and AP Chemistry. Many of our high school classes also serve as dual credits with area tech schools. Over the last three years, our enrollment in these classes has skyrocketed, and this year eligible students will be able to register for classes at only 30% of the cost of regular tuition at a UW school. Ultimately, it’s giving Monticello’s students a head start at their next level of education.
Summer school was refreshing and exciting this summer. A huge shout-out to our staff and parents that helped get the kids here every day and kept them active. We are looking forward to improving on it for next year. Look for a survey coming out in late August.
We also continue to use Response to Intervention (RtI) to insure our students are performing in reading and math at benchmark. This will be the fifth year for the elementary and the fourth year for the middle and high school. Our interventions vary, depending on the age and need of the student.
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is going on its 5th year as well. I’m sure you’ll see us around or be invited to share in one of our celebrations.
As you know, all of our 6-12 students received laptops and bags the last two years. This year will be no different. Along with excitement and success that it brings us, we also experienced growing pains. Monticello, Albany, Mount Horeb and Juda, with the help our friends at WTI (Wisconsin Technology Initiative), put on our third annual “technology boot camp” for our staffs this summer. The 2015 theme was “Tech Bytes.” This summer’s focus is on becoming more proficient and productive with tools of collaboration like Google. It helps us prepare for another year of distributing laptops and using them as learning tools. We expect far less bumps in the road along the way this year, but please feel free to call us with any questions. I truly feel this is another way we are preparing our kids to be the ’world ready citizens’ our mission statement talks about.
There is so much more to come this year. Our relationship with UW-Whitewater and the WTI network continues to grow. Thanks to multiple grants we were awarded in 2014-2015, we were able to purchase another mobile telepresence unit for virtual classrooms and collaborations. We continue to be a model school for rural districts all over the state for the use of telepresence. Last year we presented at the state school board convention. This year Monticello will be on display at the Rural School Alliance in November, Fall WTI conference in October, and possibly at the SLATE conference in December.
We are currently using Telepresence for professional development, shared classrooms, community networking, virtual field trips, and student teacher observations and recordings. We keep finding that its possibilities and connections are endless.
Finally, the School Board meetings are always the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m.
If you would like an agenda emailed to you, please let me know. I hope you can sense my enthusiasm for the opportunities we have this year. I really want to keep our families and community members informed about the challenges and celebrations we experience every day.
Please feel free to stop in or call any time with questions or concerns. Go Ponies!