Busy Summer Planned in the School District

Busy Summer Planned in the School District
Posted on 06/01/2018
Even though the school year is winding down for students in the School District of the Menomonie Area (SDMA), work is ramping up for the administrative team, maintenance staff, and many others who will be working throughout the summer. In addition to several teachers and other staff members offering a robust summer school program in the SDMA, there are many projects that will be keeping school employees busy over the next few months.

As with any summer break, there are many routine maintenance projects that need to be completed this year. Cleaning, scrubbing, waxing, mowing, trimming, fixing, installing, painting, and moving are activities that will keep our custodians and maintenance crew hopping all summer. This summer, our buildings and grounds personnel will also be overseeing a major project at Menomonie Middle School that will improve the handling of storm water at the middle school site and fix the entrance apron at the school’s main driveway.

Even though a large majority of the district’s great staff is slated to return for the 2018-2019 school year, there is some hiring that needs to be completed this summer. There are a few teaching vacancies that are currently posted, several hourly positions will need to be filled before the school year starts, and the school district has begun a search for a new Director of Business Services. The district’s current business manager, Leah Theder, has recently accepted a similar position where her family lives in the Hayward School District, and while we will certainly miss Mrs. Theder’s great work in Menomonie, we wish her and her family well.

Many teachers not only use the summer to take a break and “recharge their batteries”, but they also take time to complete graduate classes, read books about current best practices in teaching, and participate in other professional development activities. The summer, a group of 15 educators from the SDMA will be attending the national Model Schools Conference to network with colleagues from across the country and to bring back ideas to share locally for making our schools in the SDMA even better.

Other summer activities in the school district include applying for various grants, reimaging district technology devices, updating various school district policies, completing the annual audit, preparing for the budget hearing and annual meeting, solidifying district goals, and getting ready for the upcoming strategic planning process. Perhaps it should not be a surprise that the summer will fly by and it will be September before we know it!

Should school stakeholders have any questions about our school district, I invite you to visit the Administrative Service Center (ASC) or contact me at 715-232-1642. In order to save on energy costs and help ensure that year-round employees in the school district also get a chance to take vacation time, summer hours in the school district will start on Monday, June 11. The ASC will be open from 7:00 am-4:30 pm on Monday-Thursday, and closed on Fridays. More information about our schools can be found on the school district website (www.sdmaonline.com) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/sdmaonline).