YALE SCHOOL
Mark Houk, Principal
September 9, 2009
TO: Michael Green, Superintendent
FROM: Mark Houk
RE: YALE SCHOOL MONTHLY UPDATE
A Successful Opening
We were pleased to greet close to 50 students to the Yale School last week. This includes 8 Kindergarten students.
As you know we have two new teachers in the building (Mr. Kyle Niekamp teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, and Shae Lindsay teaching KG-1st grades). Both of these team members taught down in Woodland last year (Kyle at WIS and Shae at WPS). New staff were greeted by the community at Drop-In/Drop-Off Day on Thursday, August 27th. Add to that Mrs. Kim York sharing the teaching of 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades along with the able assistance of Sharon Stuart, Becky Huesties, and Randi Isselhardt and we have the "new look" team in place! And, our school continues to receive the PE support of retired teacher John Huffman.
As down in Woodland, scheduling has been a challenge - the staff team is doing a great job trying different things and we will get it "right for kids" as we get into the year. Students have all been assessed for reading, and the schedule of walking to read is set to commence next week - right on the same timeline as downriver.
Interestingly, parking and traffic congestion have not been communicated as being a problem to date at Yale - ha!
Yale continues to benefit from the support of our PTO. This organization held their first meeting on Tuesday, and many big plans for the year!
Staff, students, and parents are in good spirits and the year is off to a productive start. The team knows the challenges and opportunities ahead, and is well on their way to an effective year.
Cc: Yale School Staff