To: ISD 300 Board of Education and Superintendent Wilke From: Beth ...

To: ISD 300 Board of Education and Superintendent Wilke From: Beth Theede, Director of Community Education February 2014 Report Our Performing Arts Series presentation of Home Free was a tremendous success!! In addition to the sell out crowd, we also had a phenomenal showing at our second “Meet & Greet” in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce. The Home Free group members and sound technician were wonderful to work with, and we were so pleased to have the special opening act, Audacious from UW-Eau Claire, join us. (La Crescent alum Annie Jackson is a member of Audacious and provided that connection!) A special thank you to the entire Community Ed team that pitched in to assist in preparation for this presentation; and extra special thanks to: our auditorium manager Jeff Copp; our technicians Jansen Van Lin, Bennett Norris, and Jordan Van Lin; our ushering volunteer coordinators Sue and Ammie Jergenson; and our friends at the Chamber Eileen Krenz and Sarah Dohnalik for hosting the very successful “Meet and Greet.” We are actively finalizing our School Readiness/Preschool program offerings for next year. Our registration event will be held in March this year. Our team is working together to adopt Creative Curriculum within the wraparound childcare provided to preschool students before/after their preschool class time. This step will allow for us to apply for a Parent Aware rating for the wraparound childcare portion of the program, in addition to the 4-Star rating we already have for the School Readiness program (out of 4 stars!). This rating not only signals the high quality level of the content of the program, but also allows for higher reimbursement rates. This planning and coordination is an excellent demonstration of our team vision of eliminating the ‘silo’ mentality among Community Education programs and supporting each other to offer stronger services and programs to the community. Last week, Meghan Wall – Kids Co Coordinator and I participated in a webinar that focused on after hours building security and safety. We are looking for ways to improve our practices for all of our Community Education programs, but for Kids Company in particular. We are compiling other best practice information on this area, to help us make the best decisions possible. We completed the interview process for the Community Education part time secretary position, and have offered the position to Mary Ann Graf, who has accepted. (You’ll see the official hiring on next month’s agenda!) We welcome her to our team and look forward to the skills she will bring to this position. Breaking news from preschool… We were notified last night that we are being awarded 1 part time preschool literacy tutor through the Minnesota Reading Corps program. Thank you to Karn Schwartzhoff for her efforts to secure this award! We are so excited to add this additional assistance to our preschool program.