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 June 2013 Report It is a busy time of the year, as you all know! Since the last board meeting, Community Education has graduated 30 preschoolers on to Kindergarten; enrolled over 150 children in summer Kids Company; found the Early Childhood coordinator we’ve been seeking since January; mailed out 4500 catalogs; kicked off over a dozen youth and over a dozen adult enrichment programs… And more!! Our School Readiness (Preschool) programs have been awarded a 4-Star Parent Aware Rating (out of four stars!). Parent Aware is a statewide initiative to help parents identify high quality early childhood programming for their children. This rating will have implications in the future as the Early Learning Scholarships approved this legislative session begin to trickle out to families in our area. Adult Enrichment programming registration is looking good thus far this summer. (Summer is the quietest season for Adult participation in Community Education enrichment programs.) You will notice a new strategy for developing programming has included partnering with local businesses intentionally. Our new Watercolor at the Winery class has held two of their three meetings and the feedback has been phenomenal. Our thanks to Brad Halstead for partnering with us to create an incredible and inspirational location, and thanks to instructor Nicole Greener for embracing this partnership! We offered two other programs with local businesses as well, and we are in talks with other businesses for partnering for fall programs. It is our hope to both utilize the resources these businesses provide and to create a higher level of awareness within our community of what the businesses offer us right her in La Crescent and Hokah. Our continued relationship with the City of La Crescent has helped us to grow our Aquatics offerings. The two evenings per week classes are full, and we secured enough registrations to offer two new morning classes per week as well. Kelly Conway is our instructor for these Water Aerobics classes, and we thank local resident Tammy Zee for providing Kelly with the water aerobic training! Both sections of Parent-Tot swimming lessons through Early Childhood have also filled completely! A note for all of you Performing Arts Series fans… Due to an auditorium scheduling conflict, we have moved the Home Free (A Capella group) performance to Saturday, February 15, 2014. All tickets, including season tickets, go on sale July 1st. Driver’s Education has some upcoming changes, which you will hear about as a separate agenda item. As always, you are invited to call, email, or stop in if you have questions or comments about anything in Community Education!