|
October 31, 2022 | Stories from St. Louis Park Public Schools
New this year the SLP Communicator, published monthly, will center the stories and voices of students, staff, and our community. District-level news and information will be shared in school newsletters.
| |
Message from Superintendent Osei | |
|
As the second month of the school year comes to an end, I want to express my gratitude for each of you. At all of our schools and programs I have observed engagement, learning, joy, and high levels of collaboration. I appreciate your partnership as we work collectively to see the brilliance in each learner. We strive to empower every learner to high levels of achievement, and you help us to uphold this value.
With all that we have experienced over the past couple of years, I have committed to showing up everyday embodying a spirit of gratitude. More than ever it is important that we choose gratitude and find joy in our lives. As a school community we have a lot to be thankful for, and as your superintendent I am thankful for each of you.
St. Louis Park Public Schools continues to be a special place! I believe this has a lot to do with the manner in which our families and community engage and support our school community. Whether it be programming for our earliest learners, K-12 students, or adult learners, the collective responsibility demonstrated by each of you to create a safe, welcoming, and engaging learning environment is unmatched.
Thank you for your continued support of St. Louis Park Public Schools. I believe that collectively we can create learning environments where students are seen, inspired, and empowered to live their brilliance in an environment that centers their voice and experience to create racially equitable learning that energizes and enhances the spirit of our community.
With much appreciation,
Astein
| |
|
Share the Mic: A St. Louis Park Public Schools Podcast
Share the Mic explores what connects the St. Louis Park community: who we are as individuals and who we are as a collective to understand the Ubuntu saying, I Am Because We Are. Through conversations with students, staff, and community members, we'll talk about what brings us joy, our hopes and dreams, and our connection to St. Louis Park Public School's Strategic Plan for Racial Equity Transformation.
Episode 1 dropped October 31, 2022. Watch or listen now!
| |
Amira Abdirahman and Charlotte Cox spent their summer as Youth Data Analysts. These incredible students join Supt. Astein Osei for the first episode of the Share the Mic podcast to share more about their experience. Their research on the hopes and dreams of their community has ignited change in St. Louis Park Public Schools. | |
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts
- Interviews with students, staff, and community members
- Conversations about what matters to the SLP community
-
Connections to the SLP Strategic Plan
- New episodes every month
| |
Listen to Episode 1 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. | | |
Aquila Named Bronze Best Elementary School in Minnesota's Best 2022 | | |
|
|
We're celebrating Aquila Elementary School being voted one of Minnesota's best elementary schools through the Star Tribune's Minnesota's Best 2022 recognitions.
The recognition distinguishes Aquila Elementary School as among the state's top elementary schools.
| |
|
Principals María Graver and Olivia Tolzin are excited to share this honor with the entire St. Louis Park community. "As a district, we are entrusted with empowering the brilliance of the next generation, and are honored to accept this distinction on behalf of our students, staff and community. Ubuntu!” they said.
Aquila will be recognized at the Minnesota’s Best event on November 3 at Orchestra Hall. The Star Tribune published the 2022 Minnesota’s Best magazine recognizing winners on October 23. Aquila Elementary School is on page 47.
| |
Why is Math the Most Popular Subject?
| |
|
Students See Themselves as Mathematicians in SLP's math and enrichment program
| |
| |
|
Over the past three years, teachers and leaders from across the district have been part of a curricular review process in mathematics studying the best ways to empower students to see themselves authentically as mathematicians, problem solvers, and be competent and confident in their math work and knowledge. Through their efforts based in St. Louis Park Math Frameworks, we adopted a new elementary math curriculum called Bridges, removing many remedial math classes so that more students have access to grade-level standards. While still in the first years of implementation, we’re already seeing positive results for teachers and students.
“I'm getting answers from almost every single student and ideas from everybody! I feel like as I learn the curriculum I can see students getting more deeply engaged in math and feeling more success,” said 5th-grade teacher Mr. Stenross of Aquila Elementary School about teaching math in new ways.
How students feel about math is just as important as their abilities.
One student said, “the teacher helped me figure out I’m good at math!” Not only that but students like math. When asked what their favorite activities at school were, math was the most popular answer. You may or may not guess that art, Talent Development, Recess, and Science (in that order) were the next most popular answers.
Speaking of the third most popular activity (Talent Development), did you know that all students in K-5 receive Talent Development enrichment classes? Students like Talent Development, science, coding, brain development, art, slime, music, and fun! But let's get back to the most popular subject, math!
Teachers are now in the second year of implementing the new math and enrichment program.
Read the full story to learn what the data is telling us about how well teachers are teaching math, how students can accelerate in math, and the college-level math classes all students access in high school.
| |
"I know that my foundation for excellence started at St Louis Park Schools and I needed to make sure to pass it on." | |
SLP Staff Spotlight: Deb Carson, Peter Hobart | |
Deb's why for working in SLP
My why is that St Louis Park is my alma mater. It is where I changed the trajectory of my life. I met my lifelong friends at St. Louis Park High School. I started my track career under the guidance of the best coach, Brad Brubaker. After high school, I spent years perusing my personal goals- being a collegiate Division 1 sprinter, being a professional athlete, having many different career paths including working for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Target Corp., The University of Minnesota and the NCAA. Also, becoming a mother was one of my biggest triumphs. It felt like it was time to finally take what I learned and give back.
At Peter Hobart I really enjoy engaging with elementary age children because my own kids are the same age. I feel like I truly understand them and love when I get the opportunity to connect and provide a place of peace for them in my space. Coaching track at the High School is an added bonus and after one year I'm determined to have my records that still stand to this day, fall. The years of success I had as a high school athlete, collegiate athlete and professional athlete were not by mistake. I know that my foundation for excellence started at St Louis Park Schools and I needed to make sure to pass it on.
The SLP core value Deb most resonates with:
High expectations encompasses it all for me. I have high expectations in my work, relationships and my morals.
| | |
I have a constitution for myself that identifies many goals and values, but more importantly involves making sure I know how to treat others with respect and care. I hold myself to that and as a coach love to show my student athletes how doing the same can empower them to create their own success. | |
Four student interns join the Finance Advisory Committee
| |
|
Sumeyo Jama, Meshach Mandel, Julian Rohweder and Christopher Walker are the first student interns to serve on the Finance Advisory Committee for St. Louis Park Public Schools. In previous years, students have played a role in committee work, but when inspiration struck after seeing the work of the youth data analysts, the Finance Advisory Committee found a better way to center student voices.
“It is really important for us to have a diverse perspective. It is great to represent our whole community,” said Patricia Magnuson, director of business services.
In addition to the four new interns, the Finance Advisory Committee is made up of 20 community members. This team advises administration and the school board on economic and school finance issues and strives to build community trust.
Members range in their expertise in finance, but each person comes together to move through the detailed process. The new student interns will be working in a collaborative effort to find both technical and adaptive solutions to questions surfaced by the committee.
| | |
|
6425 W 33rd St | St. Louis Park, MN 55416
Phone: 952-928-6000 | Fax: 952-928-6020
| |
| | | | |
