Strategic Planning for the district

The Ipswich School District is in the process of doing strategic planning for the next five years.  Parents, staff, students and community members to participate in a survey.  Your opinion is very important to us.  The survey will be available in the middle of September from various sources and will help us plan for the future of the district.  I thank you in advance, on behalf of the board of education, for your participation in the survey and strategic planning process.

Week one is in the books!

Mother Nature cooperated with us, for the most part, this week and made the temperatures bearable in the buildings.  It is great to see all of the students around the building and hear their excited chatter in the mornings.  As of right now, we have a few more students in the district than we did last year and we are very excited about that fact.
Generally with the first weeks of school comes the first activities of the year.  The new football cooperative, the Ipswich/Edmunds Central Tigers kick-off Friday night @ 7:00.  Cross country follows with a contest in Mobridge on Saturday and the Volleyball team opens up against Groton on Tuesday the 30th.  Good luck to all the teams.

School to Hold Long Range Planning Session

I have asked that the school board meet on August 22nd @ 7:30 pm to discuss plans for the Ipswich School District for the future.  This is the same night as the school Open House.  The plan is to have this night be a "night of ideas".  People are welcome to come to the meeting but we would like to remind everyone that no action will be taken at this meeting.  It is simply a night to throw out ideas and see if we can formulate a plan to follow over the next five years.  Some of the items that I hope get addressed at the meeting are;

1. Goal setting (Vision & Mission of the District)
2. Facilities
3. Financial Planning
4. Academic Achievement
5. Professional Development
6. Policy
7. Technology

Ipswich recognized as Distinguished District

With the release of the scores of the most recent Dakota Step scores, the Ipswich School District and its patrons have plenty to celebrate.  Ipswich is one of only five South Dakota districts, of the over 150, to be recognized as Distinguished.  Along with this information we celebrate all schools within the district making AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) according to the State's NCLB requirements.  Along with the district designation, both Ipswich Middle School and Ipswich High School are considered as Distinguished schools within the district as well.

Staff and students should be congratulated for obtaining this prestigious honor.  This is something that all of the Ipswich area can be very proud of.  This will provide us a goal of continuing this status into the future.

The actual scores can be found @   http://www.doe.sd.gov/reportcard/index.aspx