Otter Tail County School Districts
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BATTLE LAKE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT
When we began the process of crafting a strategic plan for our district a few years ago, it was our intention to become one of the top educational districts in the state of Minnesota. We have achieved that status and are fully committed to becoming even better. Our district has been recognized by the Minnesota Academic Excellence Foundation for the past three years, listed among U.S. News & World Report as one of “America’s Best High Schools” and commended by the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals as a “Star of Innovation.” Our elementary school has been selected as a National Blue Ribbon School for 2011. Battle Lake is a district with high standards and expectations. The story behind our success is really pretty simple. We have great cooperation and support from our parents, our students, and our community. When you combine the support with the hard work of our faculty and staff wonderful things are bound to happen! To our community - thank you - we truly appreciate your support and partnership. Battle Lake offers an educational experience and philosophy that is unlike that of any other school in the region. We emphasize a liberal arts approach that exposes students to a wide variety of curricular areas including the fine arts and applied vocational classes. This approach is built upon a strong core foundation in reading, writing, math, science, and the development of critical thinking and leadership skills. We feel this approach will best prepare our students for the challenges of a global economy and labor market. Our testing results in recent years have been outstanding. A comparison between Battle Lake and other schools in our region show that in nearly every category, Battle Lake students are at or very near the top. Despite our small school size, in the past few years several of our graduates have had ACT Composite scores above a 30 which places them in the top 95% of all college-bound students. That’s pretty remarkable. Battle Lake offers unique learning opportunities including 33 college credits within our building, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish at the elementary and secondary level and our commitment to environmental learning and stewardship through our partnership with Glendalough State Park. We don’t rely on interactive television or independent computer based correspondence instruction. We put a caring and dedicated teacher in the classroom for every class we offer to engage your child and provide individualized service. Few districts in this day and age can make that claim. As we enter the 2011-2012 school year, we want you to know that we are fully committed to providing the very best educational experience for each and every child. We have made service to our students, parents and community a top priority. You will find our school to be friendly, caring, and welcoming. If you have questions about the school and programming, please feel free to call or stop in for a visit.
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HENNING PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT
The Henning School District includes the communities of Henning, Vining and rural Ottertail. We are nestled in the lakes area of Otter Tail County. Our school district benefits from community members that exhibit great pride in our school and communities. The Henning School enrollment is approximately 370 students in grades Kindergarten - grade 12. Come Check Us Out!
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NEW YORK MILLS PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.
DISTRICT GOALS (2011-2012) Goal #1: Minnesota Academic Standards, K-12 Curriculum, & Instruction – To implement and deliver the Minnesota Academic Standards in both basic requirements as well as through articulation in the K-12 curriculum to improve student’s skills in reading, writing, math, and science as shown by increased test scores on MCAIIs, and other standardized tests. Goal #2: Strategic Plan – To develop a district-wide strategic plan that addresses the academic programs, services, and future financial resources for the school district. Goal #3: Technology – To improve technology skills, staff and students shall improve their knowledge and embed technology in daily activities and assignments. Goal #4: Communications – To actively develop a set of parameters for effective communication between students, parents, teachers, administrators, school board, and the community. ELEMENTARY GOALS (2010-2011) Goal #1: The elementary school will continue striving with support of the entire school district to improve students’ skills and scores in all subject areas that will either meet or exceed district and state guidelines for growth, as expected in the No Child Left Behind federal law. Goal #2: The elementary staff will continue to follow, develop, and implement a consistent and positive behavior intervention system for all students, with an emphasis on building character traits, such as respect, responsibility, effort, choices, honest, caring, etc. Goal #3: To improve our school’s communication and instruction, the elementary staff will continue to support and provide staff development opportunities through the use of Professional Learning Communities. SECONDARY GOALS (2010-2011) Goal #1:The high school staff will continue to communicate and build relationships with students, parents, and the community. This will be identified by: Timely feedback for students with weekly grade updates Accommodating students with appropriate and timely interventions Deficiency reports at mid-quarter and midterm with aplan for improvement Parent –teacher conferences Teacher to parent personal communication as needed Goal #2: The high school staff will improve the current level of instruction in all academic areas by clarifying essential learner outcomes for each course. This will be evident though clear course expectations, appropriate use of technology, rigorous academic tasks, and “research based best practice” to prepare students for the next level of learning. Goal #3: In serving the whole child, the high school staff will work towards more collaboration and collegiality among staff. This will be identified by: Meeting in Professional Learning Communities (PLC) twice a month using the PLC protocol, which focuses on student progress toward proficiency on essential learner outcomes. Monthly department and grade level meetings. Monthly staff meetings.
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PELICAN RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.
Pelican Rapids Public Schools are located in west central Minnesota's lake region. Pelican Rapids community is the center of over 1050 county lakes. The community benefits from excellent tourism, industry and agriculture. The city of Pelican Rapids is home to several large employers including West Central Turkeys, Lake Region Electric Cooperative, Pelican Valley Health Center, Good Samaritan Nursing Home, Evenson's Trucking, Attachments International, and Glendale Machining. The community also has a strong and growing retail district. The 2002 reported population of Pelican Rapids was 2,431 residents. Otter Tail County ranks 8th in the state in size with 2232 square miles and 14th in population with 57,159 residents. The Pelican Rapids Public School system is a consolidated school district serving 1,000 students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The district employs 75 teachers, many of whom have advanced degrees. The total staff of the school district numbers 130 with 4 administrators. The staff is continually upgrading skills with active involvement in the Federal Government's "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Program and new Minnesota academic standards. Additionally, the schools continually assess teaching competencies and participate in appropriate staff development and educational effectiveness programs. The school facilities have been continually upgraded since 1952 when the junior high wing was completed. Seven building projects, including handicap accessibility, and a district-wide technology program which networked all rooms and buildings for audio-visual, computer, and telephone services have been completed since 1952. The community and school board continually assess the facilities to ensure student needs are met and additional needed programs can be implemented, demonstrating the communities commitment to educational excellence. The elementary school was built in 1962 on a 34 acre site on the southern end of the town approximately one block south of the high school on the east side of Highway 59. Two building projects (the most recent in 1994) have been added to the original building since that time. Viking Elementary School is a three-section facility. Included in the building, in addition to the classrooms, are two computer labs, special education rooms, a library/media center, two music rooms, a gymnasium and a multi-purpose room. All rooms are wired for technology utilizing audio-visual, computer, and telephone services. Viking Elementary School's curriculum emphasizes reading and mathematics. There are also excellent programs in science, social studies and language arts. Students are assigned homerooms at each grade level and move from room to room within their grade for specific subjects. Various combinations of teaching exist including cooperative learning, departmentalization, team teaching, and cross-curricular teaching. Supplementing the classroom teachers are a special education staff consisting of: Adaptive P.E., Title I (additional help for reading and mathematics), EBD, MMMI, ESL, Hearing Impaired, Low Incident, SLD, and Speech services. The elementary school also employs physical education instructors, art and music instructors, a media center director and a gifted/talented instructor. The junior high and senior high school facilities serve student needs with regular classrooms, science labs, computer labs, writing labs, a media center, instrumental and vocal music areas, physical education areas, vocational labs, and a fine arts performing center. The gymnasium (with its seating capacity of 1,300) and the community fitness & weight room adequately serve the largest school and community functions. A Fine Arts Auditorium with a seating capacity of 500 is available for the many school district and community fine arts performances. The most recent junior/senior high addition (weight room, music areas, and fine arts remodeling) was completed in 1985. The high school curriculum includes a range of regular education, special education and extra-curricular offerings to meet Minnesota state requirements, the needs of the Pelican Rapids community, and to prepare students for post-secondary pursuits. Regular education offerings include courses in English, mathematics, science, and social studies, as well as agriculture, art, business, computer science, family consumer science, health, industrial technology, music (band and choir), physical education, and world languages (German and Spanish). Extra-curricular offerings for both boys and girls include band, basketball, choir, cross-country, golf, soccer, speech, and track. In addition, girls are offered programs in cheerleading, dance team, softball, and volleyball while boys also participate in baseball, football and wrestling. Activities offered include FFA, FLA, Geography Bee, Knowledge Bowl, Math Teams, Mileage Car Competition, National Honor Society, Robotics Competition, School Musical and Dramatic Plays and Student Council. Pelican Rapids Schools are members of the Heart O'Lakes Conference and sub-section 23A of section 6A for most Minnesota State High School League activities. The programs in academics, fine arts and athletics demonstrate their competitiveness by winning local, regional and state awards. Although Pelican Rapids has no post-secondary facilities of its own, two technical colleges, two 2-year colleges, one private four-year college and two universities are located within 45 miles. The community and school population includes a population of which 37% is eligible for reduced or free lunch, 25% are students of color, and 12 % are served with special education services. Students and community members are served through full-time ESL instructors and aides, chemical outreach counseling, EBD, EMH, ESL, guidance and counseling, hearing impaired, school psychologist, SLD, and speech clinicians during the regular school day and with community citizenship, language, and G.E.D. classes after school. The school and community have active diversity groups that work with the ethnic differences of the community.
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PERHAM-DENT PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT
Perham-Dent Public School District, located on Highway 10 in Minnesota and situated about 60 miles southeast of Fargo, North Dakota, offers educational opportunities where every student is guided and encouraged to reach his or her full potential. Within our district's boundaries are four schools. High expectations are established for all students, whose number totals just over 1,800. From our preschool programs through our wide array of high school programs, Perham-Dent schools offer a well-rounded curriculum for students. We are proud of the variety of educational opportunities we offer our students to learn and excel.
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REGION 4-LAKES COUNTRY SERVICE COOP
Lakes Country Service Cooperative (LCSC) is a public, non-profit membership-based organization dedicated to providing services that help make our members successful. Our dedicated staff provides leadership and assistance in a diverse range of services to members. LCSC serves as a liaison to state agencies and has partnerships with numerous organizations that provide opportunities for members. We continually listen to and work with members to design and implement new programs and services.
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UNDERWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT
Creating a superior learning environment through supportive instruction, innovative technology, and diverse curriculum to inspire students in achieving their highest potential.
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