(I hope you had a chance to read my four earlier writings that described other elements of the NRHEG Strategic Plan . If you did not and you find you have questions, you can go to the school web site, www.NRHEG.k12.mn.us, and see some of the information there. You do not need to have read the previous articles to understand what will be said here.)

I bet when most people hear the word “school” they picture a building. It might be anything from a one-room schoolhouse to a 50-building complex; it might be one they attended or graduated from; it might be the one where they drop off their children or grandchildren. 

Of course it makes sense that the buildings are the first thing we think of, but in many ways a school is more like a river. First of all, like any body of water, it’s not an independent structure; it’s part of a system which, in this case, reaches all the way to Washington D.C.

The “river” of the NRHEG school system receives many inputs from this system, some of which are a tremendous boon. National and state sources account for more than 86% percent of school funds, with about 14% percent coming from local property taxes.

This financial support comes with many strings attached, usually in the forms of legislative “mandates,” or laws. This means school districts have no choice but to comply; often there are even penalties assigned for non-compliance.

All of us have had enough experience dealing with government bureaucracies to know that, sometimes, they have rules that don’t make much sense. Of course the laws are enacted with good intentions, but a one-size-fits-all approach simply isn’t always logical for a state that occupies nearly 87,000 square miles of land. Take a moment to consider this example: According to a Minnesota Department of Transportation document, the default speed limit for unmarked rural roads is 55 miles per hour, regardless of the type of surfacing the road has. Now, I trust you agree with me that, while 55 is fine for most paved roads, it is probably not a reasonable speed for most gravel roads. 

School districts encounter many similar inequalities. On-line sources, including the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League, tell me that there are about 350 school districts in the state, serving anywhere between a few students to more than 37,000. NRHEG, you might want to know, serves just shy of 975 kids, across 13 levels. With all this variation among districts, I hope you can see some of the problems one-size-fits-all legislation can cause, especially when it seems to be the largest districts which attract the most attention from lawmakers.

Every year, new mandates have come down the pike, often requiring our district to invest significant amounts of time and money. One big example took place a couple years ago when the legislature simply decided to hold onto some of the money slotted for school districts and “shift” paying it forward by two years. But even when you ignore standout examples like the “shift,” legislative action has a constant effect on our district.  Recent laws dictate, for example, training our staff must receive, tests our students must take, and ways district money and resources can be managed. 

Riding this rather unpredictable flow feels, at times, like rafting through rapids. Resources we had intended to allocate one way must suddenly be diverted; time slotted for one purpose must be used for another. These complications aren’t anything new, of course, but they are part of the overall culture which must be managed as we try to move forward with our planning.

The committee of stakeholders on the strategic planning team, when examining this element of the strategic plan, could only admit that we have limited control on this. The best preparation is to be sure our district is financially stable, and as prepared as possible to stay on an even keel despite sudden changes in the current. Part of this is making sure our buildings are in good repair and all elements of our finances are monitored—not only for the current year, but also going forward. This sort of vigilance has always been a priority here at NRHEG, and the school board and I will continue it.

One way you can help with this part of school operation is to stay informed about legislative proposals and be sure to touch base with your representative when a topic comes up that affects rural schools. When you hear about state-level discussions and want to know what they might mean to our district, feel free to contact me with your questions.

A step I’ve taken is to have our district join the Minnesota Rural Education Association, an organization which lobbies for the interests of schools in “outstate” Minnesota. My research has found the MREA to be a valuable advocate for districts like ours, and I feel we are already seeing some benefits.  Recently I was asked by MREA to be on their Board of Directors.  So with the interest of more directly supporting our district’s needs, I submitted my name for their consideration to better represent our district in regards to legislative initiatives which could impact NRHEG.

Thank you for staying with me through this discussion. I hope you have found it interesting, even though it’s a bit specialized. I also hope you will watch for more information about the district’s strategic plan and what it means for our students and our communities.  As always, feel free to contact me with questions; my e-mail address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; mail can be sent to the district office at 306 Ash Ave. South in New Richland.

(I hope you had a chance to read my three earlier writings that described other elements of the NRHEG Strategic Plan . If you did not and you find you have questions, you can go to the school web site, www.NRHEG.k12.mn.us, and see some of the information there. You do not need to have read the previous articles to understand what will be said here.)

I have mentioned before that I feel privileged to be working at the NRHEG school district. The community support, dedicated staff, and established history of cooperation and growth all work together to make this district the kind of place I can invest myself in, just as all of you have.

But, like every human endeavor, it can be better.

Perhaps you recall from some of my earlier writings on this topic that the strategic planning process examines our district, its resources, and its actions from several angles, including socially, structurally, and financially. Having arrived at a realistic assessment of where we are, committee members then used the same perspectives to consider where we want to be in three to five years.

Today’s discussion looks at the topic of the “learning and working environment” in our buildings; to summarize, over the next few years the strategic plan suggests that we will be working to support students as they acquire good habits, while also finding ways to reduce the number of times students misbehave. 

If you are muttering under your breath right now, “What’s new about the school wanting students to behave better?” let me begin by acknowledging that this goal may sound obvious. But all of you who have raised or cared for children are already aware that trying to instill good habits is, shall we say, an on-going process. It is an axiom in education that it is not possible to make others learn; the objective must be to make others want to learn.

So how do we make students want to behave better? Of course, and unfortunately, the strategic planning committee does not have the answer…but we do at least have some answers. We will use our experience, our access to current research, and influences from our communities to help students see the benefits of positive choices. Under the leadership of teacher Mark Domeier, a committee has already been working to encourage positive behavior — you’ve heard the phrase “Panther Pride” and seen the PRRS (pronounced “purrs”) paw prints which remind students to be “Positive, Respectful, Responsible, and Safe.”

I hope you agree that the committee’s work has already had some benefits. Changing school culture takes time; because of this, the strategic plan calls for our staff and students to continue building their understanding of the PRRS program and how it can best be strengthened and expanded.

Another way that I hope to see the learning and working environment in our schools improve is by continuing to build an atmosphere of interconnected trust and mutual support. That is, I hope that all of us come to know and understand each other, so that we can genuinely work as a team.

This is hard to understand until you have worked in a school, but everyone here is doing many jobs at once. Even a simple project becomes a number of tasks being performed simultaneously. Permit me to illustrate. Pretend you have come into the building to do something very straightforward — perhaps sweep a hallway or change a light bulb. You get out your broom and begin to sweep…a classroom of students comes by on its way to any number of possible destinations…you must stop sweeping, be sure any dust is pushed to the side, and get out of the way yourself so that no one trips over you or the broom. Simple enough…but there’s a large, colorful eraser among your sweepings. One of the students sees it, stops in her tracks, elbows someone else, and points at the eraser. “That’s mine!” she calls out angrily. “Who took it and how did it get there?” Suddenly you aren’t sweeping anymore, you’re managing student behavior, whether you intended to or not. How long will it be, do you think, before you finish your original task?

If even sweeping can become complicated, think about teaching a class. The adults in the room are managing behavior, supervising resources, adjusting rates to be sure time schedules are adhered to…and we haven’t even gotten to planning and teaching the material, answering student questions, monitoring the level of learning, and determining and recording scores and grades.

I tell you all this not to complain, but only to explain why we educators — and here I am referring to every adult in our buildings — don’t get a lot of time to build an interconnected network of well acquainted individuals. We’re very busy doing our many jobs; most teachers will tell you they spend their entire day moving quickly from one responsibility to another, frequently performing a number of tasks at once. Someone told me one time that only an air traffic controller makes more decisions per hour than a classroom teacher.

For all these reasons, a year is only a good start in allowing me and the staff to get to know each other. I am an “open book” kind of person. I like to communicate freely, share my impressions with others, and receive honest feedback. I do not shoot messengers, and any “agendas” I might have are definitely not “hidden.” But I don’t blame those who have decided to wait and see whether they agree with my self-assessment.

One element of my leadership style is called “leading from the ground up.” I hope to help foster an atmosphere in which staff members feel welcome to conceive possible changes to the status quo, then take well ordered steps to set them in motion. As you can picture, there are many possible benefits to this “ground up” decision-making process; it can only be successful, though, when stakeholders feel that their efforts will be valued and appreciated.

Experience has also taught me the importance of well organized staff training. 

I am producing this series of articles because this is a dynamic time for our district. We have the PRRS program, new technology, new positions, many new state mandates to comply with, and everyone in the district is being asked to integrate these changes with the many requirements already in place.

If we do not provide everyone with the information and time they need to adjust, we are only setting ourselves up for failure. In addition to collaboration time, staff training is also part of the reason our calendar for September 2014 to June 2015 contains more days with a two-hour late start than in the past. These hours will be used in a variety of ways to help our teachers and our teaching become more effective. Strengthened networking and system wide cooperation will benefit pretty much every level of instruction, and so I am grateful that our school board showed its willingness to support this endeavor.

Thank you for staying with me through all of this. I hope reading this information is helping you see the ways the strategic planning process is important. As always, feel free to contact me with questions; my e-mail address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; mail can be sent to the district office at 306 Ash Ave. South in New Richland.

I hope you had a chance to read the earlier writings that described, first, the underlying ideas of the district’s strategic plan and second, the student learning objectives the plan includes. If you did not and you find you have questions, you can go to the school web site and see some of the information there. You do not need to have read the previous articles to understand what will be said here.

It sure is fun to walk into a kindergarten classroom. The decorations, the atmosphere, the conversations are all so colorful and dynamic. There is laughter and motion—and above all the children seem naturally curious, sincere and willing to please. Many adults smile even at the thought of seeing a room full of young children happily engaged in learning.

Though it’s not the first thing we think of, I can tell you from experience that it can also be fun to walk into every other type of classroom. Giggly middle school students who would never admit it, but who still crave adult interaction; high school seniors who aren’t sure which is stronger, their longing to graduate and move on, or their desire to stay where things are familiar and predictable; they all have their charms.

So as much fun as it is to be in the school, why do we see so few community members in our buildings?

Don’t let me hurt your feelings if you are one of those adults who does come. Every NRHEG staff member is grateful for the generous support, assistance and input received from parents, members of community organizations, and representatives of area businesses who give of their time. Volunteers do everything from planning activities to painting and repairing structures, to strengthening student learning with their experience.

It’s a two-way street, of course. NRHEG students have given presentations, performed volunteer community service, and helped with large-scale clean-up projects. I hope everyone sees our concerts and other public performances as the heartfelt gifts they are, students pouring out their talents for the sake of their family members and neighbors.

I would say that the school and community have a lot to offer each other, except for one thing: we ARE each other.

The strategic plan mentioned above includes close attention to the ways our students can use their talents to benefit our communities, and also looks for ways to encourage community members to feel welcome to visit and enrich our classrooms. The value of finding projects of this type is—I believe—obvious.

But here I could definitely use your help. I would love to hear from you about community members or organizations with standout skills and experiences. These names would be shared with our teachers, who are always looking for ways to expand student learning. Just visit the school web site; you will find my contact information under the “district” heading—or e-mail me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

The school would especially like to work with some community members to establish a school-wide booster program—that is, a far-reaching community support system which encourages all student activities, rather than the limited systems which currently focus on a single group or event. The strategic planning stakeholders saw great possible benefits from such an organization, and would love to see a dialog about it.

In the meantime, I know our security measures—our locked doors and check-in procedures—may seem intimidating. But they’re not meant to keep you out. We are educating and guiding our communities’ children, and there’s no question we want our communities to be part of that process. Your skills and your time would be appreciated in helping our kids safely across busy streets, assisting students as they work on projects for the science fair, reading with them to help build their skills and love of written language, supervising lunchrooms or playgrounds, cultivating the school garden, or finding derivatives in calculus. If you have a few hours to spare, there is almost certainly a way we could use them.

Who knows, while you’re here you might make some lasting connections with far-reaching benefits. In the meantime, I hope you’ll give all these matters some thought and be in touch. By the way, for those of you who prefer good old paper and pencil, you can mail things to me at the NRHEG Public Schools, 306 Ash Ave South, New Richland 56072.

(I hope you had a chance to read the earlier piece that described the underlying ideas of the district’s strategic plan. If you did not and you find you have questions, you can go to the school web site and see some of the information there. You do not need to have read the previous article to understand what will be said here.)

Yes, it is perfectly obvious that student learning is a priority for any school district. But read on, because you will quickly see that there are many elements of this topic which are not obvious at all.

Over time, I have heard teachers express their frustrations about student learning in a variety of humorous ways: “If only it would work to strap books to their heads!” “I hope the experts develop telepathy soon, then I could just transfer understanding directly into their brains.” “If time travel is ever perfected, I’m going to find this kid’s future self and send him back to talk to himself!”

But all joking aside, there are no shortcuts when it comes to student learning. Oversimplified, the art rests in knowing both the material and the learner, and finding a way to make the one accessible to the other. I make no claims of perfection, but I have every confidence our district’s teachers are highly knowledgeable in the subject matter they teach. As for the learners…well, they’re an ever-changing tide. 

Research shows that a student’s success in school , a student’s enthusiasm for the types of learning offered in classrooms, rests on a wide array of factors. Some of these are under the teachers’ control: overall elements of the environment, including whether the student feels safe and is comfortable; the tools used to present and clarify the material; follow-up work which expands student competency. A great many more are not: whether the student is hungry or distracted, how well the learner has understood necessary foundational information, questions of confidence and self-esteem, the priority the student places on academic learning, the learner’s preferred learning style…the list goes on and on. And especially in a less stable household, many of these factors change from day to day.

So what’s a school district to do? Everything possible, of course. Some of the students who like school least are the ones who need it most, so excuses are not an option.

Elements of the strategic plan extend into the three elements of learning—the subject matter, the learner, and the way the material is presented.

The easiest one to explain is the first: how we will improve our teachers’ knowledge of their subject matter. Research shows that the higher the combined education level of a school’s staff, the more successful its students are. The strategic plan includes steps which will encourage our teachers to continue their educations and become more knowledgeable in their subject areas.

A sub category is how well the teachers know their students. This topic becomes more complex, since there are several directions from which the question can be approached. Standardized tests, for example, are a way the state evaluates student learning. If you are acquainted with any child who attends our schools, you have doubtless heard about the batteries of tests required by the state. If I hear from people that it is desirable, I will make more information about these test scores available in a later piece of writing, but the big picture when it comes to state tests is that our students as a group have shown a performance level below the state average. Since, just as in Garrison Keillor’s fictional hometown of Lake Woebegon, we believe all our children are above average, we want to find ways to improve the scores our classes are earning.

Raising these scores will demand considerable effort. We must find and repair the short circuits which have kept our groups from performing at target levels. This will require our teachers to look closely at the expectations for the tests, the overall school curriculum, and other factors. To engage in this diagnostic process, teachers must get together, examine data, determine relevant factors, then consider and choose possible responses.

To facilitate this process, the district has already taken two important steps. One is that we have expanded our staff to include someone whose job it is to focus on the overall flow of our teaching process; Terri Engel has stepped away from the fifth-grade classroom where she has been so successful for decades, and is now the district’s Curriculum Director. She will work with teachers and with data to see how our teachers can make their teaching more strategic. The second way is that we have arranged nine late starts for this upcoming school year. These are being carefully planned to maximize their value; one of their main purposes is to allow teachers to collaborate about how to improve the ways subject matter is delivered to students.

The next element, the learner, will also be a topic on which our teachers will collaborate.  Staff will share information about groups of students, including what techniques have been successful in the past, what their areas of strength and weakness are, and how they can best be supported as they advance from level to level. In short, teachers will look for ways to get to know the students better for the sake of individualizing their instruction methods.

Another way the strategic plan focuses on individual learning is with new initiatives for students who prefer hands-on learning. This summer, students will earn credit by completing construction projects under the supervision of one of our teachers. A program which focuses on delivering health care, and which allows students to work directly in the medical field, will also offer an opportunity to earn high school credit. Other endeavors are under development, and you are likely to hear more about them in the near future.

Because these hands-on learners are most often the students who drop out of high school before graduating, this particular focus is likely to help with another stated goal, increasing our graduation rate from its current 85% to a figure much closer to 100%.

There we have it, a quick summary of the “student learning” element of the district’s strategic plan. I hope you can see the many ways it ties in with our mission statement: Providing students with knowledge, skills and attitudes which enable them to succeed in a globally competitive society.  Empower, Learn, Succeed. 

As before, if you are looking for more detail, please visit the school web site, http://www.nrheg.k12.mn.us, where a quick glance around will show you the path to more information in a link labeled “strategic plan.” Watch, too, for future writings which will provide summaries about some of our other priorities. Thanks for taking the time to read all this…having done so shows you are just the type of person we hope to send out into the world: a lifelong learner.