What an amazing beginning we’ve had to the 2021-22 school year as we continue to prepare Today’s Learners to be Tomorrow’s Leaders! We can’t help but be excited to have our students and staff back to full in-person learning after nearly seventeen months. This school year has provided the opportunity to ‘restart’ many of the important projects we had previously embraced while ensuring our focus is also on mitigating any learning loss that may have taken place due to the pandemic. We’re meeting the needs of all of our students each and every day as we provide safe, supportive learning environments where students can flourish academically, socially, and emotionally.
In preparing our students academically, we continue to enhance our focus on the implementation of our English Language Arts/English Language Development program, continuing to take a ‘deeper dive’ into data to drive the instructional program and maintaining our commitment to STEM-Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics! In order to address the social-emotional development, safety, and well-being of students we’ve implemented a social-emotional curriculum across all grade levels. A combination of a rich, well-rounded curriculum, highly qualified and caring staff and a long-standing commitment to excellence is ensuring that we prepare our students to meet the demands of an ever-changing global society.
The evolving needs of school sites, students, and staff have driven projects that we’ve undertaken since March 2020. Thanks to monies from the sale of Perez School, state school bond reimbursements, and a variety of state and federal funding sources, we’ve been able to complete technology-related projects including updating classroom computers, upgrading our infrastructure, and providing class sets of tablets in all of our classrooms. We learned last year just how important it is for students to know how to use technological tools to enhance their learning; we want to continue to build on the use of these programs to support the instructional program. We will continue the implementation of focused intervention of skills in both language arts and math. Moving forward with technology continues to allow Today’s Learners to become Tomorrow’s Leaders as we ensure students have digital literacy skills that will propel them into college and career readiness.
Because student and staff safety are paramount, we are continually assessing the safety and security needs of our campuses and are proud of the systems we have in place. We have consistently undertaken measures to ensure the safety of our schools in the past and will continue to do so. Furthering our commitment to student and staff safety, additional cameras were added in a variety of areas throughout the District. While the cameras provide the ability for monitoring on an as-needed basis, there is no audio recording. We’re extremely grateful that we’ve been able to complete much-needed enhancements that will provide students and staff with safe, secure facilities to meet the demands of 21st Century learning. These projects and more will impact our children's education and our community for generations to come.
Our Summer Academy program provided academic support for nearly 400 students this summer; the staff teachers did an outstanding job to help Today’s Learners become Tomorrow’s Leaders. Students were immersed in lessons to help them recoup any potential learning loss and challenge their writing abilities while reconnecting with teachers and friends. In partnership with Achieves, an after school Lit Camp was provided with additional opportunities for students to master grade level curricula in a fun, interactive environment, also with a focus on social-emotional learning.
We invite you to follow the excitement of learning on our FaceBook page at https://www.facebook.com/SavannaSchoolDistrict/ where you will be able to see the many ways students and staff are engaged in educational activities and celebrating accomplishments on a daily basis!