Letter from the Principal

Stacey Kadrmas, Principal

November 4, 2009

Dear Prosperity Heights Families:

Our mission at Prosperity Heights is to provide an exceptional education for all students by surrounding them with opportunity, support, and hope for the future. We do this by creating an atmosphere that welcomes each child and honors their strengths as we guide them in their learning. Prosperity Heights ensures that every student has the opportunity to achieve high academic and social standards through a program of targeted instruction, clear assessments, and collaboration. We welcome you to collaborate with us to help your children reach their highest potential. Next week at parent-teacher conferences, you will receive information about your child’s progress in school. This information comes from the following sources:
•    Tests and other assessments that give teachers detailed data about each child’s academic strengths and needs.
•    Teacher observations during academic and social situations.
•    Student self-assessments about what they have learned, what their strengths are and what their needs are.
•    Student work.

Teams of teachers work together in the classrooms, so the information you receive during conferences is often a collaborative effort on the part of our teacher teams to share the most complete academic and social information we have. Parents are a very important part of the team in a child’s education, so please share information and ask questions to help everyone at the table work together for the benefit of our students. We want and need you on the team!

As a neighborhood school, we forged a partnership with the city of St. Paul to create an after school program that supports our working families and strengthens the neighborhood. PHC is Prosperity’s free after school program. It runs Monday through Friday from 2:30-5:00 and is a support service we offer our families whose parents work or go to school fulltime. We are really excited about the partnership with St. Paul’s Parks and Recreation Department, because they are offering a certified recreation leader to help run our program, and she brings a depth of knowledge and experience that will strengthen our program. If you are interested in this after school program, please call the school to find out if you meet the program requirements.

Another collaborative effort we are excited about is our Tier II Time during the last period of the day. Prosperity teachers are working together to give every student targeted academic support and enrichment in math and literacy during this period. This is in addition to the daily one-hour blocks of reading, writing, and math that already occur in each classroom. The Tier II Time is being designed to support every student to meet or exceed literacy and math standards. During this time, we will offer small group instruction and activities that range from support for students who are struggling with a new concept or strategy to enrichment for students who have mastered grade level curriculum. We will use ongoing assessments to move students into and out of appropriate groups based on their identified needs. Tier II Time will provide additional opportunities for every student to master the learning they need in order to be successful in junior high, high school, and college.

As you can see, there is a lot of good work going on at Prosperity Heights. Anytime you have questions or suggestions, please stop by and talk to me, your child’s teachers, or another staff member. We welcome your input.

Sincerely,
Stacey Kadrmas, Principal