Dear Saint Ambrose Parents,
We were blessed by a lovely day on Tuesday at St. Francis for our all campus morning of reflection, safety/security training and professional development meetings (our day was packed). I am so grateful for our incredible teachers and staff that make up this community.
Our safety and security focus was on behavioral threat assessment. This presentation was important for all campus employees.
Strategic Plan Update:
We continue to work on the strategic plan goals that were outlined during our accreditation self study in 2023-2024. Below are the objectives we are focusing on this year, with some notes to update you on our progress.
OBJECTIVE 1 – Improve overall experience of belonging -for students, this is how we work on conflict resolution, living the virtues, and practicing the Saint Ambrose Way. I am proud of the work we do each day in this realm. We want students to know that they belong here, and that they belong to God.
OBJECTIVE 2 – Improve learning experience for all students-We are focused on continuous improvement in academics. This means using our resources well to meet the needs of students, and to challenge them to grow-we are working on impacting achievement for every student. One way we do this is by giving teachers time to work on grade level teams (trying for limited teacher lunch duty this year, which gives them more time to collaborate), we also hosted a vertical meeting on Tuesday so that teachers can talk to the grade level above and below about learning goals and achievement.
OBJECTIVE 3 – Improve teaching experience for faculty and staff- Teacher/staff input this year - after every meeting, we ask teachers for feedback on what went well and what we can improve. We publish all of the feedback so teachers can see how their input will inform decision making. Additionally, we have a staff question/input/concern form on safety and security. Finally, Melissa Schisler is spending time with each teacher to check in on how their year is going in general, and then to check in on their faith -how we can help provide opportunities for faith growth for teachers.
Teacher Compensation-after last year’s compensation study was concluded, it was evident that we had work to do for some of our teachers. While we were on par for some levels of education and experience, other strands of teachers were farther away from our compensation goal. Thus, we were able to give bigger raises to those who were farthest from the targeted numbers we rec’d from the study. I will present next year’s proposed budget to the finance council at the end of November, and will focus on another bigger move toward our goal salaries for teachers. Tuition is our main source of funding, and we are working to balance not pricing families out of Saint Ambrose while working to pay our teachers a salary that shows their value, and encourages retention of our incredible professionals.
OBJECTIVE 4 – Improve Safety and Security Preparedness and Practices
We continue to move forward with the recommendations from the MN School Safety Center (Homeland Security). With our Security 360 partners, our next steps are to discern committee members to help us move forward with our planning, training, procedures and policies and building insights. We hope to have our first meeting in early December.
OBJECTIVE 5 – Improve communication to unify stakeholders in working toward the school mission- We have provided a few parent input opportunities-a recent lunch survey and parent input on safety and security. We are thrilled with the hiring of Erin Weinzettel as our Director of Communications for the whole campus. She will help us to continue to improve communication.
Class Pictures
Class pictures are ready! Thank you to Hilda Berdie and Picture Perfect for helping us create these beautiful pictures. Here is the link to purchase. The cost is $12 per photo.
https://woodburypictureperfect.pixieset.com/stambroseclasspictures/
A few upcoming notes:
