Parents & Guardians,

We are off and running in the 2022 school year. It has been a great first few weeks at 1R for students and staff. Labor Day is already upon us this Monday, September 5th – reminder there is NO school that day. Everyone is settling into the daily routines and procedures. Again, thank you for your support as we kick off the new school year.

We are excited to be celebrating 50 years of education at 1R this year! In honor of this commemorative year, please mark your calendars for an Open House Anniversary celebration on Sunday, October 2 from 5-8 PM at 1R school. This event is open to current families and former alumni who may have attended 1R school. Please spread the word to families, faculty etc. that may have connections to our school. The Pig in a Bag food truck and the Anna Street Trolley will be available for supper and treats. PTO will be hosting carnival games and inflatables.  A 50-Year Anniversary Cookbook will be available to order with yummy recipes from current and former 1R families. The doors will be open for walkthroughs, seeing old friends and a celebration of the 1R school.

We would like to create a 50 year school photo with our current student body and faculty. A note went home yesterday about this photo op next Wednesday, Sept 7th. We are asking our students to wear a Rebel shirt or any orange, black or white shirt if possible that day. We will use a drone to take an aerial photo of our current student body outlining the number “50”. We will send another reminder Tuesday.

School Pictures:  School picture day is (Thursday, September 8th).  Forms have been sent home and you can also purchase online through Tally Creative.

Parent Teacher Conferences are Wednesday, September 21 and Thursday, September 22 from 2:00 PM-8:00 PM. Students will be dismissed at noon on both days with no lunch being served. K-5 teachers have scheduled times. Please contact your child’s teacher if you have not set up a time. Middle School conferences are not scheduled – just come when you are available. There is NO school on Friday, September 23.

I would like to remind parents and legal guardians of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). We cannot share academic information with anyone other than biological parents or documented legal guardians. While we value and recognize it takes a community to raise a child, we cannot share academic information outside these parameters——meaning stepparents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, boyfriends or girlfriends etc. We thank you for your cooperation with meeting these requirements of the law.

Mrs. McGowan will have the Book Fair in conjunction with Parent Teacher Conference days. PTO will also host Breakfast Buddies on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 7:15 AM in conjunction with the Book Fair.  Come out and enjoy a donut and buy some books to share with your child. Let’s all help Mrs. McGowan instill the passion for reading and support the library!

PTO meets on the first Monday of the month at 6:00 PM. Due to Labor Day, PTO will meet on Monday, Sept. 12 at 6:00 PM this month.  On behalf of the PTO, I would like to encourage you to consider coming to the meetings.  They are held in our library on the first Monday of the month unless otherwise noted.  If you are not able to attend the meetings, but would be willing to help in any other way, please let our PTO know.  Our PTO has done and continues to do so much for our school and we very much appreciate all their efforts!

Tech Tip from Mrs. Callihan: Social media tools, restrictions and content often seem overwhelming and bring lots of questions. Mrs. Callihan recently shared a new feature within Snapchat called Family Center. Although this is not a total “tracking” tool, it provides an extra layer of comfort for parents to know who their child is communicating with or who their “friends” are. You are encouraged to take a look to see if this might be a fit for you and your family. More information can be found here.

Option Enrollment: For those who are interested or know of families who might be interested in optioning into 1R or the Northwest district for the 2023-2024 school year, applications are being accepted now. For more information including the option form, please click here.

Your child’s attendance at school is very important to us and imperative to their success as a student. On days when they will not make it due to an illness or absence, please call the office before 8:00 AM and let us know. Mrs. Bachle will be following up if she has not heard from you by 9:00 and alerts may be sent notifying you. Please contact us at 385-6352. Thank you for your support with this.

Lunch Menu may be found on Northwest district website under the Parents tab. Also, here is the link for daily lunches.  K-8 Lunch Menu  Please add this calendar to your links for the most up to minute updates. Reminder lunches are NO LONGER free. Parents and guardians you will need to set up and/or revisit your lunch accounts. There are multiple ways you may set this up. Please visit this link for all your Lunch information and setup 2022-23 Nutritional Information. Students will need to have current daily balances for a hot lunch.  If not, you will receive alert notifications, paper notes and/or your child may be asked to call home if balances are negative. Link to the Free & Reduced Lunch form.

Middle school sports are kicking off over the next week or so. We wish all our teams good luck this fall. Our student athletes and coaches are working hard and improving each practice. There are schedules posted on the 1R Google calendar. You can also follow the Central Conference link here for both Middle School and NW High School events: Central Conference Link

Northwest uses the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) system. (SRP) provides consistent, clear, shared language and actions among all students, staff and first responders. We have and will continue to practice fire, tornado, lockdown and evacuation drills. I am proud to say our students and staff have been doing a great job. Our district and staff have trained with law enforcement in many of these protocols. We practice to be prepared and pray we will never use them. The law enforcement and fire department are invited to participate so they can monitor and provide feedback. Our Rural Fire Department and Sheriff’s Department have been great support and we thank them for all their service.

As a district and building we continue to ROW together! The ROW acronym stands for being: R-Respectful, O-taking Ownership, and W-Working as a team. These expectations are part of the 1R School Improvement Climate & Culture Goal. Teachers shared lessons with students the first week of school on how and what it looks like to ROW in our building, the classroom, hallway, lunchroom, recess etc…. I encourage you to ask your child about ROW Expectations. The next time you’re in the building checkout the ROW posters in our hallways, classrooms and gym. Each day teachers are looking for students who exhibit these expectations. Students are given ROW rewards and their names are placed in a weekly drawing. We have a lot of awesome students doing great things everyday!

Last week you received a note about the 1R House System. We are super excited about this new system. Please be sure to ask your child about what House they are in. Our goal is to continue to build community within our school, across all grade levels and with all staff through fun interactive lessons and fun mini challenges/competitions. We held our first mini challenge/competition with Hula Hoop Races. The concept was on Teamwork.  It was a blast!  Students earn points for their houses in a variety of ways – ROW rewards, good character, teamwork, being responsible, respectful, kind etc.. Each week we update our House Rankings in the hallway. More to come…

Again thank you for your continued educational partnership. We greatly appreciate your support. The best and most updated way to stay connected is with the 1R Calendar and Northwest District calendar. You may also follow us on the 1R Facebook page, 1R Website and Northwest Website. Please do not hesitate to contact the office or myself if you have any questions 308-385-6352.

Sincerely,

Mr. Retzlaff, Principal