Parents & Guardians,

We are off and running in the 2023 school year! It has been a great first few weeks at 1R for students and staff.. Everyone is settling into the daily routines and procedures. Again, thank you for your support as we kick off the new school year. 

School picture retakes are (Wednesday, September 27th).

Parent Teacher Conferences are Wednesday, September 20 and Thursday, September 21 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 22. 

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. 20 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.  PTO will meet on Monday, Sept. 11 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!

Hopefully everyone has been able to access Peachjar. This is a new online device the Northwest district is using to communicate with families about events, fundraisers and things happening within the schools and district. All families have been signed up for this new tool. If you are not receiving please check your SPAM mail as it may be getting sent there. Typical Peachjar sends weekly updates on Sunday evenings. 1R PTO will be using this to share important events, fundraiser flyers so please look for those emails. 

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. 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. 

Middle school sports have been kicking off. 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!

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