Many of you may or may not know that Marsha Groth, Elementary Principal, has submitted her resignation to the Board and will retire officially June 30, 2010.

Marsha has been in the District for 24 years as a teacher and principal. She has dedicated her career to improving the lives of students and helping teachers become better instructors in order to give students better opportunities. Twenty-four years is long time to have or keep high energy every single day in order to work with kids. Imagine being a “pseudo” parent to over 800 students daily for 175 days a year. I do not think many of us can do that with the level of strength, kindness, and professionalism that Marsha has.

Marsha has been here a lot longer than I have been or will be. However, we do share a lengthy career in education and I must say that she is one the finest principals I have ever worked with. I know that her decisions were made in the best interest of her students and staff. She never hesitated to make sure that the elementary received everything it needed to be successful. Marsha never let “status quo” exist in her school. She always looked for improvement in curriculum, instruction, or academic materials. Just this year alone, she initiated a program to help teachers learn new and better ways to help our students become better readers. It has been a huge undertaking and along with the cooperation of her staff, it has been a success.

That is what leadership is; never allowing status quo to be the norm. Taking risks when it would be easier to take the safe road. Having high expectations of others as well as one’s self. And maintaining these expectations every day and not faltering when times become difficult. On behalf of the elementary staff, the School Board and thousands of students Marsha has helped over these many years, I want to say, “Thank you Marsha for all that you have done for our children”.

The plans to find a replacement for Marsha have already started. The posting of the elementary principalship was done on March 16 and will close April 2. Applicants’ documents will be reviewed for meeting qualifications. A committee will then evaluate those applicants who meet the qualifications and determine which candidates will be interviewed. Interviews will begin the week of April 12 and hopefully by April 23, an individual be will be offered and accept the position.

The District made a decision last summer to replace its student information system. This investment will improve our electronic tracking of students, their records, and improve parent access. The District purchased a new SIS called Infinite Campus (IC). Over the last several months, a committee led by Melody Melin has been working on implementing this new system. On April 1, teachers will be given their first training on how to take attendance and enter grades. On April 19, the entire District will go “live” with IC.

There will be a short time that parents will not have access to their student’s grades through the former ParentConnect program. Once the parent portal has been tested and determined to function correctly, parents will be notified on how to access their student’s information through IC.

I ask parents to be patient during the time period the parent portal is being tested. The present system we are using will no longer be used starting April 19. We want to make sure the parent portal works well before we open it up to all parents. Parents will be notified of the procedures to gain access to Infinite Campus (IC) and how to begin reviewing student data.