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Superintendent's welcome back to school letter It has been so great to see students in our buildings and classrooms filled with teacher and student conversations. The past two weeks have been a reminder of why we are educators and the gratification it gives us all to be back in school. Cottonwood School District’s enrollment after two weeks of school is 400 students. Last year at this time we had 389 students enrolled. Of our total enrollment, 48 students are open enrolled from other districts. Our high school volleyball and football teams are off to a great start and our junior high football and girls’ basketball teams started their season last week. The cross country team is off to a great start as well and has participated in one meet. Volleyball started the year with 28 student/athletes, Football 28, Cross Country 15, and Cheer 6. Student organizations FFA, BPA, and HOSA along with Knowledge Bowl are gearing up to have meetings and start their year. Prairie is offering 12 dual credit courses this year. Dual credit courses are those that students take for high school credit as well as having the option to take for college credit. The courses include U.S. History, U.S. Government, Economics, Psychology, Calculus, Probability and Statistics, Math 137, Math 147, Speech, Natural Science, English IV, and Art Appreciation. School year 2019-2020 showed a total of 774 credits earned with 79 students enrolled in at least one dual credit course. We take this opportunity to welcome new staff members. Terri Chapman is working at the elementary as our special education teacher. Terri was raised in the Spokane Valley with strong ties to the Sandpoint/Hope area. She met her husband Joe in Sandpoint (originally from Nebraska - Go Huskers!) They lived in Stanley for two years then moved to Hagerman where they spent 26 years and raised their three boys Zach(26), Tyler (23) and Ben (20). Terri received her teaching degree from Eastern Washington University. She stayed at home until her youngest son entered elementary school. She began teaching for Hagerman Elementary and has 13 years of experience with that school district. They are recently “empty nesters” and are living in Kamiah. She says she wakes up every morning and looks out the window and feels blessed to be living in such an amazing place. She is looking forward to meeting students and parents of Prairie Elementary. Kayla Schumacher is working at the junior/senior high school as a paraprofessional. Kayla is the second oldest of nine children. Her parents are Doug and Julie Schumacher. She grew up in Cottonwood and graduated from Prairie High School in 2015. After graduation, she attended college at Eastern Oregon University where she graduated in 2019 with a History Degree. During her college years, she was able to travel overseas twice. The first was through a study abroad program where she spent six weeks in Spain. The other was to visit family members who were also able to study abroad. She is currently enrolled in the PACE program at LCSC and plans on receiving her teaching license Fall of 2021. She is looking forward to this coming school year. Alecia Hagen joins the elementary school as a third-grade teacher. Alecia is from Grangeville, but her father is a Prairie alumnus. She is married to Erik, and they have two children, Capri (10), and Cohen (6) who keep them extremely busy. She worked for the Mountain View School District for eight years as secretary for the elementary and secondary schools. In those eight years, she discovered her passion for helping students and decided to pursue her degree in teaching. She did her student teaching in 5th grade with Kristi Bruegeman and is a recent graduate of Grand Canyon University. Last spring she spent a semester as a long term substitute in Grangeville. In her spare time, she enjoys camping, reading, and crafting. She is excited to continue her teaching career with the Cottonwood School District. Megan Frei is student teaching in second grade. Megan was born and raised in Cottonwood. She is the daughter of Nick and Molly Seubert. She says she is still getting used to the “Frei” part of her name and she is newly married as of August 1. Her husband Josh grew up in Grangeville. Together they enjoy traveling to remote areas and exploring the Idaho backcountry. Megan has been working as a dental assistant at Christensen Orthodontics for the past 3 1/2 years. She says she is thrilled to be a part of the Cottonwood School District this semester as she completes her student teaching with Mrs. Julie Schumacher. She looks forward to being part of the “Prairie team”. Our summer was spent updating our buildings and grounds. The elementary school received a roof repair, the junior/senior high school driveway and the parking lot was paved, a new bell/intercom system was installed in both buildings, a venting system was added to the junior/senior high school shop, and a heating/air conditioning unit was added to the elementary music room. Bathrooms were repainted and stall repaired at the junior/senior high school. Cafeteria chairs have been replaced at the junior/senior high school. Kerri Villamor and Travis Alfrey worked on their senior projects as they painted barriers, helped with the weed trimming, and other jobs around the district, while Jade Gehring painted a mural in the entrance of the elementary school. We are looking forward to a great year. If any community member is interested in being on an email list from the schools, please contact Jennifer Riener at rienerj@sd242.org or Jon Rehder at rehderj@sd242.org . |
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