9/17/2015

And we’re off! It has been a terrific start to our school year! We are so happy to have you and your child back in the “school groove”. I wanted to let you know about some important changes at Northside and Coulee Montessori this year.

We have a Dean of Students! The school board granted us some extra allocation so we could hire Mr. Larry to help me out with all of the administrative duties this year. He is already making a tremendous difference (see note about a “terrific start to our school year!”). Although he will be helping out everywhere in the school, you will probably notice him at breakfast and in the lunchroom and on the playground helping kids. Welcome Mr. Larry!
We now have a full-time guidance counselor and a full-time social worker! Due to our size and the number of students in need, we were able to get two people to help out kids and families! Mrs. Heather Gartner is our social worker and Ms. Melani Fay is our guidance counselor.
I am going to give you a little sneak preview as to an announcement coming next week! We are participating in a very innovate program developed by the County of La Crosse called the La Crosse Area Family Collaborative. Because of this program, we will be able to house a La Crosse County social worker in our building! This person’s sole job is to support families and PREVENT referrals to the county. I am not exactly sure when the county staff member will start, but I think it will be in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more information about this very exciting initiative!
Have you heard about Your Northside Neighborhood Clinic? We are excited to be a site for a free health care clinic for children who attend Northside and Coulee Montessori. There will be more information to follow, but it looks like it will operate after school beginning in October. Their motto is Healthy Kids, Healthy Families, Healthy Communities. Click HERE to visit their Facebook page.

Speaking of Facebook, have you taken a look at our school Facebook page? We have postings about the Dad’s night, our PBIS work and some awards we have won! It’s a great way to keep up with the kids!
Be sure to take a look at the way our hallways are changing…we are in the midst of a big paint job. The entry ways to the classroom and other areas are now decorated to match the lockers. It looks AWESOME!
Another big change was the DIRTT wall that went up in Room 209. We ended up needing to make two classrooms from the one big one that was in that corner. The DIRTT wall is a beautiful and functional wall that allows the room to be attractively separated into two parts, and then quickly and easily converted back to one big classroom. We love it!
Our next Muffins with Laura listening session will be for October 15th 8:00-9:00am in the conference room! See you there!

As always, I want to hear from you about great things that are happening with your kids, questions you might have or concerns that worry you! If you want to talk “specifics” about your child, please give me a call or shoot me an email!

Laura Huber
608-789-7970
lhuber@lacrossesd.org