Letter From The Principal

Greetings and welcome back for the 2024-2025 school year.

First off, I would like to recognize the efforts of our maintenance staff over the summer. Staff and students returned to a refreshed, clean, and organized school environment. The maintenance staff took on many large responsibilities as a number of changes occurred inside the building, room assignments changed, and a lot of technology was updated. Our staff consisted of our full-time crew, plus a couple of individuals from our teaching staff and a handful of students. The efforts of the crew over the summer are certainly noticed and greatly appreciated.

All staff kicked off the year last Monday morning with a time to catch up on summer happenings, review our annual training, and receive specialized training on the Emergent 3 mobile application. The E:3 app allows staff to communicate and remain updated in an emergency situation. With the app, all staff receive the proper procedures on how to respond to specific threats. This app coincides with the updating of our emergency manuals that are in every classroom and common area. During Tuesday’s PIR time, teachers reviewed specific information and discussed our goals for the school year.

Back to School Night was a success, with all grade levels reporting around 90-95% participation from students and families. Mr. Collins and I held two assemblies reviewing our goals for the school year and the changes to school fees, as well as our situation regarding the XCELL! after-school program. The atmosphere in the building was exciting and fun. We received a lot of positive feedback on the change in format and playing Cascade Bingo. A big thank you to all staff and the volleyball team for making the event such a success.

I couldn’t be happier with our teaching and administrative staff. Our new staff members, along with those who took on different roles within the building, have jumped right in and have already made a positive impact on our school operations, and most importantly, our support and offerings to our students. I feel that we had a great recruiting year and have brought on staff members who bring a lot of knowledge and are able to provide more opportunities for our students.

Last Wednesday, we opened our doors to 349 students. There are many new faces in our classrooms this year. Over the course of open enrollment, we enrolled over 60 new students in our district. While we graduated 22 seniors and approximately eight students moved out of the district, by rough estimate, we gained well over 30 students. It has been wonderful greeting all our returning students while introducing ourselves to the new students. Last week was a short week with students in the building on Wednesday and Thursday. This felt like a great way to start the year and get acclimated back into the groove of school. This week, the training wheels are off, and we are ready to learn.

With all the items that require my attention at the start of the school year, and in order to provide a meaningful report on our ACT scores, I will present our scores and how we compare to the state and nation next month.

I’m looking forward to another awesome year at Cascade Public Schools. Let’s go Badgers!