Weekly Update
Duluth Public Schools News March 18, 2022
From Superintendent John Magas
Dear families:
This week, here at the district, we’ve been engaging with multiple stakeholders on what we can do to increase student performance and success. This is something we've been doing with the World’s Best Workforce report.
The World’s Best Workforce bill was passed in 2013 to ensure every school district in the state is making strides to increase student performance. “For Minnesota to be competitive, we must have students who are college and career ready and students who are poised to lead the state’s workforce.”
For the past two months, district staff has been working on updating and compiling information and data to share with the stakeholders such as our World's Best Workforce Advisory Committee. Participants include representatives from the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee, Achievement & Integration Team, Special Education Committees, parents, and students.
The data shows the participation in testing in 2020-21 was down significantly from previous years by more than 30%, but from those who did take the standardized tests, it’s clear there was a lot of unfinished learning due to the pandemic.
Students are currently in the process of taking the standardized tests this year and soon we will see how the intentional learning and teaching initiatives we implemented this year have helped our students with their unfinished learning.
Rest assured that we have a team of deeply dedicated educators who are fully committed to meeting the unfinished learning and social emotional needs of each student in our district. More will be shared in the coming weeks on this work, as well as the strategic planning process that we will use in moving forward in realizing our vision.
When we see each other again on Monday, it will officially be Spring! Enjoy the warmer weather this weekend! I know I will.
Sincerely,
John Magas
If you have questions or thoughts about what's going on in our school district, email:
School News
Artist helping Ordean East Middle School Paint Mural
Ordean East art students are working this week with artist Adam Swanson on a mural for the Garden entrance. The mural is expected to be done on Friday.
Denfeld students recognized at School Board for helping a neighbor
On March 4, Brendan Hughes and Dominic Brennan were sitting in Ms. Wicklund’s fourth hour business and personal finance class when they and other students in the class noticed a neighbor out shoveling his roof.
His ladder fell while doing so and Brendan and Dominic asked if they could go help him out. Ms. Wicklund let them out of the bus doors and watched as they ran across the street to help the gentleman down off the roof.
The gentleman, who lives off of 44th Avenue West, stopped in at Denfeld the next day to let the staff know what the students had done for him. When he thanked them and asked their names they just stated they were good Samaritans and ran back to school.
So Tuesday night we to recognized Brendan and Dominic for going above and beyond to help a Denfeld neighbor in a time of need.
Brendan attended with his grandmother.
Dominic is not able to attend as he was playing in the 23rd annual Essentia Health High School All-Star Game tonight.
Duluth Denfeld’s Carter Kilroy Commits to St. Scholastica Football Team
Duluth Denfeld’s Carter Kilroy signed his National Letter of Intent to join the St. Scholastica football team.
Kilroy will play running back at CSS and it also means he will compete on the same field he did during his high school career.
Monday, March 14 was the (in)famous toothpick bridge break-off for Duluth East 9th grade science students. Over 50 students were on hand to test their bridges to failure. Each of their bridges had already held 15 kg (2.2 lbs./kg).
Before the competition, awards were handed out for most aesthetically pleasing.
Here are the results for Most Aesthetically Pleasing:
1st place - Emma Waddick
2nd Place- Andrew Lussier
3rd place - JT Norick
Then came the strongest bridge competition. After about 20 minutes of loading up to 30 kg, only three bridges remained. When all was said and done, it wasn't close...Izzy Williams was the champ. In dramatic fashion Izzy's bridge held over 51 kg as the testing equipment failed before her bridge did!
Here are the final results for Strongest Bridge:
1st place - Izzy Williams (51+ kg...over 112 lbs.)
2nd Place- Elsa Jones (37 kg)
3rd place - Owen Steiner (33.5 kg)
Congrats to all who made it to the break-off.
Shout out to Duluth East musicians
These students were accepted, through audition, to be a part of the "Minnesota All State" music ensembles. This honor includes a week-long music camp in the summer, culminating with concerts.
The ensembles reassemble in February and perform at the "Midwinter Clinic" in downtown Minneapolis as a part of the Minnesota Music Educators Association. Congratulations and thank you for representing Duluth East with such a high level of excellence!
All State Band:
Selma Artang, Senior, Clarinet
Miles Bension, Senior, Euphonium
Luke Hilliard, Junior, Trombone
Christopher Kirby, Senior, Trumpet
Alexandra Risdal, Senior, Bassoon
All State Jazz Band:
Andrew Sailstad, Piano, Senior
Wyatt Shultz, Senior, Trombone
All State Orchestra:
Sophia Revoir, Cello, Senior
Kai Braaten, Cello, Senior
Lydia Kraker, Sophomore
Eric Zhou, Violin, Senior
Hannah Deng, Violin, Junior
Happy AmeriCorps Week! Thank you to all the members serving in the Northland!
Local, State COVID Data
Detailed updates are available from the Minnesota Department of Health and St. Louis County Department of Health.
These numbers reflect positive COVID-19 cases by site. The total includes all self-reported positive cases based on the date the case was reported to the school district. Not every person who reported a positive case was in a district building while contagious. These numbers include at-home COVID-19 test kits.
The CDC and Minnesota Department of Health only report positive cases where the person was inside a school building while infectious. The department’s numbers do not include positive cases determined by an at-home COVID-19 test kit.
They do this because there is not a medical professional present to:
Confirm who is taking the test,
That the home test has not expired,
That a proper sample is taken and more.
The CDC and Minnesota Department of Health is also reporting numbers that are at least a week old. If you have questions regarding these numbers, feel free to send your questions to covidquestions@isd709.org.
Stay Connected
Email: info@ISD709.org
Website: www.ISD709.org
Location: 4316 Rice Lake Road, Duluth, MN, USA
Phone: 218-336-8700
Facebook: www.facebook.com/duluthpublicschools/
Twitter: @Duluth_Schools
Communications Officer Adelle Wellens
Email: adelle.wellens@isd709.org
Website: www.ISD709.org
Location: 4316 Rice Lake Road, Duluth, MN, USA
Phone: 218-336-8735