Dear Parents,

In the March Newsletter I would normally have some information about the end of the 3^rd quarter, upcoming events and activities, some information about students who participated in special activities and a reminder about MAP testing.  That will still be in this newsletter but I want to start my letter on a more serious topic.

Several times during the year I will run information about what we do on our Staff Development Days.  On most days, we have our teachers working as departments or with their grade level counterparts analyzing data and planning work for the next month.  Occasionally, as we did in February, we will pull the staff together on these days for large group training on a specific topic.  This February we started our Staff Development Day with a one hour training session from the Ballwin Police Department on school safety, specifically; intruders or an active shooter.  This was a good session as it reaffirmed much of what we do during our Intruder Drills and helped us clarify other practices.  Recent events in Ohio brought this training and discussion home to all of us at SMS.  A take-away for many of us was the importance of building trusting relationships between school and students and home.  We learned that while there are no clear predictors of these types of behaviors there are some things that can help prevent the actions from occurring.  At school we continue to work on those relationships so that students will feel comfortable going to an adult to let us know if someone is troubled.  At home, it is more important now than ever before that parents play an active role in the lives of their children.  Check e-mail, text messages and Facebook postings and don’t be afraid to ask your child if you see something that concerns you. 

Moving to a lighter note; March is a short month for us but one with a great deal of activity.  We end the third quarter, have Spring Break and return to school to prepare for the state MAP tests.  Please review the newsletter for information about these and other important activities. 

Starting in March, we will also be posting information about educational topics for parents.  This month look for a short article about Standards Based Grading.