Welcome to Black River Falls High School!

March 2010

With the luck o' the Irish, well have a fantastic March here at Black River Falls High School!

A lot has been happening at Black River Falls High School these past few weeks, and we have much planned for the month of March.

Most likely, by the time you read this, we will have held our spring parent/teacher conferences. If you were unable to come on March 2 to the conference, please know that you can always access your son or daughter's grades and you can connect quickly via e-mail with their teachers through our family access portal on our website at: www.brf.org.

I mentioned in last month's newsletter that our new Guided Study program (part of the RtI - Response to Intervention initiative) along with our changes to advising have been showing results. This continues to be the case as we have seen the passing grades and the academic achievement increase through the first half of this term.

Many of you have read in the papers or heard from friends and colleagues about a decline of enrollment at the high school over the past several years. We expect to have about 30 less students here next year as we graduate 30 more seniors than we will have freshmen coming in next fall. This means that we need to look at our staff. I have done that, and although we have not overall reduced the number of teachers on the front lines over the past eight years,we have reduced more than the equivalent of four full-time positions in the past four years . Nevertheless, with fewer students in the seats, we will require fewer teachers to teach them. When one considers these facts in combination with a projected $480,000+ deficit in the district budget for next year, lay-offs seem inevitable.

After we announced the possible reductions in teacher contracts in the math, science, art and music departments, a generous citizen stepped forward and pledged to donate $25,000, which would save us from having to reduce the math and science positions. This pledge was made specifically for these departments and it is a testament to the value that members of the Black River Falls community places on academics. Over the years there has been tremendous outpouring of money and support for athletics, as evidenced by the top-notch facilities in our town. This donation supports the core of our mission - educating youth! We are very thankful and grateful for this kind of support.

Unfortunately, we do have challenges that distract students and staff from that mission occasionally. Last fall, the school administration was made aware of the involvement of some of our students in potential gang activity. We took very quick and decisive action to assure that all signs and activities associated with gangs are removed from and kept out of school. These actions we took were very successful. Unfortunately, the gang activity in our community has not stopped. Mr. Weddig and I have been working closely with the leaders of the Ho Chunk Nation, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, Madison Police Department and the Department of Justice to create a county-wide response and intervention plan that will, as a recent summit was titled, "Take Back Our Community." This summit was held at the Ho Chunk Bingo Hall and was attended by over 300 adults and youth. I was very encouraged by the response of the presenters and those in attendance. They emphasized the importance of education, engagement in positive activities like family time, reading, sports and cultural events. I reminded everyone, and I want to make it clear here, that this is not a Native American issue, it is a Black River Falls community issue. We need to be sure that we condemn the criminal behavior that a few of our citizens displayed and not blame one group or another.

On February 25, we invited several of the presenters from that summit to speak to the middle and high school students about what gang involvement can mean for a young person's future - disaster. They also provided information and training to us on how to identify possible gang involvement and provided us with tips on how to assist students who want out of a gang.

I want to assure you that I and all of the faculty and staff are doing everything we can to keep our schools safe. We will continue to take all the measures necessary, cooperate with our local and state law enforcement and assure the safety of everyone in our building.

Looking ahead, the end of March will mark the end of term three. Then we have just 44 school days left in the year and things will be warming up and gearing up for awards, scholarship and graduation season.

With that in mind, if you are the parent of a senior, please ask them about their preparations for the senior exit interview. These will be held this year on April 9 during a special advising session. If you would like to be an interviewer and hear the interesting presentations from our seniors, please contact me about volunteering for an hour or two that day.

The seniors will present their resumes, portfolio, accomplishments and feedback on their years at BRFHS. This is more than a mock interview to prepare them for jobs, it is a chance for them to shine and also go give us valued input on what we can do to make the students' experiences here even better.

The BRAGS students last month dove deeper into their many projects. They developed an energy use survey for all employees in the district, which they will use along with their inventories of the electric devices and appliances in all the buildings throughout the district to compile a comprehensive report on steps the district and our employees can take to save even more money by reducing our electrical consumption. They also are moving ahead on a feasibility study of the biodiesel project. If you or anyone you know would like to provide used vegetable oil for this project and receive a tax benefit - and great PR, contact the BRAGS staff and students at 284-0011.

Enjoy this month's newsletter. It is full of interesting and new items from many departments and organizations here at BRFHS. To keep up to date on the happenings on a weekly basis, you now have a new source of information through the Paw Print online. Check it out at: http://brfhspawprint.com/.

Have a great month of March and as always, we thank you for your support of education!

Mr. Chambers