Dear Families,
It is exciting to be reaching the end of this very challenging school year. We feel hopeful for the fall and getting back to a more normal structure to our school.

This year we went into grade level classrooms because of covid, but we believe in and will go back to multi-age classrooms. Although kindergarten and grade 1 are self-contained, Grades 2 & 3 and Grades 4 & 5 will be combined in their classrooms. This year reinforced our feelings about multi-age and giving all our students access to friendships and learning across grade levels. We also plan on having Homeroom again, which will be a mix of grades K-5, 3 days a week. Homeroom is a time where we work on projects (blankets for a NIC Unit, delivering May baskets, etc) and we also build school communities by having all ages work together.

Jake has begun meeting with 4th graders to recruit new band members. 5th grade Band is a chance for all of our 5th graders to learn an instrument. We are proud that although District 656 does not offer band to 5th graders, Nerstrand School does. Thank you to Jake Kaukola for continuing with band lessons even during Covid! We will also continue to have PE everyday for all of our students, which is not true of many schools across Faribault. Thank you to Carmen Bonde for working hard to follow guidelines during covid (cleaning equipment between PE sessions, following guidelines with fidelity throughout this year).

Some of the many highlights that we will be bringing back in the fall are the following:

September

• Prairie Appreciation Day
• Discovery Day
• Faribault Homecoming Assembly

October

• Halloween Parade
• Community Lunch

November

• Classroom Field Trips for each of our 3 sections; Prairie (K-1-Children's Museum), Savannah (2-3 TBD)

December

• Winter Concert and PJ Day

January

• WOLFRIDGE trip for 5th graders and 4th grade field trip to Ramsey House/Hill House
• School Carnival
• Children's play at the Faribault High School

February

• Sock Hop
• All School Field Trip to the Minnesota History Museum

March-May

• All school field Day
• Community Lunch
• 5th grade field day
• Community Celebration
• Outdoor Band Concert
• May Day delivery

September-June

• School led Committees: Peace Garden, Ambassadors, Learn & Serve, School Spirit, Behavior Playground Committee, Spotlight (with visitors), Spotlight Lunches, Riverbend trips
• PTO

Finally, teachers are excited and relieved to be able to teach in classrooms where students can work and learn together. There are many special traditions and projects that teachers plan over the year that had to be changed for covid. I am grateful to all of our teachers for the way they worked to adapt their lessons to covid guidelines and put so much effort into supporting children and families during this time. They became online teachers overnight and learned how to navigate learning management systems that in a typical year we would take hours of professional development training to master.

We also have wonderful paras that have supported students and teachers throughout this year in so many ways. Whether it was through childcare, one to one meetings with students, or helping to put together Distance Learning packets. We are fortunate to have so many dedicated paraprofessionals.

Our wonderful custodian, Mike Erickson worked tirelessly to keep up on the added cleaning protocols and keeping us up to date on expectations in the Faribault School District.

I will be forever thankful for our ICT Team this year; Barb Grote, Andrew Lubinski and Carmen Bonde. They kept current on mountains of weekly, sometimes daily, emails with safety guidelines for staff and students. They were key in our ability to avoid a covid outbreak. This year was a group effort on the part of our entire staff.

I know that our families have faced many challenges this year. Parents, guardians, grandparents were thrown into being homeschool teachers overnight, while still working. Other families may have lost jobs over this year and worked so very hard to keep their children learning in super challenging situations. Thank you to all of our families for your support over this past year.

We look forward to many new families joining us, as well as returning families to our Nerstrand Community next fall.

Happy Memorial weekend everyone. I hope you are able to relax and have time with your families!

Best,
Maggie

On April 30^th, the school community will host the 18^th annual ‘Community Celebration of Place: Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song,’ beginning at 6:45 p.m. Each year students interview an honored elder community guest and weave stories together into an original song, with lyrics written by students, that is shared at the program. This year community celebration will pay tribute to honoree 91 year old, Pete Keller, a lifelong resident of the area. The celebration also includes 38 elder’s medley’s from previous years, all sung by kindergarten – 5^th grade students.  The program also entertains the crowd with a community band to start the evening program, with alumni, community members and 5^th grade students in the school’s gymnasium. The Community Celebration began at the school in 1998, with a residency at the school, with Larry Long, troubadour, and it has been taking place every year since. 

Nerstrand Elementary is accepting applications through March 6, for the annual charter school enrollment lottery.

Please call the school office with any questions, or to schedule a tour. Simply click on the 'Apply Now' button on the homepage to complete an enrollment application.

Thank you for your interest in Nerstrand School!