Strategic Plan
Developed by the students, families, and staff of Stillwater Area Public Schools
We asked students, families and staff what they wanted from our schools. And it turns out, they just want more of the things that really matter. They want engaging, relevant learning experiences. They want personal connections and opportunities for kids to find their place. They want to belong. To be challenged. To have a voice. They want to know students in our schools will be well prepared for their future.
We are committed to creating a culture that supports students and staff so that they can be their best. We want our entire community to “Expect More” from Stillwater Area Public Schools. So we’re shifting our focus, realigning our resources and developing a clear plan to ensure the things you want are the things we’re providing. We’re raising our expectations, not by doing more things, but by doing a few fundamental things better.
Our Purpose
To inspire curiosity and the love of learning in every child. To provide a wide range of engaging learning opportunities to build the resilience and empathy learners need to successfully navigate their futures.
Our Beliefs
- Everyone belongs
- Everyone has a voice
- All students deserve an excellent education
- The whole child matters
- Curiosity thrives here
Our Mantra
Expect More
Strategic Directions
- Strategic Direction A: Ensure the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs
- Strategic Direction B: Foster a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for all staff and students
- Strategic Direction C: Utilize systems and align resources in an efficient manner to support learning
- Strategic Direction D: Develop strong partnerships with the communities we serve
Key Initiatives
Our Pony Plan is focused on a few key initiatives that will help us do better.
Literacy
Learning to read is seriously fun
Learning to read doesn’t happen by accident. It’s actually a pretty complicated process. And as researchers have learned more about the “science of reading” in the past decade, teachers across the district have been learning, too.
New legislation (adopted in 2023) is requiring districts to look at the way they teach literacy. The goal of this legislation is to have every Minnesota child reading at or above grade level every year, beginning in kindergarten, and to support multilingual learner and students receiving special education services in achieving their individualized reading goals.
That's our goal, too. So over the next several years we'll be doubling down on professional development and teacher training and investing in new curriculum and resources.
Watch how kids are learning to read
School Culture, Equity & Inclusion
Creating spaces where everyone belongs
Achievement and Integration Plan
Stillwater Area Public Schools prioritizes educational equity by providing inclusive and accessible learning opportunities for all students. The Achievement and Integration Plan ensures compliance with Minnesota Desegregation/Integration Rules.
The plan’s purpose is to:
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Reduce the disparities in academic achievement among all students
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Reduce the disparities in equitable access to effective and more diverse teachers among all students
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Increase racial and economic integration
Community Engagement
NAPAC: The Native American Parent Advisory Committee (NAPAC) is a committee with a core team of 20 parents, elders and community members that meet monthly to support the needs of American Indian students and families in our district. NAPAC includes representatives from Dakota, Lakota, Ho Chunk, Ojibwe, Micmac, Mississippi Choctaw and Menominee Nations.
Caminos: Caminos is an on-going collaboration with our Hispanic/Latino families that meet quarterly at the Family Means building in the Cimarron Mobile Home Community.
Washington County East African Community Engagement Group: This group meets regularly for a series of conversational circles incorporating the voices of our Muslim families in collaboration with the ETCIC (Eastern Twin Cities Islamic Center) and the IRG (Islamic Resource Group).
Community & Family Engagement Specialists: Our engagement specialists serve as a bridge between school, culturally and ethnically diverse students and families to increase awareness and participation for academic and social growth, while keeping their own sense of cultural identity. The district employs specialists representing our Hispanic/Latino and East African communities.
To learn more about all of these Community Engagement groups, contact Eric Anderson at andersone@stillwaterschools.org.
Multidistrict Collaboration
The Minnesota Department of Education has classified Stillwater Area Public Schools as a “racially isolated district.”
Stillwater’s cross-district student programming provides learning environments in which students have the opportunity to reflect on their own cultural identities and how these identities create a lens through which they view the world. While honoring their own identities, students have the opportunity to explore intercultural competencies. Working in cooperative learning teams, students use mediums such as storytelling, podcasting, film and creative writing to learn skills to communicate, collaborate and to lead equitably and inclusively.
Grow Your Own Educators
Grow Your Own Educator programming strives to improve Minnesota’s teacher preparation programs’ record of successfully recruiting, training, supporting and retaining TOCAIT (Teachers of Color and American Indian Teachers). Stillwater Area Public Schools partners with Century College’s University Pathway to Diversifying the Teaching Field.
Interested students are participate in in-depth professional development and curriculum writing with elementary grade level teams and serve alongside licensed classroom teachers during the month of July as part of our elementary Summer Success programming. These student leaders are then encouraged and supported to enroll in a Concurrent Enrollment course for which they receive college credit upon successful completion.
AVID
Advancement Via Individual Determination is a college and career readiness system designed to support students from groups underrepresented in careers and on college campuses including but not limited to those from low-income families and first-generation college-bound students.
For the last 10 years, Stillwater Area Public Schools has incorporated the AVID system as an important conduit that reinforces and supports rigorous academic standards, provides a multitude of student leadership opportunities and offers learning environments that encourage on-going social and emotional growth and development.
BARR
Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) is a strengths-based whole school model that provides schools with a comprehensive approach to meeting academic, behavioral, social, and emotional needs of all students. Stillwater Area Public Schools started BARR at the high school level, and has now expanded it to include elementary and middle schools as well. BARR is designed to create strong schools and communities by empowering students, teachers, and families with data, so that schools can re-align existing resources to nurture a unified and personalized culture of support and success for every student, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Social Emotional Learning
Children who feel loved and safe just learn better
We’re all about breaking down barriers and tearing down obstacles so that every child has the chance to shine. Our caring teachers and staff go beyond academics to also focus on the physical, social and emotional well-being of each student. We create meaningful relationships between kids and adults, we help instill healthy habits, and we help students build positive connections with staff and classmates.
Our focus on our students' emotional well-being makes Stillwater a leader among other school districts across the state.
Social Emotional Learning Framework
At every level, we provide opportunities for students to build relationships and connect with their teachers and peers in meaningful ways. We believe in educating the whole child and creating safe and welcoming learning communities.
Elementary
Responsive Classroom: A daily program that focuses on social-emotional Learning (SEL) and academic success. This program priorities relationships and a sense of belonging for each student. Students begin each day being personally greeted and part of a Morning Meeting. They also end their day all together in a Closing Meeting.
Second Steps: A Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Program that gives students tools to succeed in and out of the classroom. It helps students develop emotional management skills, social skills and situational awareness, and academic achievement. It also includes an anti-bullying program teaching students to identify, prevent, and report bullying.
Support Staff: Social Workers, Health Services Staff, School Psychologists, licensed Mental Health Therapists
Learning Supports Teams: Teams of support staff, teachers, and administration meet to discuss students’ social, emotional and academic wellbeing. They develop plans of support for students as needed.
Green Rooms: Green Rooms provide students with a safe place to go when they are feeling anxious or struggling to manage their behaviors. Students go to the room, which is staffed by a trained paraprofessional, to calm their body and emotions, problem solve, find solutions, and develop a plan to return to their learning.
Middle School
Developmental Designs: A daily advisory program for all students which helps them build and develop skills and engagement within three key areas of school life: social-emotional, relationship and community, and academic. Students meet within their advisory teams for the entire school year and have the same adult mentor.
WEB (Where Everyone Belongs): All 6th & 7th grade students are welcomed into the middle school through a transition program. This program trains mentors from the 8th Grade to be WEB Leaders. As positive role models, they mentor and guide grade students to have a successful transition and middle school experience. It is a year-long program with four components: High School Orientation, Academic Follow-Ups, Social Follow-Ups, Leader Initiated Contacts. It also serves as an anti-bullying program by training WEB Leaders to look for bullying behavior and stop it and report it.
Counselor Watch Program: Middle school counselors meet with elementary teachers to help get to know the students who are transitioning into the middle school. They also meet with students in classrooms to develop relationships and help students feel connected and prepared to enter middle school.
Youth Frontiers Courage Retreat: A day that inspires students to follow their hearts instead of the crowd, to identify personal fears and understand that everyone has them, commit to asking with courage to make your school a better place, and deepen relationships with classmates to break down social barriers.
Support Staff: School Counselors, Health Services Staff, School Psychologists, licensed Mental Health Therapists
Student Supports Teams: Teams of support staff, teachers, and administration meet to discuss students’ social, emotional and academic wellbeing. They develop plans of support for students as needed.
Middle School Teams: Students are organized into grade level teams so that students have the same teachers. This allows for teachers to get to know students personally and meet regularly on their students’ social, emotional, and academic well-being
AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination): AVID is an elective course for eighth graders that creates a positive peer group for students and develops a sense of hope for personal achievement through hard work and determination. It provides intensive support and strong student/teacher relationships.
High School
Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR): Ninth and tenth grade students are supported by an evidence-based transition model focusing on the “whole” student. BARR consists of eight strategies helping students and teachers to build safe, strong, and trusting relationships while also developing essential assets for success in school and life. Students are in teams and share common teachers.
Link Crew: All 9th grade students are welcomed into the high school through a transition program. This program trains mentors from the SAHS junior and senior classes to be Link Crew Leaders. As positive role models, they mentor and guide 9th grade students to have a successful transition and high school experience. It is a yearlong program with four components: High School Orientation, Academic Follow-Ups, Social Follow-Ups, Leader Initiated Contacts.
Support Staff: School Counselors, Health Services Staff, School Psychologists, licensed Mental Health Therapists
Student Supports Teams: Teams of support staff, teachers, and administration meet to discuss students’ social, emotional and academic well-being. They develop plans of support for students as needed.
Wellness Center: Welcomes all students/parents who wish to address issues dealing with mental health, chemical health, nutrition and health education. It is a collaborative effort reflecting the community’s commitment to support our youth’s well-being and is funded by the generous support of local agencies, foundations, and District 834.
AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination): AVID elective courses are offered by an application process to all students in grades 9-12. AVID creates a positive peer group for students and develops a sense of hope for personal achievement through hard work and determination. It provides intensive support and strong student/teacher relationships.
Special Education
Skillstreaming: Teaching social skills, E-12 in a step by step process.
Zones of Regulation & The Social Times Curriculum & Incredible 5 Point Scale: Teaches emotional understanding, self-regulation, and coping skills for all learners from early childhood through 12th grade.
Mindup: Teaches students a variety of strategies to focus their attention, improve their self-regulation skills, build resilience to stress, and develop a positive mind-set in both school and life.*
School Connect: Teaches high school students social, emotional, behavioral and life skills to generalize in life and in the community workplace as well as into adulthood.
*Accredited programming through CASEL, Collaboration for Academic, Social, Emotional Learning
HealthyMoves
You may know that active kids are better students. You likely realize that what our kids eat affects how they learn. But did you know that kids today are expected to live FIVE YEARS LESS than their parents because of unhealthy lifestyles?
That’s why we work with our community to strengthen our kids minds and bodies. We’re committed to doing our part to help our students become smarter, happier and live longer lives.
Wellness Policy
Our Wellness Policy focuses on doing what we know is best for kids. It's all about:
- Getting kids moving during the day
- Providing nutritious meals, snacks and concessions
- Creating safer environments for kids with severe food allergies, medical conditions or other dietary restrictions
- Making it easier to be active and healthy beyond the school day
- Helping to create smarter, happier kids and healthier communities
What's In
- Celebrating birthdays in fun and memorable ways that make kids feel valued and loved
- Making special events in the classroom safe and enjoyable for all with creative celebrations that don’t include food
- Rewarding students for academic performance or good behavior with special privileges or activities
- Working with Nutrition Services to provide healthy and safe options for food-based learning experiences in the classroom
- Providing more nutritious options - like yogurt parfaits, fruits and veggies, juices - at concession stands
- Promoting healthier lifestyles while fundraising - with things like Fun Walk/Runs or dances
What's Out
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Celebrating with cupcakes, candy and excess sugar that makes it harder for kids to concentrate and learn
- Dealing with food allergies, dietary requirements and medical conditions that prevent some kids from participating
- Handing out candy and sugary treats that make it harder for kids to focus in class
- Bringing food from home for classroom projects that may contain allergens or food-borne illnesses
- Offering only sugary drinks, candy and cookies at sporting events and other activities
- Selling candy bars, doughnuts, cookie dough and other unhealthy foods to raise money
Classroom Celebrations & Birthdays
Birthdays
Birthdays are an important opportunity for us to recognize and celebrate our students. It’s also an opportunity to help them develop healthy lifestyles that ensure they have many more happy birthdays!
We want our students to feel valued and loved on their special day, and we can do that in many fun and memorable ways that do not involve sugary treats. Teachers at each school are working to determine how best to celebrate in their classroom. Here are a few creative suggestions:
- Make a crown, badge or sign for the birthday child.
- Turn on some music and dance!
- Let the child be the teacher’s assistant for the day.
- Provide special time with a principal, parent or other adult, such as eating lunch together.
- Have the child bring in something for show and tell.
- Let the child pick an active game for gym class or recess.
- Let the child choose a book and read it aloud to the class.Have the class work out to a fun exercise video.
- Play Simon Says or other favorite game.
Classroom Celebrations
Food is an important way for many cultures to celebrate special events, but did you know the typical classroom party includes as many as 500 extra calories? Check out our Sweet Day video (based on a true story from within our district) to see just how much extra sugar our students consume during special events.
Here are a few ideas of ways you might celebrate without food:
Halloween
- Instead of candy hand out stickers, tattoos, plastic spiders and other small toys.
- Have a parade or costume contest.
- Do the Monster Mash or provide additional play time throughout the day.
- Decorate pumpkins.
Thanksgiving
- Do a class service project (collect food for Valley Outreach).
- Create a garland of gratitude using paper leaves with handwritten notes.
- Make clay turkey candle holders.
Winter
- Decorate the classroom with snowflakes and snowmen.
- Make snow globes out of baby food jars.
- Go sledding or ice skating.
Valentine’s Day
- Create a Valentine card holder.
- Have students write positive comments about classmates and pass them out.
- Make greeting cards to give to nursing home residents.
End of School
- Field day
- School assembly
- Class field trip
Brain Boosts and Movement
A little bit of movement and exercise can go a long way to help boost a student’s brain power. Studies show that active students actually have bigger brains - especially one part, the basal ganglia, which helps them pay attention.
Activity can also improve a child’s ability to solve complex problems. Here are some ways we get kids moving in the classroom so they can focus on learning. We use videos, games and activities to get kids moving and practicing moments of mindfulness. Check out these sites:
Mission Statement
The mission of Stillwater Area Public Schools, in partnership with students, family and community, is to develop curious individuals who are active and engaged leaders in an ever changing world by challenging all students as they travel along their personalized learning pathways.
Creating the Worlds' Best Workforce
The objectives of our Strategic Plan are based on areas identified in the World's Best Workforce. Each year, our school board members and district staff work together to set goals in each of the five focus areas. Goals may range from one to three years in length.
Desired Daily Experiences
You told us what you expect from Stillwater schools. We're working to deliver on it.
Students
We asked students what they wanted their daily experience to be like in our schools.
Here's what they told us - in their own words:
- I feel safe, seen, heard, and accepted at my school and my individuality and diversity is valued.
- I am supported by people that care about my academic success and my mental and physical well-being.
- My teachers are great and help me learn through a variety of real-life courses, experiences and opportunities that engage me and prepare me for my life.
- I understand the rules and expectations and I see staff applying them consistently.
- I like being at school, have time to connect with my friends and get my work done, and I have access to the things I need.
Families
We asked families what they wanted their daily experience to be like in our schools.
Here's what they told us - in their own words:
- My child is seen and valued for who they are and is part of a safe community that is kind, loving and respectful of each other.
- My child loves learning and has the opportunity to be challenged while exploring a variety of experiences and activities.
- My child’s learning is individualized and sensitive to the cultural needs of all.
- My child’s teachers partner with me so I know what is happening in the classroom and can support their academic and behavior needs at home.
- My family receives consistent communication from school and is connected with the school community as a whole.
Staff
We asked staff what they wanted their daily experience to be like in our schools.
Here's what they told us - in their own words:
- I am a valued and respected member of our school’s learning community which is an inclusive and welcoming environment for all.
- I am part of an environment focused on academic rigor and excellence for each of our students.
- I feel safe and secure, and I know how to respond when disruptions occur.
- I have access to resources, time and professional development reflective of my needs and the needs of our students.
- There are consistent district and school structures and processes that ensure my voice is heard and my needs are considered.