August 13, 2026

 

The First Dodgeland Download of the YEAR! 2026-27 is coming!  

Technically, you already got the Welcome Back email, but let's be real, getting the link to the first Dodgeland Download is probably worse!  But here it is anyway!  :-) 

I know this is going to be a VERY long post, but please read it carefully.  It has a lot of details about this upcoming year, including things you will need to sign up for, things to mark your calendars about, and information that will be explained in more detail at staff meetings during Inservice Week.  As always, if you have questions, please let me know!

Nitty-Gritty

• Inservice for the 2026-27 School Year
• For all staff members (new and returning, certified and support staff), our first day is August 25.  The schedule for the three days is HERE. Note the times along the side for the start and end times each day. Don't forget to sign up for your sandwich choice for the Wednesday boxed lunch meal!  Here is the link.

• @Paras - Please plan to attend all staff meetings, including the Playworks, NVCI physical training, and the safety meeting. During the rotations on Tues/Wed, please attend all but the Next Path session.  Use that time to do KnowBe4 training or prep for your supervisor teacher.

• Flex Work days: For certified staff, you must work an eight hour day between Aug 17 and the first day of school. You can choose the day that works best for you. (If you need it to be 2 four hour days, let me know.) Please check in with Patti/Ella/me so she can mark you down when you come in.  I'm looking forward to seeing you!

• Room Changes in the Elementary
• There are a few changes for staff and programs this year.  See the list below:
• Dodgeland Den for grades 1-2 will be in Room 102 and for grades 3-5 will be in the art room.  The Dodgeland Den staff will be meeting to talk about specific expectations for using these spaces successfully.

• Reading Corps will hopefully still be in the district.  Currently, they have not hired anyone for our district, but they are still working on it. When they find a tutor or two, I will let you know and where they will be located.

• Sue O'Toole has relocated to a MUCH smaller space in office 105 next to Teresa Chambers. Thank you Sue for your flexibility, as I know it was a lot of work this summer!

• Gabrielle Zastrow's new home base is now in the Middle School.  She will still be in the Elementary working with kids and us and she may even use Room 102 sometimes to work with kids. Just want you to be able to find her! (She also had a ton of work in order to downsize-Thank you for your flexibility!)

• Stephanie Neis has moved across the hall to room 139.  She is going to spend soooo much of her time soaking up the sun from those windows, I am sure of it!

• Tammy Schellpfeffer (our new reading specialist) can be found in the library in the office in room 222D in the back corner. Tammy will be the Reading Specialist for PK-12 and this way she is more centrally located for everyone!

• Patti is having her baby SOON!
• I've been very lucky because I got to spend a lot of time with Patti this summer! Unfortunately for both of us, it was in the elementary office! I think she is ready to meet her new little one, but I'm not ready for her to be gone for 12 weeks!  However, I am SO happy for her.  She will officially start her maternity leave on August 27. (At least that is our plan, but as I learned from Quinn Jenkins, babies make their own plans!) While Patti is on leave, Ella will be filling in for her.  Please pray for us both.  (Just kidding, it will be fine, I just like to give Ella a hard time. She can take it!)

• Recess and Lunch Schedule Times Remain the Same 

• The times for all morning and afternoon recesses as well as lunch times will remain the same.

• Alt. Lunch will remain, but our location will change! More information to come on location.  Just a reminder: The goal of alt. lunch is to build relationships and have a successful lunch period that includes appropriate conversation, cleaning up after themselves, etc. It is not meant to be a punishment, but rather a proactive way to help students be successful.  We will continue to have lunch detentions for consequences, but this is a separate plan from the alternate lunch room. 

• The lunch period is 25 minutes long again this year.  The 5 minutes between the end of lunch and the start of the academic period is built in to be able to transition students from the commons to the classroom and any bathroom runs that are needed. Classroom teachers (or specials teachers if you have a group right after lunch period) should be in the commons to pick up their class at 12:25/12:55 or 1:25 based on when your grade has lunch.

• Duties for this school year
• This school year there are a variety of duties to help with supervision, to be proactive with student behavior, and to provide united, consistent expectations across the entire building.  In addition, this will help us build relationships with our students that also help with student behavior. For morning duties, these start at 7:30 am. Please be there right at 7:30 as kids will start arriving at that time.
• Morning Bus Duty: Before school students will be able to leave their backpacks, etc in their line spots and play until the whistle blows at 7:44am.  Start having them enter the building at 7:45am.  4K/5K students should start on the small playground by Door #29. The buses will drop their age off at the stop sign.  Grades 1-5 will start on the big playground.

• Afternoon Bus Duty: After school, the buses should be at the playground outside as soon as school lets out.  Please stay outside until buses have left campus.  Our MS/HS students are dismissed at 3:10 and will exit through Door #26 (by 4th/5th gr doors) by coming down music hallway.
• There will be buses from 2 different companies this year.  Lamer's for students living in Reeseville, Lowell, Clyman and outlying Juneau areas.  Riteway for students coming from the Hustisford area.  All of the buses will be lining up by the playground at the end of the day.

• Afternoon Parking Lot Duty: Please supervise kids as they leave campus (walk, bikes, parent pick-up). This is not a time for them to play. There is much too much traffic for them to be running and chasing one another. There are cones for students in grades 1-5 to line up to watch for their ride.  Students in grades 4K/5K, will exit door #29 and stay with a staff member on that side of the building to watch for their ride.  Parents that park in the parking lot need to use the crosswalk to come to pick up their student. It is very dangerous for students to run across the circle drive and in the parking lot to find a parent vehicle.

• Breakfast Duty: There will be a 2 paras and one certified staff member each morning in the commons. One para will supervise the breakfast line until the line is pretty much gone and then will help supervise students eating at the tables. The certified staff member and the other para will be supervise students eating at the table. Please remind them to clean up after themselves and to take all of their belongings when they leave.

• Recess Duty: Please be on time to your recess duty.  If necessary, you may have to dismiss your own class one min. early to get outside when the recess starts.  When you enter the building, please call the office if you need someone to cover your class if you need to use the restroom.  While on duty, please constantly circulate through your assigned area to supervise students' behavior and the games they are playing. It is important that we are spread out and remain diligent in our supervision. Remember, any chasing game is called TAG and is not allowed on the equipment, regardless of what students say. (Most of us have 1-2 fifteen minute recess duties in the morning and some have recesses during the Noon hour recesses as well.)

• Lunch Duty: I need your help in the commons so that we can have successful lunch periods.  Most staff members have 5 weeks of lunch duties during the school year, joining the paras that are consistent each week.  I tried to spread the weeks out and I tried to make sure it doesn't coincide with morning/afternoon duties this school year. The first 3 weeks there is an extra person assigned in the commons to help with the transition to procedures and create routines. The teacher on duty each week should be supervising the lunch line until serving is complete.

• Lunch Detentions: This duty was assigned by the week, but you will only ever supervise one detention during the week, but it could be multiple students at once. You will get a copy of the referral to use to meet with students regarding their behavior.  You will also have a copy of the reflection sheet that is appropriate to their age.  Teresa or myself will share with you who has been assigned to a lunch detention with you.  Please use your own classrooms for this detention.  The goal is to ask students to talk through the situation, think about what other choices they could have made, and send a consistent message.

• FINAL note on Duties: If you look at the duties and you want to switch with a colleague, I am fine with that, but please make sure Patti/Ella know and can make changes on the master sheet. If you want to switch a breakfast duty for a parking lot duty, that's fine, just please communicate with us.  Second, if you have a duty on a day you are out of the building, please make sure it is in your sub plans, so that your sub is taking the duty in your absence.

• Event Planning Committee Sign Up
• This year, there are 10 planning committees for the school year.  If all of us sign up for 1 committee, we can share the work for the school year and provide events for our students and their families.  Please check out the Google Doc HERE to sign up for 1 committee. This is for certified staff, but as always, all support staff members are welcome to attend all events!

• Social Media Sign Up
• It is important to continue to tell "our story" to the community.  Please sign up on the Social Media sheet for 4 weeks out of the school year.  During inservice, you will learn about our new program (Class Intercom) to help create Social Media posts. You will create the posts in Class Intercom and submit them for me to schedule to FaceBook. Make sure to check your PowerSchool alerts to see if any of your students have a "No Photo Release" alert on file before creating the post.

• Picture Day
• This year our photographers are from Gueller's Photography from Mt. Calvary. They will be setting up on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 12:30 and will be ready for staff to get their picture taken starting at 1:30pm.  Please make sure you get your picture taken so that it can be used for your ID's, the website and the yearbook.  Students can start arriving at 2pm to get pictures taken.

• EL PLTW Lab
• You will notice that our PLTW lab is now a 3rd grade classroom.  This means that our supplies for PLTW will also need a new home.  After the Den ends this week, the PLTW materials will be located into Room 102 and all staff will be able to access it from the door that is next to the supply storage room.  Students in the Den will not have access to the supplies, but the materials will be sectioned off near that door for you to use. Our goal continues to be 2 modules for each grade before the end of the school year. Please plan ahead for when you will do each module so that you do not run out of time. If you are new to the district, you will receive your PLTW training on Friday, October 2.

• WIN periods
• When you get to the master schedule, you will notice 2 different WIN periods each day.  One is dedicated to Reading and the other is for Math. The goal is give our students (and our interventionists) time in the day to meet with students without competing for which subject they need more.  We also will be working together to efficiently provide Tier 2 interventions across the grade and sharing students between homerooms for the periods.  SEL intervention will be determined on a case by case basis with Teresa.

• NEW: Collab Meetings
• This year you will have an almost weekly meeting that I am calling Collab. meetings.  The time is during a time when the entire grade is at a special.  @ Special Education Teachers - Please note when your grade's collab meeting is and do your best to avoid scheduling SDI minutes during the grades you work with most. On the Collab meeting rotation tab, on the EL Master schedule, you will see the time for each grade, and the color coded schedule that corresponds to the topic for that meeting.  All meetings will be in the elementary conference room and will start the week of September 14. More information will be shared at the first staff meeting on Aug. 25.

• Classroom Visit
• I would like to come in to read to your classes at the beginning of the school year. Once you have time to look at your schedules, please sign up for a time for me to come to your class to read and get to know your class.  The sign up sheet is HERE.

• Furniture Needs?
• James met with me this morning and stated that there are a few tables (rectangular and kidney shaped), bookshelves, chairs, etc. If you are in need of anything like this, please connect with him.  We would rather have it used than to have to put it in storage and then try to find it later if someone needs it!  On the flip side, if anyone has any extra mailbox items, please let James or myself know. We have a couple of teachers on the look out for those as well!

• Staying the Same
• Not everything is changing though.  :-)
• PLTW Goals: Our goal is to complete 2 modules for each grade before the end of the school year.  Please plan ahead for when you will do each module so that you do not run out of time.
• Workout Wednesdays: They will continue each week unless it lands on something special that requires more formal dress.
• Citizenship Grades: We will continue to grade our class with our learning targets in citizenship at the end of each month. 
• Report Cards: Reports cards will continue to be done at semester and will be shared with parents digitally and through PowerSchool.
• SEL lessons: Grades 2-5 will continue to teach SEL weekly using Everyday Speech. Grades 5K/1 will use Emotional ABC's and 4K will use Al's Pals.

Technology Updates

• KnowBe4 Training
• You should have all received emails with the link to KnowBe4 to complete the online trainings.  Most of them are mandatory per DPI, and others are to help us remember/gain knowledge to protect our data and privacy from people trying to gain access to all of the data that is on our servers.  Please watch them carefully so that you are able to apply this information to your work.

• Help Desk Tickets
• If you need assistance with anything tech related, you must fill out a help desk ticket. This is the best way to help the tech team keep track of staff needs, as well as communicate with one another and us about the issue.  If you email them or ask in person, they will not be able to help you in a timely manner.

Library Information from Christina

• I'm so excited to get your students going with their iPads! Please sign up for a 30 minute time to go through iPad expectations HERE. Feel free to sign up any day from Wednesday 2nd-Thursday 24th.  I will come down to your classroom for this lesson and I will be asking for your participation, so please plan to stay in the room.

• Your students will be using ClassLink as a single sign-on for apps such as PebbleGo or BookFlix. Students will need to set up their ClassLink multi-factor picture which they will use every time they sign into ClassLink. I would be happy to come and do this with your class if you would like- sign up HERE for a 30 minute session for me to do that for you. You can also get this set up with your students independently using THESE INSTRUCTIONS for K-1-2 and THESE INSTRUCTIONS for 3-4-5. 

• You can introduce your class to Watson and his job here at school through THIS Book Creator digital book. Though it may be familiar to some students, I am very appreciative of you sharing it as a reminder and for those new to our district.

• I want to ensure that you and your students are successful and feel comfortable with your iPads and digital literacy, on top of all the other important pieces to your classroom. To accommodate all these pieces, library lessons will begin the week of September 28th. I really appreciate your patience in allowing for these important tasks to happen for not only the elementary, but for our middle and high school, too. I'll be putting your library times into Google Calendar, so be on the lookout for that reminder. 

• Lastly, please know that I would be happy to deliver any specific books or topics of books to your classroom for these first few weeks of school and throughout the whole year. You can see what books we have available in our library HERE. 

Master Schedule Details

Below is the link to the Google Sheet that contains some of the Master schedule details, as well as assigned duties.  It is in the Elementary Staff shared drive, so you can edit it, but please don't make changes without me knowing.  Patti/Ella and I will be using this document to make any changes if necessary, and to check on your schedules. 

The document has tabs along the bottom for different parts of our master schedule: go through each of them to find what you are looking for! If you have questions, please let me know!

Click HERE to see it!

Last but not least, I used the DMSchedules software again this year to help me make the master schedule of specials, instructional pieces, etc.  I don't think I could go back to paper and pencil again after using this. It is still a complicated process, but having the software tell me where things overlap so I don't find it an hour or two into creating the schedule is a game changer for me!  The link below will take you to a read-only part of the site where you can look at any schedule you want from the building!  The Homeroom tab will give you a really colorful schedule of every grade (4K-5) for each day. If you want to see just your schedule click on the Teachers tab. Use the drop down error to choose Homeroom teacher or specials teacher and then choose the name you are looking for.  You can also see the entire grades schedule (Mon-Fri) with the grade tab.  The room tab is blank because I didn't use that feature of the software. If you have any questions about anything here, please let me know!

Daily Master Schedule is HERE.

Truly, if you made it this far in one sitting, you are my hero!  AND, I really hope you don't see this for awhile, but I do know at least one person that is watching her email for it and she knows who she is.  You know what they say, if you can make one person happy, it was worth it!  :-)

Enjoy your last few precious days of summer break!  See you soon!