St. James School Board sets 2021 hears board report regarding large-scale STEM education program, and passes summer food program budget
St. James Plaindealer
On Monday night, the St. James School Board approved one item of new business, and Middle School/High School Principal Karla Beck shared news of a massive grant from JAMF through a St. James High School alum.
In her board report, Beck showed the board the work that JAMF, a software company that developed Jamf Pro, an application used to configure and automate IT administration tasks for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS devices.
JAMF s CEO, Dean Hager, is a native of Ormsby and a graduate of St. James High School.
Sentinel Staff Writer
GRANADA– The Granada-Huntley- East Chain School Board met on Thursday night to approve items such as the Orton-Gillingham training, raising the custodian sub-pay to $15 per hour, and approved contracts to three long-term substitute teachers.
Orton-Gillingham is a teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. It was created to be a multisensory approach to teaching reading. It works on the building blocks of learning how to read and Superintendent Doug Storbeck wants to build those foundational skills starting in kindergarten so that kids will enjoy reading.
“I really want to build a culture where students want to read,” Storbeck said. “I feel like if they have good skills that they will like to read. I think that’s true in everything we do at life is if we’re good at something we will enjoy it more.
Northside Elementary unveils book vending machine after a year-long delay
St. James Plaindealer
Last week, Northside Elementary unveiled its new book vending machine, becoming just the second school in the state of Minnesota to feature a vending machine guided towards reading.
The book vending machine was originally supposed to be revealed last year, but due to a shipping error and the oncoming COVID-19 pandemic, the plans were postponed. As we were talking about I Love To Read Month last year in February, John Becker sent me an article from KELOLAND in Sioux Falls and there was a school that had just unveiled a book vending machine, said Northside Principal Liam Dawson. And so we brought that up to our leadership team at first and then to my PAC committee.