Dear students and families,
Welcome back to all our returning students and families and a special welcome to all our new families! We had a very successful year last year at Banaadir South and are looking forward to another wonderful school year. Teachers have been meeting throughout the summer to prepare for the school year to make it the best one yet!
The building at Banaadir South has been undergoing many changes over the summer. The building will have a new heating and air conditioning system as well as an intercom system to help with the communication throughout the school. Also, the outside of the building is getting painted to be more representative of Banaadir South. The most exciting change of them all is the new playground that we will have for our students! We are very eager for all these new additions.
As well as all the changes to the building, we have a few new staff members to welcome to the school. Natasha Behboudi will be teaching 3rd grade, Hannah Carmon will be teaching 5th grade and Lee Metzinger will be teaching Physical Education. We are extremely grateful to have these enthusiastic new members who are excited to be a part of the Banaadir South team.
A final exciting change is to the schedule. Monday through Thursday, students will be in class starting at 7:30 am and ending at 2:30 pm. Fridays will be an early release day for students. They will be in class from 7:30 to 12:00pm, which is when they will be dismissed. We are constantly working to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of all of our students so teachers will participate in staff development and trainings every Friday afternoon. We feel this will provide the best possible education for our students and feel this will move us closer to that goal.
At Banaadir South each student will continue to have access to Chromebooks to support standards based learning. There will also be E-learning days in case of weather emergencies. We will continue to offer opportunities for student leadership in the form of student council and bus safety patrols with our new transportation company. We will also be holding Parent Education Nights to provide information on how to support your child and to get feedback on how we can support your child. We look forward to working with the families and community to help make this year great!
Finally, there are some important dates to remember as summer comes to an end. Open house will be held Thursday, August 29 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm, which will give you an opportunity to see the school and meet your child’s teacher. The first day of school will then be Tuesday, September 3. We will hold our first parent education night on Thursday, September 5 from 5 pm to 7 pm. We are so excited to get this year started and we all look forward to working with you this year to make it the best experience for your child.
Sincerely,
Mandy Wiens, Kelly Nyberg, and Ismail Haji
Lead teachers
