Weekly Update to Families

April 11, 2025

Brief Message From the Principal

Dear Altoona Elementary Community,

First, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has contributed to our PTA Unfundraiser. Your generosity is deeply appreciated and is already making a difference in supporting our students, staff, and our goals—thank you!

This week has been an incredibly difficult one for our school community as we mourn the loss of one of our dear students. We are so thankful for your kind words, support, and the important conversations you’ve had at home. Grief is a journey we now walk together, and we will continue to support one another in the days and weeks ahead.

On a positive note, we are seeing great improvement in our school attendance compared to this time last year. Thank you for your commitment to getting your child(ren) to school—every day matters, and we’re so proud of the progress we've made together.

As always, thank you for sharing your child(ren) with us. It is truly an honor to partner with you in their growth and learning. On behalf of all the dedicated teachers and staff here at Altoona Elementary, we wish you a safe and restful weekend. Hug your loved ones a little tighter this weekend.

Respectfully,

- Mr. Miller

The Southeast Polk School Board took the following action at their meeting last night (4/10/25) regarding making up the instructional time required by Iowa Code and fulfilling contractual obligations.

Student Instructional Hours
- Make up the required instructional hours by changing Wednesday 4/30, 5/7, and 5/14 into full student days
- Wednesday, May 21, will have the normal secondary late start and elementary early release schedule
- This keeps the final day for students as May 28, 2025, which is already scheduled for a full student day
- Click on the header above for more information

$ Altoona Elementary PTA Unfundraiser $

🍪 PTA Meeting -- Monday, April 14 at 6:30 pm

EFR -- Employee & Family Resources

Call (515) 244-6090 or (800) 327-4692

Dear Southeast Polk Families,

We are excited to announce that Southeast Polk is participating in Speak Up! This survey will help us answer questions, such as:

How are our students using technology for learning in and out of school?
How important is the use of technology to our parents? What types of technology do our teachers find of value and how are they using it in the classroom?
Do our ideas about technology align with our students’ parents?

Speak Up, a national research project facilitated by Project Tomorrow, provides an easy way for students, parents, and educators to share their views on technology and learning with Southeast Polk. Your input informs our decisions about technology, as well as contributes to the national dialogue about educational technology. Since 2003, Project Tomorrow has collected and shared the viewpoints of more than 6.3 million students, educators and parents. All responses are 100% confidential. No identifying information is collected about/from any participant.

As a nonprofit educational organization, Project Tomorrow provides Speak Up as a free tool for all schools to use – allowing us to conduct this research while also keeping our resources focused in the classrooms. Southeast Polk receives our results with state and national comparisons, providing us with valuable data that can be used for our future planning.

Taking the survey is easy! Plan to spend approximately 15 minutes.

https://Speakup.Tomorrow.org/D/M4HV/7

Your child will also be taking a similar survey appropriate for their grade level in school during the month of April. If you would like to view all surveys, click here. SEP is only participating in the “Classic Speak Up” survey.

We look forward to Southeast Polk’s strong participation in Speak Up! Be sure to take the survey by April 30. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Southeast Polk Instructional Technology Coordinator at kendra.carlson@southeastpolk.org.

Sincerely,

Jo Ellen Latham

Associate Superintendent of Teaching and Learning