Hoover Staff Newsletter

Excellence, Equity, Empowerment. Every student, Every day.

• Courage: We do and say what is needed to develop strength, resilience and character.
• Student Centered: Student success drives our decisions and actions, and we strive to provide each learner with what they need, when they need it.
• Integrity: We are honest, authentic and respectful in every interaction.
• Accountable: We know our desired outcomes, understand our individual responsibility for them, and collectively take accountability for results and continuous improvement.
• Inclusive Practices: We ensure ALL learners are welcomed and valued, have a sense of belonging and see themselves in their learning.

MAPS inspires students to thrive through future focused learning experiences by:

• Pursuing their individual pathway

• Ensuring safe and secure schools

• Fostering inclusivity by understanding and appreciating diversity

• Engaging with families and caregivers

• Partnering with and contributing to our community

Hello TEAM Hoover,

It is hard to believe that it is already July 15th! I hope that your summer has been filled with connection, rejuevenation, and laughter! As school supplies start to hit the shelves, and the excitement of a new beginning and fresh start of the school year starts to come into view over the horizon, I wanted to take this opportunity to share my excitement for new beginnings and gratitude for the gifts and talents each of you bring to our Hoover community!

Each new school year, we have the opportunity to reset, reimagine, and dream of new possibilities. As we embark on a new year, our key focus will be grounded within the work of highly collaborative and highly functioning collaborative teams. Through our highly collaborative teams, we will leverage eachother's strengths to meet the goals and vision of our shared strategic plan. The role each member of our team plays is vital to our team's success and ultimately the success of the students we serve.

A link to our Strategic Plan is at the end of this newsletter, however the components of the plan are outlined in this newsletter. In addition to our Daily Bulletin, this newsletter and it's format will be used at least once per month to ensure transparency and communication around how, we at Hoover, are working together through our collaborative teams to make decisions, show growth, and attain goals in alignment with our Strategic Plan.

As I reflect on our prideful past and dedicataion to our future, I would be remise to not share my gratitude for each and every member of our team. No matter our role at Hoover, we all share a common commitment to the responsibility of facilitating the growth and development of our learners. We are all gardeners who nurture and nourish our young plants (learners) so they are able to grow and bloom into a wide variety of beautiful flowers. There is much that goes into the successful growth of a plant, not the least of which is ensuring an optimal environment for growth. The beginning of a new school year affords us the opportunity to adjust our environment and practices to meet the needs of our learners to set us and them up for a successful year. This and coming communications will seek to support that work.

Should you need anything or have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out! Please continue to read this newsletter thoroughly for imporant information and updates.

I am looking forward to the new beginnings of the school year and growing our garden of learners with you all!

All my best,

Mollie

• Volume 1 of the Science of Reading is either in the books or nearly in the books for our K-3, MLL, SPED, and admin staff. There will be much to synthesis on system, team, and individual levels to ensure application and future success of our students. I know LETRS has been a heavy lift. As I complete Volume 1 this summer, I am struck by the foundation of practices we have and the opportunity for growth and applying new knowledge gained. It is certainly a great journey of learning to be on! Let's get ready to seize this opporutunity to shift practices that need shifting.
• Based off unified feedback from classroom Teachers as well as MTA, we know that clarity around our PLC process is a high priority. To that end, Kristin Kruesmark and I had the opportunity to join others from our elementary schools at Solution Tree's PLC Institute this summer. It was absolutely a rejuvenating experience that I hope others will want to engage in next summer as well. One key take away was the importance of our collaborative teams and prioritizing that important work. Many of us have heard the phrase, "Be a PLC, not Do a PLC." This summer at institute, speakers shared a message of "PLC Light to PLC Right." Both of those phrases resonate with me and have provided some pause and reflection around our PLC process. We'll be sharing some information gleaned with HLT in August and seek clarity, consistency, and commitment around our PLC/Collaborative Team process and practices. Stay tuned!

• You will notice that classrooms have been updated with new projectors. Wifi Access points will also be updated at the end of July. Calendar invites were sent for that work so you are aware if you happen to be in the building. Projectors and wifi access are an important technology structures we utilize to help meet our students' learning needs.

• Throughout July and August one key focus is recruitment. We have several open positions remaining at Hoover. Word of mouth and sharing the great things that happen at Hoover is an awesome way to encourage people to apply. As you are out in spaces and engaging with our community look for entry points to share all the great things about Hoover and let folks know that we have openings for a Health Assistant, 2 resource room paras, 2 behavior support paras, one K-3 reading corps opening, two lunchroom supervisors, and three kitchen staff openings. Human resources, our director of communications, and myself are all actively recruiting as well. We appreciate any help you can also provide.

• We still plan to host some sort of Welcome Wagon or similar event during workshop week. Please look for more information from our Community Engagement team as the time draws closer. If you are looking ahead at schedules, last year it was held on the Tuesday of workshop week.
• The PTA cabinet will meet in August to establish the meeting schedule and budget for the year. Thank you in advance for your engagement and support of this organization! They are quite an amazing crew of folks. We'll have a sign-up again at workshop week for team so attend meetings to show our support of this collabortive work!
• Entrance Conferences are a key component of caregiver partnerships. Entrance conferences are held Sept. 3 from 7:40-5:40 and Sept. 4 from 7:40-11:40. Rosters will be available in IC for staff to view on August 19th and open to families on August 21st. Conference timeslots will also be open to all families on August 21. MLL staff will work on registering our MLL families before access opens up to all. This year, SPED staff if you would also like to work to schedule by calling families 1:1 and registering a time for them, you are welcome to do so. It may help prevent overlaps in your schedule and ensure you are able to welcome your families as well. Please reach out if your are interested.

• As we consider effective operations, one aspect of that is making sound financial choice that demonstrate fiscal responsibility. To that end, we are evaluating the use of Benchmark Universe. Our district's intial subscription comes to an end this month. While a final decision as not been made, we have only a 7% usage rate at Hoover and with that low level usage we are highly considering saving the $5,500 renewal fee and shifting the funds to a purchase for either this year or a larger curriculum purchase the following year. If there are materials from Benchmark Universe you would like to download before it goes away, you have until the end of July.
• At Hoover, we allocate our building instructional funds by request and level of need as it alignes to our building goals. This year, requests can be make quarterly using THIS FORM. The deadline for Quarter 1 Requests is August 30th.
• Safety and security is another aspect of operations we will keep you updated on. Through our long-term facilities and maintenance plan a couple of safety items will be updated this summer. The first thing you will notice are new doors for the kitchen and recieving room. They were in desperate need of replacement as the frames and latches were in disrepair. We are also recieving new interior door handles that are ADA compliant. New keys will be issued upon your return in August.
• Bond Construction Update: Secure and safe entries for schools across MAPS was approved in last year's bond referendum. Origionally, Hoover's secure entry was slated to go out for bid this coming fall. However, due to the square footage addition, fire suppression systems (sprinklers) will be required throughout each building. It makes sense to combine the sprinkler projects with indoor air quality improvements (dehumidification, sometimes called ‘air conditioning’) to minimize ceiling teardowns. Consequently, the timeline for Hoover will shift to summer 2026 to accommodate the extended design phase.