Hello Pierz Pioneer Parents,

We are excited about the start of this school year.  Pierz Schools are functioning at an amazingly high level and we are very, very blessed to have so many caring and committed staff members who consistently do much more than what is in their job description in an effort to continue being among the best at what we do.

We have some important information to share and explain as it relates to one of our significant challenges, which is transportation.  We will try to summarize some of our challenges as well as some of our solutions to those challenges, and at the same time allow you a deeper understanding of those challenges as well as the grace to see the big picture of getting 1,400 children to and from 3 schools each day. 

1. Safety and Respect

Our Drivers are very caring and very committed.  Their main goal is safety.  Driving 65 children around in a vehicle is one of the most challenging of duties.  We need all parents to expect that their children always listen to the driver.  No adult can manage that many children safely if 5 to 10 to 20 of those children believe they can have their “own agenda” nor “constantly negotiate” what is appropriate and what is not.  It’s imperative that while on the bus, children respect the necessary decisions of the bus driver. 

2. Prepared

As mentioned above, we need children and parents to understand that they are one of 50 or 60 on that route at that time.  If 50 individuals think they need an extra 2 minutes, that adds up to 100 minutes.  We do our best to stick to timelines, and if they are off, it is seldom related to the driver. We need your help in guaranteeing children are ready.

3. Bus Capacity and Flexibility

We have more children riding buses than ever. We are doing our best to create space for all children to ride. This year, in order to make it work, we may have to have some of the shorter routes closer to Pierz drop off students earlier and then go back to pick up with in-town students living west of Highway 25. The students living east of Highway 25 already walk to school.

We will have to work this out over the first week or two of school as we verify which children are riding each day and which ones are not. For those parents on those routes, please understand that we are still working through this challenge and need some time to actually see how it will function. 

4. Going Above and Beyond 

We have a long history of trying to accommodate as much as possible. This includes:

- going into driveways even when it takes extra time;

- going outside of district boundaries to accommodate families 

- picking up students at various locations or dropping them off at various locations based upon changes in who is caring for that child on that particular week or even day of the week.

All of these things seem critical to that family at that moment in time.  And we have often done all we can to make it work.  At the same time, all of these things add to the length of the route and the capacity of the routes.  

We ask for understanding and support that we simply cannot do it all. Thus there are some things we ask of parents that include:

-We have and will continue to establish meeting points for families out of district when going to the door presents a challenge.

-We will ask that parents find ways to get their child to the end of their driveway: there are narrow roads, and busy roads, and times when we cannot stop, or back up, or turn around, or go into a yard.

Even though our Drivers and our Transportation Coordinator would love to accommodate all requests at all times, they simply cannot.  We ask for your understanding and support.

5. Join our Team

We need another Bus Driver right now.  We can promise you good pay and support if you are interested. We need more Bus Aides.  We are so committed to providing safety and support for children and our Drivers that we are willing to pay for another adult to be on every route.  We just need to find those people willing to take on that role.

Our team is fun, and supportive and you can join that family of caring and loyal adults who get to show their patience, guidance and getting to know children every day. Until we can fill this position, we will be rotating people and doing what we can to make it work every day. 

Thanks you for your understanding and support as we navigate this added challenge.

After nearly a year of planning, remodeling, and construction, Healy High School is very close to having a dramatically improved East Wing which houses our industrial technology classes. These hands-on courses appeal to so many of our students, and many students continue their post-high school education and careers in these areas. Courses like construction, cabinet making, small gas engines, welding, greenhouse management, landscaping, veterinary science, and wiring/plumbing/concrete will all see vast improvements to equipment, storage, ventilation, and workspaces. 

All teaching spaces in this area have been updated with new HVAC, lighting, paint, flooring, and technology, resulting in brighter, cleaner spaces large enough to house three full-time teachers. The addition of a technology workroom to this area will allow industrial technology teachers and students to navigate between the woods, welding shops, and high-tech spaces that house equipment like plasma cutters, 3D printers, and laser engravers.  

The expansion of the welding and metals area allows for material storage, the breakdown and cutting of the metals, and the capacity for plasma cutting and shaping— all in one new well-vented area.  We are truly excited to provide this opportunity for our students and the capacity for our staff to implement a variety of classroom experiences using metals as the teaching tool.  The metals area expansion creates more than 5,000-square-feet of teaching space.

The wood shop has also been expanded with added storage areas to the shop, as well as a completely new dust vacuum system to provide the cleanliness and air quality of a professional shop. With the addition, the wood shop now offers approximately 3,500 square feet of space. 

As you walk down this new East Wing, the two south side classrooms are now merged into the Agricultural Center. This large space, approximately 1,800 square feet,  allows for expanded laboratory options for plants, genetics, landscaping, and the capacity for instruction in the multitude of areas that make up agronomy today.  The large merged rooms will have large south-facing windows to allow for growing and testing opportunities as well as easy access to the multiple greenhouses used in the fall and spring.

All shop and lab spaces can also access the newly created 1,400-square-foot Tech Classroom centrally located, adjacent to all the workspaces.  The Tech Classroom contains more high-tech learning opportunities like 3D Printers, Laser Engravers, Robotics and Computer stations, and other key components to the design, trades, and ag industries.  

We have also added a new special education classroom to this project. This new classroom provides some sensory room options and also independent living skills learning opportunities as students will be able to use the classroom’s dedicated kitchen, laundry, and other facilities. 

We are very close to the completion of this exciting project. The wood shop and welding shop should be operating at full capacity by the end of January. The ag room should be ready by the end of February. 

Thank you to so many parents, bus drivers, and snow plow drivers who have gone above and beyond the last 48-hours as we continue to work through one of our snowiest winters.

We have a couple of reminders during these challenging times of navigating:

• Our drivers must make the judgment regarding navigating through certain township roads that we hope are plowed, but we do not always know if they are plowed. If you are aware they are not plowed, please consider giving your bus driver a heads-up.
• If the driver determines that they cannot safely make it through a driveway that is not plowed, we ask them not to try. In those situations, you may need to get your child to the end of the driveway.
• Finally, if you live in a location where it is not driveable, it is okay that your child misses school. We will excuse the absence. In the end, we have to make a decision based on allowing the vast majority of students to safely make it to school. If it is not safe in your particular circumstance, that is okay. Do not feel any undue pressure to send your child through a driveway or township road that is not cleared, nor put yourself in that situation with your own vehicle.

Reminder: we will provide school cancellation and late-start information to families in several ways:

• We will make the phone call launches to all families who provide the phone numbers in our Synergy Student Information System. To this end, please use your ParentVUE/Synergy access to ensure your contact information is up-to-date.
• We will post an announcement on the district website as well as the Pierz Schools Facebook page.
• We will notify LF Radio of our decisions.
• We use the WCCO School Closings website.

Thank you, as always, for your understanding and continued support!

Pierz Healy High School has started down a path to totally transform how we handle student discipline issues and, more importantly, how we help each student graduate as a responsible, self-disciplined adult. We are adopting the Responsibility-Centered Discipline (RCD) program, which was created by author Larry Thompson and is now being implemented in hundreds of schools in all 50 states and several other countries. This program teaches practical techniques to help teachers de-escalate confrontations with students, while also enabling teachers to successfully redirect students who need correction.

We began implementing this program several months ago, and we have already begun seeing significant improvements in school climate in teacher-student relationships. Mr. Thompson will join us for the upcoming Parents Night on Monday, October 10, 2022 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm in the Pierz Healy High School band room to answer your questions and to explain how RCD is working at our school.

He will also offer tips that you will find helpful when working with your child or teen, including:

» Obedience-Based vs. Responsibility-Based
» Why Time-Based Consequences Don’t Work
» Developing Self-Regulation Skills
» Exits Off the Road to Responsibility
» The Response-Ability Process
» Give ‘em Five Conversations

Mr. Thompson is the author of several books, including Roadmap to Responsibility and Give ‘em Five. He has just finished his latest book, Roadmap to Responsibility: The Power of Give ‘em Five to Transform Families. He is a thoughtful, engaging presenter with a terrific sense of humor, and we are excited that he has agreed to present to the entire Pierz Healy High School community.

The Responsibility-Centered Discipline program has been implemented in a number of different settings including public schools, private schools, charter schools, alternative schools, parochial schools, and even juvenile schools. It has been proven to work in elementary, middle and high school settings and is effective with students with disabilities including oppositional defiant disorder, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD etc.

Parenting is filled with decisions. Which concerns are most important? How do parents handle all these endless scenarios? Every child is different. Every age and stage brings up a new set of complexities. As parents seek to direct children toward responsibility, success and fulfillment, life presents many potential detours. The Responsibility-Centered Discipline program that is being implemented at Pierz Healy High School can also help parents identify their destination and recognize when they are getting off course. The RCD concepts provide tools to help parents put a balanced parenting style – not too permissive and not too authoritarian – into action. Mr. Thompson will define the common exits parents allow their children and teens to take off the road to responsibility. This session will help parents recognize how they may be making it easy for children and teens to escape solving their own problems and, therefore, losing the opportunity to grow in independence. When parents and children stay together on the road to responsibility, the children and teens are required to think critically. With emotional support from their parents, they will—maybe for the first time—tap into their own creativity to solve their problems. By the time they launch into full independence, they will have an internal resource that has been practiced many times. Responsibility-Centered Discipline uses a “Give ‘em Five” guided conversation to train educators and parents to incorporate five important themes into their corrective conversations.

The five themes are:
» Support – Use supportive statements that connect to your relationship with the child or teen to identify a strength that she possesses.
» Expectation – Let the child or teen know the expectation you have for him.
» Breakdown – Communicate where you see the expectation breaking down or failing to be met.
» Benefit – Tell the child or teen how meeting the expectation benefits her.
» Closure – Determine whether the situation has been resolved or whether the conversation is at a place where you can feel comfortable moving on.

On this adventurous road of parenting there are three different styles that parents tend to use:

» PERMISSIVE PARENTS are strong in warmth and acceptance, but make few demands. They just want their children to be happy. They are strong in emotional support, but may be uncomfortable holding the line when children and teens push back against the limits. For these parents, leadership may be weak, and expectations may be low.

» Rules and control are high priorities for AUTHORITARIAN PARENTS. Warmth and acceptance are contingent on performance. These parents are strong on issues of consistency and clear expectations, but often try to exercise control by utilizing strong, negative emotions. Their children may not feel supported in coming up with their own solutions. The result can be high levels of tension in the family and low levels of connection and shared joy.

» AUTHORITATIVE PARENTS can blend together warmth and acceptance, while still challenging their children and teens to grow in maturity. These parents do not veer off the road to either side—permissive or authoritarian. They’re balanced, as they provide genuine warmth and clear, consistent expectations. 

For questions please contact Tony Andres (320) 468-6458 Ext. 1205 | Email: tandres@pierzschools.org

The industrial technology improvement project at the high school is fully underway. The remodel of existing structures and addition of space will bring industry-standard equipment, facilities, and storage areas to our welding, woodshop, and agricultural programs. It will also add space for a new special education classroom and a technology classroom. Read on for the latest update on this exciting project: 

Woodshop:

• Removal of internal storage will create a larger classroom. An addition on the north side will allow for material storage and the compressor.
• New dust vacuum and duct work reconfiguration as well as new HVAC.
• Allows for capacity to add new equipment over time.

Welding/Metallurgical Shop:

• Addition on north side and to the east will create additional material storage and space for plasma cutter and new venting system.
• Larger classroom with larger windows, new sinks and counters for the variety of cement, plumbing, greenhouse, electrical, and ag classes taught.
• New welding stations.
• Overhead door into shop.

Agriculture Center:

Larger classroom with larger windows, new sinks and counters for the variety of cement, plumbing, greenhouse, electrical, and ag classes taught.

Common Areas:

• Rooftop HVAC for heating, A/C, and fresh air in all spaces.
• A hallway for access to door 8 will run along the FACS room and will house three new offices for staff.
• The loading dock will move and a new dust vacuum serving the wood shop will be on the north side of the wood shop.
• New girl's bathroom and lockers will be added.
• A transformer and switchboard will provide an additional 2000 AMPs.

Tech Classroom:

A room between the welding and wood shop will serve as space for instruction and house technical equipment such as 3D printers, laser engraver and computer design stations.

Special Education Classroom:

A new DCD/ASD classroom will be a building/structural addition and will have its own restroom and sensory room.

Pierz Schools has recently updated it's website to not only improve the experience for site users, but to stay ADA compliant on its platform. Working with the web content management company Blackboard, the new site will also allow all web pages to be easily translated. The enhanced site provides easy access to district communications, staff and student resources, as well as easy access to activities, online payments, and timely information. 

Like anything new, it may take time to navigate the new format. We appreciate your patience as we continue to update the new site and close out the old one. Please note: the old site will no longer be updated as of June 1 and will officially sunset on June 30. At that time, the new site will roll over to www.pierzschools.org, so all bookmarks should automatically forward to the new site.