Greetings, Thompson School District Students, Parents, Staff, and Community Members,
Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year! In a few short days, we will welcome our nearly 15,000 students back to school. We also welcome back our 2,000-plus member district staff, most of whom have been hard at work in recent weeks eagerly preparing for our new school year. These are exciting times for Thompson School District, and I am optimistic that our students will have their most successful, productive, and memorable school year yet.
The 2022-2023 school year will bring many transformational changes to our district, and I would like to highlight a few of them for you now.
Our bond team has been busy working on eight different schools this summer. Some of the work includes maintenance items, security upgrades to our entryways, and educational space upgrades. Our largest project of the summer was starting the conversion of Conrad Ball Middle school to a PK-8 campus. This approximate $21 million renovation will continue throughout the upcoming school year and will be completed for the start of the 2023 school year. The students arriving at Conrad Ball Middle School this month will experience all-new air-conditioned spaces.
This summer has also seen substantial progress on the expansion of High Plains PK-8. This project will also be completed by the fall of 2023. At the campus, we will be adding a brand new classroom wing to the building as well as constructing a new, full-size competition gymnasium. Additional enhancements will include an expanded cafeteria as well as a new track.
On the curriculum front, we are working on updating our curricular materials in two of our content areas. We are trialing materials for both elementary math and secondary English language arts to help make decisions about the best materials to support our students and teachers in achievement and growth with the Colorado Academic Standards. Materials will be used this fall with feedback from students, teachers, and parents to plan the best resources to implement moving forward in the 2023-2024 school year.
The social/emotional and mental health well-being of our students will continue to be a focus and priority for us as we head into the school year. We have excellent counselors in all of our schools, and the elementary level will continue to have full-time support staff to meet the needs of our students. Teams from all schools are engaged in year-long professional learning to enhance their ability to support students and families with their social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health and to ensure a welcoming and supportive school culture in each TSD school.
The Thompson Career Campus completed its second year of serving students from all high schools in the Thompson School District. This past year, students earned over 200 core credit hours toward high school graduation and collectively enrolled in 1,993 college credits while saving over $241,000 in tuition! Thompson Career Campus is entering its third year, and it will be the best yet, as we are adding a fifth pathway. The new Geographical Information Systems pathway will provide another opportunity for students to earn core and elective high school credit, college credit, and industry certifications in addition to college certificates.
As I hope you can see, we are working hard to ensure that Thompson School District will be a destination district where the student experience is at the center of what we do. As always, we will continue to build upon and seek out community and business partnerships to help support the work we are achieving. These are exciting times for this district, and we will continue to build upon our successes while continuing to earn the trust and support of our community. For updates throughout the school year, please consider following me on Twitter @tsdDrMarc.
Thank you for your support,
Dr. Marc Schaffer
Superintendent
Thompson School District