First day of school and beyond

East-metro schools face an array of changes for the upcoming school year.

Many superintendents and school administrators tout new programs designed to focus on improving reading skills, as well as efforts to increase rigor in the classroom, especially at high schools.

Throw in new start times at a couple of schools, new administrative faces at others and renovations to aging facilities, and you get an idea of changes you might see at schools in your neighborhood.

Forest Lake Area Schools, District 831

Projected students: 7,100

What's new:

• A program to help junior high and high school students prepare for college starts this year. Students in the Ramp Up for Readiness program will work closely with advisers to develop a personal plan for life after high school. The program outlines what they should learn and do in grades 7 through 12 to be ready for college.

• This year, all of the district's elementary schools will begin implementing the Peaceful School Bus Program. It's part of a larger anti-bullying effort and attempts to stop bullying on the bus by building strong, positive relationships among students on the bus, district officials said.

North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, District 622

Projected students: 10,900

What's new:

• New start times for all schools. Classes at the district's two high schools will start 50 minutes later than before. Middle and elementary school students will start 15 minutes earlier than last year.

"We did it because research indicates that later start times for high school kids improves attendance and academic achievement," said Jennifer McNeil, the district's communications coordinator. The new start times are:

High school: 8:15 a.m.

Middle school: 7:45 a.m.

Elementary school: 8:45 a.m. for Castle, Cowern, Eagle Point, Oakdale and Webster elementary schools; 9:15 a.m. for Carver, Richardson, Skyview and Weaver elementary schools.

• Longer days for elementary students. The school day went from 6 hours last year to 6.5 hours this year, in order to fit in more time for reading and math.

• Weighted grades at the high school. Students who take college-level courses will receive a 1.0 bump to their grade, based on the 4.0 grading system used by the district. For example, a student who earns a "B" in an AP class will receive a 4.0 grade for that instead of a 3.0 grade. "The goal is to encourage students to take more rigor at the high school," McNeil said.

Hastings Public Schools, District 200

Projected students: 5,100

What's new:

• For the first time, the Hastings School District is running a two-week summer school program this August for students entering kindergarten and first-grade. Seven classroom teachers, plus other student support staff, are participating in the program, which has about 115 kids enrolled, or about one out of every six students entering the two grades.

"There's research saying how critical the kindergarten to second grade years are," said Superintendent Tim Collins, "especially when it comes to reading."

Collins was also encouraged by the number of parents who signed up their children, saying, "They feel that it has the potential to be a good program and assist the students' ability to be successful."

Hudson schools, District 2611

Projected students: 5,338

What's new:

• The district is opening its sixth elementary school this fall. River Crest Elementary will serve students in grades K-5 with additional space for an early childhood program for special education students. The school was built using environmentally friendly materials.

• American Sign Language joins the list of language classes offered to seventh- and eight-graders.

• Stephanie DeVos, an award-winning administrator from Iowa, is the district's new athletic director for grades 6 through 12. Other key hires: Dave Grambow has been named the new principal of Willow River Elementary and Susan Prather is the new principal of Hudson Prairie Elementary. Dolf Schmidt takes over as principal of North Hudson Elementary after serving as school manager for the same school last year.

Mahtomedi, District 832

Projected students: 3,200

What's new:

• Denise Waalen moves from elementary school principal in Mahtomedi to assistant superintendent. Waalen used to be the principal of Wildwood and O.H. Anderson elementary schools. Kirsten Bouwens will replace Waalen as the new principal of O.H. Anderson Elementary.

Roseville Area Schools, District 623

Projected students: 6,452

What's new:

• Roseville has implemented a new emergency alert system, called 623 Alert, as a way of quickly communicating news to families. During an emergency, the district can send recorded voice messages to parents within minutes.

• The district has expanded its pre-kindergarten program, "Jump Start to Kindergarten," to two sites. The program, for students who are one year away from starting kindergarten, aims to excite students about learning in an elementary school environment. It will be held at Brimhall Elementary and E.D. Williams Elementary.

• Four of seven elementary schools in the district will also offer a "Reading Recovery" program, which will provide early intervention for struggling readers. The program gives individual attention from specially trained teachers to first-graders who are having trouble learning to read.

• Roseville Area High School, Roseville Area Middle School and Parkview Center School will offer a college preparatory program for students who are "typically underserved in the four-year college setting," according to the district. AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, is an elective course that teaches students study skills and has students sign up for Advanced Placement courses.

St. Paul Public Schools, District 625

Projected students: 38,843

What's new:

• Phalen Lake Elementary has changed from a neighborhood elementary school into a Hmong Studies and Core Knowledge Magnet School.

• Arlington High School is starting the first full year of its BioSMART program, which gives the magnet high school a science, math and technology focus. The program was started with a $6 million grant last year, and it introduces students to bioindustries, including medical and health sciences, business and marketing, and engineering.

• North End Elementary is starting single-gender education classes, meaning that all students in grades K-3 will be separated by gender, with the school adding a grade to the program each year until 2011.

• Central High School is starting a "Ramp-Up to Readiness" program to target ninth-graders struggling with the transition to high school. The program will include tutoring after school and on some Saturdays, and it will serve about 150 of the 600 incoming freshman at the school. It is being paid for with a $95,000 grant from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.

South St. Paul Public Schools, District 6

Projected students: 3,341

What's new:

• The district is looking to become the first public school district in the nation to offer the International Baccalaureate program to all of its students.

International Baccalaureate is a framework that schools can adopt that increases the academic rigor of schools. The district has had a high-school-age program for many years, but last year finished the three-year accreditation process necessary at the primary and middle years levels.

Now, they're just waiting for the thumbs-up from IB administrators.

"This is going to be a time for huge celebration," said human resources director Kathleen Johnson.

South Washington County Schools, District 833

Projected students: 16,800

What's new:

• Construction continues on East Ridge High School, which opens in the fall of 2009. Woodbury High School has a new mechanical system, renovated science rooms, a new group/lecture room and gymnastics space, and a renovated track and field area with artificial turf.

• Park High School will be under major renovation,; it's getting a new building entrance, a group/lecture room, improvements to science rooms and full replacement of its mechanical system.

• Cottage Grove Junior High is opening with a new eight-classroom addition.

• Grey Cloud Elementary will receive six new classrooms, two kindergarten classrooms, a multipurpose room and space for the autism program.

• The district's Next Step program -- teaching life skills to young adults with disabilities -- has been moved to a larger space in a leased building in Cottage Grove.

• Woodbury Junior High and Pine Hill Elementary schools are also having their mechanical systems replaced.

• Andrew Caflisch will be Red Rock Elementary's new principal. Laura Loshek will be the principal for Grey Cloud Elementary and Erin Shadick will be the Hillside Elementary Principal. The new central office administration includes Jeffrey Alden Pope as the district's Office of Equity and Integration director and Aaron Bushberger as the director of finance.

Stillwater Area Schools, District 834

Projected students: 8,800

What's new:

• A new program for gifted students debuts this school year. District officials describe the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program as a school within a school for highly gifted students. It will start at Oak Park Elementary with a "house" for fourth- and fifth-grade students identified as gifted. A special curriculum from the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary will be used.

• Lots of new faces in the schools, including: Ryan Laager, principal of Stillwater Area High School; Chuck Ochocki, assistant principal of Stillwater Junior High School; Tom Hobert, principal of Afton-Lakeland Elementary School; and Lynn Bormann, principal of both Marine and Withrow Elementary schools.

West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan, District 197

Projected students: 4,500

What's new:

• The district kicks off a year of celebrations for its 150th anniversary. It begins Sept. 13 with an old-fashioned community school raising and concludes with a history festival the weekend of June 5, 2009. For more information, visit the district's website at and click "150th Anniversary Celebration."

• Start/dismissal times will change. High schools will start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 3:04 p.m. After-school practices and activities will run from 3:20-5:20 p.m., and the activity bus will pick students up at 5:25 p.m. Middle schools will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. Elementary schools will begin at 7:45 a.m. and end at 2:15 p.m. For elementary, the new times reflect an additional 15 minutes of instruction time each day and will put all five elementary schools on the same schedule.

• This is the second year of a district-wide technology initiative that last year put laptops in the hands of every teacher and mobile laptop carts in every school. In addition to additional computer carts in the schools this year, the district plans a new digital learning initiative.

• New heating, ventilation and electrical systems have been installed at Henry Sibley High School and the older portion of Heritage Middle School. Major exterior work, including new roofs and windows and restoration of masonry walls, has been done. The high school's interior was remodeled and renovated and the auditorium's seating was replaced.

• Robin Percival is the new principal at Henry Sibley High School. She came from Kennedy High School in Bloomington, where she was assistant principal for five years.

White Bear Lake Area Schools, District 624

Projected students: 8,937

What's new:

• Foreign language classes offered at the district's middle schools. Students may choose Spanish, French or German.

• Smaller class sizes in all the schools, most noticeably at the middle- and high-school level. School superintendent Michael Lovett said there will be fewer high school class sizes in the 30s and more in the 20s.

• Speaking of the superintendent, he's new too. Lovett, who succeeded longtime schools chief Ted Blaesing, started July 1. "My goal is that every student and family involved in our schools knows that we're committed to the success of every child, and is successful this year," he said.

Other new faces include: Sara Svir, new principal at Vadnais Heights Elementary School; Cary Krusemark, new principal at Lakeaires Elementary School; and Marisa Vette, new communications coordinator for the district.

• More interactive white boards will be used in the classrooms this fall. The new technology is like having a computer screen that responds to touch and can be used by the whole class.

Allie Shah, Emily Johns and Kevin Giles contributed to this report.