Dear Ray-Pec Community,
I trust you and your family are having a wonderful summer!
The purpose of this midsummer message is to give an update of the many activities that are happening in the Ray-Pec School District.
Summer School
We had one of our largest Summer School enrollments in the history of the school district. Over 2,000 students attended school in June or are attending in July, either in-person or through virtual education. A big thank you to all of our teachers, support staff and building/district leaders for making these summer school sessions possible for our students!
Proposition S Implementation
Thank you once again for your support of Proposition S! As you recall, Proposition S is the bond election that voters overwhelmingly approved in April of 2021. There are four major aspects of Proposition S.
- Conversion of the building at 58 Highway and Foxridge Drive into the Ray-Pec LEAD Center. The Ray-Pec LEAD Center, which stands for Learning, Experiences, And Discovery, will be an exciting place for students to explore career paths, to gain employable skills and competencies, to participate in new styles of learning, or to explore their interests in a variety of technology opportunities. At full build-out, we envision the Ray-Pec LEAD Center to be a place where elementary and middle school students will also have opportunities to learn and explore through summer enrichment programs. The Ray-Pec LEAD Center is slated to open in August.
- Construction of a Ninth Grade Center (NGC) which will become Ray-Pec’s second high school at some point in the future. You can see the progress of this construction just to the west of East Middle School.
- Construction of a Performing Arts Center, which will allow students to showcase talents and skills in a facility better suited for additional learning experiences. That construction will start later this school year.
- Stewardship of our existing facilities. With over 1.2 million square feet of facility space, a sustained building re-investment and facility upkeep program is needed to continue to provide safe and efficient learning opportunities for students.
I invite you to look at our Proposition S website for continued updates and timelines about the implementation of these exciting projects!
A New Website Look
Speaking of the website, our team embarked on a year-long effort to update and redesign our website to take advantage of several technological tools that our previous website did not allow for. If you have not had the opportunity, I invite you to take a look at the new website.
Planning for the 22-23 School Year
At its May meeting, the Ray-Pec Board of Education approved a new five-year strategic plan. At its June planning meeting, the Board of Education and administration reviewed the priorities for the first year of strategic plan implementation with particular emphasis of the following items:
- Ensure that we have a competitive salary structure for certified and classified team members.
- Show demonstrable student achievement growth throughout the school year.
- Develop and strengthen our culture of unity, understanding, well-being, an orderly learning environment, and support for students and staff.
- Communicate and market the programs and successes of students, staff, and the district as a whole.
In my first several messages to you during the school year, I plan to expound on each of the bullet points in more depth.
I believe our best days in the Ray-Pec School District are still ahead of us. That is why our focus for this year is on the phrase Forward and Better. I am confident that the new strategic plan will propel us to even greater things in our future together. The plan creates the pathways to move students Forward and make the educational experience Better for all.
Thank you for entrusting your children to the Ray-Pec School District.
Mike
