Dear Parents, Students, Staff and the Community,
Greetings! We are at a juncture in our school where St Francis Indian School is growing and moving forward. We have recently completed our Strategic Plan and have identified 5 goals:
We will ensure progress in the development of a personal zuya.
We will engage in an array of learning experiences supported by technology.
We will develop communication systems to ensure consistent communication to our stakeholders.
We will reclaim in our in our stakeholders their culture and language.
We will continue to enhance and build facilities to meet the needs of our students.
Our Comprehensive Needs Assessment Action Plans. The plans guide our school so that we may reach the pinnacle of school improvement and reach our goals of student proficiency.
We are excited to say that we are laying the groundwork for opening a Career and Technical Education component to our existing high school. We will not only be able to get a high school diploma, but for those students that choose to add to a career track, they can get a certificate in the pathway they choose. The 7 pathways to a career were decided upon by a survey that was sent to these 3 groups: parents, students and the business community on our reservation. They are: 1) Computer Information Systems/IT 2) Business Practice/Accounting 3) Health Sciences 4) Public Safety 5) Animal/Land Management 6) Building Trades 7) Culinary Arts/Food Services.
We are also looking at adding housing for teachers so that we can get the best teachers to educate our children. In order to do that, we have to provide housing in an economically depressed area. We have been collaborating with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in this endeavor. We are happy to announce that we will be getting 5 houses for our staff. In addition, the tribe has been facilitating our efforts to use Project 105 guidelines of Public Law 638 to build us a new middle school with a gym.
Our Middle School is definitely in need of its own building and gym to meet the needs of our students and protect their identity in this school. We are in phase two of this process and appreciate all the assistance we are receiving from the tribe.
We are on an upward trajectory and with all of us working together we can build the school of our grandparents and ancestors' dreams. Pila maya ye.