Blog Posts

Over the last few years, it has been my practice to post a “Top 3” January blog related to our educational transformation efforts and ways these ideas might be manifested in the coming twelve months.

Hello Barrowtown families,

A lot has happened in our area since November 2 when we had our last PAC meeting. That feels like a whole other world ago. We saw so much sadness and destruction, and we all sat with bated breath, wondering what we would come home to. Some of us came home to little or no damage, and others of us lost everything. I still can hardly write this without emotion, and yet, I am still so thankful to be part of this community.

When I was recently asked to share with some of my colleagues how our school district was handling the challenges related to the recent rainstorms and flooding, I could not help but reflect on the numerous calamities we have experienced as a community over the last decade. In addition to the pandemic and disastrous flooding of the last three weeks, our community has endured more than its fair share of tragedies. We have lost more students from a range of misfortune too difficult to recount here.

On the heels of our decision to open some of our schools last week, several high school students wrote a version of this letter below to me:

Dear Dr. Godden,

On behalf of several students in the Abby school district, we would like to request that you close the school district completely for the remainder of the week as well as thank you for your prompt decision making in this unfortunate situation. 

As a way of keeping our focus on the teaching and learning in our schools, I have drawn a distinction between the “work”, our primary focus on providing for the educational needs of our students, and the “weather”, the conditions under which we do this work. In uncertain times if we are not careful, we sometimes confuse the two. While it is clearly important to ensure that we are following all the public health protocols, caution must be extended to ensure that this does not become the primary focus of our discourse and practice.

As we navigate the fourth wave of the pandemic, with an eye to post-pandemic teaching and learning, it has dawned on me that two of the lessons learned from the pandemic might be at odds with each other. With physical distancing being one of the best ways to keep ourselves and kids safe from COVID-19, we saw many classrooms migrate outdoors, at least for part of their instructional experience. This was sage advice given to us by public health, and many classroom teachers were all over it.

Hello Parents,

Please read the attached PAC minutes. 

If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, then please send them to PAC.

Have a great week.

Kind regards,

Kayla Wiens

PAC Secretary

Hello Parents,

Please read through our September PAC Minutes. We have several areas of need for volunteers, especially with our the unexpected changes at school. 

If you want to volunteer for any of the needed areas, please contact pac via email, or find us at school. We would be happy to have more parent involvement to make this transition down to 2 divisions easier for our whole community.

Have a great day.

Kayla Wiens

PAC Secretary

Hello Barrowtown families!

On behalf of the Barrowtown PAC I would like to welcome everyone to the 2021/22 school year, whether you are new to the school or have been here for years we are so happy to have you all in our Barrowtown Family! 

This school year holds a lot of opportunity that as regulations and restrictions change we will be hold more community events- we are hopeful that we will be able to see all of you this year at school events!

Our first PAC meeting will be Tuesday, September 14th at 3:30

This will be a year to remember. I think all of us are happy to put 2020-21 in the rearview mirror. While we did a truly heroic job of navigating the pandemic last year, I think it’s fair to say that none of us wants to do it again. But let’s take a minute to reflect on our efforts. Not only did we live through a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, but we were also able to keep our schools open, take care of each other and – most importantly – fulfill our mission to provide the best possible education to our students.