Monroe News

Happy Friday! Spirit Week this week has been a blast at Monroe. I hope you enjoy the photos below from the teachers dress like students / students dress like teachers spirit day as well as a couple from Eagle Squad club. It has been fun to see engagement and pride at Monroe! Getting our students connected and looking forward to school each day supports their success in class and overall school attendance. On our recent trusted adult survey, 94% of Monroe students report having a safe and trusted adult in the building. We will continue to work until this number reaches 100%.

In addition to celebrating the amazing things happening at Monroe, we have also recently noticed an increase in student use of derogatory language directed at their peers. Often, students use this language with the intention of being funny, but without considering the power of their words and the effect they have on others. To address these behaviors, behavior intervention specialist Alyssa Petrino presented to all students this week, defining derogatory language, providing examples of the harm it can cause to others, and to clarify that that type of language is not appropriate nor acceptable at Monroe. To view the presentation, please click here. We appreciate your support in reinforcing these expectations at home.

Parent Teacher Conference sign ups will close on October 7. Please click here to secure a time slot if you have not already. Please remember to identify in the special comments section if you intend on having a virtual conference or require translation services.

We have some fun upcoming events at Monroe, including the Halloween Dance for all students on October 25th from 7:00-9:00pm. We are looking for parent volunteers to help at this popular event! If you are able to help, please email anthony.crespo@cusd200.org.

Up Next:
10/7: Fall Band Concert
10/8: Fall Orchestra Concert
10/10: Vision/Hearing Screenings (Send your child with their glasses, if applicable)
10/10: Parent Teacher Conferences 4-8pm
10/11: No School, Parent Teacher Conferences 8am-12pm
10/14: No School, Indigenous People's Day
10/17: End Quarter 1
10/17: Fall Choir Concert

Enjoy the weekend ahead,
Ashley Huettemann
Principal

At Monroe we have a comprehensive school safety and crisis response plan built on the ten essential elements of the PREPaRE Safety Model. Throughout the school year, I will highlight each of the elements to give parents a closer look at our approach to keeping our students safe. The ten elements include:

• School Security Policies

• Employment Screening Procedures

• Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Assessments

• Multi-Tiered Academic and Social-Emotional Screening and Interventions

• School Mental Health Procedures

• School Disciplinary Policies

• School Crisis Plan

• Response, Communications, and Reunification Protocols

• Psychological Triage and Assessment

• Multi-Tiered Crisis Interventions

This month, I will feature School Security Policies. 

At Monroe we strive to maintain a safe and secure learning environment for students at all times. An essential part of this is ensuring secure entries, having clear visitor procedures, and implementing cybersecurity measures district-wide. One of the simplest, yet most effective measures we take in ensuring safety is to lock our doors throughout the school day. While our doors remain locked, please know that we welcome visitors. Please follow entry procedures described below and ensure that visitors entering behind you follow the same check-in procedures.

All of our CUSD 200 schools have physical security measures to keep staff, students, and visitors safe. Exterior security cameras are installed at all entrances of all buildings and our middle school and high schools also have interior camera systems. CUSD 200 has also installed electronic access door systems at all buildings in order to secure our doors according to our school and activity schedule hours, as well as to protect against lost or misplaced physical keys. Upon entry into one of our buildings, all visitors are buzzed through our main entrance by an office staff member. Our office is equipped with cameras and an intercom system, allowing us to communicate with visitors before granting access. Before entering the main areas of the building, visitors are required to check in using our Guest Management System, Verkada. The Guest Management Systems scans the driver’s license in order to conduct a background check against criminal databases. 

Another key component of our school security policies includes our approach to cybersecurity and technology. In CUSD 200, we employ a number of systems to keep staff and student data secure. For staff we require strong 16 character passphrases to reduce the likelihood of password hacking, 2-step identity verification on all major systems, and on-going phishing training to educate staff on common ways bad actors may attempt to gain access to our systems. For students, we have three levels of content filtering to prevent access to inappropriate websites. The first layer is our general district-wide firewall. Families can also opt-in to receive weekly summaries of their student’s web activity, or sign up for a live view of their child’s browsing through Lightspeed, our network’s content filter. If your family wishes to start the process of receiving weekly web activity summaries with the option to add online portal access, please fill out this form. Finally, specific settings in Google search and YouTube are set to the strictest levels in order to add another layer of filtering.

School Safety is a comprehensive topic and is always our top priority.  Throughout the year we will continue to highlight components of our safety plan at Monroe and district-wide, such as safety drills, ALICE training and additional emergency response systems we have in our buildings.  If at any time you have questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me. 

Sincerely,
Ashley Huettemann
Principal