Minnetonka Schools by Superintendent Dr. Dennis Peterson
Posted by Steve Frazier
on Sep 20, 2011
Last week's Program was presented by Dr. Dennis Peterson, the Superintendent of the Minnetonka School District. Dr. Peterson has been the administrative leader of the district for slightly over 10 years.
His talk was on "The State of the School District", with most of the material in the form of graphs or comparisons charts. The summary would be that the district is still a leader not only in districts state-wide but country-wide as well. Comparisons with leading districts throughout the country show our district is a leader in the many of categories of comparison. Increasing scores on all of the comparative tests show that the district is delivering better education to all students. Dr. Peterson emphasized that the term "all students" is important, as achievement has increased across the board, not just among the good learners, but for average learners as well as the challenged.
Schools that showed better results nationwide all had higher per student costs. Our district did some planning ahead, and we will not be needing any referendum funds for the coming year; almost every surrounding district will be asking for more money from their voters to support their programs.
Dr. Peterson said that the district is going into a new phase called "Innovation Planning" to continue to keep a few steps ahead of the other districts. Because of the high marks the district gets, parents from surrounding areas are "opting in", giving the district increasing numbers of youngsters in our own district. Keeping high enrollment allows better staffing and high quality programs.
His talk was on "The State of the School District", with most of the material in the form of graphs or comparisons charts. The summary would be that the district is still a leader not only in districts state-wide but country-wide as well. Comparisons with leading districts throughout the country show our district is a leader in the many of categories of comparison. Increasing scores on all of the comparative tests show that the district is delivering better education to all students. Dr. Peterson emphasized that the term "all students" is important, as achievement has increased across the board, not just among the good learners, but for average learners as well as the challenged.
Schools that showed better results nationwide all had higher per student costs. Our district did some planning ahead, and we will not be needing any referendum funds for the coming year; almost every surrounding district will be asking for more money from their voters to support their programs.
Dr. Peterson said that the district is going into a new phase called "Innovation Planning" to continue to keep a few steps ahead of the other districts. Because of the high marks the district gets, parents from surrounding areas are "opting in", giving the district increasing numbers of youngsters in our own district. Keeping high enrollment allows better staffing and high quality programs.
(Story by Tad shaw and photo and posting by Steve Frazier)