Work was almost done on some major renovations at the school building, including a new entryway, new office and new carpet and air conditioning in the south wing.

Now the major changes are complete, and workers are installing the final touches — new windows throughout the oldest portion of the building.

“Our biggest challenge this year was to try to interrupt learning as little as possible while the construction is going on,” Principal Kerry Ketcham said. “We kept one classroom open so that as windows are being removed or replaced, we can move those classes to another location that is a classroom.”

Crews were on scene during one recent school day removing the old windows from one stairwell. Windows covered in plywood could be seen along the building.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter
Hannah Rees, a senior at Southeast Valley High School, snaps a photo looking down the front hallway during a photography club project.

Kolacia Construction workers have been excellent about communicating with the teachers and staff, Ketcham said, so that they could work around each other.

“They’ve been very good about working around labs — no, you can’t change the windows on this day because we have a big lab coming up and we can’t do it in the spare classroom,” Ketcham said. “That’s affected chemistry and our foods lab, so they’ve been willing to work around that.

“Teachers have been really flexible. I haven’t heard any complaints from the kids. It’s a little chilly in the room when the only thing in the window is plywood.”

The new windows will make the building more efficient, and the new entry is designed to make the school more secure.

A new hallway was built, and visitors who are buzzed in through the locked front doors now have to pass through the office before continuing on into the school.

-Messenger photo illustration by Joe Sutter
Southeast Valley Superintendent Brian Johnson visits secretaries Kristi Peacock, left, and Aimee Jackson in the high school’s new main office recently, in this image made from multiple photos. Locked doors now guide visitors through the office where they can sign in before entering the school. The new office and entryway were completed near the start of the 2018 school year. Principal Kerry Ketcham, at his new office to the left here, can see when people enter and exit.

“Before you could be buzzed in, and you were supposed to check in at the office,” Superintendent Brian Johnson said, “but you could have been to the library before you hit the central office or the high school office.”

Ketcham’s office is also in the front now, which has worked well for him.

“Rather than back here, I set the desk up so I can see who’s coming in and going out,” he said.

Even more changes to the district itself are possible in the coming years, as school boards for the two combined districts discuss how they want to share grades moving forward.

Prairie Valley and Southeast Webster Grand districts began grade-sharing about five years ago under the Southeast Valley banner, creating a shared middle school and high school while maintaining two separate elementary schools.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter
Senior Kylie Clark completes labeling tones on an A major scale during Brandon Louis’s music theory class at Southeast Valley High School recently.

“We are having conversations right now about renewing our whole grade sharing agreement,” Johnson said. “This is the fifth year. It started as a five-year agreement.

“The conversation between whole grade sharing and consolidation will be dictated upon enrollment, (and) state supplemental aid provided by the Legislature. Those are the two things.”

Bringing the schools together has been good for the kids, Ketcham said.

“Whole grade sharing allows us to offer a lot more choices to students,” he said. “We would not be able to afford the teachers to offer the choices we have if we were two separate schools.”

“For example, music theory would be tough, because Mr. Louis would probably be teaching possibly seventh grade through 12th vocal instead of just ninth through 12th,” Johnson said.

Over in Farnhamville, the Prairie Valley Elementary has gotten back good reading scores, Johnson said.

“It’s kindergarten through third grade FAST data. FAST is a reading screening that is for students, and most schools in the state do it,” Prairie Valley Elementary Principal Jim Duncan said. “We scored in the top 7 percent in the state of schools for improvement.”

The assessment is taken three times a year, Duncan said, and Prairie Valley scored very high in improvement from fall 2017 to spring 2018.

“It was something we were very proud of, with some of the things we’ve been doing,” Duncan said. “That goes on to some of the innovation we’ve been doing.”

The school is proud of its reading interventions, he said. During the reading intervention block, everyone in the school is working on interventions — teachers, associates, the specials teachers, even the guidance counselor.

Students get different activities based on what they need, and their reading skills.

The school is also using what it calls Multi-Tiered System of Supports when it comes to teachers working together, he said.

Every week, “each classroom gets time with two classroom teachers,” Duncan said. “So their own teacher and the other section’s teacher, plus an associate.

“Of course they get individual attention in their regular classroom time too, but this is quite specific, when you get a whole other classroom’s teacher working with you.”

With this system, kids get much more attention during the class, and teachers can learn from each other to improve.

“If I’m teaching with you and you’re teaching with me we know each other’s kids,” he said. “We can use each others’ expertise, helping each other out.”

At the high school, the robotics program continues to do well, and exposes kids to both STEM concepts and team-building in an engaging way.

“We have two teams this year, and we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of community support,” Ketcham said. “They’ve raised some funds through some generous donations.”

One recent donation, from Xi Eta Sigma , was for $1,500. That local sorority now has a robot named after it.

“It takes about $1,500 to $2,000 to fund one of these robots from scratch to competition. The $1,500 is kind of a base number, and to add on the components that make you competitive in the arena, it takes a little bit of extra,” Ketcham said.

“And there’s a little something for everybody and their personality, whether it’s the coding, the designing, the presentation, the marketing,” Johnson said.

“That’s the difference with robotics,” said Ketcham. “They teach a skill of being willing to help out your competitors, when I need a part or I need some advice, and there’s actually a trophy awarded for that behavior.

“That’s what our group won consistently last year, which makes us really proud, that our kids are competitive and kind at the same time.”