As we work on closing up this school year, I wanted to take a moment to tell you that your children are amazing. Each and every one of them has positive attributes that contribute to making Oakdale an encouraging place to learn and grow. We, the staff at Oakdale, are honored and do not take lightly, that you are entrusting your gifts to us, so we can do our part to help them develop into successful contributors to our world. Every day I witness students caring for and helping each other, accelerating in reading, and developing their amazing math skills. Students are polite, saying please and thank you, helpful, by offering to help the custodians clean the cafeteria, and hard workers, putting every effort into the project that the teacher is working on them. I love the love your children display each and every day. Always smiling, and to see their face ignite with excitement when they proudly run up to me, telling me about the incredible knowledge they just gained. Even to the end, students have been working hard, showing what they have learned this year, by putting their best effort into their State tests, and the final iReady diagnostic. The evidence of this work is displayed in the improvement of their test scores. In the reading iReady diagnostic, the number of students scoring 2 or more years below grade level went from 58% in the fall, to 32% in the spring. This is tremendous growth. Students scoring in the at or above grade level range went from 12% to 28%. In order for scores to move like this students had to make more than a year's worth of gains to move from one band to the next. In math, we saw even greater gains, with 57% of students scoring 2 or more years below grade level in the fall, to 29% in the spring, and 6% of our students scoring at or above grade level in the fall, to 28% in the spring. I could not be more proud of the work Teachers, students, and families have done to help ensure the success of Oakdale students. With the learning that was lost, over the last couple of years, everyone pulled together to help put a huge dent in it, and our Eagles are Rising to the Challenges, Caring for each other, and striving to reach their goals. This is what we strive to instill in our students, and it is evident they are getting it. Over the summer, students will have access to their extra math accounts, and their AR accounts. Please encourage them to read for 20 minutes each day, and work on their math fact for 10 minutes each day. Spending just 30 minutes a day on academics this summer will help prevent learning loss, and actually stimulate learning growth. I also want to encourage them to spend the rest of their day, having fun, being a kid, and making lifelong memories with their friends and families. Thank you again for allowing us to pour into your kids, and have an amazing summer.
Mr. Bettencourt, and the rest of the Oakdale staff.