The 2021-2022 school year was an incredible year for River Trail Elementary. We completed our first full school year in our building. Our staff and students spent each day living out our mission statement of “thrive and impact the world”. This year continued to present obstacles navigating the pandemic. Teachers and students navigated quarantines and illness while maintaining high levels of learning. Our staff was able to unite and bond through the unique circumstances that were presented.

We continued to develop our school culture by creating a set of Collective Commitments. Our school commits to the following ideas: CARES - Carry the banner, All children can, Relationships, relationships, relationships, Expect excellence, and Students first. All students participated in a daily morning meeting to foster community in their classrooms. Each month, we celebrated an Outstanding Otter from each class who demonstrated our Otter Code of working hard and taking care of each otter. This year, our PTO donated a book vending machine that all students were able to visit. It was so exciting to see our students be rewarded with books!

Our school staff began the year by attending a workshop focused on Professional Learning Communities. They worked in teams to set norms, identify roles, and create common summative assessments. Each team identified math essential standards and created an Essential Standards assessment that was given quarterly. Staff analyzed these results and were able to provide targeted instruction based on individual student needs.

At River Trail Elementary, we commit to continuing our journey to be a school that values collaboration. We are so grateful to our amazing PTO and District Office for the support and encouragement. We are excited to continue our journey to help our students thrive and impact the world.

Savannah Steger, Principal