November 7, 2024 - NPAS Staff District Newsletter

 

Dear NPAS’ Staff,

 

I hope this message finds you all well. As you may be aware, earlier this year Sandy Linn, Director of Business Services and Human Resources, informed us of her pending retirement. For the past 14 years, Sandy has worked tirelessly to ensure that the NPAS were well managed from both a finance and human resources perspective, all the–while living out the NP Way of doing what is right, committing to excellence and showing people that she cares. 

 

If you know Sandy well, you know that she shuns the limelight and though extremely dedicated to her work, prefers to do so with little attention and fanfare. With this in mind, please join me in thanking Sandy for her leadership and hope the years to come are filled with ample time for rest, relaxation and quality time with her family that she so dearly loves. 

 

Sandy’s departure is a significant loss to our school system. Not only is Sandy very talented at her job but her role has evolved to the point where there are few, if any, with the level of expertise in both finance and human resources as she does. As such, the decision has been made to separate the roles. With this in mind, we recently posted for a Director of Business Services whose main focus will be finance and hope to have an individual named by mid November. 

 

Please know these decisions were not made lightly.  Rather, they are part of our ongoing work to realign our central office staff to ensure both effective operational and academic support throughout our organization, all the while maintaining and, when appropriate, lowering our overall costs. I plan to share more significant detail in the months to come about these leadership changes. Please feel free to reach out with any questions in the meantime. 

 

Thank you for all of your efforts in making the New Prague Area Schools both welcoming and academically rigorous for our students. Please remember your efforts are indeed appreciated. Take care. 

 

Sincerely, 

Andrew Vollmuth

 

 

The NPAS’ Severe Weather Team’s goal is to minimize the loss of instructional time while being mindful of student and staff safety. In general, we will remain open. Canceling, delaying, or closing schools early poses significant issues for families with transportation and child-care arrangements.

 

Staff, students and families should always assume school is in session unless we communicate otherwise. If we decide to cancel school for the day, the decision will be communicated to staff and families no later than 5:30 a.m. or as soon as possible for early release or cold-weather cancellations.

 

Winter weather is extremely unpredictable and conditions can moderate or worsen very quickly. As a result, we constantly monitor the weather and conditions by relying on the following sources:

 

 

While there is always pressure when surrounding districts cancel, delay, or close schools early, each school system considers its own unique conditions first. It’s good to know what other school districts are doing, but no other school district has the exact combination of roads or highways.

 

We realize not everyone will agree with our decision. However, we are deliberate and thorough in our process and decision-making as it impacts not only your child, but EVERY child in the school district. Caretakers are encouraged to use their judgment to determine what is best for their children. In the end, we make a final decision based on safety and the ability of our school buses to get students to and from school safely.