Newsletters 2013-14 Focus newsletter, [1] fall | Page 2

A N O K A

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H E N N E P I N

S C H O O L

D I S T R I C T

After Newtown: Anoka-Hennepin
overhauls elementary building security

D

FeePay to revolutionize
how parents pay for
student lunches, high
school activities

P

aying for all those school lunches just got a
whole lot easier and much more convenient.

For a few years, the Anoka-Hennepin
School District has used FeePay, an online tool parents could use to add money to their students’ meal
accounts for school lunches. And while many parents
used the convenie nt tool to keep track of their students’ accounts, there was a small service fee that
kept some parents from utilizing FeePay.
This school year, that fee is gone. FeePay is now free.
In addition, starting this year, Anoka-Hennepin’s
five traditional high schools will be using FeePay to
pay for and register their students into sports and
activities online.
Now, instead of writing a check or going to a
school to add money to student meal accounts, or to
pay for high school activities, parents can do it from
the comfort of their couch by using their computer,
tablet, or even smartphone.
Eventually, Anoka-Hennepin plans to expand fee
pay even further, allowing parents to pay for all fees
using FeePay, including field-trips, library late-fees,
—everything. Rolling out the online tool for high
school activity registration is just the first step,
according to Michelle Vargas, the district’s chief
financial officer.
“This will hopefully make things a lot more convenient for parents,” Vargas said. “It’s something of a
one-stop shop for parents to handle all the costs and
fees for their students.”
To use FeePay, go to www.anoka.12.mn.us/activities.
From there, click the “Online Payment/Registration”
tab.
Have questions about logging into your A-HConnect
account? Check out the Anoka-Hennepin Policy
Handbook, which will be delivered to the homes of all
students in the school district by Sept. 1. The handbook
is also available by scanning the QR code on page 10
with your smart-phone or tablet device. ■

Superintendent

In addition, we reexamined some of the support services provided primarily for our students
of color and American Indian students by our
Student Learning Advocates (SLAs) and Indian
Education Advisors. As the result of a drop in
funding, we needed to reorganize to fit within the
revenue available. In these areas too, we found
some duplication and some gaps in service.
In developing the new structure, Dr. Jinger
Gustafson, associate superintendent for middle
schools, and the Student Support Realignment
Team followed direction from the School Board
to ensure that the new support structure reflects

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“Nobody in their wildest dreams
ever thought shooters would enter an elementary school with the intention to do student
harm,” Chuck Holden said. “It was just
incomprehensible.”
In the wake of the tragedy where a gunman
took the lives of 20 students and six staff
members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Conn., Holden, the AnokaHennepin School District’s chief operations
officer, said it was clear the district had to
re-evaluate elementary school safety.
“We were inundated with calls and emails from
concerned parents and staff members,” he said.
After weeks of planning and speaking to the
FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security, and
even Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe,
Holden said he and the district’s Health,
Wellness and Safety Committee developed some
recommendations for new security measures for
the district’s elementary schools. The School
Board approved them soon after, and now
construction and implementation of the new
security measures is underway and slated to be
finished well before school starts on Sept. 3.
Each door at every school will now be
locked. The main entry will have an enclosed
vestibule where visitors will have to check in,
Holden said. Building secretaries will be able
to see visitors on a video screen, and will have
to buzz people in. In addition, each school’s
vestibule will have a driver’s license scanner
that has the ability to print out a visitor badge.
“Think of it like an apartment building,”
Holden said.
Before Newtown, the entire focus of the elementary school experience was to be open and
inviting, Holden said—a place where volunteers
or grandparents could come to read to students.
“We will still encourage volunteers to come
to the school. It’s just a vestibule check-in rather
than a clipboard in the office,” Holden said.

All told, the improvements are costing the
school district $1 million, but Holden said all
of the money for the project is coming from
the capital fund.
“This is taking priority over things like new
light fixtures or new ceiling tiles,” Holden said.
Another change will come for Adventures
Plus daycare parents. There used to be open
access from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. so parents
could drop off and pick up children on the way
to and from work, Holden said.
Now they’ll be given a key fob to gain
uninterrupted access to the schools.
Typically, most school districts spend the
bulk of their security budgets on middle and
high schools, Holden said. The main entrance
of Anoka-Hennepin schools was open to
patrons. Visitors were encouraged to sign in,
but it wasn’t required, Holden said.
“After the shootings though, that all
changed. It was clear that we needed to somehow restrict access for someone who has ill
intent,” Holden said. ■

Before Newtown, the entire focus of the elementary
school experience was to be open and inviting.

(continued from page 1)

masters or doctoral degrees and are licensed as
either social workers, psychologists, professional
clinical counselors or family therapists. The contractor will also do the billing. This is a unique
arrangement. I believe we are leading the way
with a model other school districts may want to
follow.

P A G E

ec. 14, 2012, is a day that forever
changed elementary school security.

the ethnic diversity of our student body and continues to provide the encouragement students
need not only to stay in school but also to push
themselves to succeed academically and grow
into responsible young adults.
The new model brings back all but one of the
Indian Education Advisor positions we had last
year and all but two of the Student Learning
Advocate positions. In the past, the student
learning advocates were concentrated at the
middle and high school levels. In the new structure, Student Learning Advocates will be
renamed Student Achievement Advisors and
they will serve all schools and be organized by
feeder schools. This means that the Student
Achievement Advisor fo r each high school will
work with the advisors for the middle and elementary schools whose students feed into that
high school. This communication protocol
should help students as they transition from one
level to the next.

F O C U S

Another key aspect of the reorganization was
to clearly define the role of the Indian Education
Advisor and Student Achievement Advisor in the
schools so staff members will know who will be
able to best provide the help each student needs.
For example, if a student is working with a
Student Achievement Advisor and it becomes
clear the student really needs the help of a mental health clinician, the advisor will set up an
appointment for the student and may even
attend the first meeting with the student. That
way we can ensure students will get specific help
for their specific need. We are also continuing to
examine other student support roles to ensure
alignment to student and family needs.
I am confident our new School-Based Mental
Heath Program and the continued realignment
of our Student Services restructure will serve our
students well so each will be able to reach high
levels of academic achievement and be prepared
for life when they graduate from our schools. ■

F A L L

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