Newsletters 2014-15 Focus newsletter, [2] winter | Page 2

LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC EDUCATION Coon Rapids High School Biomedical Sciences Program joins NWSISD PAGE 2 Superintendent’s Column cont. from page 1 Nov. 24 School Board meeting, Dr. William Morris, one of the foremost experts in public opinion polling in Minnesota, provided some answers to that question very well when he presented the results of our annual community survey. While I can brag about our great schools forever, I lose the audience within minutes. When our own community members brag about our schools, people listen. Dr. Morris and his firm surveyed 500 randomly selected adults of all ages. About a third were parents or guardians of current students. The survey asked about 75 questions, but I want to highlight just a few. (The full survey is on the website at http://bit.ly/2014AHsurvey.) As part of Coon Rapids High School’s Biomedical Sciences Program, students often take field trips, like one students took last year to Gillette Children’s Hospital in Saint Paul. While there, students took x-rays, performed simulations of laparoscopic surgeries, and participated in a slew of other hands-on learning opportunities. Coon Rapids High School’s (CRHS) Biomedical Sciences Program has become the 5th Anoka-Hennepin specialty school to join the Northwest Suburban Integration School District (NWSISD). It also means the program will be growing. “We can grow the program faster and more effectively by being a member,” Sams said. Right now, the Biomedical Sciences Program at CRHS has about 200 students participating in two different classes: Principles of Biomedical Sciences and Human Body Systems. Next year, two core classes “It means a lot to join will be added: Medical the (NWSISD),” said Leah Interventions, and a capSams, the school’s biomedstone called Biomedical ical program coordinator. Innovations. In addition, “We’re only two years old, three elective courses will but it feels good people be added next year: are noticing the hard work. Introduction to Holistic We’ve been trying to prove Healing, which offers conourselves, and I think they - Leah Sams, Coon Rapids High School’s biomedcurrent enrollment with realized we’re walking the ical program coordinator Anoka Ramsey Community walk.” College, Electronic Health By joining the NWSISD, students from [