COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS PAGE 2
Andover High School students fabricate commemorative flag for sheriff’ s office
Putting their emerging skills together with a creative eye and a heart for law enforcement, Andover High School( AndHS) technical education students and robotics club members fabricated a commemorative flag for the Anoka County Sheriff’ s Office.
“ It’ s really such an honor to be able to do something for these guys and our students have really enjoyed working on it,” said Dale Johnson, head of the school’ s woodworking, engineering and design department and robotics club coach.
The 42-inch by 80-inch white birch plaque resembles the American flag. Students inlaid 50 retired badges as stars. Black and white wood tones were used for stripes to represent the fallen. One blue stripe symbolizes the safeguarding presence of law enforcement, the“ thin blue line between us and trouble,” said Johnson.
Students got together after school to work on the project, something near and dear to many.
“ This is so important because these guys protect us. Without them the world would be a lot scarier,” said 10th grader Zach Hutchins.
The commemorative flag features a blue stripe engraved with the Anoka County Sheriff’ s Office motto(“ honor, sacrifice, pride”) and represents“ the thin blue line between us and trouble.”
Andover High School technical education students and staff pose with the commemorative flag they created for the Anoka County Sheriff ' s Office, as well as members from the department.
His fellow robotics club member Zach Naffziger, a junior, agreed.“ This means a lot. Without them it would be chaos and they get the least recognition so I want to do something for them,” he said.“ I also want to do something for my country. I want to be in Army Reserves, my brother wants to be a police officer. I know what these guys do for us and I wanted to do something for them.”
Together 27 students, instructor Johnson and his fellow robotics club coaches Frank Kratochvill and Mike Hecker and mentors from Dynamic Sealing Technologies, Inc. devoted some 30 to 40 man-hours over six weeks’ time to complete the project.
“ We have so much capability— we have some really talented students here— and we have lots of machines to use. It’ s really an honor to be asked by the Sheriff to do this,” Johnson said.
Eagerly putting their technical skills to use with a keen knack for problem-solving and a passion“ to build stuff,” members of Andover’ s robotics club( the Butler Bots) used a table saw and router, power hand tools and a spray gun to fabricate the flag. In addition, they used a CNC router to cut the stars in which to lay the badges and to fashion letters for the Anoka County Sheriff’ s Office motto,“ honor, sacrifice, pride.”
Sheriff Deputy Thomas Strusinski said the plaque is an important memorial for fallen officers throughout the country.
“ This is very meaningful for us to be able to install this flag in memory of our brothers and sisters in law enforcement,” he said.
The plaque was installed at the sheriff’ s office and will serve as a constant reminder of the proud sacrifices made to protect and serve the community. ■
Analyzing the district’ s special education services, focusing on best practices and student needs
Last spring, the Anoka-Hennepin School Board began a special education audit to thoroughly analyze the program’ s services, focusing on best practices and the needs of students. The University of Minnesota’ s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement( CAREI) was tasked with completing the work. The information they’ ve gathered is already shaping the program’ s future.
Special education students make up about 15 percent of the student population in Anoka-Hennepin schools. Since these students have varying degrees of needs, it’ s important to analyze several program areas to achieve a full perspective. Fourteen areas have or will be looked at; they include:
● District office
● Social behavior
● Setting four( River Trail Learning Center)
● Specific learning disabilities
● Early childhood
● Low-incidence
● Autism spectrum disorder
● Transition
● Speech and language
● Health service
● Inter-agency
● Legal services
Four of the areas— the district office, setting four( River Trail Learning Center), specific learning disabilities( developmental cognitive disability), and autism spectrum disorder— have already been analyzed. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, observation, and records were all part of the process to do this.
“ Everyone has been very willing to participate and hungry to share what’ s going well,” said Cory McIntyre, executive director of student services.“ There’ s also a genuine desire to improve.”
McIntyre and Kim Gibbons, Ph. D., associate director of the CAREI, presented first findings at the Jan. 9 School Board meeting. There were several strengths identified including high morale amongst staff, quality resources and tools, best practices being implemented, adequate training, and more. Short- and long-term adjustments were recommended as well, including a comprehensive system to better meet all student needs, communication and decision-making, professional development, supports to neighborhood schools and the continuum of services, the staffing process, and mental health.
The presentation can be seen in its entirety at ahschools. us / sbstream. The team is expected to share recommendations on the remaining items between now and the end of the school year.
An audit of Anoka-Hennepin ' s special education department is ongoing and focusing on best practices and the needs of students.
“ There are a number of things we’ re doing well,” said McIntyre.“ We also have really talented staff that have been able to improve the systems that we’ ve given them. We’ ll be able to implement recommendations because of our great workforce.”
The district website will continue to share updates on this program analysis at ahschools. us. ■