Dear Parents and Students,
After 23 years with the Minneapolis Public Schools I have made the decision to retire this June 30th.
It has been a wonderful and rewarding experience for the past 5 years serving as your principal. We have the greatest community, parents, students and staff. The level of dedication, creativeness and talent has made this a successful team effort for the children and a lot of fun. Each year as the eighth grade promotion ceremony takes place I look out into the audience and see the faces of hundreds of parents who volunteered countless hours, year after year. What a gift it has been to work with all of you. For 16 years of my 23 I have been part of this community, as a teacher at Audubon and a middle grades teacher at LHCS Upper, as an intern administrator with Marsha and finally as principal. I have seen so many children come as little bitty people and grow to be fine students prepared for high school.
I have also had two wonderful mentors in Marsha Seltz, the former Lake Harriet principal, and Connie Scott, the former Audubon principal. I have worked with outstanding assistant principals, Jay Alexander and Merry Tilleson. Over the past five years Lake Harriet has evolved to meet the needs of an ever increasing school population. We added Mpls. Kids to the Upper campus, we expanded our Mission Statement to incorporate S.T.E.M. strategies, we all worked hard to bring about the addition to Lower and we finally have air conditioning being installed at Upper in the second floor computer lab. The new lockers at Upper will be installed right after school lets out this June. We established a partnership with north Minneapolis area schools to increase our diversity through the Expanded School Choice program. And we’ve gone paperless with our school daily and weekly staff bulletins, the Connection, and now, the Student Directory. Through the years our children have continued to thrive academically and socially. This fall of 2013 the new wing at Lower will open, third grade will relocate and a new era in administration will begin. Lake Harriet will always be a part of who I am and I will miss you all. I am confident the MPS process for selecting the next principal will bring forth a strong school leader.
Below is a link to a survey for you to offer your insights into what makes Lake Harriet Community School unique and what you want in a leader. The survey will take about ten minutes and I encourage you to give input. We will be sending a paper copy home with our 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students. Many middle school handouts never seem to make it home; therefore, the electronic survey is available for our middle grades students and parents to give their input, and for any Upper campus family that would prefer that form over the paper one. We need the survey completed by March 11th. Paper copies may be returned to your child’s teacher. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3j8NWG6.
“Anyone can count the seeds in an apple; no one can count the apples in a seed. See the potential in all children.”
Sincerely,
Mary Q. Rynchek
Principal