On behalf of the entire Pioneer School District and staff, I want to welcome you to the 2024-2025 school year.  I hope all of you had a great summer break with your families and friends.  Seems like just yesterday we were sending students off for their summer recess and now, here we are, another school year is upon us.

     One of the biggest changes this year is going back to one start and end time for both schools.  School will now begin at 8:30 am and end at 3:00 pm each day, with the exception of early release Wednesdays and half-day early releases.  The first day of school, is Wednesday, September 4^th.  This will be a full-day of school.  Some of our bus routes now are at capacity and have a waiting list for students who want to ride those routes.  We continue to recruit bus drivers and get them trained.  This change will result in significant savings as we will save on additional fuel that it took for two morning and two afternoon routes.  We also save on driver salaries and overtime.

     We have made some additional changes this year in order to balance our budget.  Although no current teaching staff were reduced with our budget cuts, we did not fill some positions, so you will see class sizes in each building will be a bit larger this year, ranging from 22-26 students in grades K-8.  We did reduce the number of paraeducators in each building, but will make sure that staff and students have the supports from our para educators they need in order to be successful.

     There were also reductions in administration, district office staffing, building office staff, and food services.  All of these were necessary this year in order to balance our budget and build back our ending fund balances.

      Our focus this year will be on improving attendance in each building.  If students aren’t in school, they cannot learn, so a focus on consistent student attendance is paramount.  We also will be focusing on reading instruction at the elementary school.  More staff resources will be targeted to improve our reading program and support our students as they strive for improvement in reading.

     Even though this year will be a challenging one as we deal with our reductions in force, I can assure you that our certified and classified staff will continue to provide the positive educational experience for all of our students.  As we continue to strive for perfection, we will find excellence along the way.  Every staff member at Pioneer believes that all students can learn and achieve.  Our commitment to you is that we will give our best effort each and every day to improve the education of every student in our care.

     Please feel free to reach out to your child’s school if you have questions.  As always, my door is open, so feel free to stop by the district office when you can and you can also reach me at: jdavis@psd402.org