Welcome

Good afternoon,

Happy (belated) New Year!

I hope your 2025 has started well.

Here are some district updates.

As you are aware right before our Holiday break in December, a threat was written on a bathroom stall at Rockford High School. As soon as we were aware of this threat, we marshalled our resources to investigate. We deemed the threat not credible.

Since that time, we have continued to investigate. We have identified the person who wrote the threat. The student identified that the threat was never intended to be a “real” threat. Even with that admission, we are proceeding with appropriate disciplinary action.

As with any disciplinary action we are not sharing the details because each student has privacy rights through the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Sharing any information could potentially lead to the identification of the student which would be against the law.

I would encourage you to talk with your student – especially middle and high school students – to reinforce that threats to our students and staff – whether they are posted on bathroom stalls or social media or made in jest – will be taken seriously and will result in significant disciplinary action. Every day our staff work to ensure that all students and staff are safe. This means we ensure doors are locked, threats are followed up on, suspicious behavior is investigated.

Students learn best when they can focus on school. Threats create anxiety which negatively impacts learning. Your help in ensuring that your students know that these threats will not be taken lightly will be greatly appreciated. 

Highlights of our January 13^th Board of Education meeting include the following:

• New terms started for those elected in November:
  • Tricia Anderson
  • Kelley Freridge
  • Jake Himmelspach
  • Andrea Jacobson
• Organizational meeting included electing of officers:
  • President – Jarrod Folsom
  • Vice-President – Kelley Freridge
  • Secretary – Christie Ramsey
  • Treasurer – Jake Himmelspach
• January is Board of Education Recognition month
  • Thanks to the seven community members who serve on our board
    • Jarrod Folsom, Kelley Freridge, Christie Ramsey, Jake Himmelspach, Tricia Anderson, Barbara Helms, and Andrea Jacobson
• 2024 Audit was reviewed
  • We received the highest possible rating in our 2024 audit
• Special Services provided an update on our special education services

Information on our board meeting agendas can be found on our district website under the “Our District” link and the “Board of Education” link.

You may have seen in the news that a student information system provider – Power School – was hacked and student information was taken. We do not use Power School, so we were unaffected by this hack.

We have updated our district website. The location is the same - Rockford Public Schools – but the look is new and, we hope, we have streamlined key links. A big thanks to Lisa Jacobs, Executive Director of Community Services, and all our administrative and secretarial staff who worked so hard to update our website.

Our district continues to move forward in a positive direction. Last year we completed our RAMS XII strategic plan. This winter and early spring we are completing an update of our facilities. New elementary language arts curriculum has been implemented this school. Our co- and extra-curricular activities continue to be strong. Rockford continues to b a good place for students and families. 

We are almost halfway through the school year. I appreciate all that you do to support your children and our school district.

Steve

Dr. Steve Matthews
Superintendent
Rockford Public Schools