News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Thunder Bay Junior High School Teacher Bob Thomson, right, talks to students at the school’s open house on Wednesday.

ALPENA — The first day of school is just around the corner, and staff at Alpena Public Schools are preparing for the arrival of students on Monday.

Teachers have been coming in for the last few weeks to set up their classrooms, Superintendent Dave Rabbideau said. Teachers, as well as some other groups, had their first official day this past Monday, starting the morning off with an all staff meeting discussing the strategic plan, the future of AI, and reviewing feedback from the employee engagement survey, according to a post on the Alpena Public Schools Facebook page.

This week, teachers and instructional assistants are going through professional development, Rabbideau said.

Custodians are finishing up cleaning the buildings and waxing the floors. Transportation staff are washing the buses and putting them through tests to make sure they are meeting Michigan State Police code for transporting kids.

Fall sports are kicking off as well, he said. The boy’s soccer team had their first game this week, and other teams are practicing and holding scrimmages.

Parents of elementary-aged students may see a change in the math curriculum, if their child has a teacher piloting that program. The new curriculum is Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt (HMH) Into Math.

Another change parents and students may notice is the district’s focus on improving teacher clarity, Rabbideau said. Teacher clarity, an instructional practice, has been a focus of training for teachers and administration over the last couple of years. The district is working on assessing teachers and collecting data on improvements in teacher clarity, and seeing how that is affecting student outcomes.

At Alpena High School, construction on safety vestibules in main entrances will be completed. There will be a dedicated secure entrance for students entering the front student parking lot off of 3rd Avenue. A large number of exterior doors at the high school were replaced as well, Rabbideau said.

In School Suspension at the high school, which piloted last school year, will continue to see improvements. There’s not a lot of data on it right now, Rabbideau said, other than a few anecdotal success stories, but data will be collected this school year.

The district’s strategic plan should be more visible to the community this year, Rabbideau said. A lot of work on it so far has been done behind the scenes, but the community should be more engaged with it as this school year moves forward.

“Hopefully people will have seen that in action by this time next year,” Rabbideau said.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.