I want to make you aware of an important decision made by the Farmington Area School Board at its May 13 meeting. Along with having a significant impact on our learners and the future of our district, it is a decision that is important for staff, parents and community to be aware of and learn more. The board voted unanimously to schedule an operating levy referendum election for November 5, 2024. The proposal on the ballot will ask voters to revoke the district’s existing operating levy of $696.15 per pupil and replace it with a new levy of $1,556.15 per pupil. The new levy will provide approximately $11 million ($5 million from previous levy and $6 million from new levy) per year for 10 years.

The 2024 Farmington High School spring musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” was a community hit, seen by over 5,000 audience members and selling out all performances. The show was also a critical success, as results of the Spotlight Education program were shared last week. Spotlight, a division of Hennepin Theater Trust, serves schools throughout Minnesota with production assessments, workshops, arts journalism, and scholarship programs. Farmington’s production of “Joseph” swept the honors, receiving marks of Outstanding (the highest possible rating) in all 11 categories. The show was recognized as an Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater and the show has been selected to take part in the prestigious Spotlight Showcase at the State Theater in Minneapolis on Tuesday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m.

The Minnesota Department of Education’s Bilingual Seals program is an accreditation that multilingual learners may earn by taking an assessment which covers the four domains of language - speaking, reading, listening, and writing. If a learner passes the language exam they not only receive a seal that is on their transcript, but they also receive college credit that is accepted at all MNSCU colleges and universities, as well as other post secondary institutions across the country. More information can be found on the MDE Bilingual Seal Program website. At Farmington High School, 32 current 11th and 12th graders earned college credit through the Bilingual Seal Program.

Families with learners who currently take iPads home in grades K-11 may now opt to checkout their district issued iPads for the summer months! We have been offering the optional summer iPad checkout since 2016. Nearly 70% of eligible families and learners last year opted to check out their issued iPads. Using RevTrak to agree to the updated 2024-25 iPad Loan Agreement will ensure that your child is set with their iPad check out for the entire 2024-25 academic year.

Official graduation rates are not released until nearly a year after most students have graduated. The state of Minnesota released the graduation rates for the 2022-23 school year in April of 2024. The 2023 graduation rate for the state of Minnesota was 83.3% (58,293 graduates), which represents a 0.3 percentage point decrease in the four-year graduation rate compared to the class of 2022. As a district we saw our graduation rate remain steady for 2022-23 at 93.2% after the big increase from 91.9% in 2020-21 to 94.1% in 2021-22. In addition, we have another 4.1% of the class of 2023 that are continuing to pursue their FHS diploma. Here is a more detailed snapshot of our 2023 graduation information...