Scandia Elementary outlines expanded kindergarten onboarding, family-engagement events

Scandia Elementary principal Shannon Carafelt told the Forest Lake Area Schools board Thursday that the school has expanded its kindergarten onboarding to emphasize family connections, play-based learning and early data collection to shape instruction.

Carafelt said the school begins outreach in December with ‘save-the-date’ notices, follows with formal invitations to Explore Kindergarten in January and offers tours and hands-on events so families and children can see “a day in the life of a kindergartner.” She added that the program highlights the district’s International Baccalaureate framework, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and available academic and behavioral supports.

“Explore Kindergarten is a great passion of mine,” Jenny Helmgren, a kindergarten teacher at Scandia, told the board. She described an evening program in which families visit classrooms, participate in rotations and observe a hands-on lesson. “Parents get to just kind of observe but they also get to dive in and be a learner alongside their student,” Helmgren said.

Carafelt said Scandia uses student ambassadors (current fifth-graders) to help run events, and that the school gives each child a “passport” stamp for demonstrating expected behaviors across school environments. She described a “kindergarten signing day,” photo opportunities with a mascot called Ronnie the Ranger and an ice-cream social led by the school PTO that attracts nearly all families.

Helmgren told the board teachers use the meet-and-greet interactions as formative data to plan small groups and interventions before the school year begins. “If we haven't been in a setting where it's preschool…leaving your family might be really hard,” Helmgren said. She described using observations from meet-and-greets to plan social-emotional learning (SEL) and differentiated small-group lessons in the first weeks of school.

Board members praised the program and noted rising kindergarten enrollment at Scandia this year. Board member Julie Christensen said the events and traditions — from photo backdrops to student ambassadors — contribute to family engagement and help attract families who might otherwise enroll elsewhere.

Carafelt and Helmgren also described community outreach, including weekly farmers-market activities, story-path art at Lily Scoggen Park and partnerships with local fire and parks departments to create early familiarity between families and community resources.

Board members asked about outdoor instruction, parental involvement and how the school supports families who cannot regularly volunteer. Helmgren said classrooms use a portable outdoor classroom and natural hill seating for full-class lessons, and that family engagement options include a PTO breakfast and ‘mystery reader’ volunteer slots timed later in the fall to let children settle into routines first.

The principal and teacher concluded by telling the board that Scandia’s approach aims to build “belonging” and to position the elementary as “a place to be” for young learners.

Ending: Board members thanked the Scandia team for the presentation and noted the school’s role in meeting recent boundary-change commitments to preserve neighborhood elementary schools.