Dear Maxfield Elementary Families,

The day is almost here! We will officially introduce Maxfield’s new partnership with the University of St. Thomas this Friday, Jan. 27, at 11:30 a.m. You can watch the press conference here: https://spps.eduvision.tv/LiveSched.aspx. I will be speaking along with Saint Paul Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Joe Gothard, and St. Thomas School of Education Interim Dean Dr. Amy F. Smith.

I have spoken with many of you in recent months about this amazing partnership. I wanted to lay out a couple reasons in particular why this Collaborative Learning School will be so good for Maxfield.

• By entering into this collaboration, St. Thomas and Maxfield Elementary will learn from each other. Bringing the expertise of St. Thomas faculty and Maxfield teachers together, to not only implement known best practices, but to jointly observe, learn and co-design new best practices that serve the students at both institutions. These are the leaders of our future community.

• Better teacher preparation leads to better student outcomes. A close relationship with the university means that Maxfield teachers will have access to the most current best practices in the field, and St. Thomas will have access to a partnership deep enough to allow agile and timely development of best practices in teacher preparation. This will lead to students being served by excellent teachers who allow them to grow and meet their full potential. There will be innovative programming for students. The partnership will also lead to increased support for math and reading literacy in the forms of after-school tutoring, whether one-on-one or in a group, and summertime instruction.

I will continue to be available to answer any questions you may have on the alignment with St. Thomas. You can reach me at 651-293-8680 or via email at leslie.hitchens@spps.org.

In Partnership

Dr. Leslie Hitchens

Maxfield Elementary Principal