Sauk Rapids-Rice Refining How They Prepare Students for Life

SAUK RAPIDS -- What do students need to know before they graduate from high school? That is a question leaders in the Sauk Rapids-Rice school district is asking the community. The initiative is called "Portrait of a Graduate".

Superintendent Aaron Sinclair says the district wants to be responsive to what the community needs.

The pendulum was kind of swinging towards pushing for higher education and four-year degrees.  The local economy doesn't necessarily support that right now.  There's a lot of trades and certificate programs that are making really great wages right now.  And so figuring out as a school system how do we be reflective of what the local economy is asking for?

Sinclair says they are in the process right now of getting feedback from the community.

One of the conversations I hear from employers over and over again is just the ability to collaborate with teams and groups of people.  Well, we already do that in some regard, however, it isn't something we've ever spent time figuring out how to grade students on that.

You can learn more on Tuesday, January 21st at 6:00 p.m. at the Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School. There is also another showing of the documentary called "Most Likely to Succeed" on Sunday, February 9th at 2:00 p.m. at the middle school.

A task force will start holding a series of four meetings February through May.