Dear Patrons, Families, Students, and Staff,

Fall is here to transition us out of summer and prepare us for winter.  Take these last few months before old man winter hits to get outdoors with your families.  Santa Fe Trail hosts a variety of indoor and outdoor events for our students and community.  Please join us and get involved in your local school district activities. Family and community engagement with schools is key to student success and growth throughout their time in school.  Whether you are a parent or grandparent, local business owner, community leader, retired citizen, or other, there are several ways to get involved.  Please check out the district calendar, reach out to your community school, and talk with your child’s teacher.  We would appreciate a strong partnership with you all. 

USD 434 Goals 

This week we are sharing our fourth goal that was adopted by the USD 434 Board of Education.  It is important that we partner with all stakeholders to achieve our goals and continually work to improve our district. Working together we will make a difference for all students. 

Board Goal #4- Community Involvement

1. Build trust with the community and staff through effective communication and improved transparency.
2. Improve district enrollment through online PowerSchool processes and procedures.
3. Partner with city Parks and Recreation directors and other athletic and activities leaders in the community.

SHOUT OUTS! 

I’d like to give some kudos to Ms. Reba, my kids’ bus driver! She always starts and ends my kids’ day with a smile and some kind words. Ainsley got off the bus upset one day (she was mad at her brother), after Ms. Reba’s route she called me to ensure Ainsley was ok. Bus drivers are so influential in our kids’ day-to-day lives and a happy greeting in the morning may be just what a kid needs to have a great day or to turn a not-so-great day around! 

    ~Kylie Hastings

Shout out to my classroom teachers! I have seen so many good things in the classrooms this week!  Just to name a few: classroom mission statements, posted objectives, classroom goals with rewards in place for achievement! You have been putting in the hard work for these students and we appreciate you! 

Mrs. Rusche, Mrs. Fawl and Mrs. Colvin have been putting in countless hours to help the students achieve greatness with a team-teaching approach and modeling of lessons. Keep up the fantastic work. 

    ~Lorle Bolt

Shout out to Ashley Michaelis and her 7th and 8th grade Innovations class. They have done an outstanding job on their Charger News broadcasts. The students in this class collaborate to create a news segment each week that highlights all the happenings at CAC. As spokesman to our student body, they represent our school in a positive way!

Shout out to Renae Linke and her 8th grade STEM class. Today they are taking a short field trip in Carbondale to tag Monarch butterflies. These monarchs, along with hundreds of thousands of others, will migrate to their wintering ground in Mexico where they will hibernate. Their 4th generation of reproduction will then return in the spring. This will be a super cool experience for our students!

    ~Jodi Testa and Austin Hershberger

I want to give a shout out to Mrs. Mayes for always going above and beyond. Thanks for making homecoming week a memorable week for everyone involved. It does not go unnoticed.

    ~HS Staff Member

Shout out to Mary Burgett and Alicia Amborski.  They represented SFT at the State KAY Sponsors Conference on September 19 at Rock Springs. 

A big thank you to Mrs. Mayes for helping with the JV Volleyball tournament, even after her huge week of work for homecoming.  I would also like to thank Leslie Joyce and Brenda Dahl for their help. And finally, the Varsity Volleyball team who did a great job of filling in wherever needed.

Thank you to Keith Johnson for letting us borrow his trailer to get the golf carts for the homecoming ceremony.

Thank you to Keith Persinger and the Lamont Hill Golf Course for loaning us the golf carts for the homecoming ceremony.

    ~Patrick Graham

Lorle is displaying her awesome leadership skills during morning collaboration with staff. The data analysis that she is leading staff through is perfect and the vision of what we all wanted during collaboration time!!  I love the plan of action that you laid out to guide your staff through the steps of analyzing data and digging into their classroom data from FastBridge. I loved coming to your collaboration and was amazed by the work that you are leading your staff through.

    ~Carrie Mugridge

Kaitlyn Ball is a tremendous member of our school.  Not only does she support all operations of the preschool but she has taken on a new role to do our data and state reporting.  This is a very important job for district school funding and compliances at the state level. Thank you for taking on this new role….she’s also the awesome new CHEER COACH for our Junior High.  You are making such a difference in our schools.

A second thank you to Megan Pena for transitioning and training Kaitlyn in this new role.  Your expertise and skills are incredibly valuable.  Thank you for being a great support system!

Preschool teachers are working hard each day to support our youngest chargers.  They are also goal setting and action planning both pre-academic and social emotional goals for our school to ensure kindergarten readiness.  Great work and collaboration the past few weeks!

Carrie Mugridge is our new Director of Curriculum at Santa Fe Trail.  She is working with teachers and administrators daily to ensure supports and resources for everyone.  There is so much work she is also doing behind the scenes to collect data and review our student’s growth. Keep up the good work.

A HUGE shout out to the district office personnel.  Kaylee Boyd, Amy Hill, and Rhonda Fulton are involved in so many district operations.  This school district could not run effectively without all they do.  Your hard work is noticed every day! Thanks for all you do for me and this district!

    ~Faith Flory

It’s Great to be a CHARGER!

Have a great weekend,

Faith Flory, Deputy Superintendent

Jim Lentz, Superintendent of Schools

Dear Parents, Patrons, Students, and Staff 

It's HOMECOMING week at Santa Fe Trail!  Homecoming is a historic school tradition to celebrate former, current, and future students. We hope everyone had a chance to make some Charger memories this week, reflect on our school values, and feel our Charger Pride.  We encourage everyone to come out to the coronation ceremony and football game this evening to continue our celebrations.  Although homecoming is only one week out of the year it is a reminder of who we all are as CHARGERS.  Thanks to everyone who has made this such an amazing week for our students, staff, and community. It's great to be a CHARGER! 

USD 434 Goals 

This week we are sharing our third goal that was adopted by the USD 434 Board of Education.  It is important that we partner with all stakeholders to achieve our goals and continually work to improve our district. Working together we will make a difference for all students. 

Board Goal #3- Recruit and Retain Highly Qualified Staff: 

1. Partner with universities to support the recruitment of new teachers 

2. Continue to provide high-quality mentoring for new teachers, administrators, and support staff. 

3. Provide competitive salary and benefits 

4. Improve the district and building climate and culture 

5. Provide evidence-based professional learning and resources. 

6. Recognize and celebrate success 

7. Hire and retain highly-qualified classified employees 

Shout Outs 

To the high school students that visited SAC today! They were fantastic!  The activities were so fun and the Preschool students had a blast!  Great Job and thank you for spending the morning with our youngest Chargers. 

    ~SAC teachers and staff  

Thank you to Tracy Land for coming over from OAC to help with the high school’s custodial needs.  We are still short-staffed and the help is appreciated.  

Thank you to Sowers’ Designs LLC for providing the flowers for the Homecoming candidates Friday night. 

As we remember September 11th this week, a big shout out to Christian Moran, the SFT SRO.  We appreciate his service to our students and the community. 

Thank you to Duane Shively for providing a vehicle and trailer for the Homecoming parade on Friday. 

Thank you to Luke Coltrane for driving the vehicle.  

Thank you to Matt Fawl for also driving and providing a vehicle in the parade.  

Thank you to all the parents and patrons that drove vehicles and made floats for the parade. 

Thank you to the city of Scranton for helping our students celebrate Homecoming 2022.  

HS activities:  Good luck to the Football team Friday night at Homecoming vs Anderson County.  Good luck to the JV Volleyball team at our JV tournament on Saturday.  Good luck to the Volleyball team vs Burlingame on Monday at SFTHS, Tuesday at Iola, and Thursday at ACCHS!  Good luck to the Cross Country team next Thursday at Royal Valley.  Good luck to Girls Golf Monday and Tuesday in Topeka. 

    ~Patrick Graham and Regan Erickson 

Shout out to Jenn Malloy! I love seeing all the beautiful artwork our kids are making with you. Thank you for working so hard and being a crucial part of our staff! 

Shout out to Ashley Fawl! Thank you for all your help and collaboration with our staff. You are an amazing brain to bounce ideas off of! 

Shout out to Lorle Bolt! Thank you for always putting our kids' needs first and supporting our staff. You are doing amazing things! 

Shout out to the kinder staff!  You have immense patience and are such hard workers for our littles. 

       ~Erin Metsker  

Thank you to all our staff, students, and parents for making homecoming a wonderful experience for our community.  We also greatly appreciate the SFTHS students for working with our littles! They enjoyed it immensely.  

    ~Lorle Bolt 

I want to celebrate Robby Madden's first week as our Director of Transportation.  Homecoming week is full of events and Robby and his crew helped us all get to the fun safely. 

I also want to celebrate Sam Carothers as our Director of Nursing in USD 434.  Together with her team, they screened our fifth and seventh-grade students for hearing and vision this week.  Without their support, some of our students likely could not reach their full potential at school.   

During our professional development day on Monday, the SFTJH staff reviewed beginning-of-the-year test data and developed goals for student achievement in ELA and math.  It's an absolute pleasure to work with highly devoted teachers.  Thank you SFTJH staff.   

    ~Jodi Testa 

Teachers have completed FastBridge testing for all students K-12 in the district in reading and math.  Teachers use this screening data to screen students, identify skill gaps and begin to plan instruction for students in reading and math.  Thank you to all of our teachers and principals that made the screening process with FastBridge a smooth and efficient assessment for every student in our district.   

    ~Carrie Mugridge 

JH Football - They will play a combined 7th/8th-grade game at Osawatomie on Thursday. There will be a 5th quarter that night for an additional opportunity for players to see some action. They return home to play Iola on 9/22 at 4:00.  

JH Volleyball - Off to a great start. They played Monday night at Anderson County and won 3 of 4 games. A-teams will play on Saturday 9/17 at Perry-Lecompton, and will return home on 9/19 to face Burlington at 4:00 at the HS.  

JH XC - The kids have been practicing hard and getting better each day. During the first meet of their year @ Anderson County, Lea Roberts set a new school record with a time of 14'50"! On 9/8 at Melvern Lake, Kale Roberts finished 1st in the 7th-grade boys division with a time of 12'30".   

    ~Austin Hershberger 

What a fantastic week for our community! Thank you to everyone that made this Homecoming week possible: Dress up days, pep rallies, parade, skits, cheers and dances, signs and decorations, music and DJs and so much more!!!!!!!!! This week wouldn't be possible without everyone working together.  Thanks to all CHARGERS! 

    ~Faith Flory 

Welcome HOME Chargers! 

Faith Flory, Deputy Superintendent 

Jim Lentz, Superintendent of Schools 

We're working on refreshing the website with a new design, new information, and easier flow. You may notice navigation changes. 

*TIP:  To make a payment online from the homepage scroll to the right and click on QuickLinks, then click "Pay Online"