Happy New Year Baxter Families!

I hope your year is off to a great start. Time is flying by, and we truly appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow with your amazing children each day. You recently received your child’s Semester 1 report card and I encourage you to review it as a helpful guide to where your child is currently performing and which areas may need additional practice. Often at this time of year, it is completely normal for various skills to still be in the developing stage. As always, please connect with your child’s classroom teacher if you have any questions about your child’s academic or behavioral progress.

Please take a few minutes to review the rest of this newsletter, as it includes important details about upcoming events. Thank you again for your partnership in your child’s education—we are thankful to have your family as part of our amazing Baxter Warrior Crew.

Sincerely,

I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who supported our Baxter Fun Run 2026! Our amazing Baxter PTO, with the incredible support of our Baxter staff, planned a truly memorable event for all of our students. Thanks to your generosity and encouragement, our students did a phenomenal job—raising an amazing $62,000 (and still counting!) for our school.

As I reflect on the past week and the many special memories created, I’m reminded how fortunate we are to have such supportive families and staff at Baxter. Please know that the time, energy, and support you give our school are truly noticed and deeply appreciated. Our students will be excited to hear that we have reached our collective fundraising goals, which means they will have opportunities to slime Baxter staff (including myself!), play flashlight tag in PE, and enjoy a glow dance party. These special events will be planned in the near future. 🎉

Our Lost & Found at Baxter has accumulated a large number of items. We kindly ask families to please remind their children to check the Lost & Found now that we are back from break to ensure all personal belongings and clothing items are retrieved.

We can’t wait to celebrate our January Students of the Month, as our character trait focus is Responsibility. These students come to school prepared, complete assignments on time, follow school expectations, and take ownership of their choices and learning. We are excited to recognize these responsible Baxter students very soon.

In February, our character trait focus will be Perseverance and Grit. Students who demonstrate perseverance and grit keep trying even when something feels challenging. They don’t give up when work is hard, they learn from mistakes, ask for help when needed, practice to improve, and stay focused on goals. You might see this when a student tackles a tough math problem, revises their writing to make it stronger, keeps reading a tricky text, or works through a disagreement with a classmate in a respectful way. We look forward to celebrating students who show perseverance and grit throughout the month of February!

Thank you to the many families who attended our Snow Much Fun Literacy Night at Baxter Elementary! It was wonderful to see our school community come together to celebrate reading and learning. A huge shoutout to our many amazing volunteers—including our Costco Reading Buddies, Brainerd High School Boys Basketball players, and Baxter Elementary staff—for helping make the evening such a success.

We also want to extend a special thank you to our Baxter Walmart for their very generous donation of snacks and beverages for this event. Your support helped make the night even more enjoyable for our students and families!

Here is a monthly reminder about our volunteer policies and procedures. This will help ensure that anyone interested in volunteering completes the required paperwork in advance. All visitors to Baxter Elementary will be asked to present a government-issued ID (driver’s license, state ID, or passport card) upon entering the building. This is part of our Raptor security system, which quickly scans IDs and checks them against a national database to ensure the safety of our students and staff.

The term “visitor” includes parents/guardians and community members who come for school events, classroom parties, dropping off materials, or other large-group activities. Classroom visits and field trip support will always be coordinated directly through your student’s classroom teacher.

We love our volunteers! To participate as a classroom volunteer, working in the classroom, field trip chaperone, book fair helper, or in any other volunteer role, the district requires two important steps each year.

Step 1: Complete the Volunteer Application

Step 2: Read the Volunteer Guidelines and complete the Verification Form.

Please note: Applications take 5–7 business days to process. Be sure to plan ahead if you’d like to help with an upcoming event or field trip. 

Thank you for supporting our students at Baxter!

Here are a few upcoming important dates to mark on your calendar: