The new school year at Perry Middle School is just a few days old, but Principal Shaun Kruger says you can already sense the excitement in the building.

Kruger says there are a few new programs being rolled out this year in his building. Chief among those is the Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (iJAG) program, which has expanded from the high school to also include 7th and 8th grade. He points out, from the moment the decision was made to bring the career preparation program to the middle school, there were students inquiring about how to get involved. Kruger also emphasizes that teachers and staff were hard at work over break, and he believes that preparation will show during the year.

“After coming off of summer break I think everybody’s rejuvenated, excited, anxious to get back into the flow of things. So leading up to that, we have professional growth going on during the summer. A lot of people think teachers are off that whole time, but there is learning that occurs for them. We had several teachers come in and do little minicamps, they worked on curriculum, worked on their standards for this upcoming year. Just figuring out how we could best meet our students’ needs.”

Kruger adds, there are six new teachers at his building, and much of the weeks leading up to the first day of school were spent getting those individuals acclimatized. To learn more about the new year at Perry Middle School, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program on air and at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.