Dear Members of St. Paul’s and St. Mark,

The Lord blessed our Risen Savior Lutheran School with another wonderful school year in which He was glorified in so many ways by our students, faculty, and families. Our theme for the year was Grow in Grace, based on the words of II Peter 3:18, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Day in and day out, in a variety of ways, this heavenly gardening command was diligently carried out at RSLS as the grace of God was planted in the hearts of his little ones through the study of His Word. The success of this work was self-evident in the abundant fruits of faith produced by RSLS students. Following are some examples of how this gardening work was carried out and the fruits of faith that were produced through it.

The school year began with six full-time faculty members (Michelle Dressel, Tracy Knepprath, Sandi Flunker, Meredith Milbrath, Michael Vlieger and Jason Rupnow), one part-time faculty (Megen Rupnow), and one full-time aide (Jenni Heins). In order to improve their effectiveness as teachers, all full-time faculty members will be developing professional growth plans over this summer.

Miss Meredith Milbrath began her first year at Risen Savior as grades 3-4 teacher as well as bringing much needed stability to our successful music program by serving as school music and band director.

Pastors from both congregations continued to serve our Gr. 5-8 students directly through various Catechism classes and bible studies twice each week. Pastors Siverly and Wong taught Gr. 7-8, and Vicar Parsons and Mr. Rupnow taught Gr. 5-6.

Every Wednesday, these same pastors and Vicar Parsons delivered God's word to our entire student body during all-school chapel devotions.

Risen Savior once again hosted and was blessed by three student teachers from MLC.

Principal Jason Rupnow continued work on a Master’s Degree through MLC. His program is half complete.

The RSLS Knights soccer and basketball teams had successful and exciting seasons. The A-team boys took second place at the MLC basketball tournament and went on to compete at the Minnesota Lutheran State Basketball Tournament in St. Paul. Thank you to our coaches, Megen Rupnow, Jen Selvey, Nate Persons, Matt Schumann, John Scholtes, and Brent Sexton.

The RSLS student body and band continued to do amazing things musically while glorifying God at events such as the St. Paul’s Fall Festival, RSLS Advent Concert, nursing home caroling, MVL Solo & Ensemble, the spring Fine Arts Fair, and many other worship services. Thank you to Meredith Milbrath for all her efforts preparing our students to praise God!

The entire student body spent much time preparing for group and individual forensics presentations at the annual RSLS Forensics Night. Many of them also had to battle a bellyful of butterflies!

They also participated for a second year in a school community and faith building program titledI’m Called developed by Bethany Lutheran College. Students were placed into one of twelve mixed-age groups and worked together on lessons that encouraged faith-filled actions and attitudes. Each of the twelve groups were individually led by one of our Gr. 7-8 students each time.

The WELS School Accreditation Process (WELSSA) was initiated this past spring with a completion goal of October 2018. Thank you to Arn Kind and Galen Holzhueter as well as many volunteer committee members from both St. Paul's and St. Mark for pushing the process along!

RSLS was once again served by many volunteers in many different ways. An example of this volunteerism is shown in our lunch program. More than eleven families gave of their time to organize, deliver, and serve lunch.

Many families and friends represented RSLS in the community during North Mankato's Fun Days Parade and the Kiwanis Sibley Park Holiday Lights.

Gr. 7-8 collected nearly $200 for books for Jesus Loves Me Learning Center.

The school year ended with our graduation service on Thursday, May 25, at St. Mark. We pray that our seven graduates, Emma Bruegger, Braedon Flunker, Ethan Kiecker, Griffin Neeb, Markus Rupnow, Nicole Schumann, and Carter Sexton, will continue to seek out and rely on God's grace throughout their days, producing fruits of faith to His Glory!

Six of our seven graduates will be attending MVL this coming fall.

As you can see by this long list, RSLS was diligent in planting the seed of God's amazing grace into the hearts of its students during the 2016-2017 school year. I pray for your continued prayers and commitment to our school as we look forward to another blessed school year trusting our Lord in all things.

Yours in Christ,

Principal Jason Rupnow