Sterling Public Schools to Continue Focus on Reading and Math Intervention

“We fly with Jet Pride!” is the theme at Sterling Public Schools for the 2026-2027 school year. The first day of classes was Monday, August 17. The regular school hours for Sterling are Monday -Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 3:37 p.m., Friday 8:00 a.m. to 2:04 p.m.
“I am most looking forward to having our students and staff back in the building. After my first year at Sterling, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know our students, staff, and school community, and I’m excited to build on those relationships as we begin a new school year,” said Superintendent Riley Armes.
Armes felt excited about the great results the school got from the interventions program that was implemented during the 2025-2026 school year.  “We saw tremendous improvements in reading scores across all grade levels and are excited about our goal to achieve the same results with mathematics this year,” Armes said.  In an effort to ensure Sterling Public Schools staff has the time to commit to the program the daily class schedule has been modified to allow 20 minute blocks for reading and math intervention time.
Due to the adjustments to the daily schedule, Armes explained that the school has also gone to a 4 day week for both 3- and 4- year-old pre-school, as well as, changing to a 2:04 dismissal on Fridays as opposed to rotating 1:30 early outs on Wednesdays, in order to be consistent with the daily schedule.
For the 2026-2027 school year, the only new curriculum being implemented is Saavas Elevate for Science in grades 3-5.
“Another change that we hope will simplify things for students and parents is that we are adopting a new grading policy for middle and high school.  It will not change the way things are graded but will make grading policies consistent across classes making all grading the same with regard to late work, make-up work, and category weighting,”said Armes.
Three new staff members have joined the Sterling school: Jordan Amundson will be a full-time school psychologist, Kari Gray will be a pre-K - 3 para-educator, and  Robert Barney has joined the custodial and maintenance department.
The projected enrollment for the start of this school year is 228.  This is a 16 student increase from the last school year.