The Parent Project® is a 10 week parenting program designed specifically for parents of strong-willed or out-of-control teens. The program was created with input from parents and teaches strategies for identifying, intervening and preventing destructive adolescent behaviors such as poor school attendance and performance, alcohol and other drug use, gangs, running away and violence.

Parents attend and learn in a classroom setting to manage teen behavior problems at home. This is accomplished through the use of behavior modification strategies and an activity based workbook entitled "A Parent's Guide to Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior" which is only available to Parent Project® participants. Parent support groups are formed using the UCLA Self-Help Support Group model to offer assistance and support to parents once the class is completed.

Woodland Public Schools were recognized by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) for being the first school district in the state to complete its entire emergency preparedness report.

Keith Merritt, Fire Commissioner for Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue, presented Superintendent Michael Green and Woodland District administrators with a "Best-In-State" card and cake on behalf of the Safe Schools Healthy Students (SSHS) program. "The recognition comes at a good time in light of the tough incidents Woodland has dealt with lately," said Merritt, "They were delighted." The WASPC reviews school districts' completion of the reports, but recognizes that Woodland Public Schools have completed its school reporting where some districts still have a long way to go.

There are great things going on in Woodland Public Schools everyday, and we think everyone would love to read about them. Click here to find the current issue of the Woodland Public Schools Great News electronic newsletter.

Feel free to share it with anyone you'd like to see it - parents, students, community members, family members, whoever!

In addition, anyone with a great story about Woodland can submit it... no matter how big or small. If you've got photographs, we'd love to have them, too! Send story ideas, comments or suggestions, and photos to eric.jacobson@esd112.org.

Kim Knudson’s students know how to make money - at least virtually. Over the course of 10 weeks, one of her Woodland Intermediate School’s sixth-grade teams took $100,000 and turned it into $133,000! That 33 percent gain earned them the region’s second place honors in the 2009 Middle School Division of the Washington Stock Market Game. The team placed second out of 97 other teams in the region and 15th in the state from a field of 542 teams.

Dear Woodland and Yale Families:

The health and welfare of students is of primary importance to us. If you have been attending to the news in the last week you are aware that a strain of the Swine Flu has resulted in widespread illness and some death in Mexico. In the last week it appears the virus is spreading around the world including 64 confirmed cases in the United States (though none yet in Washington or Oregon).

Project SUCCESS provides students with multiple opportunities to join clubs and groups to seek support working through challenging issues that might be affecting their lives such as bullying or drug and alcohol abuse.

"We try to help students find the help they need before a dangerous situation arises," said Kristina Williams, Prevention and Intervention Specialist. Williams said that in addition, students can help raise the awareness of their classmates through the District's Prevention Club program, which is designed to help young people be more aware of issues that affect them and how they might best handle those issues.

Legos have become an effective learning tool for students at Woodland Middle School. In fact, the adolescents are using them to explore the science of robotics in Tim Brown's Lego Robotics Class. Students can also carry their love of Legos from the classroom to the Lego Robotics Team, which will compete locally in early December. If the team places first or second, they will move on to Oregon state competitions in January.

Each year, teams of students worldwide compete using Lego Robotics Kits to solve complex problems. Students program the robots in simulated environments based on a theme. This year's theme is climate change. The robots must perform a series of tasks ranging from simulated levy repair, river damming, lifting houses from flooded areas, relocating supplies and helping to transport workers from one site to another. The robots are equipped with multiple motors and sensors including a sensor that detects light and another that detects distance. Students use computer software to create programs for the robots to follow.

In collaboration with the Water Resource Center (WRC), Allison Daun's 4^th grade class regularly tests the water quality of the Lewis River throughout the school year.

Students perform a wide variety of different experiments including testing for water clarity, the speed of the river, looking for bacteria, recording the temperature of the river and analyzing the pH of the water. The WRC provides kits to perform the tests and send representatives who help make sure the procedures are correctly followed.

The class returns to the river monthly to record seven different sessions. At the end of the school year, Daun guides the students on discussions of how variables changed throughout the year as well as how humans have an impact on their ecosystem.

Vancouver, WA-October 23, 2008-Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson designated two Woodland Public Schools as "Schools of Distinction" on October 22.

Woodland Intermediate School and TEAM alternative High School were two of 98 schools to receive the award. "Students, teachers and schools continue to make incredible progress," Bergson said. "This award celebrates the real gains these schools have made, gains that aren't recognized by the Federal No Child Left Behind Act or its ‘Adequate Yearly Progress' calculations."

The Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) test results were recently released. Students in your Woodland Public Schools again showed solid and strong performance- meeting or exceeding the state average in every subject in the key "benchmark" grades (see scores below).

We strive for improvement year-over-year. We also recognize that it is important to not define the success of students by WASL scores alone. They do not tell the whole story of student learning. So much student learning that occurs day-in and day-out with our students is not measurable using a paper and pencil test.