Woodland School District’s learning supports and alternatives have successfully buttoned up 1st Semester, and students and staff are settling into their courses, programs or placements for 2nd Semester this school year.
English Language Learners/Bilingual Program
The English Language Learners/Bilingual Program lead teachers and staff meet monthly to go over upcoming assessments and any news or updates with regard to guidelines. At our last meeting, we discussed students enrolled in ELL as well as SPED. In the past, if a student is receiving Special Education services they would stop receiving ELL services. We have updated our practice so that now both ELL and Special Education services will continue until a student meets or exceeds standard on the state assessment for ELL.
Family and Community Resource Center
The Family Community Resource Center distributed 193 Basic Needs and gave 48 Resource Referrals to outside agencies. Our food pantry usage doubled in the month of January with 660 individual student visits to all 5 pantries. This past month’s focus has been on parent education and engagement.
Leslie has scheduled and developed three upcoming trainings which will be offered for free. Leslie is working on getting the word out about these three opportunities:
Highly Capable Program
With the Science Olympiads approaching, the push is on for student teams to fine-tune or rebuild projects. Mr. Jud reports that it is a great experience for him to observe students go through the process of using engineering models in building, testing and redesigning. Mr. Jud also appreciates seeing students study in such depth the various fields from Anatomy to Astronomy or Geology. He says, “It is really nice to have this time where they are the only ones who set the limits on what they can achieve.”
K-12 Attendance
This month Stacy Mouat has spent a lot of time talking to parents who have received a standard letter about 9 absences. She has been explaining and clarifying the new attendance procedure that involves required documentation to excuse absences. To help with this message, Eric Jacobson worked with Stacy to get the details and developed an informative publication that was released February 19, 2018.
Each week Stacy meets with MS and HS students and their families to conduct BECCA conferences. Also, Stacy holds phone conferences with parents who are unable to attend the BECCA conference. Over the past four weeks, 20 middle school and 19 high school students began new attendance agreements.
LAP Program and TEAM High School (programs combined for this month’s board report)
This school year Stacy Brown and I confirmed that there will be LAP funding for TEAM High School. TEAM High School staff helped develop a plan for the LAP funding, specifically about increasing student graduation. The state accepted the plan and the funds to be used for staffing and credit recovery at the TEAM site.
Lewis River Academy
LRA currently has its own Student Leadership Team which meets monthly and is comprised of students who are making satisfactory progress. The LRA Student Leadership Team wants to help make LRA a welcoming environment for other students. In February, these leaders learned about body language and discussed how to read body language. They were given the opportunity to practice some of what they learned February 14 at the LRA Valentine's Day party. These leaders also helped to create a fun-filled classroom environment by decorating the classroom and also making up some sample crafts beforehand. At the party, they demonstrated the crafts and invited all students to participate in fun games anyone could play. We love seeing our students recognize how they can make a difference by reaching out to others.
Nurse Services
Health staff continue to see students daily for minor and major injuries, illnesses and health conditions. Channtel has updated and/or added multiple health care plans for current and new students. Each health care plan requires parent education as well as staff training and education. Channtel and the school Health Room Assistants continue to work with students and their families on updating immunizations. Channtel is working on the district assessment which is submitted to ESD 112, who then sends the information to OSPI.
Special Services
We are putting the final touches on our application for Safety Net this spring. This is a tedious process that many districts choose not to do. However, Woodland School District has had success with Safety Net due to effective program and staff development by Deb Kernen and district IEP experts. This year Deb has been continuing her amazing skills of developing people by helping me. She has taken a lot of time and patience to walk me through all of the reporting documentation and various scenarios. In addition to Deb’s work, the WSD has fielded a team of IEP experts to go through all Safety Net IEPs to make sure they are accurate. This team is comprised of Devon Hillman, Devon Fliss, Sonya Stemkoski, Stef Anderson and Michelle McLaughlin. We are so fortunate to have the guidance of this team and Deb as we go through this process this year.
Title Program
Tara and I went to a regional workshop about Title 1 this past week. I continue to be impressed by Tara’s excellent, thorough work with students, staff, and administration. The reports she puts together for the state are exemplary. The WMS Title program is busy getting ready for PRIDE Parent Night which will take place Thursday, March 1st from 5-7 pm. WMS looks forward to engaging families through fun and informative sessions put on by WMS staff and booths put on by community and school programs. Families will also enjoy the popular dinner and auction! Students/families earn tickets by participating in sessions and speaking with representatives from the booths. Several local businesses and staff members have donated time and/or raffle prizes to this special event. WMS is looking forward to having fun this evening connecting with families and learning together.
Transitional Bilingual Intervention Program
I have asked Maribel Ramirez, a part time Transitional Bilingual Intervention Specialist for WSD, to work with WSD schools to organize translation services for families in the upcoming Spring Conferences. This is a large task but I am confident in Maribel’s positive record of building sustainable partnerships between families and schools.
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I am looking forward to all that will be accomplished in the coming weeks in all of these programs. Our students and families are so fortunate to have the hardworking, caring, effective staff in Woodland’s learning supports and alternatives; I am inspired by their work every day. Thank you for your ongoing support!
~Jake