English Language Learners/Bilingual Program
The English Language Learners/Bilingual Program has finished mandatory state assessments. The assessments went well. We have taken detailed notes on ideas of how to make the assessment even better next year.
Family and Community Resource Center
Leslie has coordinated with other school staff to make a series of Parenting classes. These classes cover everything from technology safety for children to identifying signs and ways to help children who may be struggling with depression or anxiety.
Highly Capable Program
We have mailed and expect to receive scores back from our mass screening of elementary students using the cognitive ability assessment. The next step will be to have a school psychologist administer a more thorough cognitive assessment for students in the highest percentile. We continue our work to build the Highly Capable program in WSD.
K-12 Attendance
Stacy continues to hold weekly BECCA conferences with students (to meet the law requirement for 3 unexcused absences). The number is growing each week, especially at the Middle School and Intermediate school. Stacy is working on crafting a letter to send home to those students who have reached 18+ absences (excused) to "nudge" them to improve attendance. I'm getting less calls about the attendance policy as word has seemed to spread, but the secretaries and I continue to educate parents on the expectations of providing documentation. Stacy is also trying to develop relationships with some of our more 'at risk youth' high school students by meeting with them regularly.
LAP Program
LAP students are continuing in their interventions unless data analysis suggests a change. Data is analyzed two times per month.Teachers working with LAP students are in continual contact with our intervention teacher, Jennifer Crosby. 2nd grade isn’t seeing much growth with a group of students currently receiving iReady reading instruction and has decided to reconfigure to allow for direct instruction of phonics skills with these 30 students. Teachers and specialists are deeply invested in student achievement and are thinking outside of the box to ensure student success.
Lewis River Academy
Please help us in welcoming the newest member of LRA! She came extremely early, but thankfully healthy! Teija Dukes was born the morning of April 3rd, weighing in at 1 lb 12.8oz. Mrs. Dukes says that Teija is fiesty and sweet, keeping the nurses busy with her curious fingers testing and removing equipment. She’s doing well—breathing room air, but still needing the CPAP machine for a couple of weeks, as breathing is something she can forget to do at this age. Mrs. Dukes is also doing well, but needs to be with her new baby, so she won’t be returning this school year.
It's amazing to think, that we only have a couple of months left of the school year! While we are missing Mrs. Dukes here at LRA, we are also happy for her and her family, and we will pull together through the end of this school year! I have asked Mrs. Retter to pick up additional responsibilities, and she has been willing and helpful to do so. Mrs. Franke is also working diligently to make sure LRA is functioning well in Mrs. Dukes' absence. Furthermore, Mrs. Dukes is helping us where she can as well.
Kim Heidgerken will be filling in for Mrs. Dukes through the end of the current school year. She will be here to help out on Tuesdays, as well as during state assessment testing and various other activities. Mrs. Heidgerken is excited to be here, and looks forward to helping our middle school students with their lessons.
Nurse Services
Health staff continues to see students daily for minor and major injuries/illnesses/health conditions. Channtel has updated and/or added multiple healthcare plans for new and current students to the district, which also requires parent education and staff training/education. Channtel continues to work with students and their families on updating immunizations, mostly for our new enrolled students. Finally, we have been conducting hearing and vision screening for new enrolled students.
I am very grateful to Channtel and her team in WSD for guiding us through a recent Pertussis outbreak. In fact, the Cowlitz County Health Department directed us to send out a district-wide letter on April 11th; our team of WSD professionals worked on this communication. A Pertussis outbreak is determined when there are two students who test positive, who do not live in the same household. There can be four children in the same household, and the health department does not consider there to be a Pertussis outbreak. We do not exclude students and staff from school due to an outbreak without the direction of the health department. All of the students in our district have appropriate documentation regarding vaccines, including vaccination verification or exemption forms signed by their physician.
Special Services
We have eleven new students with Individual Education Programs across the district. Either they moved in or they have been recently identified as having a need for services. I am so impressed by our school teams for their work transitioning these students into the services they need for a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).
Title Program
April-June is testing season at WMS. The title coordinator (Tara) and title paras help to facilitate testing for both ELA and math, along with continuing to support students in CORE and extension classes. We also hosted the family connection table during conferences, enticing families with cookies and inviting them to fill out the district parent survey.
TEAM High School
We are using our LAP funds for Saturday School which allows our seniors preparing to graduate to have extra one-on-one support with classes and their senior projects. We have two students that have completed all graduation requirements, five students needing only to complete their senior project, and about 20 students that are on track to finish all graduation requirements. We also have one LRA senior finishing her requirements with her senior presentation on Thursday.
Transitional Bilingual Intervention Program
I am working on a new project with Woodland Action Center to be there once a month during food distribution and also for them to come here on April 27th to talk to our ELL Families about their new program and get IDs for them to be able to participate in their food distribution. I will be starting this week and next with Kindergarten registration appointments.
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Thank you for reading about these alternatives and supports in Woodland School District. Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you for your ongoing support!
~Jake