Tue May 29 2018, 5:30pm
WHS Room 2203
Regular Meeting

REPORTS TO THE BOARD

Learning Supports and Alternatives

To: Michael Green

From: Jake Hall

Date: 5.22.18

Re: May 2018 Board Report

English Language Learners/Bilingual Program

ELL continues to grow in numbers across the district, and WMS has tripled their numbers of ELLs participating in clubs and sports!  ELL parent involvement and communication has increased at every building over the course of this school year. The reports I am getting are consistent: parents are attending school functions and feeling connected to the Woodland Public Schools.  This year WPS and WIS have partnered together to implement an after-school Homework Club. WMS is offering the second year of summer school for lower level language (emerging) students. Both WMS and WHS use the program “ILit” for language development and offer ELL Success Classes which allow students to bring in classwork to provide support and additional time for their coursework.  Every ELL department works closely with staff to make accommodations and are there to support students and teachers. The ELL staff meets once a month to ensure a solid program.

The rate of success for ELLs graduating is on the rise.  Ms. Maribel Ramirez has been successfully connecting with students, staff, and parents.  Maribel is working with WHS staff to create a family night at WHS that provides information and encourages students to extend their learning beyond high school. Maribel also works closely with the WHS school counselors, helping to fill out FAFSAs and the application for the College Bound Scholarships, scheduling for appropriate classes, parent communication, and IEP meetings.

Family and Community Resource Center

The Family Community Resource Center has serviced the families and students in substantial ways.  The 2017/2018 school year data through April 30, 2018, shows accumulative efforts which include 4839 Individual visits to food pantries,1329 basic needs given to families, and 807 resource referrals to outside agencies.    

Leslie Mohlman has worked effectively with administration to create a six week parenting class.  This class has been very well received by families and staff with an average of 35 parents and 58 children in attendance.  Leslie also coordinated “Screens and Teens” workshops with 20 parents in attendance learning about online safety.

The Lunch Buddy program has a new volunteer coordinator and a new partnership with Youth and Family Link and His Heart Foundation.  The program next year will be expanded and be more intentionally related to student learning; reading and character building will be the focus.

Beginning in March 2018, the Back to School Bash planning committee has met with Leslie, and they are on track to include both Kalama and La Center Schools this year.  The regional event will have medical, mental health, and family resources along with dinner, games, and free school supplies. The date is planned for August 18th from 3:00 - 6:00 at the Woodland High School.

Highly Capable Program

The WMS HI-C classes are working in small groups to design robots to accomplish a variety of real world challenges.  Students are developing critical thinking skills which will be so valuable to all aspects of their learning careers through such projects as programming LEGO “windstorms robots”.   It is wonderful to witness our students take charge of their learning and formulate solutions to real world issues. For example, one student successfully implemented a sound sensor and temperature sensor to complete a maze and have a traveling room thermometer.  There are many tangible opportunities for students to go above and beyond to come up with solutions to world problems using robot technology.

K-12 Attendance

This month Stacy Mouat is focused on finishing out BECCA conferences for the school year.

There are 9 students in the court phase of the truancy process with regular court reviews that Stacy attends for our district.  Stacy is filing truancy petitions on all students who have reached 10 unexcused absences.

District-wide we are seeing improvement in our attendance:

  • 2016-2017 School Year Average Days absent was 11.97 for grades K-12
  • 2017-2018 School Year Average Days absent is currently 9.33 for grades K-12
  • 2016-2017 School Year Average Days unexcused absences was 11.06 for grades K-12
  • 2017-2018 School Year Average Days unexcused absences is currently 9.5 for grades K-12

This data is to date and affirms that the attendance efforts and education by Stacy and school staff; overall, WSD attendance is improving!

LAP Program

LAP reading interventions are running smoothly and student progress is evident in the data we collect every two weeks. Malinda Huddleston’s leadership is instrumental in leading our efforts with LAP.  She is currently working with staff and administration to make plans for summer school at WIS. This “Summer Reading Academy” will run for three weeks and involve five certificated teachers and one paraprofessional with transportation provided for students.  We will collect data weekly about student achievement, and students will be involved with goal setting and monitoring their own progress.

Lewis River Academy

On April 25th, LRA students and staff enjoyed a field trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).  The featured exhibit at OMSI happened to be Robot Revolution, which fit in to their learning plan quite well, since LRA had just studied Bee-Bots and Ozobots a few months ago.  It was so much fun watching our students interact with the robots, playing games such as blackjack and tic-tac-toe.

Students are currently taking state assessments.  We are pushing for 100% participation this year, and it has been encouraging to see so many students each day taking the assessment.

Nurse Services

Starting with the 2018-19 school year, we will have a full time nurse at WPS, WIS, WMS, and WHS.  Currently, the WSD Nurse/Health staff is working on end of school year tasks which include: end of year letters home, updating student health information and health plans, parent reminders regarding medications/orders for 18-19 school year, etc.

Special Services

Our school psychologists have started attending a regional school psychologist meeting each month.  This is proving to be a valuable venue for exchanging ideas and finding solutions together. I have been impressed by the expertise and talent of our school psychologists as they serve as building auditors of special education programs and documentation.  This coming fall the Pacific Northwest Institute on Special Education and the Law conference is in Portland, Oregon.  I am planning to take our school psychologists and a few lead special educators from Woodland so that we can learn about new legal guidelines.

Title Program

This month the Title program at WMS has been busy supporting SBA testing in the regular classroom labs as well as with students with 504s, IEPs, and/or behavior issues.  During teacher collaboration time, WMS CORE and extension teachers have identified key standards, skills, and strategies that students need to learn prior to the end of the year and are planning lessons around those standards.  Tara Eilts has also been working to determine research based programs and components for WMS ELA CORE and intervention programs in order to have a strong alignment in all WMS grades in the 2018-19 school year.

TEAM High School

TEAM has recently started Saturday School to help our seniors finish their classes and graduate on time. There are about twenty seniors close to finishing all graduation requirements.  We currently have seven students who have completed all requirements for graduation and a few more students just waiting to meet their testing requirements. The TEAM High School graduation ceremony will June 13, 2018, at Woodland High School.

This year we will also be offering a summer school specific for TEAM High School students, held at the TEAM facility.  

Transitional Bilingual Intervention Program

Milagros is working on a new project with Woodland Action Center where she will participate during food distribution.  Also, she arranged for Woodland Action Center to come to WPS 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. Milagros is starting the work now of Kindergarten registration appointments for students who will be in Kindergarten this coming fall.

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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