We are setting up for another great year in the Learning Supports and Alternatives of Woodland School District! Like last year, I have asked a point person from each program to provide me with a brief narrative of their recent and/or upcoming work each month for the board report. While I put the final board report together and make sure it is endorsed by me, it could not have been created -- or as contextual/useful -- without their help! I’d like to recognize these point people and the WSD program they liaison with me:
Special Services
Special Services is starting 2018-19 with over 300 students in need of services. This has been a much improved start to the school year with regard to students’ records from other districts/schools being processed quickly with good information. Our school psychologists are working effectively and quickly to make sure we know as much as possible about our new students.
Title and LAP Program
The Title and the LAP program have recently submitted End-Of-Year reports for 2017-18, 2018 Summer School Reports, and new reports for 2018-19. These reports are called “iGrants”, and they are submitted to OSPI. Our initial feedback from OSPI is that the reports are in order; they will let us know if there is more information needed. This is a tremendous amount of work, and I am grateful to Tara, Malinda, Leslie, Pam Dietrich and Stacy Brown for all of their teamwork to help our state agency understand the great programs we offer in WSD Title and LAP!
English Language Learners/Bilingual Program
Our 2018-19 school year has begun, and with that we welcome more than 30 newcomers and their families to our district. This includes Kindergarten students and new families to our district. Our ELL department experienced a few changes. Maribel Ramirez is our district ELL Coordinator, and soon we will also have a translator for our district. At WPS Kim Bearden became the ELL Coordinator. Carlotta Propersi together with her team at WIS will implement a new ELL curriculum this school year (Kim Bearden will be of assistance).
This year the ELPA21 screener requires grading from a proctor during the speaking part. Proctors have taken an online training and are aware of the changes to the ELPA21 screener. Results are available right away. I am looking forward to an incredible school year.
Family and Community Resource Center
Leslie led another successful “Back To School Bash” event in August 2018! Leslie has been coordinating with all schools and families in need; I appreciate her follow through and her record keeping about students experiencing homelessness. Leslie also earned a grant to provide much needed secretarial services, and we have filled the position.
K-12 Attendance
Since school started back, Stacy Mouat has been updating all truancy files and following up on students who have not started school. Several home visits have been conducted along with phone conferences. Included in this, Stacy has been collaborating with Channtel for students in non-compliance with the medical law that excludes students when updated medications and updated forms are not provided to the school. As long as they are considered non-compliant per statute and district policy, Stacy has been following up with information about the truancy laws to compel parents to comply with Channtel's portion of the medical related school law. This partnership has been very effective so far.
Lewis River Academy
We are extremely excited to welcome our long-term substitute teacher, for the 2018/2019 school year, Kim Heidgerken. She will be filling in for Annika Dukes during her leave of absence. Kim will primarily be working with our 6th through 8th grade students. Please join us in welcoming Kim to LRA!!
We are also excited to announce that enrollment at LRA is up again this year! With the departure of 22 students at the end of last school year, (many integrated back to the traditional classroom or moved away from the area) we currently have 42 students. Of the 42 students, 18 are new enrollments this year. The number of students in Kindergarten through 5th grade is 27; 6th through 8th grade is 15 students. The teachers have been keeping busy meeting with all the families, and getting them up and running in their online curriculum.
LRA kicked off the year with a "Back to School Ice Cream Social" in August, where families were able to drop by and mingle with the staff as well as the other families. Students are beginning to settle in to their new routine and responsibility of online learning. Onsite learning labs and tutoring sessions are available to students on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week.
TEAM High School
We are starting this year with 75 students and many are already planning and preparing to graduate this June 2019. Our teachers are busy; they are each case managers for about half the students. Elizabeth Vallaire monitors our seniors. She is busy making “Grad Maps” for our seniors to follow, and they are reporting this is very helpful in their planning. Using Grad Maps, students map out all of the work for classes and other graduation requirements that are needed to complete in time for graduation. Jillian Domingo monitors 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. She is busy with beginning of the year organization here at TEAM. She is making sure our underclassmen are more prepared to enter their senior year ready for graduation. We have a new co-worker here at TEAM, Hunter Huddleston, who has been great working with staff and students. Hunter is helping with attendance, the APEX (instructional materials) program, and working with students.
Highly Capable Program
Hi-C at WMS is beginning to research the science Olympiad events that we will be working with this semester. The class has chosen to start with creating a simple game using the Scratch programming software.
LEGO team has begun to identify Robot challenges they would like to attempt and have decided to research a robot that would be able to help act as a doctor for people in space.
K-12 Nurse Services
We are excited to be starting this school year with a nurse (RN and/or LPN) at WPS, WIS, WMS, and WHS. This has been a relatively smooth start to the school year in terms of having all documentation and medication on file for all students with Health Care Plans.
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Thank you for the opportunity to serve Woodland School District in each of these programs. I continue to learn a lot each day, experiencing first-hand what Woodland School District provides for all our students. I’m amazed by the talented, caring and hardworking staff in each of these programs.
~Jake