Family and Community Resource Center
‘Tis the season of giving at the FCRC! This month, we’ve been giving out coats and helping families locate Emergency Warming Shelters to help with below freezing nights. Here’s a brief snapshot:
As always, our wonderful community partners have been heroes. This is a difficult season for many families. However, it has been a joy to be able to be present in the FCRC to “stand in the gap” and support our families.
Highly Capable Program
Our Woodland WMS LEGO robotics team is working hard to solve problems and work together in these last weeks of 2019 to become prepared for the LEGO tournament December 14th. Mr. Jud reports that they have had a few set-backs with student projects, but he is impressed with the students’ resolve and their ability to keep going, always improving. The Hi-C 5th graders are learning how to design and build cars powered by Mouse Traps. This is an old engineering project but really lets them be hands on as they test and redesign their projects.
K-12 Attendance
So far this school year, 126 truancy conference notifications have been mailed home. Truancy conferences take place weekly at WMS and WHS, while parents at the elementary schools conduct a conference call with Stacy Mouat when needed.
Stacy Mouat has been following through with students who are not currently attending school; either conducting home visits, meetings at the school, or referring them to the “ESD Truancy Project” group.
So far this school year we have 8 students/families involved in the truancy court process, 27 students in the ESD Truancy Project, and a total of 39 active truancy petitions.
The District school attendance summary is:
Location
Average Absences to Date
Students with 10+% Absences to Date
District
4.1%
9.7%
CES
3.8%
6.6%
NFES
9.5%
WMS
7.1%
WHS
4.6%
13.7%
Yale
K-12 Health Services
Channtel has finished mid-year state reports, and we are current with medications/immunization paperwork for the district! Channtel got all of that documentation complete before a scheduled surgery for the remainder of December 2019. In Channtel’s absence, the nursing staff from Columbia, North Fork and Woodland Middle School have been great about covering the needs of our students across the district.
LAP Program
Students continue to work in their Tier 3 Reading groups and their progress is monitored every two weeks. Progress is being reported on trimester progress reports which will go home this week. We are looking forward to collecting our January 2020 benchmark data to assess student growth and make adjustments to student grouping and educational programming.
Lewis River Academy
In the September 2019 Board Report, we mentioned how we are having difficulty working with one of our Instructional Materials providers, K12. Some of our families and students have been working with our teachers to try out “Accelus”, an online instructional materials set. We are working with Asha about the board approval process for Accelus. The feedback from our families and students trying Acellus has been extremely positive so far.
Everyone is gearing up for the holidays at LRA. Next Wednesday will be our 8th Annual Holiday School Party. Crafts, games, food, and comradery make this a fun event, and you are more than welcome to come check it out if you are available!
TEAM High School
We have many success stories at TEAM, and we are proud of our students’ individual accomplishments. Some students find success in school for the first time when they enroll at TEAM because of the nature of what we can provide in an alternative learning educational environment. Here is a specific example:
A student transferred to TEAM HS the second semester of her freshman year after being in the PASS program at WHS. She started TEAM with one credit that she earned working with Dana Preston using the Apex program. This means that when she came to TEAM she was 4 classes behind. Now, as a Junior, the student has finished all required classes and is working on finishing her Culminating project! Even though she came into TEAM as a freshman behind in credits, because of her hard work and dedication, coupled with the great staff at TEAM HS, she will finish high school early. This student is an inspiration to us all, and she is one of many examples of the amazing students we have the privilege to get to work with each day.
Title Programs
One aspect of the WMS Title program is monitoring student academic progress through frequent reading checks. At the 5th and 6th grade levels, students “partner read” daily in both CORE and Reading intervention blocks. We conduct a benchmark test three times a year for all students in Tier 2 and Tier 3, along with a few students just barely in Tier 1.
Students in Tier 3 reading classes are progress monitored through Acadience (DIBELS) bi-weekly. It's fun to celebrate growth and to set personalized goals for the next progress monitoring with the students! Students who meet the end of grade level standards join the "Comprehension Club". The coveted membership into this club is an honor as students work in a small group with the teacher during partner reading to demonstrate comprehension through writing. Students love reaching their goals and being challenged!
Transitional Bilingual Intervention Program
Esmeralda Franco and Maribel Ramirez continue assisting our ELL families. This month they are making many phone calls to our families reminding them about the Rotary Giving Christmas Tree as well as Shop With a Cop. Having both Esmeralda and Maribel make phone calls has proved to be a dynamic way to reach out to all the families more quickly.
Our ELL teachers are setting time to review the ELPA 21 practice test during their lesson. This is helping the students to comprehend the test and start practicing for next year. Having Carlotta and Mary Chick is amazing. Carlotta is collaborating with the WHS Counselors and Teachers. Carlotta’s great collaboration with WHS staff and Maribel is helping our WHS ELL students to graduate and be ready for Career, Life, and College.
Special Services
It is that time of year again where the Special Education Department is organizing and scheduling to meet with IEP teams to review our current Safety Net submissions. The Safety Net Review Committee has already met with two of our outside placements, QUEST Academy in Longview and Fir Grove in Vancouver. Inviting these outside agencies to our Safety Net meetings is proving profitable in terms of efficiency and building sustainability for excellent IEP documentation.