Family and Community Resource Center
January and February at the FCRC have been very exciting! The Family Community Resource Center is now fully organized and assembled following our move this summer, and is ready for families to browse when in need! Here is a picture of it! With the help of Eric Jacobson, we’ve opened up an FCRC Facebook page for community outreach, and with the help of Steve Rippl, we now have a dedicated section for notes in SIPS!
We’ve been working with families, lawyers, and community partners regarding the Lewis River RV Park situation. It has been tumultuous working through whether or not families would suddenly lose utilities or even their housing. However, the latest news from the Lawyer (Tues 2/18), is that the court is expected to continue to rule in favor of the families at the park, and their status-quo is not expected to be disrupted in regards to utilities or housing.
Finally, it is always a joyful triumph when we’re able to get our students back in school, but in January, we had a particularly complicated case for two of our students at TEAM who had lost their housing and were at high risk of dropping out. Thanks to the tireless work, collaboration, and compassion of the teachers and staff at TEAM, Stacy M. in Truancy, Sheila at KWRL, and many more staff districtwide, we were able to get these two vulnerable students successfully, and happily back in school!
In the coming months, we’ve begun work with community partners on our Annual Back-to-School Bash, which will take place this year on Saturday, August 22nd, and we’ll be working on several grant opportunities!
Highly Capable Program
We recently had the window for new Highly Capable referrals. We are in the process now of family permission and further assessment of students referred. In April 2020, the Multidistrict Selection Team made up of teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators will meet to go over the portfolio of every referred student to determine potential Highly Capable placement.
The WMS Highly Capable program is currently building circuits and studying the benefits of Parallel vs. Series ones. The group is building solar cars for the Clark County Solar Car Challenge March 14th. They will be designing both the car and the circuits to operate it most effectively. It is great to see them so engaged in the topic.
The WHS Robotics Team earned 5th place in the Interleague Championships on
January 12, 2020!! The Team (the Beaver Bots) also won 3rd place for the Design and Inspire Award. The Inspire award is for teams that best embodies all aspects of the First Robotics program and is a role model to other teams. This is a very distinguished award, and we are so proud of all the hard work our team has put into the design of their robot and into their engineering notebook. The WHS Robotics Team went to state on Sunday, January 26th in Kent, Washington.
K-12 Attendance
Stacy Mouat continues to lead our processes as described with data below:
K-12 Health Services
Health staff is busy caring for students daily for minor and major injuries/illnesses.
Health care plans continue to be created for students who are being diagnosed with various health conditions.
WSD will need to update the existing policy (3413 / 3413P) prior to the 2020-21 school year regarding new vaccine requirements. The current language in this procedure does not reflect the new WAC language going into effect on August 1, 2020. Students will no longer have 30 days from the start of school to provide immunization records. Starting next school year, student immunization records will need to be provided to the district prior to the first day of school. More to come as I will be working on this in the coming months.
LAP Program
Students have completed their Winter iReady and Accadience reading assessments. These assessments allow us to look at growth from Fall to Winter. We have met with teachers, analyzed the data, and made decisions about program changes. LAP exit letters were sent to families, and students are up and running in their new groups.
Of the students who are continuing in LAP services, many have progressed from working on phonics skills to reading fluently (accuracy, rate, expression.) This shows marked progress, however not enough to exit LAP services. We want to ensure students have every piece of reading acquisition solid before exiting them from services.
Lewis River Academy
A couple of weeks ago, LRA students had a special opportunity to partake in a Fine Dining experience. Our classroom was transformed into a beautiful, formal dining room, where our students were taught proper table manners and dining etiquette, all while enjoying a very deliciously prepared three-course meal. This wonderful experience was planned and organized by Laura Perry, who manages the district's Nutrition Services Department. Several students from TEAM High were invited to serve as hosts, waitstaff, and restaurant help.
This newfound relationship between the older kids from TEAM, working with the younger kids from LRA, is something we have been striving to develop since the beginning of this school year. It's been so encouraging to see the positive behaviors between the students in both schools. LRA students affectionately refer to the TEAM students as their "TEAM-mates". You can read the story, published on our district's website by Eric Jacobson. He highlights the learning experiences between the two. It also made Clark County Today, which is pretty exciting!!
TEAM High School
We are nearing our capacity to serve students well at TEAM with 95 students. Each student is unique, and we love learning who they are and where life is leading them. We have students who work full time, go to Cascadia Tech or Running Start, or help care for younger siblings, all while finishing high school here. We become supporters, encouragers, and coaches for these kids, and we are always excited to hear about their future plans.
In the last few weeks, we’ve had to deal with the difficult part of these connections. We lost a kind, talented, funny young man who lost his life when he was hit by a car. It has been difficult for staff and his many friends; he was the kind of guy that made everyone feel like they had a shoulder to lean on, that they had a friend in him. He loved to smile and laugh and was an avid skateboarder and an aspiring clothing designer. As hard as it is when something like this happens, we are all so thankful for the opportunity to have had him and our other students in our lives. This, the good and the bad, is what it is all about: the KIDS.
Title Programs
We are gearing up for WMS Trojan PRIDE Night on Wednesday, February 27, 2020!
Reading intervention teachers are collaborating to scaffold for students how to structure writing instruction. Instructional assistants and teachers are working together to monitor progress and benchmark test grade 5/6th grade Tier 2 and 3 students as well as 7/8th grade Tier 3 students.
We also had a few students graduate from reading intervention at the semester due to their positive performance across multiple measures. For students to graduate from reading intervention, they must meet or exceed all of the Reading Graduation Requirements. We are so proud of the hard work of these students.
Transitional Bilingual Intervention Program
Esmeralda Franco and Maribel Ramirez have been assisting Jody Brentin with Kindergarten registrations. Together, they are shoring up communication systems to make sure our families are aware of Kindergarten registrations.
Spring Parent-Teacher conferences are almost here! Esmeralda and Maribel began planning for these conferences in January 2020. This is a collaborative effort with all secretaries and principals. We coordinate and/or provide translation services in more than one language, including sign language.
Our ELL teachers continue to review the ELPA 21 practice test during their lessons. This is helping the students to comprehend the test and start practicing for next month.
One of our ELL teachers, Carlotta Propersi, and the WHS instructional coach, Shari Conditt, attended a specific training of effective teaching practices for students with English as a second language. The training is called Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, or SIOP. These SIOP courses help us better understand lesson design, instruction, structures, strategies and techniques to help our English Language Learners who are fully integrated into the general education classroom. Carlotta Propersi and Shari Conditt are looking forward to partnering with other teachers to share these best practices in teaching and learning.
Special Services
For February, the Special Education Monthly Count is 360 students. Also, our numbers continue to grow in both our ages 0-3 and 4-5 population. Our Early Intervention Preschool population continues to grow, with a total of 21 students receiving services.
OSPI has recently identified a miscalculation with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) allocations to districts. This miscalculation resulted in reduced funding to districts. For Woodland, it is a hit of approximately $20,700 out of the funds we use for Special Education. Stacy and I are working closely to monitor resources, and the teams in the schools are diligently serving students without overstaffing.
Safety Net review is in full swing, with team members Devon Hillman, Devon Fliss, Sonya Stemkoski, Stefani Anderson, Michelle McLaughlin, Kim Gustainis, Stacy Brown, and myself. Though it is still an approximation, it looks like this year we will turn in 25 high-cost Individual Education Plans and hope to recover at least $300,000.