To: Michael Green
From: Jake Hall
Date: 12.10.21
Re: December 2021 Board Report
Alternative Learning Experiences (ALE) -- Lewis River Academy and TEAM High School
TEAM High students have been hard at work and most students are on track to finish semester one courses on time! Many students who were previously credit deficient are already on their second semester courses. TEAM High also was able to get 99% of students tested for the Smarter Balanced Assessments; this is a school record! Jillian Domingo has returned from maternity leave and has reached out to all families on her caseload to re-introduce herself and offer her assistance wherever needed. The satellite room continues to be a huge asset to students co-enrolled with WHS and TEAM. We now have 18 students using this new program, and they all are very grateful to have the opportunity to be on the WHS campus.
Family and Community Resource Center
As of December 2021, we are up to 75 identified students who qualify as students experiencing homelessness. This month and last month we have seen an increase in the number of requests for rental support, emergency hotel vouchers, and food support.
The Family and Community Resource Center has been busy working with Rotary on Christmas Giving, and the list is now full. Gifts and Christmas dinners will be distributed to families over Christmas break. We continue to organize our generous supplies while receiving amazing holiday donation drives from the elementary schools, Assistance League of Southwest Washington, Opdahl Chiropractic, and many other community organizations!
Highly Capable Program
Woodland Middle School’s Highly Capable Program has been designing and building their mousetrap cars for the last 2 weeks. The students are nearly finished testing and will have their final test today. It is so fun to see them going through the engineering design cycle that they have been learning about in class. The LEGO team has suffered from some students missing days due to COVID-19, but they are trying to finish up their projects in time for the competition.
LAP Program
First and second grade began the year using the Tune Up intervention program. The program is specifically designed to firm up missing skills from the previous year. As this intervention ended, the learning teams of teachers in the elementary schools adjusted groups to respond to the next steps needed for students. We continue to watch our progress monitoring data for all our LAP students and make adjustments, ensuring the most appropriate and effective interventions. We are pleased to see the growth our students are making, especially in kindergarten through second grade.
Special Services
We have three new La Center applicants for the Partners In Transition program next year. This is great news! Michelle McLaughlin has been meeting with each of these prospective students and their families so they can see the program and have their questions answered. Our long-term substitute teacher, Betheny Musgrove, is doing an excellent job with the program, keeping the work community contacts and student business ventures going strong.
School districts submit to OSPI their “Federal Special Education Report” each November which includes the number of students and staff who work in special education. On November 1, we had 338 students identified who have a disability that requires special education services. This November count is an important annual task because it helps drive our funding for serving students with special needs. We appreciate Michelle McLaughlin’s and Jody Brentin’s careful attention to detail in this work. In December, our total special education count increased to 342 students.