December-2-2019-Regular-Board-Meeting-Segment-1
[00:00:00] We will call to order this meeting of the West Linn Wilsonville a school board this evening. And, uh, Shiela, would you please, uh, call roll rector Heights here,
here, here. Director Fitch here, King present.
All right. We will now move on to district communications and unfortunately, Caitlin Finn, uh, became ill today and so she's not here to share with us about what's been going on at arts and technology high school. But we will then move on to West Linn high school and Avery fells.
[00:01:00] Good evening. I'm dr Ludwig, Dr. Downs and school board members. My name is Avery fells and I appreciate again the opportunity to share with you what's happening this month at West Linn. November at Wesleyan was very eventful, are canned food drive ran from November 13th through the 21st kicking off the canned collection was their annual powder, tough volleyball tournament with an impressive number of teams that came out to play and show support for such a great cop.
The winning team had the opportunity to play our fifth and state varsity girls volleyball team at the fall recognition assembly on the Friday before break and no surprise, our amazing girls team won once again. This assembly was a great chance to recognize all of our outstanding call activities, competitors, and sports.
It was a day full of lion pride. We also revealed our 2019 canned food drive collection total. The assembly, if you will. Remember, our goal was a hundred banana boxes full of nonperishable food, a hundred to commemorate [00:02:00] our Centennial year. I'm so incredibly proud to announce that not only did we reach that goal.
But our students, staff and community members destroyed it. Collecting a grand total of 150 boxes for our partner, the Oregon city Elk's lodge. We were also very pleased that our dollar day collected $405 and 6 cents for the West Linn food pantry. So that was super cool to see our community coming together.
Um, for that. The fall sports season has come to a close. Volleyball had a great season finishing fifth and state with girls soccer, making it to state quarter finals and boys soccer, making it to the first round. Unified soccer had a really great season too. The boy's cross country team was third and district and the girls cross country team was first in district in ninth and state.
That was super exciting. Our football team in their final season with coach Chris Miller were defeated by central Catholic in the quarter final round, but played a really hard, really good game. R w Thompson to your team are continuing to rehearse for upcoming competitions and winter sports practices have [00:03:00] already began with wrestling with wrestling, excuse me, in basketball, starting competitions this week.
As for the performing arts, my personal favorite, our fall musical Chicago high school edition had an extremely successful run. Full of razzle-dazzle. Um, and thank you again for those of you that joined us. Um, November 19th, our exceptional jazz band, um, won the TRL title again with an auditorium full of students and staff to support them.
Auditions for our upcoming production of the two plays. These shining lives and a number are taking place next week. And rehearsals will be, will begin shortly after. Or improv troupe. The den will perform on December 19th and 20 in the, in the black parts theater. And we will also have our winter concerts in December with choir on the 16th orchestra on the 17th and band on the 18th as always, invite you to join us at any of those nights over all of those nights.
And maybe I'll see you there. Our annual mr ms MX West Linn competition will take place during the week of December [00:04:00] 9th seniors will be participating in a week full of dressing up school spirit and preparing for a fun-filled pageant on Friday the 13th most importantly, the activities fundraising this year will benefit West Linn high school sources of strength program, which educates students and staff specifically on mental health issues, suicide prevention, and being an active community member in several meaningful ways.
And finally today, our leadership ASB class started planning our annual 10 days of joy, which will begin next Monday. Each day we will reveal either a gift the student's body will be giving and service, like if they'll be receiving or an opportunity for them to express gratitude. We find that it's not only a scientifically proven way to generate happiness and our students and staff, but an opportunity for them to become more aware and more supportive of other members of their lion family and greater son.
Meet. Community. So that was a lot. Thank you for listening. Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to seeing you all. Next one. Thank you.
[00:05:00] And Lindsay Hartford from Wilsonville high school. Please come on up. Happy December, dr Ludwig and school board. It is nice to be back again as we shift into the winter mindset. For no. The November recap, I have some fantastic news from Wilsonville. We are so proud that the Wildcat boys and girls soccer team took second in the state tournament.
In addition, the volleyball team also plays second after playing in the state tournament. Girls cross country are in third place and the boys took fourth. Well, the football team placed eighth in state and they all had fantastic seasons. I'm also excited to say that our holiday bizarre at the end of the month was a great success.
We raised over $7,000 to all to donate to Dorn buckers children's hospital, and everyone had a fantastic time. Cinderella was also a ball for everyone involved, and this week students will be auditioning for our winter play, the imaginary invalid. Looking ahead to [00:06:00] December students will be performing in the winter instrumental and vocal concert on December 11th from seven to nine in our auditorium.
Also in the auditorium on December 17th and 18th from seven to nine Wilsonville will host a winter festival of music. This is a combination of choirs, bands, jazz, band and orchestra. There is a $5 admission to this event and all the proceeds will go towards supporting our music programs. So we invite you to come out and enjoy some music on your Tuesday or Wednesday night.
Winter sports are getting ready to compete, such as wrestling, equestrian, and basketball and addition. Snowboarding and skiing plus swimming teams will be starting up soon. A tradition that many students support to a Wilsonville is our annual winter wishes. This is where every student and teacher gets to write down a wish and submit it to leadership students.
Then the leadership students review them, and throughout the weeks we grant these wishes. Students will be receiving everything from Starbucks to fuzzy socks, and we will [00:07:00] grant about five to 10 per grade level. And teachers, um, Wilsonville is looking festive as overbreak. Many leadership and NHS students decorated for winter with snowflakes, snowmen and lights that light up.
The school. Students are excited for upcoming spirit week and lunchtime activities the week of December 16th, when we have our winter assembly. Also during the professional development days. Well, some of those staff committed to give 100% of our staff to 100% of our students. We know that the school board also gives 100% for 100% so we have some buttons for each of you today and the athletic schedule continue as we head into winter break.
And I'd like to wish you all a happy holidays and I will see you next year.
And as Lindsey is passing out these buttons, I will put her on the spot and also acknowledged that she was a member of that volleyball team that placed second in the state. [00:08:00] Congratulations.
All right. We will move on to our recognitions. Portion, and I have dr  coming up to recognize one of our own dr Sebastian principle. Sebastian, thank you.
So we are proud and happy to be able to recognize. Joel Sebastian, and in organization, the wholistic peace Institute that truly exemplify those words on the wall of creating learning communities for greatest thinkers in pop. Oh, people for the world. The wholistic peace Institute is an organization that started in Canby in 1999 and their sole purpose was to bring together, starting with Nobel laureates, some of those who could work with students.
Middle [00:09:00] school students, high school students, university students, to think of the ideas around peaceful conflict resolution and humanitarian projects. Um, Nancy's benefits here is one of the founding. Founders of that organization. They have brought a room, Gandhi, um, to the United States. They have brought, uh, Andrew Young and Andrew Young and a room.
Gandhi were at AB Creek middle school and our own Joel Sebastian has been involved with this organization or. 11 minutes. Okay. As almost as long as they have been in existence and creating that culture around projects at your school. That honor, that is part of the work. So this year he was recognized as someone who did bring an exemplify leadership for the holistic . Peace Institute and was honored with the Harold Schnitzer 2011 [00:10:00] award from them.
He was recognized, um, in Salem about 10 days ago, and dr Ludwig, um, attended, um, that, uh, ceremony as well. And we are very proud of what that stands for and the work that he has been doing. Um, year after year two. Have this happen at 80 Creek and, um, Joel, like, did you just say a few things about your work, which on the spot?
Yup. Perfect. Uh, well, oftentimes when I talk about my work with the wholistic peace Institute, my mom likes to chime in and say, like, that's the most important thing you're ever going to do as an educator. And I think it's a compelling argument when you think about, uh. Really the, the values around, uh, uh, nonviolence and conflict resolution.
It's something that I think, uh, is it the heart and soul of, uh, teaching the whole child. [00:11:00] And so it's just been a pleasure of mine to work with the Institute for 18 years. And, and, uh, Nancy's, uh, colleague Gary span of issues, not here tonight, but, uh, was the person that I worked with so long ago.
We started with, uh, an assembly of. Five Tibetan monks that did a dance, you know, in front of kids 18 years ago. And so that, that kind of launched it to where we brought former heads of state Nobel laureates, uh, world famous peacemakers to school to put in front of children and interact with kids and all sorts of different ways.
And so we've, uh, I've always shared a lot of the holistic piece institutes, vision, uh, that, um, young people really can learn. Uh, incredible, uh, lessons from Nobel laureates. And in some ways they are in a sense, like the, you know, public consciousness, you know, for the world. So it's just, uh, uh, really, truly an, uh, a deep honor for [00:12:00] me, uh, to be recognized by the wholistic peace Institute, to have my colleagues come.
Just totally surprised that that happened. And so I, I really appreciate that. It's a great place to work, uh, you know, and how we support each other. And, uh, Nancy and I continued to work together, uh, in projects and it's just, uh, a really great pleasure. So thank you very much.
Thank you, Joe. And thank you, Nancy. Nancy, would you like to say something about the Institute? Um, I have a couple of things. Just one thing I wanted to say. Um, on the last Wednesday the 20th, that was our 11th. Annual spirit of unity assembly whereby we, we, our Institute gives, uh, cash prizes and we call them mini grants because they have to apply.
And those are winning schools. Um, then conduct a peace club or a peace project for the [00:13:00] following year. And so what it is, is it, it teaches sort of extracurricular. Uh, with a very inclusive agenda for by those students lead. So I wanted to just read a couple of, um, messages of why we think Joel epitomizes what this is in terms of educating for peace.
And I also wanted to point out that the top three goals on there are ones that he achieves just by partnering with us and having his school being the winning school. Um, way back when he was, I think associate principal. Uh, he was involved with this at in can be. Um, and I just wanted to read the first, first few phrases.
This is from my, uh, speech when we presented him with the award. He has a great love and dedication for higher learning. Joel has a way of allowing every student their unique voice and for empowering each student. Each faculty. Each staff at his school to [00:14:00] work at their highest potential. Let's see.
He believes in cultivating a community that embraces diversity, loosens the chains of ignorance or prejudice, awakened the students souls to seek knowledge and be one with the spirit that transcends beyond commerce common course language of us versus them. Fear or racism. Joel, a husband to a talented peace maker and teacher.
It's here tonight and a father to two successful sons. He's been principal and a partner with the wholistic peace Institute, uh, for I guess, 18 years. And he encouraged his entire school community to work diligently at communicating and coordinating efforts for equity and justice. He brought president FW declared to the school so his students could learn about our partite in South Africa.
He honored the season of nonviolence with hosting a room godly, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, [00:15:00] and he had his students compose poetry and serve them tea before school. These are the kinds of things that we like to see in a, in a administrator and in, and we'd like to encourage all school districts to encourage their administrators and educators to do this.
Slight new look on. Approaching their district goals. We know that Joel has a lot of good resources, so I wanted to just bring that out and in the season of giving, I got a little gift for each of you. These are all different. They're not the SES.
[00:16:00] Thank you. Well, if you'll just stay up, I think board members may want to say a word or two. And I also want to recognize Amy Sebastian, Amy wave, um, extraordinary teacher, also in the district at Bolton primary school. Um, great partner. I know. And, um, again, just echoing. Where does it have been shared that Joel, along with your colleagues, your other principal colleagues, were just, I'm so fortunate to have leadership at the helm that really takes seriously the notion of, um, greatest thinkers, the most thoughtful people for the world.
And unless you're really intentional, some of those parts can get missed here or there. There's the busy-ness of a school year and a lot of really important goals, but you've been steadfast in that work and you've also invited us along with you and it's made our district better and stronger. And more [00:17:00] thoughtful for the world.
So it's a great honor and very well deserved that you've received this from the Institute. So really proud of you and most importantly, proud of your kids, your students, because they had to step into that vision and embrace it as well, and see it as something that they wanted for their school and you help them get there.
And it's been a better school because of that. So thank you. Yeah.
just briefly, mr Sebastian, I've been in your school and the evidence of your efforts. And resounds in your hallways. And this is something that one has to stay focused on. And that kind of culture is intentional and practice daily. And I just want to let you know that I have seen evidence of it in your school and in our community there.
And, uh, thank you for your efforts. Oh, don't [00:18:00] go away yet. Joel. I just wanted to say thank you. It's, um, in a time when there's just so much conflict and people showing us how to disagree. It gives me as a parent and as a board member, a lot of hope to know that there are educators out there like you who are spreading the idea of peace to our young people.
And so again, to our board goal of creating better members of our community and world. And I think it's powerful that we have leaders in our schools who are. Bringing peacemakers to the forefront as heroes, because you know, so often warriors and generals are the heroes. But to have somebody who's a fighter for peace is really powerful.
And so thank you for letting that fire under our students.
Just add my quick 2 cents was just that, um, acknowledgement that as much fun as it is to embarrass you while you're standing up here, um, that the real. Winners of the award are your students and the years after years after years of students that you've helped touch and [00:19:00] impact. And so thank you for your dedication to this work and your service, as well as just bringing this knowledge, uh, to our students.
So thank you very much. And Nancy, thank you as well for being here tonight, as well as your partnership, your organization's partnership with Joel and our schools.
Good did you, did you bring your award to show us.
I forgot it. Okay.
We, we were, um, chuckling a little bit. It had quite a bit of acknowledgement in an, I said, Joel, there's, there's more on it than what you'll get for your dissertation when you complete your doctorate because those displays are pretty sparse. But, um, so great. Thank you Nancy. I'll pass that along.
Very well deserved. And thank you also, Nancy, for being here tonight. I know you've made that journey special to do this, so thank you.
[00:20:00] We will now move on to our, uh, board and then superintendent reports and for our bird reports. This month, um, our board members took it upon themselves to, uh, make visits to or kind of, to share visits to all of our schools across the district, um, during the first couple months of the school year.
And so they're going to use their board report time to just, um, share back with the rest of us about their school visits and, uh, what they learned about individual schools, work plans and goals for their students. This year. So that will be the content of our board reports. And ginger, just real fast, did you want to, um, provide your admonishment real quickly?
I am a local attorney. I represent students. I may represent students and parents in our district and a matter may come before the [00:21:00] board that materially benefits one of my clients. If it does, I will abstain from participating in the discussion or decisions on the matter without disclosing the identity of my clients.
And Chelsea, would you like to start us off? Um, hello everyone. Typically during our board reports, we give a bit of an overview of activities that we've participated in, but as chair Mala Tor articulated what a, it's a little different this time because we actually toured, we divided up the schools in our district and toward them.
Um, I would like to just take a. Three seconds to say. I did have a couple highlights that we're not touring those schools. One of which was opportunity to present at the Oregon school boards association around inclusive practices and our district, and I'm also an opportunity to meet with. A chairman clutter and I'm Dr.
Aaron Downs and dr Ludwig. I'm about recent events at West Linn high school and [00:22:00] to talk about what, um, what has been done there and what will be done in the future. And so those were a couple of highlights. I just wanted to take a moment to touch on. And then I had the opportunity to tour Bolton, primary Stafford primary and Rosemont Ridge middle school.
And it's just a nice departure from how we used to do it as a school board where we would sit in this room and all the principals would come in and they would all give these lengthy reports about all the great work that they're doing. And it was very formal. And I think this is the second year.
That we're doing it this way, where we actually go in and I know each of my, um, learning walkthroughs took a couple of hours and it's a chance to, for me as a board member to go into the classroom, observe the teaching and action, and sit down with the principal and have just a deeper dive into the work that's happening at the school.
So. I'll just spend a couple of minutes and highlight the themes that I saw across all the schools and then just touch on them like a [00:23:00] pointer, two of each school that I think makes it special. And so the biggest. Theme that I can point to right now is just the intentionality in our principals efforts that the school culture is not happening by accident.
It's not left to chance. The principals are very purposeful in what they want their outcomes to be and the moves they're going to take. To reach those outcomes. As I saw a desire to give teachers autonomy and creative license in their classrooms while also creating consistency across the classroom experience.
And one of the ways that was achieved was by creating opportunities for our teachers to collaborate with each other and for teachers to teach other teachers about what they're doing in their classrooms. That work. And using that time to, to team up and align, align instructional strategies. [00:24:00] All three of the schools that I toured had a distinct focus on the social, emotional, behavioral learning.
And that was evidenced in data that they're collecting on, um, observable behaviors and the application of curriculum that's designed to target social and emotional learning. And really these, all three of these schools are finding ways to continue to measure the outcomes of this. Learning, teaching and learning and just to continue to improve outcomes with the social and emotional behavior.
And restorative practices was another piece that I saw schools focusing on. I either witnessed it in a school, um, actually every, you know, a bunch of students sitting in a circle, um, talking about veteran's day. Um, because that was coming up. And so they were talking about what does it mean to be a [00:25:00] veteran and what does veterans day mean to them?
And tossing around a beanie baby. So working on some hand eye coordination as well as, you know, talking and listening. And, um, it was for me just evidence of building in things like restorative circles into even just, you know, every day teaching and learning. Um. There was definitely a focus on office referrals and behavioral, like how to address behavioral issues that come up and trying to standardize or codified that.
So how do we handle referrings. Students to the office. When do we do it? What happens when we do it? Who knows about it? Why do we do it? And just dialogue in each of the schools about, about that process. So that was a commonality as well. And then one of my favorite things is the integration of the student voice.
And so definitely some intentionality around [00:26:00] are we listening to our students, do they have the opportunity to speak, and where are they speaking and how are we listening? And I saw that all the way from the littlest ones and in math all the way up to the middle school students who were leaders of different student organizations.
Being in the room with myself and the principal talking about their experience at school. And you know, it's not all good. There are kiddos that you know are called names on the playground, and so, you know, they were able to talk about what that's like for them. And the principal and myself were there listening.
As well as, uh, one of our assistant superintendents. And then I would say one other commonality is that there's just the use of data and all of the schools, they're using data, so they're linking their work plans to our district goals, and they're using numbers, they're talking about where they are now, where they want to be, and what moves they plan on taking to get there.
So that was also very evident. [00:27:00] Um, I would say just a brief highlight about each school. I had the nice contradiction where a Bolton, there's a brand new principal, and while he's not brand new to our district, but he's brand new as the principal at Bolton, and to be able to see the moves that a brand new principal can make as far as that fresh perspective, what systems need to be improved or fine tuned or tightened.
And so being able to see that juxtaposed with. I'm the principal at Rosemont Ridge who's been there for many, many years, is clearly well-respected and has that longevity and the benefits that come with that. And so that was neat just to see that there's strength in both of those positions. And then.
Stafford Stafford has a very strong focus on mathematics right now and is applying an equity lens to their focus on [00:28:00] improving outcomes and mathematical learning. And so that would be kind of my big takeaways from each of those. I could go on, but I know we have four other people who want to speak.
I will just say one other thing about the process, and that's just that I continue to prefer this over the more formal. Sit down where we listened to all the principals at one time. I appreciate getting to know the principals, um, on more of a one on one level, and I love going into the classroom and seeing it in action.
I think it gives me a window into our schools that I wouldn't have otherwise. So thanks. I'm going to start there. I agree. I like the process of going to the schools. Um, this time I only met with students and additional staff at, um. One school. Um, but it was all right with both processes. Um, I still got the information about what was going on in the school and went into [00:29:00] the classrooms.
I think that's the other component that was important for me is to be able to see the learning in the classrooms. Um, so. I went to three schools and I, it occurs to me that you probably as fellow burb members don't know what the work plan is for the school. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the materials I got and then some of my observations.
So I went. And I also want to share with, part of my process is we got, we received the district and school work plans from this year and then also in our learning about data, we got the work plans and the data from last year. And so I combined those and just made some observations about, Hey, looks like this school would need to be working on math.
I wonder what I'm going to hear about math or this school has an issue with attendance. For a particular group of cohort or students, [00:30:00] and I would expect to hear about that. And so, and that indeed is what has happened for me, but I think it was helpful to be informed, um, beforehand about the data from the school.
So I think in terms of process, I think it's important to have the report cards before we go in and to have data when we, we go forward. Uh, at Lowery, I want to first shout out a dual language teacher. Um, who is really the model for class teaching is Silvana all her Doris and I just want to shout out for the work that she's doing there and the leadership and modeling she's providing to the other teachers in the dual language program and extended beyond that.
The. Lowery, the mission is how do we create and nurture a community that promotes social and academic excellence for every student every day. [00:31:00] And the way they're doing that is they're, um, using their, their time to look at data. They have map data teams that met last the week before I had been there.
Um, so there. They're looking at growth from year to year. Um, and they understand the interdependence of attendance to that and are looking at, uh, their child study team about how they can, um, provide child friendly, um, efforts to increase attendance. . They're also using structured talk protocols, and I would note that this goes to really the.
The first and second goals in our district, and I saw this in all three schools, the level of thoughtfulness and, uh, using research and tools [00:32:00] that the teachers and principals have about how to educate and what works and what moves. The dial is very intentionally used when they're looking at the data and they're implementing their school plans.
Um. So they're, they're looking at the workshop models at Lowery, um, to determine best practices in literary literacy and a framework for their math as well. Um, the other thing that I thought was important that they're doing at Lowery, they're assessing a student's strengths to be able to reach equitable outcomes.
So how do we look at a particular student's strength in order to encourage improvement in math? Um, how do we highlight that? Um, I . My observations in the classrooms. Um, they are focusing again on, um, [00:33:00] a lot of the professional development is they're reading, um, together. Um, and they're looking at their data from last year and comparing it, uh, for this year, making instructional moves as teams.
And, um.  nine of their staff attended a leadership conference, and now I don't have it, but they're doing things together as a team to improve their  Mmm. Collective learning and help for their students, uh, and observations in the classroom. Um, just really. The things that I saw last year were like, we need to have on the wall what the expected outcomes are.
Like we weren't even talking about that yet this year, but it wasn't every classroom cause I look, so it's just become a routine and you go in and students, you know, everybody knows. So [00:34:00] for me, what I learned in the going in the classroom is, one, is we're just doing those things from year to year or improving every year in what we're doing.
And, um, that just has become routine. And the other thing is just the complexity of the learning and, um,
the student voice also, um, in the different classrooms. And we're talking kindergarten classrooms, which just were just amazing. Um. Education going on at Lowery, at Boones ferry. Um, their goal is to treat each other well, strive for excellence, do our best to learn and take care of this place.
And the shout out there is to the instructional coordinator, Derek Porter, who has created some amazing, um, posters, um, and, uh, worked with fifth graders, um, to create leadership opportunities. And. And has created an equitable way to do that [00:35:00] across the entire fifth grade and, um, has affected, um, the kinds of things that we would want to see, um, happening across the school.
But also then creating leaders that can go from primary school to middle school and then continue that leadership like those we see here come before us. So. Well, shout out to him. The focus, um, for Boones ferry is on social, emotional learning inclusive practices. And I said, well, what about your math?
And uh, they said, you know, as I would have expected, we know that if we're doing the social emotional learning and inclusive practices, that we're going to see growth in those areas. Um, and so, um. They also have replaced the Tuesday staff by professional learning, connected to [00:36:00] student learning, again, using data and pushing for the second steps, curriculum for the social and morning emotional learning.
And they're also doing pre assessing at the beginning of a unit. So, um, in order to differentiate between different students, which I think goes to the. Again to one and two is for each student's learning. So what do students know about math that they're learning now and then, Mmm. Some may already know this unit and what are we going to do for them?
How are we going to meet their needs? And others. Boy, they just have this basic component missing. So really doing that assessment before they start a unit instead of just driving right into a unit that may or may not speak to the, that particular student or that particular group of students. And I'll be excited to see what outcomes they have from that.
I think that Dr. Johnson is donating, um, an incredible job [00:37:00] meeting. The culture of cultural needs of the Boones ferry community that we may have heard about last year. Um, and, and, uh, she would attribute that one of the things they're doing to try to, um, improve outcomes particular for like second graders and first graders that were noted in the map assessments, that they have new teams and new perspectives that were put in place.
Um. Bye. Dr. Freeman, um, last year, and, and those are continuing to show the kinds of results that we would hope there. Then I went to arts and technology high school, and, um, I want to know that their goals are the same ones that I understood they had last year. And, um, they're.
The [00:38:00] unqualified commitment to each and every student to reach those goals. I think year after year is, um, important for us to note and know where the, um, they want all of their 12th grade students with 15 or more credits to successfully complete their high school success plan. Um. They want 100% of their seniors to develop a high post high school plan and to have participated in some step towards that and 100% of their families to be collaboratively engaged with the school.
And that last goal in particular because of the student body population, their real need for these students to get supports to get their credits, to be able to graduate. They have identified how important is to have family collaboration. The other thing I think is notable that's happening is that they're looking at their data in a way where they can celebrate successes.
So instead of waiting late to [00:39:00] say, Oh, did they all graduate? Did they not? They're able to say, this particular student. Has increased by this kind of credit. So they can see across the board, um, how many of their students are making progress or are, and so, you know, um, they've created some graphics that I think are probably encouraging for the student body.
For each student and for their staff to know that 80% of their students are on a winning per streak so that they know that they're mean. They're moving towards circles. Um, again, good leadership there from, um, Suskia Dressler. Um. What else? I was able to, uh, I think instead of a shout out to one, they're the, they have a team.
They work as teams there. The students work, the steam students get together a frequently, um, in cohorts. That's not what they call them. Crews. And, [00:40:00] um, and teachers are meeting and staff are meeting collaboratively throughout the week and, uh, they're addressing, um. They have a students that they have a success team and, or they're working also collaboratively with other high schools for ninth grade, um, success teams.
And what I'm hoping is that things they're learning that allow students to. Get to graduation are things that our other high schools can take and incorporate with their students as well. There's just a lot going on there. I was able to meet with the students and I guess the there what part of what, um, they're doing the arts and technology is to make a dependent learner into an independent learner and to gradually release, um, the responsibility and agency of learning to the student, which is.
Um, something all of our high school students could benefit from. [00:41:00] Um, I did speak with the students and I want the board to know that what the students, what I heard the students say is being able to attend arts and technology high school to have the smaller classes to having school be something they want to go to create hope.
And thank you for, um, the opportunity to visit the schools. I have one more to go. I'll be going to see Euro next month.
Thank you. Chair monitor. Um. I had the chance to go to three schools, 80 Creek, Beckman Creek, and Trillium Creek, and I want to talk kind of big picture and then kind of dive down into what side I saw at some of the schools. Um, so a couple of things became very clear to me. One is vice chair.
Um, King was exactly right. Each of the schools I went into very purposeful. Yeah. And what they were doing. Um, it's easy to think that sometimes these [00:42:00] schools are in silos or kind of aimlessly wandering through what they should be doing. That's not the case at all. When you sit down with these administrators, they have a plan for what they're doing.
A very well thought out plan, which leads me to the second thing, which is I saw, which is that there's a. Very common culture in our district. From what you're talking about, the superintendent to the assistant superintendents or assistant superintendents, the principals are the principals, the vice principals, all the way down to the teachers.
What you see is the same things, the same type of leadership happening, the same goals being worked towards. Um, and the best way to put that is, um, autonomy with a shared vision. That's just kinda kept coming back to me. Autonomy with the shared vision. Um, people are given the framework, here's what we want to accomplish.
Here's what our goals are. Now go out and accomplish these goals in the best way that you can figure out how, and then come back and let's see what you'll learn to figure out what we can do better. What, uh, what did you do that work? What did I do that works? Let's see what we can do. And going back to my social studies teacher days, it reminded me of the lesson I had about the 50 States being laboratories of democracy.
I feel like we have kind of laboratories of [00:43:00] education in each of our schools. And that was really powerful to see. And there's an example at Trillium. Trillium, I'm going to mention later. Um, and so I was, I went to the schools, I thought a lot about vertical number one. Grow student achievement through the use of high leverage instructional engagement strategies and dealing and talking with them about what dr  talks about, ways we move the needle, what actually improves student outcomes.
And so, um, specifically when I went to each school, I toured classrooms and what I saw in every single classroom without exception, was one, learning targets were posted in conspicuous locations as been, as been mentioned. Students were doing the talking. Um, for those of us who haven't been in public.
Um, classrooms in 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, you would be shocked to see how much students are doing the leading and doing the talking. And then also not only talking to the teacher, but conferring with each other. And those are the three of the top four things that we know make a difference. And so to see that in every class I went into and every school I went into showed that, um, our schools are on the cutting edge of, of educational, um, achievement science, knowing what [00:44:00] works.
Um. And I also made sure I talked to every principal and assistant principal and icy about the importance of professional learning communities. Um, and so I'll get to that with each school first. Um, I was at athe Creek with mr Sebastian, who's here tonight. And what I really appreciated about that was, um, this was the first time my principal emailed me ahead of time saying, here's the agenda.
Here's what we're going to cover. Do you have any questions before we get there? And that really helped streamline the process. So thank you for that. Mr Sebastian. Um. We spent a lot of time talking about professional learning, community communities, and what we talked about was the what we all know, which is that this is the most valuable thing for kids, for moving the needle, but only if it's done correctly.
It's really easy to have PLCs and just have it squandered, not using a useful way. And so we talked about what he did. To ensure that it was as useful as possible, and it was actually really insightful. Um, some of the things that he did is, um, I had never heard of this before, but he actually has his PLCs meet three through about three times every week, and they're able to do this during school because he has 'em.
[00:45:00] Prep periods. The calendar is took tremendous amount of effort. Um, so that all the science teachers at a particular grade have the same prep period. All the math teachers are to pick the grade of the same prep so they can meet, um, you know, 10, 15, 20 minutes, three times a week and share, um, what's, what's working and what's not working.
Um, to help make sure it's effective. He has every one of his teams answer these questions. What do, what do we want the kids to know or learn? How do we know if they learned it? What do we do if they didn't learn it and what do we do with, they did learn it. Um, and then report back what they had done.
And they talked about de privatizing the classroom. Um, and. What's, what's impressive is that mr Sebastian and his team, it's not just, um, it's not just a superficial inquiry, but it's a deeper, and like what does de privatizing mean? And what he found is that teachers are oftentimes very good about sharing what works, but not always so good at sharing what doesn't work, which in some cases is more valuable.
And so he's making sure they deep, they fully deprivatized privatized and not just the, the successes. Um. And he checks in with his PLCs. [00:46:00] He gives them the power to make the plans, what are your goals, but then checks in on them to make sure those goals are actually being reached and work towards.
Um, and we also had a really insightful discussion, um, with this team about the difference between growth and achievement. Something that I didn't know much about and what mr Sebastian talked about with me is that 80 Creek's a very high functioning middle school with, um, state test scores on average, 15 to 20 points higher than the rest of the state.
But it's really easy to become complacent with those test scores to say, look how good they are. And that's why at 80, they focus more on growth rather than achievement, because growth ensures that we're actually focusing on improvement, not just maintaining the status quo. Um, quickly at Beckman Creek, I the chance to meet with principals, Lindy Sproul and her instructor, instructional coordinator, Carrie Gubbins.
And what's great about this duo is that they've been working together at Beckman Creek for seven years. So there's really a sense of continuity and stability there. And when you meet with them, there's a really strong sense of, um, they compliment each other's skills very well. And so we talked to, at their school about what they're [00:47:00] doing to.
Um, to move the needle. And one of the things they talked about was increasing attendance because at Beckman Creek, 18% of the students missed 10% of the school year. Um, um, on average, which a while that's on par for the rest of the state, that's much higher, um, than most of our districts. And so, um, mrs Sproul talked about is they have a policy if a kid misses two days in a row.
The teachers calling home. If it misses three or more days, she is calling home. Um, and they really, because attendance is so important for student success, they manage just on a case by case basis. So is it an anxiety issue? Is to transportation issue? Is the student living in a house where there's five children in a bedroom, including teenagers, so they can't go to sleep until midnight.
And then working with families try to find ways to solve those problems. Um, they talked about math scores being possibly not as high as they like because of over scaffolding, which means they were actually offering the kids too much help. And they talked about the value of letting kids enter that learning pit.
So rather than building a bridge for them to always get to the right answer, letting them have some of that, you know, [00:48:00] um. Discomfort of not knowing what to do. And then conducting a formative assessment along the way to find out, okay, what do they need help with? What don't they need help with so that we're not wasting time, pizza and things they already know and giving me a chance to learn.
And then of course, talked about collaborative planning the same way, um, as we did at athe in this case. Why the same focuses do you prioritize in classrooms? Um. Teachers are broken at grade level. And they also, again, that modeling at different levels as all these principals have, there is triads, their triads with Beckman Creek, I'm sorry, with them Lowery and Boones ferry.
Um, and so it was, it was a very humble servant leadership at that school, which I just, I really honor that and respect that and like to see that modeled. And lastly, it Chilean Creek and met with principal Kate Donagen and her IC, Christina Freeman. Um, and, um. Again, right, right at the outset, she says, these are our school goals.
The way we reach these goals is we first looked at the district goals and that was her starting point. Um, their goals there would [00:49:00] increase every student's, um, grade level in math and language arts by one year. Um, if they were behind grade level, they wanted to see one in a third year's growth.
Um, they discussed some of the same challenging over scaffold, things being addressed. Um. When they're looking, they're looking at what's working at different grade levels and what's looking at different schools. And so this is kind of that laboratories of education when I saw is we have principal Donagen actually looking out at other schools, other grades saying, Hey, what's working over here?
And then a really interesting question she had is, it's not just enough to succeed, but we have to know why we're succeeding. And she, she asked, are we leading or are we lucky? Um, and if we're actually leading, we know why we're succeeding. And we can generalize that to other, other programs, other teachers in other grade levels.
Um, and she also had multiple professional learning communities, not just by grade level, but also by subject matters. Um. And she also worked with each one of those, recognizing that some had strong PLCs, some had weaker, um, and she was working closely to make sure the ones that were weak or had all the support they needed to, to improve.
So, um, as, as I was last [00:50:00] year, very impressed. Um, I wish that all the parents in the district had the opportunity to see what I, what I did. Um, mr Sebastian point out the author Richard for, um, who was a book that dr Ludwig gave me to read, um, which is that this, the field of education in general in this country.
May have more advancements than maybe any other field except for electronics. I'm in the last 50 years of, it's a field where that what students are learning now is so much greater than what they were learning 20 and four years ago, 20 and 40 years ago. And we're on, we're on the cutting edge of that as a district, and I'm just really proud of what I saw.
Thank you. Um, I'm going to start by saying, just giving my overall thoughts as well, and, um, my overall thoughts very much mirrors what, um, my colleagues does as well in that just being so impressed with the intentional thought. That goes into every single school day from the district office down [00:51:00] to our administrators, down to our teachers.
And, um, just what be goes on behind the scenes to make sure that what happens in our classrooms means something is an intentional and results in learning. So, um, and, and I would kind of echo what you said, um. As a former biology teacher, I see that as a huge difference back from when I was teaching and.
Walked in the classroom and taught my curriculum, but it wasn't necessarily driven by district goals or, or, um, wasn't uniform. We didn't have district goal or goals that were uniform across the board. So again, just being impressed with. Gosh, this is amazing that I'm all this thought that goes behind what our students are getting in the classrooms.
So first I'm going to talk about the cycles of inquiry that I saw at each one of the schools. And then I'll talk about some of the themes that I saw. Um, and as I mentioned, I'm not mentioning all of the cycle cycles of inquiry that were presented to me. I'm [00:52:00] just highlighting, um, the first place I got to visit, uh, Willem at primary.
And, um, I also just want to think. Um, the administrators who met me at each school, and, um, it was just such a warm environment everywhere I went. Um, and I think I always overstayed my welcome, so I want to apologize for that as well. Um, because it is fun to be in the schools and talk to students and hear what's going on.
So, um, at Willamette, um, there are two cycles of an inquiry or kind of focus were increased growth and achievement in mathematics for all students. I think that's something that we're hearing across the board as well as a focus on social emotional learning. Um, specifically expanding the toolbox of strategies used to help students self-regulate.
Um, as well as creating strong connections with each student. Last year they surveyed their students and 80% of them said that they had connections to at least three adults at Willamette. And their [00:53:00] goal this year is to have 100% of their students feel known, cared for, and connected to a laminate.
Um, the evidence that I saw that they are working toward this goal. I had the opportunity to meet with six students and, um, they were asked a series of questions and several of those questions focused on what are the adults doing here to help you feel connected. Uh, when asked what helps you feel most connected and involved in your class?
All three students who answered. Said their teachers and the staff, they mentioned paraeducators. They mentioned librarians. Um, so not just the main teacher in their classroom, but other people. I think they, a custodian was also mentioned as well. So, um, they didn't mention. The other students in their class, they really did focus on these educators being the ones that helped them feel connected at school.
Uh, when asked, think of a time at school when you're worried or upset, how did adults and our friends help you during this [00:54:00] time? Every student responded with incidents about teachers and staff comforting them. Um, I thought it was interesting too. One student mentioned being sent to the principal's office for doing something bad.
That was his language. And, um, that when he got there. He discovered that the focus was on solving the problem versus being punished. And, um, just what a difference that made, um, in that whole day for him and that whole situation. So, uh, at Meridian Creek middle school, the focus was on support for emerging bilingual students.
Um, to see, first of all, to see an increase in reading levels for emerging bilingual students as measured by map reading during the 2019 20 testing windows. And then also coming off that goal would be, um, LSAs and SBAC scores will show growth in vocabulary for all students at Meridian Creek middle school.
Recognizing that when [00:55:00] we focus on increasing the vocabulary of our emerging bilinguals, um. It also helps all of our students that helps the vocabulary of all of the students. Um, little bit of background. That, uh, principal Olson shared was that middle coast, middle school students are exposed to 10,000 new words every year, and they are expected to incorporate 3000 of those into their language and to learn them.
And what they have found, that data says that students need about 13 to 17 interactions with each word in order to be able to comfortably and successfully learn that vocabulary. Um, so the evidence that I saw of them working toward that goal, um, in the science class that we had the opportunity to go into, the teacher actually had a word wall.
And that is also the second quarter goal of all of the teachers. Um, at Meridian Creek, a word wall with several vocabulary words, [00:56:00] valence, CAD, ion and ion, covalent, ionic. They were studying chemistry and the teacher was asking specific. Questions that required the students to use the vocabulary that was on that word wall in their answer, and when they did answer with that vocabulary, then having the entire classroom repeat those words, especially in science because.
It's hard. Students are very apprehensive about pronouncing some of those words that, um, can be tricky. And if, as a science teacher, I was apprehensive about pronouncing some of those words. So I'm just continually, you know, getting them used to using that word and pronouncing it curricularly.
Um. Let's see. And then at Wilsonville high school, um, focus on instruction and support a freshman. So their goal is 100% of freshmen students will be on track at the end of the school year, [00:57:00] meaning that they will have earned six credits toward graduation. And then also eliminating the discrepancy between student groups, um, in those on track and of freshman year.
So making sure that there aren't achievement gaps between, um, different groups of students. Um, the evidence is that they have created a freshman success team that's focused on instructional practices assessment in relationships. They have a dedicated additional professional development time for collaboration between these teachers.
Um, they, these teachers use that time to monitor and discuss progress of their students that they share to discuss strategies for encouraging the students and making sure that they're seeing success in all of their classes. Um, have the opportunity to visit these classrooms with the freshmen that kind of were on this freshman success team.
And then I also had the opportunity to listen to a focus group of some students that were in [00:58:00] the same freshman team. All of them said that their transition to high school was easy. Um, possibly in part because they're in this new freshman success team. Um, they all mentioned the willingness of these teachers to help them be successful.
And they did add, here's the thing that they wanted the school board to know. So I wanted to make sure this is kind of off track, but I told them I would share. Um, they would like more life skills classes like home economics, um, cooking, um, personal finance. So they check writing, bill Payne, how a credit card works, how to do your taxes and such, and just basic car maintenance, um, as far as how to fix a flat tire and how to check oil.
So. I know, I was thinking, gosh, those would all be great skills for me to have as well. Um, so that was Wilsonville high school. So some shared themes that I saw across all three schools. Um, the emphasis on social emotional learning and also the emphasis on increasing math and reading scores on statewide [00:59:00] assessments.
Um, some of the new learnings that I had, just, um, again, I said this at the beginning, the intentional. School wide instruction that results from these cycles of inquiry that come down from our district goals. Um, and, and then the other thing I would say too is just that whole idea that all of the different work, new words that our students are exposed to every year, the number of words, the number of words we're expecting them on average to take in.
And then that reminder that it's 13 to 17 times, um, before they're able to take those words in. Um, as far as board goals and action, um, where I saw those that will limit, um, the professional learning teams, um, that meet regularly to collaborate and create to district, uh, to go one high level instructional strategies that will benefit all students.
Um, specifically they're getting together, they're planning math units together [01:00:00] and utilizing these new strategies. Um. To increase those math scores at Meridian Creek. Um, I would say the use of the word wall to help emerging bilinguals and all students increase their vocabulary. Um, speaking to the equitable outcomes for all of our students, while eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps.
And finally at Wilsonville high school, um, the use of the freshmen teaching teams to raise the success once again of all of our students as teachers collaborate to instruct, assess. And build the competence and accountability of the freshmen they teach. So, and this was my first time in this process.
So as far as I'm concerned, it was good. I have nothing to compare it to. And, um, I'm looking forward to go back again next year.