October-7-2019-Regular-Board-Meeting-segment-2
[00:00:00] Q. so
there we go some highlights of. Homecomings and pep rallies you mentioned all the events that you've been to want to thank the board considerably because when I'm showing up at things one of you are a several of you are there as well and it's so appreciated by our staff and our students and by myself, so thank you for all the curriculum nights.
I. Art Tech kicked us off with the first curriculum night that always includes this amazing barbecue Feast. So thank you principal Dressler for kicking those off for us. And then most of them are are then nice for the parents, but then we also have other barbecues and Stampy's a lot of sports events have been able to go to football both the homecoming game.
Volleyball I think the big the big one for Wilsonville girls is the game against LaSalle and a little bit. So we're going to want to go to [00:01:00] that one and getting to watch little bit of soccer. I was at the map fundraiser at St. Josephs. This is her second time to be there at the winery. It was a beautiful event with music and students there and Junior scoop as well as just that message of.
Thanking patrons for supporting the music and arts and the district a lot of fun runs. So if you have mentioned and we love thon's also been at as many PTA meetings as we've been invited to mr. Kills from and I to give information about the capital Bond and local options. So that's been our Focus this month is to get to those October PTA meetings.
We have one early tomorrow morning as well at Willamette and then a few middle schools. So those are in addition to all the regular events going on. It's a special year. I did ask Avery and Ryan to just share a little bit more with you tonight about it. Not every school turns 100 and has that [00:02:00] significance and at some point we'll we'll get to recognize Wilsonville with that and then the reimagining of art Tech will have its, you know, pioneering and and celebrations, but this is a pretty big deal.
When will when Westland High School became a high school in 1919. So this is we're going to the 100th year prior to that students went to Oregon City for high school. So they went grades 1 through 10 in our district area with the various iterations of middle schools and and then went to Oregon City and then it was in 1919 that we open the doors of our high school at that time.
It was called Union High School if that rings a bell. And then it had some iterations like West Union at one point. It was Oswego Westland High School until Lake Oswego open their own school and it was in that in 1938 that it really became Westland High School with that name but did [00:03:00] open its doors a hundred years ago, even in 1938.
There were kids who came from Gladstone a few still from Lake Oswego and around the area as their schools were beginning to develop. Up during that time. So there's a long Rich history. There's a wonderful online version of just about West Linn that has stories about how the city kind of developed if anyone's curious about it, but I think it's really special to our community since when you read in those pages, it's really schools that often anchored a community of course their businesses, but often when when people could send their children to school it began to really anchor the.
So we've got we do have T-shirts that you're going to go home with tonight as well as your little terrible towels and we want to make sure you're included all the celebrations. On Saturday, this was the second time that Wilsonville high school. So thank you principal Schmidt. I know your staff worked incredibly hard because there's a [00:04:00] lot of setup on Friday for this to take place on Saturday the second time we've heard hosted the girls gen robotics tournament.
So this is again a. Cursor to the first robotics large tournament. This one is just for girls who are on the team to work with robot the their Robotics and they have it their own little
simulation that that group of robots need to do. It's not quite as involved as the regular tournament, but it gives them a chance the keynote speaker the pictures very blurry. That's Caroline Swanson who's an alumnus of ours. And now is working in engineering and robotics and design for Nike and so she came and was able to be a keynote speaker and had a great message to the audience.
And there's one of the pictures they're the one in the middle is actually I was at the 700 building at Western High School a few days before the tournament watching the girls putting their finishing touches and just deep in [00:05:00] conversation about how to improve their robot. And then the last picture there of course is our.
Area code 0 from Wilsonville high school. So both high schools were represented and they did a great job. So it was great to see and a great turnout to the stands were full. So again, shout out to Wilsonville high school. Thank you for hosting that. We are now in the in deep in the work of principals are thinking about their school work plans are looking at data.
That's come back there making observations in classrooms watching teachers engaging teachers and thinking about their goals for the year. And I'm just going to pass this along so learning walks have started as always the invitation for you there on Tuesday Mornings. Send me an email if you'd like to join one on a Tuesday morning that you're available and you can go with me wherever we happen to go.
But what's coming up is then your school visits which [00:06:00] you will coordinate with Kelly with dr. Sois in dr. Pryor and dr. Downs in terms of the schools that you have this year for the school work plan conversations doesn't mean that these are the only schools you have to visit if you like to do.
Learning walk at another school. That's not the one that you're doing your school work plan visits to that's fine additionally last year chair Molitor and I did a learning walk around nutrition services. So if you have a particular area, maybe you want to see some of the Dual language classrooms.
We could create a learning walk where you see a series of classes or around a particular area. We can arrange that as well. So that's for you and last year. My notes are notes have that. We began these about mid-october going even into mid-november a little bit so you can begin to think about your calendar and availability and unorganized those and where [00:07:00] principles are with the completion of their work plan will will be you know, when you come into that process you'll you'll get to hear about them.
And I believe chair Molitor has sent you some questions to be thinking about in terms of what you'd like to ask and it might be that our topic tonight even spur some thoughts for you around some of the work. We've been doing the last year or two classroom. This is just a review again. You know, you'll hear terms like the 5 Dimensions you'll hear about learning targets and success criteria.
Hopefully there's your hearing principles comment about this is ways that we're thinking about Equity or access you might hear the term plc's professional learning communities how teachers learn together. Habits of mind and interaction that's a mathematical term and some of the learning that we're doing around.
Mathematics in some of our schools this year particular our primary schools. [00:08:00] So if there's any of those that you're curious about during, you know, ask the principal or even before hand we can help you with that and this is just a reminder again that you'll visit at least three schools and that will try and construct a way to debrief that we may or may not have a work session in November.
We're still trying to figure out if we have a date for that, but certainly we can think about in December January. He had a debrief those visits.
That that's really dependent on your calendar. If you can so you can start anytime mid-october. I don't know if a school has actually finished their school plan out right now. They're trying to be genitive with their staff to and engage them in the process which takes a little while and a few meetings so that way I think when you enter just enter in where the plan is, but you can certainly ask the principal where it's going when those are completed will make sure like last year [00:09:00] you all have a binder that has every schools work plan.
As well as every schools report card report cards by the state are still embargoed until middle of the month. Once those are released we can add those in if you recall last year. There was a board member who wanted to do the visits after the report cards have been released which pushed her visits more into November by the time she got those scheduled but we're really thinking you can get them done before Thanksgiving.
I think that'd be a great. Timeline and how whatever dates and you have available. I think we'll just start working with it. And can I ask as the protocol that we schedule those visits for Kelly guide you through Kelly? Okay.
Do you miss Kelly? Do you want us to email you dates or you'll be reaching out? So we just wait awesome. Thank you.
So each board meeting. I'm going to [00:10:00] give you kind of little chunk and chew, you know, not all at once but you know some measurable amounts to digest around the Student Success act and if you recall last month we had binders for you to put information in. This is again. Just a very you have this one, but just to reference at least for my next few slides.
This is a real quick front and back very skinny version of the Student Success act reminding. Our board in our community who's watching that the money that was passed through legislation will start arriving next year and about fifty percent of that is going into what's called a student investment account and that's a grant that will be applying for but there are really three large components of the Student Success act that you're going to hear a lot about one.
That now the state is brought back this notion [00:11:00] of a continuous Improvement plan or a work plan. So they had suspended that for a number of years. That's why we developed our own work plan that you had that spiral document and you could see our work plan. Now the state is asking for the district to develop one again.
So we've set our own aside and we'll use the template that they're giving all school districts to use. We're in the process of working through that now as an executive team and then at leadership forum. Getting our principles involved in that process. It's really about I'll tell you a bit more about the components.
The second large component of the Student Success act that you're going to hear about is this idea of engaging the community and A needs assessment. What does the community believed that grant money or that we should be focusing on in our school districts. What does the community believe are the needs for students?
And then the third part is we've got to apply for that Grant. So this is kind of a little front and back skinny we [00:12:00] can refer to but I'll take each one of those and just kind of go through them very quickly. So in terms of developing that continuous Improvement plan. Plan, I guess I was redundant up there.
You have to tell what your vision is of your District your mission. We all know what those are we talked about them constantly our mission statement this idea of a comprehensive needs assessment and I'll share with you that in a little bit identifying some goals for the district. And what we really want to do for our sit flat is make sure they align with the school work plan.
So we don't want to create goals and in isolation or parallel and then the schools are working on goals. The idea is what's collectively the goal that primary that folds into the district plan. What's collectively goals at middle school that becomes part of the district plan and what are the big goals of high school that become part of the district plan.
So you really should be able to see that that through line if you recall that document that had the arrows about how goals and form each other along the way and then what strategies will we use to meet those goals? [00:13:00] How will we measure the outcomes? What are the metrics for that? The state has recommended a number of metrics like third grade reading ninth grade completion of courses attendance or absenteeism graduation rate, but has also left open for a.
To identify some of its own measures. So if we want to use maybe some map scores or if we want to say 5th grade math, you know 3rd grade reading but we also look at 5th grade math or something in middle school we can we could do that. So they've left some of those metrics open to districts to identify if they'd like to do that.
Little bit of the timeline. We have to bring the Sip plan to you and December so our December board meeting is on the second. So you will see that plan and then it has to be submitted to the state by Vi that has to be in and submitted before we can even apply for any of the grant money. So they want to know what's your District's overall planning goals.
This idea of a [00:14:00] comprehensive needs assessment has several components. They want you to also do an internal needs assessment using a rubric to take a look at where you think the data is showing that students are doing well and where you could make improvements and so we're working through that internally through that rubric.
But then a large part that's that's different for a number of us is how are you engaging stakeholders? Are there going to be focused groups? Did you already engage them in the last year or so and get information? And how are you engaging members of the community who have been historically unrepresented or underserved?
So particularly whose voices at the table that's giving you information about what the district is doing well to meet students needs and where they can make improvements. The next slide tells the five areas that the state wants us to get feedback from the community on so when we engage our community, they want us to interact and [00:15:00] ask the community.
How do you think we're doing with reducing academic disparities course, we have to use some more language than that. So our community knows what we mean by that. How are we doing a where do you see needs around Mental Health? What about access to academic courses and this is where you can imagine some districts say could you please bring back the Arts or music or expand PE?
This is a place to restore some of those if that's what their Community is looking for. How are we making sure that staff has enough time to collaborate or meet and plan together to look at data to support students that that was a heavy interest in the across the state as if you as you remember those legislators made those.
Tours across the state engaging communities and then what kind of Partnerships exist just like our board goal that help to strengthen a school's Mission and work and the Community Partnership. So those are the five areas that were being asked to engage the community [00:16:00] in and get feedback. And then from those five areas.
We have those for allowable buckets that we can then draw money from and those are the ones they're on that pencil down below. So, how did. We hear from the community create then priorities for us around the Grant and then the next slide. Okay, so there's there's a little more about the needs assessment.
What we're determining right now is we think we may have already some data from our community. For example, the safety advisory committees the bond Summit budget meetings the high school study both all of our high schools. All three of our high schools did a very comprehensive High School Credit ation process that included getting.
Back from parents. So right now what we're doing is we're calling the needs assessment data. We believe we already have. You're here tonight about us a very comprehensive survey that was given to every teacher across the association. So what do we always learn from that so we're looking at what data do we already [00:17:00] have?
What data do we still need? Are there some groups who have been historically underserved that we need to specifically go to and get information from perhaps. It's families in foster care or migrant families that we need to make sure we get some information from those we would like to do now. In small groups and phone calls and then for us our strategy is thinking after a lot of the messaging around the bond and local option.
Then we'll start to get some large surveys out to our broad Community asking again their opinion the strategy with that is we're already inundating them with a lot of information about Capital Bond and local option and we'd like to kind of do this in manageable increments. Once we get all that feedback that goes into our sip plan.
So hear more about in December so the results of the feedback. And if our state plan is approved then in January and February, we begin we can begin to work on our Grant [00:18:00] application for the student investment account. That's the funding that comes to us. So those five areas for input now transition into the for allowable of Investments and we write that Grant application saying this is what we heard.
This is what we believe our need is therefore we want funding in these areas. And then we submit that plan in March. We present it to the school board in April's. That's the timeline the state has given us so you're going to hear a lot about this. But this is a handy dandy little to page. You can add it into your binder and will continue to walk you through this each month as a board.
There's a lot to it and there's a lot of information that comes in all different. Forums and so we're trying to make this as manageable as possible. Just a reminder that we have a couple of events this week. We have the first responder joint breakfast meeting. If anyone would love you would like to come to that.
You're welcome to just let Kelly know again. We want to thank ithi Creek Church [00:19:00] in Westland for hosting that so we have ample space and parking. Then what this building can provide the topics we're going to be reviewing lockout procedures and we're just going to get into some conversation about vaping and E-cigarettes as a health topic and then from there plans to extend those conversations school-based instead of such a large group, but we'll get into that the very end of that agenda.
Just a couple safety updates. We have evacuation chairs want to thank dr. Spencer Iams and her team, you know, we have some two story buildings and evacuation becomes difficult with students who maybe aren't mobile or in wheelchairs and so we have purchased special evacuation chairs, and these were testing them out here and they've worked great so far.
Another update we've often heard from substitute teachers that we don't know those safety protocols. So when [00:20:00] a guest teachers in the building their badge looks different than than a higher teacher and they've got those four protocols on the backs of want to thank Curtis for arranging for that with his team's when you get those on Badges and lastly also want to thank mr.
Kill strum for creating a webinar on. Those for safety protocols lockout lockdown shelter in place an evacuation that now is a webinar that every teacher has to take the beginning of the year and every substitute has to take so they go through that small training which is new this year and we actually do create it because there wasn't one available out there.
And so I want to thank mr. Kill system for working really hard to put that together.
And also this week if you've had breakfast and then you want lunch the next day you can come to lunch. We're gonna have the joint rotaries Westland and Wilsonville. This is our third [00:21:00] lunch together third or 4/3 lunch together. Yeah. Oh, sorry wrong date. It's the tenth not XI 12 o'clock 80 Creek Middle School and the topics I'll give a small overview on the capital Bond and local option.
If you remember this was a group that early on gave us a lot of feedback and input on our high schools and what they were hoping to see this is the group that's really started pushing CTE and we did more inquiry with that. So it's fun to come back and share with them where their input has gotten us.
And then also the presentation you had from Laura nappy. She's going also present to this group about internships and do some more networking at that lunch and hopefully get some business cards and and get her name and face out there some more and that is the end of my report that group of teachers there.
This is Christy you were also at this event. This is the four-part seminar series that dr. Pryor leads with all of our [00:22:00] new teachers hired in our district whether their first or second year teacher's or they've taught elsewhere newly hired teachers go through a. Heart seminar series learning called teaching with purpose learning about our district and our values and it's led by teachers so teachers.
Inducting new teachers in our district into the professional life of our school district, and this is the group to teachers from high school to from middle school to from primary and each of those teachers one from each side of the district. So I want to thank dr. Pryor for putting that together and dr.
Downs for hosting the first one. And also as dr. fauci still here Josh flossie. Oh, right. Dr. Fauci is the one helping us. Do put all that work together around the Student Success Act and the investment account and the sit plan. So I want to give a huge shout-out to him looking at he's kind of overseeing all of that work around the needs assessments and the data and then the writing [00:23:00] of all of that and helping us stay on top of it.
So, thank you so much. Not really is the end of my report.
Dr. Ludwig with might have a question for you not know. I've just I wanted to add on something that I forgot to mention in my board. That and I had the opportunity to attend a parent community meeting at arts and Tech High School, and I apologize for and I just was so impressed with all principal Dressler does I was planning on going and just kind of sitting introducing myself and then maybe sneaking out but it was super fun just to sit there.
And just inspiring and motivating to see all you do. Not just what I know. You do to lead that's cool. But what you do Beyond, you know, I mean the booster of your the booster club president, you're the principal. You're the holiday luncheon [00:24:00] coordinator your the I mean you name it. Anyway, I was just it was it was a blessing just to sit there and I enjoyed every minute of just hearing.
All the great things so I just not because I needed to say I was there but because I wanted to make sure that you were acknowledged for for just what you do to that school at that school. So thank you.
All right, we will move on to our consent agenda and then Communications from the audience. So is there a motion?
That we approve the consent agenda.
Second it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda. Don't call for a vote, please. Dylan hides. Hi. Christie Thompson by [00:25:00] Reagan Molitor. Yes Ginger fetch. Yes, Chelsea King Martin. I. All right. Next we will move onto Communications from the audience and we have Linda Huber and come on up and while you're doing that I understand you're here to tell us a little bit about the Charbonneau Arts Festival and what you do to help and support our students so welcome and we're glad to have you and feel just state your name and address and then try to keep your comments to about 5 minutes.
We would. Love to hear from you. Okay, great. Thanks. I'm Linda Huber Marshall and I'm a resident of Charbonneau. I live at 7:05. Oh Southwest Arbor Lake Drive. I am a member of the board of directors for the Art Festival. This is our 36th annual Art Festival. I just coming up this will be on November 1st 2nd and 3rd.
The Charbonneau Arts Festival is a. 1 c [00:26:00] 3 non-profit all proceeds from the event do go to the Wilsonville and can be art or high schools art departments and the funds this recently have been used for trips to Museums Art Galleries. Scholarships for entrances into a lot of the art competitions that they have Wilsonville did that extensively last year and had far more students participate in those events than they have had in the past and then art supplies.
Our philosophy is to help keep art in education and our Friday evening event is Friday November 1st. 6 p.m. To 9 p.m. At that event. It's a champagne reception. We have artists that are displaying their art as well as the students have a section where they can display their art and they will also be able to sell their art this year.
This will be the first time that they've ever been able to do that. But we're going to give [00:27:00] them a booth on Saturday. We take that whole ballroom and we change it out into a Artisans type of. Fair and they will be able to have a booth in there and they still will be displaying their art in the art section as well as other artists from the community.
So, how can you participate or help us with this? First of all sponsorships we have sponsorships that started a hundred and fifty and go up to a thousand dollars. This year are large sponsors are Wilsonville Subaru and Wilsonville catering who's providing the majority of the food for our Friday night Gala.
As well as the pamphlet group and so we've done a lot of advertising with them for this event will also be having a silent auction. So if you know of anyone that might be willing to donate something for the silent auction, we would love to have that you can attend the event which we would love to have you do as well as tell others.
And if you have a place where we can give you [00:28:00] some posters, we'd love to have you post this to encourage other people to attend the. This event now I've been involved. This is my third year and quite honestly, I see lack of participation from the parents now Wilsonville I have to say is far more involved than can be is but can be is a school where our students go.
Unfortunately. I don't know why they go to can be either the way back when it was set up that way and I'm sure the state doesn't want to give those dollars away that go to can be to Wilsonville, but it you know, The Wilsonville art teachers are very involved and we're very proud of everything that they have done for their students.
So anyway, I have some cards on the back desk over there. If you'd like to take one is just a reminder of the event with the dates and everything. You can purchase these tickets for $10 for the gala event online or it's $15 at the door. the question. Sorry, but my back to you and do you want to share like if somebody wants to purchase a ticket [00:29:00] online like the address or where they go to to do that sure it is.
It's not even on here. Tell you what. Oh Charbonneau Arts dot-org. Sorry big letters down here at the bottom. Okay. Thank you very much. Let's say thank you. This is it's such a great festival, and I know that our art teachers talk about it, and they're just so appreciative of the support. So thank you for all you do and if you'll extend our thanks to your board and to the group for for all that they do to support the Arts in Wilsonville really appreciative.
I will do that and it's a pleasure to work with them and do something for them as well. Thank you. You
will move on to our presentation [00:30:00] about positive classroom cultures and an update by dr. Pryor and dr. Spencer Iams.
Well that presentations coming up. I know I speak for my colleague and partner. Dr. Jennifer Spencer. I'm so when I say we just appreciate the opportunity to provide an update around the work that's happening in primary schools and. Also just want to shout out the great work of our teachers and our principals who rap our students up and love and care every day.
And we're truly doing this work and probably should be the person that peer sharing thing. But if they're helping any to conferences tonight, so I'm happy. We're happy to do it for them and just. To start out kind of stating what is a nice reminder that we ought to remind ourselves that is that, you know supporting students behavior and how to treat each other compassionately and with care has always been the work of primary [00:31:00] school you put hundreds of.
Five year olds through 11 year olds at a building there probably be lots of opportunities to learn from mistakes and and to treat each other. Well, we know where an extension of families and the values that you're teaching your children at home. We're happy to play that role and it's kind of what we sign up for so I know that.
Behavior has been an ask in terms of an area of focus for primary schools from the parent Community. It's been in the media WWE a has asked us to focus on it and it's a great thing to focus on is part of the work and it's crucial to achieving that board go number one because schools need to feel like places where every student can Thrive can feel safe and feels like they're an integral part to be their absolute best.
So I just went over. With that, dr. Jennifer Spencer and I are going to kind of switch off. We have thought put a lot of thought into this work. It's a culmination of the work of our whole teaching and leadership team to so [00:32:00] dr. Soy song and dr. Downs have all been part of this work that we may interrupt each other to add some crucial piece as we go through the slides tonight.
And we're also just want to say this represents some highlights of the work. We know that you may have questions afterward that we're happy to answer but a full presentation of all the work would probably take much longer than you're willing to hear tonight's we tried to pick some of the
key highlights.
[00:33:00] Thank you. Oh, there we go. Thanks creating learning communities and thoughtful people that how students learn how to regulate their own emotions navigate interpersonal relationships. This is key to what happens in our schools. It is our work a lot right alongside reading and writing and becoming wonderful mathematician.
So we are excited about that and last year we introduced you. To a framework that we had co-developed with the leaders in our district based on lots of best practices that are out there and we have been calling these are seven components of inclusive and Equitable classrooms and really what this guides us on is of all the things that we could focus on in every classroom.
Are there some things that we know we should always be thinking about in [00:34:00] terms of setting all students up for success and thinking about the physical space thinking about. Ensure the expectations are taught and are clear making sure first and foremost. We have those fabulous relationships with high expectations that are communicated that you can do this.
Those are really key to our work throughout and we shared this with you last year. I think also those two. Phrases in script their student voice and teacher efficacy are really what we hope you will continue to hear throughout this work. And if there's time I'll share a little tidbit about that at the very end.
But as we start with that sense that everyone belongs really leads us to this framework that dr. Preijers going to remind you of. And we decided to share a couple Frameworks early and they were going to move to some specific practices that are happening across primary schools. This will likely look very familiar to you because you've heard us talk about [00:35:00] all some few in many ways around how we think about planning.
What we know is that all students deserve the very best practices whether we're talking about. Or more performance character and so we think about behavior in the exact same way. We begin by thinking about the all and this is what the research tells us to is you need to have all this all.
Characteristics in place strongly before you can move toward thinking about the strategies for the sum and the few and so we will touch upon some of these strategies tonight. We just wanted to put that framework out there that all students benefit from Clear Behavior expectations. All students are benefiting from a really strong social emotional learning curriculum.
And then we know that even with those with those in place, sometimes we make mistakes. So that's when we moved to the sum and we might move into restorative practices or some very targeted learning to support their [00:36:00] individualized needs. And then the few really is and we're fortunate to say that few is few in our district.
And these are the more intensive structures of support such as restorative discipline practices or like an alternative Day schedule while student learned some new skills to go back into the typical, you know typical setting or typical learning environment.
another. Tool that we began using a primary last year comes from a strong body of research. You may have heard of positive behavior intervention strategies, you know, we've always sort of resisted as a district wholeheartedly buying into a program, but that doesn't mean we won't take the best assets from a program and won't begin thinking around.
How would we assess what's going really well in Primary School? And what are the levers that we might need to move? We drew from this framework and principles and instructional coordinators last year use [00:37:00] this framework to begin to assess what's in place for the all and again as Jennifer saying with the original Seven components framework.
This helps us. Think about what are we forgetting? You know, we few if you look at all these none of this is going to be you know by itself. And unique or mind-blowing but it's really the integration of all of these strategies together that helps support students. So as you can see, there's features such as how are we teaching Behavior expectations.
Are we celebrating them with children show them? How are we responding when a child needs some additional support all these are strategies that work together to do that and primary leaders last year use this to begin thinking around. You know what strongly in place and what might I need to learn about or begin working on in our schools.
And one of the things that we'll talk about later that really began last year that came out of this assessment was we can probably do a better job [00:38:00] of defining what are the behaviors that we would expect to be classroom or paraeducator managed and what are those behaviors that we might need some support either from a counselor or principal and this was kind of the first step in working with WWE.
I'm sorry. Yeah, WPA2 begin working with teachers around their individual ask for when they might need some learning to take take ownership of working with the child and when they're going to need some additional support. Equally important as we think about research based on what we're drawing upon is really being formed by the workaround trauma-informed practices and really understanding that our students come to us with all kinds of other experiences and ways that might impact their ability to.
Be ready to learn in that moment. And that doesn't mean that we don't connect with them and have high expectations but it does [00:39:00] give us a way of thinking about when a student comes in and doesn't immediately engage with the whole group. How do we think about what their needs might be on a physiological level on an emotional level and as we really looked into the trauma informed.
Practices work and really understanding that there's so much overlap and great cross walking with the things we had already identified in our seven components. So things like having a predictability of schedule for a student who may have had unpredictable things outside of school is really important having relationships and dr.
Downs always helps us. Remember that relationships is really the key to all and particularly for students who may have. Had a more difficult time in the past and we don't always know because what's traumatic for one student might not seem traumatic for someone else so really understanding and having that that sensitive lens as we work through [00:40:00] students and continue to build those skills with and for them.
A couple of folks. I just want to shout out a Zach Dietz who's one of our special ed instructional coordinators and farnoosh. Kissimmee who's one of our school psychologists have been leading a lot of professional development around the the different buildings in our district oftentimes invited by principals to say hey, We want all of our staff to make sure we're really thinking through this trauma informed lens and really supporting all students and really understanding what a student's escalated.
They do a lot of times use this little when they flip their lid and they're really in their limbic system. That's probably not a teaching moment. And so how do we make sure everyone's safe and circle back later to really do the teaching that needs to happen but not when a student is escalated at that time.
So we mentioned I believe it our larger presentation last year that we [00:41:00] were beginning. This worker had were in the middle of this work with our association. This was one of my highlights of last year just professionally as a leader. I had not experienced something like this before so something that it come up in bargaining some concerns about teacher conditions and supports run when a student is.
Being difficult behaviors, right? We all heard that and various moments. And what was very exciting was the structure that leaders in our district leaders like Kathy Monroe and others before her had envisioned to say hey when something comes up in bargaining that's really important for us to pay attention to and Bart collaborate on but it might not be a thing that gets written into a contract.
It might not be that kind of a thing, but it might be something we need to learn about together and make some collaborative agreements. That critical issues protocol is the name for that structure here in Westland Wilsonville school district. And so we had five representatives from WWE a [00:42:00] from primary middle and high school teachers and we had five administrators and we met five times.
So we had a nice little five go in there and each time we met for an hour and a half to two hours and during those times we started off with some visioning like what what do we. I want things to look like in terms of behavior and community and support here with if everything was if we had figured everything out and it's a year down the road.
What would that look like? And so with that visioning process we developed what we called our North Star and I'm going to go ahead and just pass around this folder that has a couple of these documents in there. And you'll see that these beliefs and relationships and shared ownership are just some of the just where we really want to go in terms of the underlying outcomes where we want to get to where we want to be [00:43:00] as a district and we called it our North Star.
So this is collaboratively developed between our certified Association and our administrative representative. And then after we did some visioning and we did a whole lot of learning. What does the research say are the best high leverage practices? How do we impact this when we have some students who may not be regulating very well in the classroom.
What are the things we should be doing to be ahead of that. We did a lot of reading together. Then we looked at lots of data. We looked at a lot of existing data. We looked at data around who's already been trained in different sorts. Of behavior management or supportive or D escalation techniques, what kinds of incident reports are out there how frequently are those being filled out?
Lots of data components did a big data walk together and then discovered we wanted some more information. And so we co [00:44:00] crafted a survey that went out to all of the Association members and we took a lot of time crafting that we went back and forth. Many times because you know how you craft. Those survey questions really matters in terms of making sure people's voices are heard and that you're getting information without swaying people one way or another.
We got a lot of great information with a very high return rate. I'm trying I'm looking over at Kathy Monroe. I think was like 80% of our certified staff responded. So we felt really good about getting voices in there. We had both quantitative and qualitative components to that that helped inform us both on Broad Trends and affirmed.
A lot of things that are going really well in our schools a lot of places where teachers are feeling very supported overall and highlighted some spots where folks thought we. Make some improvements and so we came to back together [00:45:00] and the backside of that Northstar document is actually our next slide which was the recommendations.
So very some of these are kind of restated her beliefs because we can't read we can't do that enough it really matters to us in every time we think about implementing a new data system or something like that. A little bit of nervousness. If we don't do that browned it in our beliefs. We may go in a direction that we don't mean to go where we might start labeling kids or having things that aren't getting us towards that learning community that we all envision.
So we restated some key beliefs, but then we got very specific about what are some systems that we think should be in place at every building. What are some professional learning priorities and that our association was very clear. They want our professional learning priorities. Next year or two to really focus on restorative practices unpacking these [00:46:00] seven components developing these skills.
What would be some district-wide data systems that we might be able to use and a big shout out to Curtis and to con our assistant director of Technology who has really helped us. Develop some systems that we are now beginning to unpack and David will tell you a little bit more about them later.
One of the things that we talked about in terms of personnel was in this just align so beautifully with the needs assessment component of the Student Success act that dr. Ludwig was talking about was we want this year to really be doing some studying around in terms of mental health supports.
What's the model we want to work towards what is. Before we just start saying add more of this group of employees or create this partnership. What is the model we want to work towards in terms of mental and emotional support mental health supports for students. So this is a year that we're really committing to studying more about.
[00:47:00] What are those best practices moving forward? So it was an exciting time. It was shared learning shared data review a lot of diversity of voice and a lot of inclusion of different folks in developing that.
Led to great so you will we took the language from the recommendations and the some of the planning Frameworks and we began thinking how can we support our leaders during our Leadership Retreat to begin using those Frameworks begin crafting their work plans? So over the summer the idea of a turbo assessment seemed like a good idea.
So that's what we call. This is the turbo assessment that all school teams actually used from primary. It'll and high to begin thinking around. What's what's in place going well in our school and what's not yet in place and to begin thinking around how might we prioritize. The needs for our particular [00:48:00] school.
This is just the first page of a multi-page document which you which you have in your folder, but we believe you're going to see elements of this summer thinking in the work plans that you view when you when you visit schools or receive a copy of the work plan and you're going to see artifacts both on the wall things that teachers are saying things that they're teaching you're going to come directly out of this plan.
And the point was to be really begin to strategizing as a school team. A primary it's primarily in the summer your principal and your instructional coordinator coming together and thinking very strategically. You know, what? Are we going to build on that was in place last year to take that next step forward and ensuring that those next steps are strongly researched-based.
If you working you look at the whole document you're going to see language directly out of the North Star at the recommendations out of the inventory and out of the seven components. It's all sort of synthesize in this planning tool.
[00:49:00] So now we wanted to share some specific examples things that you might see or hear when you when you visit schools and we try to capture some of the language on the left side. So like one of the recommendations was that schools have common expectations for student behavior and that they're using really common language and vocabulary and explicit teaching across the whole school.
Classrooms and in all the spaces in the cafeteria. And so this is an example of the Stafford primary tiger traits that was developed over the summer and then unpack the teachers at their first day in service and thank Andrew kill Sturm who helped make this poster beautiful and print out really large copies of it, but you'll see the tiger traits for many years have been be safe be kind be.
And with the leadership team did was ask question. What what might this mean for a first grader? What might this mean in different areas of the school. So they spend some time thinking about all the important areas of their school and begin to Define language and behavior [00:50:00] expectations. So that teachers could explicitly teach this and if I'm coming in as a second grader, I'm likely going to remember.
Oh, yeah. These are the same expectations. We had last year. These are the things that Stafford stands for. and then the next piece. Through this constructivist mindset is thinking how do we support teachers in you know making this real for their classrooms. So here's where we move into sort of the constructivist enough pedagogy of this work, you know that we can't just give children a list of behaviors and think we got them done.
Everything's going to go. Well, we'd really unpack them. So each class. Classroom teacher got a blank poster with the tiger trace on it and what they did during their first day in service since they began thinking for my kids for my grade level for my style of teaching. How am I we unpack these with students?
If so, the white spots were actually written, you know as the teacher facilitated a conversation in their classroom from what [00:51:00] does it mean to be safe to be kind to be responsible in our classroom and in this accomplished a. Things this you know, this work is always done on a primary school. But as you can see now it's becoming more to more.
There's a lot of shared language students hear the same thing from classroom to classroom teacher teams plan together because they all had the same tools. So they built off each others ideas and how to do this really effectively in their classrooms. You will see these posted in classrooms that students have some familiarity with them when they move around the building and then this serves as a really powerful reflection tool I can speak from experience.
I can remember back to my. Pre-primary school days of not always living up to the rules in the classroom. And this is a way for the teacher to help a student kind of own their reflection. No look back at our rules try to identify where a mistake might have been made. What could you have done differently believed to be more in alignment with the rules or procedures that we all develop together at the beginning of the year.
[00:52:00] So those are two artifacts that take something simple shared understanding of behaviors. How do we talk about them how to reinforce? And how the school is making that more explicit and consistent across the entire School.
We have had second steps as. A curriculum resource for teaching social emotional skills in our schools for a number of years, but I would say we've gotten much more intentional and planful and making sure those lessons are taught and really taught well more coherent across our grade levels in buildings.
We've gotten more kits in the hands of teachers a while back. We were you know, trying to be very prudent with our resources and saying, you know, here's one kit that you could share across the grade level which sounds like a good idea until you're the teacher in the classroom and you're trying to find that kit and you only have the short amount of time and so we found just making sure every teacher had a [00:53:00] kit and their classroom made a big difference.
And then making sure that our school counselors were helping to model some lessons make sure that everyone's sort of having these monthly themes around it and then reinforcing the skills out on the playground like we're talking about how to solve a problem and. Thank goodness Here Comes GaGa ball.
Here's an opportunity to practice some of those skills and using those same pieces of language across has been really important. I would say one of the things in the learning walks. We've been engaging in as dr. Ludwig was mentioning. We're finding lots of evidence of teachers using some of the explicit listening behaviors and language from second steps, which is one of the highest rated curriculum for teaching social emotional skills by.
Organizations out there that rate social emotional learning curriculum, and we're seeing it being implemented in classes more and.
Classroom circles, so this was a has been a [00:54:00] big part of our work in lots of ways. It's part of restorative practices. It's part of a regular ritual routine and engagement strategy so you can see it in lots of. Several of the seven components what's really exciting is that in primary schools? This isn't been such a big shift.
Although it's much more intentional now, that's really cool is you see circles at Westland High School and Wilsonville high school and Arts and Technology high school all the time now so that sense of being seen having voice. Building Community is is very intentional and doing it in learning activities as well as times where you're just talking about social emotional learning and when you're working through hard times, but then you got to have it through the get to know you and easy times first to build that Community.
You can't start circles with a difficult topic. So you have to start in a safe place and seeing our teachers doing that all throughout our school district right now is a pretty exciting very evident thing that we've [00:55:00] seen moving forward.
Make
sure the work feels joyful and grounded and then I love this paragraph. The circle is a simplified structured process of communication that helps participants reconnect with a joyous appreciation of themselves and others it is designed to create a space for all voices and to create each participant to step in the direction of their best self.
We believe that the practice of circles is helpful for building and maintaining a healthy community in which all members feel connected and respected. So get set the importance of you know, when these things are in place you prevent on the front end many of the behaviors that cause the greatest concern amongst teachers teachers and parents.
So this will continue to be a really powerful tool. We've sold a lot [00:56:00] to learn around circles. Dr. Pryor and noting that we are we have five minutes left. Okay, so that's good. There we go. Thank you. So two things that really came out of our research last year was that. Schools need common understandings upon students concerns and behavior should be addressed by teachers and staff and other staff should be involved and that we have some clear processes to monitor.
What did we do with the student that needed some support So across primary all schools now have what they call a behavior referral form. And the first thing I want to lead with is this is not our parents referral form. This is not meant to be a punishment in itself. And I think we're always going to call this a draft because we're still trying to refine.
The language to capture, you know what we believe about the goodness of students, but you'll notice that not only is the problem up there. But we're also wondering what was the motivation? Why did the student do this? What action might help a student most learn? Where's the [00:57:00] student voice? What are they saying about this process?
And so schools are using these when a student needs some additional help and then I will share a little bit later. We're also collecting this information to help gauge. What's going well, how do we keep a consistent story alive for that student if they need multiple supports and as a school, how can we best use our leadership voice to provide the support that students mostly?
This is just an example to one of our principles as put together entire handbook for his staff. He says that he deserves credit for none of this because this all stuff that he's been Gathering from other resources, but you can see this is capturing a lot of the information and organizing it in a way which.
Which most of what we believe in as well as provides teachers or substitute a really quick reference for research as well as school practices and to get back to that idea that we're being consistent and our practices are based on our [00:58:00] beliefs around pedagogy and the research that we've drawn from.
and I think we may have shared this with you last year. This is a. Publication we put together in response to some questions. What do you mean by restorative practices of we heard that a lot in the community and this actually began with some Boone's fairy parents who wanted to help answer that question.
And so we invited them in along with John Linson our consultant around issues of equity and we began crafting through the awesome few model how might a community experience restorative practices. This has become a guide that teachers all across primary have. Or two that they're having a deep understanding and a consistent understanding and knowing how to bring restorative practices to the awesome view model.
And as I mentioned it's on our website as a live document that you can access it anytime.
We talked with [00:59:00] the in that Northstar document and the desire for more professional learning really focusing particularly around the seven components classroom management and restorative practices and circles. Last year the last two years we've offered some district-wide workshops on that this year right now.
We don't have that in place because as you know, we're going a little leaner this year in terms of our professional development in our budgeting process, but what has been very exciting is more. Principles are asking for support within to build it into some of their teacher workshops and some of their professional growth Wednesday times and we're more supporting them in that way.
The other thing in terms of one of the things we've talked a lot about for students is Blended learning opportunities, and we're thinking about that with staff to in terms of we invested in a really great resource that has information [01:00:00] on trauma informed. Practices and behavior D escalation and preventive all kinds of those techniques.
It's called para sharp and it's a short little videos of like 5 to 7 minutes that principle could use or staff can just get on and do that training and on their own in a blended learning format as well. We're seeing lots of evidence around thinking about the spaces and different ways that we can set things up timers visuals that might help a student when they're not in a space to sort of process things auditorially, but they can maybe look at that visual sign of a this is where I need to maybe calm down and using things like the zones of Regulation that help kids understand their feelings and really work on.
How do I move from one? Zone to another and sometimes it's good to be in the yellow zone when I'm out on the soccer field. I want to be a little amped up and ready to go so it's not [01:01:00] but maybe when I'm inside working at readers Workshop, I want to move from that yellow zone back to that green zone.
Sample of a slide that a principal at a primary level used to educate staff on how might we use some of these spaces really really well with students to help them achieve their best regulate State. We're just going to whip through these next couple but a number of our primary schools are looking at spaces in their buildings that they're calling wellness centers that are.
Not for when students are escalated and need a space but more preventative and proactive as we teach about mental health and caring for yourself in a proactive way setting up spaces where students may be able to go and learn about how does my brain work and how do I help proactively for 5 minutes once you know go in here and practice these breathing techniques or use a breathing ball or something like that that then later when I get upset that might be able to help I might be [01:02:00] able to.
On that tool and we saw a number of examples of these wellness centers when we went on some tours with our colleagues at Hillsboro School District in Newburgh school district and in Hillsboro, they had a huge reduction in behavioral referrals at the schools that introduced The Wellness Center's and did those in a really proactive way with students.
So it's one of the things that some of our buildings are trying out and seeing if that can be a helpful part of the overall. Process for them. they're structured. It's not just go in there and be with a breathing ball. They all have, you know, sort of read routines you go through things. You learn about your also learning about your body and learning about your limbic system as you're practicing those strategies in the wellness centers.
And I want to really thank Our IT team occurred and Khan and Joe have chiseled many hours out of their schedule to join me and meeting with every primary leadership team. We've had a [01:03:00] larger conversation around the use of data across. And as academics and behavior, but behavior is a big part of our conversation because we wanted to use that office manager referral tool to begin collecting some greater school-wide data.
Like I said for the purpose of making sure that we're creating consistent stories for students as well as informing that leadership team to help guide. What do we next need to learn as a school? So we are taking the data from those referral sheets for entering it into our student information system.
Have a tool called pulse which allows us to pull that data out and the beauty of pulses. It's also always going to be in draft form and we created some models be helpful based on listening to feedback but will continue to refine it the next slide shows you some examples of some of the charts and graphs that principle or a leadership team might look at and the way we think about this is.
We might use this data to say oh, you know, what if I looked at this data, I can see [01:04:00] the playground might be an area of concern and here's an example of how a leadership team just use that because they noticed the playground was an area of concern and I thought well, which recess is it and they realize actually this is actually not their data, but their data showed it's the younger students recess and so we know part of data uses not just the staff this also.
Gauging the community. For their brilliant instructional coordinator, you could show the next slide put together. A presentation for their student body through an inquiry project and brought this data to them and actually said what do you think this data is showing. whole school conversation began to show you know, this is actually a need that we all need to gather around and work on so he introduced an opportunity for older students to help you can move.