District Digest
Monthly Wenatchee School District Staff Newsletter
November 2019
Superintendent's Office
Paul Gordon, Superintendent
I have now been in the Wenatchee School District for a little over four months, and I have had the great opportunity to be in every school and many different classrooms throughout our District. When I visit schools, I see evidence of excellence in how our staff engages and builds lasting relationships with our students; I see evidence of excellence in so many instructional approaches that engage all learners such as GLAD.
I have also witnessed a few examples of exceptional Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in action. High-quality PLCs have the power to transform the learning our students experience on a daily basis. The central concept of a PLC is collective teacher efficacy (CTE): the belief that a team can have a significant, positive impact on student achievement. In John Hattie’s most recent meta-analysis, he documented that CTE has a 1.57 effect size on student learning. Hattie notes that educators should consider strategies that have a minimum of a .40 effect size. In the research world, a 1.57 effect size is a game-changer.
With that in mind, I have asked school leaders to do a PLC Beliefs activity with their staff before winter break. It’s an opportunity for staff members to reflect on their personal and collective understanding and implementation of the PLC Beliefs, which are all supported by research. I look forward to reviewing each school’s reflections.
In an effort to further develop our administration team, I have requested to meet with school leaders on a weekly basis starting in December from 8:30 until 10:00 each Tuesday morning. My goal is to build a strong, cohesive team that supports student and staff learning.
Human Resources
Kelly Lopez, Executive Director of Human Resources
ALL STAFF WANTING TO USE PGR FUNDS FOR ANY PURPOSE MUST GET PRIOR APPROVAL AND SUBMITTED TO HUMAN RESOURCES NO LATER THAN TEN (10) BUSINESS DAYS BEFORE. Please see the HR page on the District website for all forms. Any questions on which form to use please contact your Human Resources Specialist.
November 11th is a holiday (nonwork day) for all staff. November 12th is a nonwork day for classified staff who are less than 260-day employees. Certificated staff this is a principal directed PLC timesheet day.
School Employee Benefits Board (SEBB)
All District employees will transition to SEBB for health insurance beginning January 1st. Open enrollment for SEBB is October 1st- November 15th. Everyone MUST participate in open enrollment for SEBB. Click here for the SEBB open enrollment link.
Student Services
Implementation of our SEL survey is in process. This was the result of our SEL Committee's work with support from Ron Brown and the Instructional Technology team. We are anxious to see the results and how we can use this data to identify students potentially in need of support. We will give this survey a second time in the Spring to see trend data and to help evaluate the effectiveness of our SEL curriculum.
Special Programs
Mike Lane, Director of State & Federal Program
Title I/LAP Schools
Please remember to send me your Parent Night or Conference Agenda and Parent Sign-in Sheet.
lane.michael@wenatcheeschools.org
Office Discipline Referrals Reminder
Tight:
All ODR’s (Majors and Minors) are entered into Skyward.
Note: In order for minors to migrate into SWIS an action code must be entered into Skyward.
Discipline data is reviewed/used by school teams.
Loose:
Process for entering Majors & Minors into Skyward.
How discipline data is “harvested” (Skyward, SWIS, Illuminate, Homeroom, etc).
Bilingual Program
Nadya Bush, Assistant Director of Special Programs
Shout out to Chris Rehwald for preparing annual ELPA21 score reports in Spanish and English for all K-8 classroom teachers before the parent conferences and shout out to teachers who are using ELPA data in your instruction.
We built several reports in Illuminate to give you more information about who your EL students are.
2019 Spring ELPA21 Student List Three Proficient Domains Report
Bilingual Student List All Schools October 2019 Report( Includes Native Americans)
If you need help, ask your school Migrant/Bilingual Facilitator or Nadya Bush bush.nadya@wenatcheeschools.org
WSD has new 'GLADiator' teachers trained by district GLAD trainers Terri Goveia and Kathy Anderson. The demonstration was done with 5th graders at Lincoln elementary. Thank you to our host teacher Kadie Rang for welcoming guest teachers into her classroom. Thank you all newly trained teachers for learning how to promote positive classroom culture, differentiate and scaffold the development of academic language and literacy for all students.
Migrant
Welcome new Migrant Records Clerk Rosalinda (Rosie) Martin (Right) She replaced Carmela Solorio in this position as Carmela transitioned to help with the McKinney-Vento program.
A group of migrant parents of 3-4-year-olds will be trained on November 8 with strategies on how to prepare their children for Kinder at a "Ready for Kinder" workshop taught by teachers Nancy Ortiz and Carmen Yanez.
Curriculum and Instruction and Instructional Technology
Interesting reading related to student screen time:
Not All Screen Time is Created Equal
Professional Growth Principals and L&T Directors are doing a book study this year on Grit. The research on “grit” complements/incorporates the research on “growth mindset” and offers interesting considerations for how we might better serve our students.
Finance & Operations
Larry Mayfield, Executive Director of Finance & Operations
Finance
Reimbursement Reminder
Reminder - if you make a purchase using your own funds, there is a process for reimbursement - please visit the “forms” section on the WSD web site, (link is on the upper right of the screen), then “accounts payable/finance”. Find the form called “reimbursement for expenses/purchase expense voucher”. Click on it to open- the first page is instructions, the second page is the claim form. You can enter data directly into the form, then print, sign, and date. Submit to your office manager for final approval routing. Please note - your receipts must be dated within 30 days of your claim.
Operational
As time and weather permit grounds will be performing some tree trimming, planter bed work, leaf clearing, etc.
HVAC - Moving from the cooling season into the heating season. Typical set points are heating at 68 degrees and cooling at 72 to 74 degrees. We must maintain a 3-4 degree separation minimum between setpoints.
Locksmith - We are trying to tackle as many of the lock and key issues as possible while we search for a replacement locksmith. Dan Groche has decided to retire after 38 years with the Wenatchee School District.
Operational Technology
Please be aware that the district Acceptable Use Policy applies to work both in and out of the district when using district technology. The full policy can be located at:
Communications
Community Conversations
Thank you to the staff who participated in the recent community conversations on school facilities. Information collected from these two sessions will be shared in a summary report at the November 12 board meeting. The next community conversation will take place in January/February on the topic of Social Emotional Learning.
Superintendent’s Transition Plan Update
Over the last four months, we have focused on carrying out the steps of Dr. Gordon’s transition plan. At the end of November, we begin to wrap up phases one and two of the plan and move into the third phase, ‘leading,' where we will start to summarize our findings into themes. The third phase will also include the launch of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Assessment early this winter. The SWOT is a pre-strategic planning tool often used in business as a situational analysis and method for developing smart goals and ways to use our strengths to decrease weaknesses.
Superintendents Transition Plan Phases
Phase 1 - Introduction
The purpose of this first phase is to provide direction for the first two months of entry into the superintendent position. The activities described below are meant to provide personal introductions and begin establishing relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
- Structure opportunities to meet and greet the various constituent groups, such as school board members, administration, professional and support staff, and community organizations.
- Partner with current district leadership, and central office team to ensure a smooth start to the school year for students and faculty.
- Use initial observations and reflections to generate inquiry questions during phase 2.
Phase 2 - Listen & Learn
Engage in active conversations, in one-on-one or small group settings with school board members, district and building leadership, professional and support staff, parents, students, and community stakeholders. This is an important phase to listen to and learn from students, teachers, principals, staff, parents, and community members to capture feedback and perceptions.
WenEA - District Listening and Learning Tour
Diana Haglund & Kris Cameron, WenEA President
Representatives from the District and WenEA are working together to hear from practitioners in the field through a listening and learning tour. Research shows that authentic collaboration between school employees and management results in better outcomes for students.
These are school-based opportunities for small groups of employees to meet with a district administrator and a union member to speak to three questions:
- What is going well?
- What is getting in your way?
- Is there anything else you would like us to know?
The opportunity to listen has proven invaluable to improved problem-solving, resource allocation and addressing needs such as social-emotional learning, evaluating our assessment system, elementary report card design, and more.
This year marks the fourth year of a four-year cycle in which all schools have an opportunity to speak to members of the team. Castlerock ECLC, Valley Academy, and the WVTSC hosted visits on October 9th. Lincoln Elementary is scheduled for November 13th and Columbia Elementary on January 22.
Communications HUB
https://www.wenatcheeschools.org/committees
Wenatchee School District Communications
Email: district_communications@wenatcheeschools.org
Website: Wenatcheeschools.org
Location: 235 Sunset Avenue, Wenatchee, WA, USA
Phone: 509-663-8161
Facebook: facebook.com/wsd246
Twitter: @wenatcheeSD