District Digest
Monthly Wenatchee School District Staff Newsletter
January 2020
Superintendent's Office
Paul Gordon
Superintendent
As I started this new journey as superintendent of the Wenatchee School District, I gave myself the gift of time - the time to learn about the people, the district and the community. This gift has paid me huge dividends both personally and professionally. My transition plan was clear that during my first six months on the job I would be intentional about hearing the voices, stories ,and personal truths of our stakeholders.
During this time I would be mindful and listen more than speak. My plan was to not run out and ‘fix’ anything. The gift of time afforded me the freedom to listen without judgment and learn without the obligation act. I was also clear with the Board and stakeholders that once finished with this phase of my transition plan, I would share the themes that emerged.
This process didn’t happen in a vacuum. I enlisted Diana Haglund, Director of Communications, to help me navigate the district and community. I appreciate everyone who helped on this momentous journey with scheduling meetings with staff, parents and students. Together, over the last seven months, we met with close to 1,000 people. During this time, we collected a wealth of information, documented stories, and took in diverse perspectives. It was our desire to create safe and open meeting environments and an anonymous survey platform where people could feel comfortable sharing, the good, the bad, and everything in between. Through these honest and, at times vulnerable conversations, we are on the path to truly understand who we are as an organization. I want to thank everyone for giving us your time and telling us your truth.
The three questions were consistently asked: What is working well in our district/schools? What challenges/obstacles are/have you faced in our district? What should I know? It was a humbling and enlightening experience to meet so many people at their place of work, at their community organizations, at social gatherings, in their schools, or in my office. They all shared their views: the incredible work occurring in our school/district, the good work happening in the classrooms, and they also shared some hard truths that some have encountered in our District.
We are close to wrapping up our school visits and formal listening sessions in the weeks ahead. In early February we will expand our engagement efforts with a stakeholder survey. You’ll receive a custom link in your work email to take the survey. Responses will help us prioritize themes that have emerged through my early listening and learning and identify obstacles ahead of us. We’ll combine all of the responses with the thousands of other thoughts already collected and deliver to the Board a report on our findings. This report is foundational to our next step— a new strategic plan and vision.
Our District and Board have big work ahead. Below is an outline of upcoming workshops for the board to begin setting a course for how we move forward. Details on these meetings are emailed to you in school board summary reports.
Board Workshops:
January 30 - Values/Norms
February 18 - Facilities (Discussion on potential capital bond)
March 6 - Strategic planning
Department Updates
Human Resources
Kelly Lopez
Executive Director of Human Resources
New National Board Certified Teachers
We want to congratulate our 4 new National Board Certificated staff members-Patrick Loftus, Katie Charles, Jennifer Devereaux, and Dan Myers.
Quarterly GEM Winners
Big shout out to our 1st quarter GEM award winners: Nancy Navarro Ortiz (Certificated-L&C), Russell Nielsen (Certificated-NBY), Megan Cross (Certificated-WSHS), Heidi Bard (Certificated-WSHS), Karissa Harle (Certificated-PIO), Beth Hammerberg (Certificated-OMS), Josh Schoenwald (Classified-FMS), Cindy Stockwell (Classified-OMS), Connie Tatum (Classified-COL), Molly Butler (Admin-WHS)
PGR Funds
REMINDER: All staff wanting to use PGR funds for any purpose must get prior approval from Human Resources no later than 10 business days before.
Instructional Technology
Ron Brown
Director of Instructional Technology
Mark your calendars for this year's Instructional Technology and STEM Showcase!
May 15th, 2020 Quincy Public Market 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm (Grant county focus)
May 16th, 2020 Pybus Event Center 9:00 am - 1:00 pm (Chelan and Douglas county focus)
Any Wenatchee teacher who signs up for the event and presents will receive your choice of an iPad or a Chromebook to use in your classroom. http://gg.gg/techshowcase
If you don’t present, I hope to see you join teachers and administrators from local school districts, current and former students, vendors, community leaders, and makers as they present their projects, show some of the best methods for integrating technology in our classrooms and share their plans for the future.
New MTSS Tool
You might begin to hear about a new tool coming to aid in our MTSS efforts. We are in the beginning stages of building out dashboards containing as much data as we can cram into them about our students. This will enable us to identify students at risk for multiple categories including attendance, behavior, assessments, credits, and other defining factors. This will be a slow rollout starting with MTSS coaches, admin, counselors, and finally, by next year we hope to have them ready for teachers.
Computer Science Integration Planning
The Technology and CTE departments are working on a draft plan and vision on how we see computer science opportunities fitting in the system. This new literacy will be a part of our student’s lives and we have an obligation to have a vision for how our students can be prepared for this future. This work will support pathways to computer science for some of our students who choose that route for their future. Stay tuned for some awareness information and a plan in the spring.
Classroom technology tools. With the reality of a tightening budget, we are doing our best to identify areas in need of upgrading. Although this will never happen as fast as we would like, please know that we are planning for the refresh of technology as budget capacity allows. Technology that is critical to our systems and has curriculum dependencies will always come first. If you feel you have an immediate need or your student’s tools are creating barriers for you to teach the required curriculum, please reach out to our department at http://gg.gg/wsdtechrequest and we will do our best to provide the necessary updates where budget/time allow or communicate with you the timeline you can expect for tools to be updated or purchased.
IT Help Desk. Remember that tech help is a chat, call, or email away through our live helpdesk. You can reach out and get remote help quickly during the workday. The quickest method is through Google Hangouts, simply start a chat with ithelpdesk@wenatcheeschools.org and connect with Autumn who will connect you with the tech help you need!
Special Programs
Mike Lane
Director of State & Federal Programs
PAC Meeting
Thank you to WHS Students, the Board of Directors, Dr. Gordon, Teachers, Family Advocates, WHS Administration and Counseling office, WHS Custodial staff, Migrant Graduation Specialists, Principals, Special Programs Staff, ESD and Community Agencies for making our Migrant and Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee event well-attended and well-received by the families despite the snowy night. Parents were educated on ELPA21 testing and graduation requirements. They had the opportunity to connect with educators from each school and learn about the services from 14 community agencies. WOW!
Bilingual classroom teachers worked with a coach from the Center for Teaching for Biliteracy creating sustainable systems that ensure optimal biliteracy instruction through program and curriculum development, advocacy, unit design, and other best practices for WSD developing bilingual students.
GLAD
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's GLAD! Please come to our monthly all-day training or after school Make and Takes with a nationally recognized team of trainers Terri and Kathy! Click on GLAD Flyer to see the dates.
GLAD T-Shirt Design Contest: Please send Terri Goveia or Kathy Anderson your T-shirt design for a chance to win $100 of classroom supplies.
Shout Out: To our EL Specialists for contributing their valuable ideas and helpful thoughts to improve our district’s EL program at our annual Bilingual Program Evaluation meeting. Gracias!
Migrant and Bilingual Programs
Nadya Bush
Assistant Director of Special Programs
WSD "Vision 2020" Annual Parent Conference
Saturday, Mar. 21
Lincoln Elementary
Call for Presenters:
Do you have a great idea that you would like to share with WSD parents? We know you have a great lesson, experience, or innovative pedagogical technique to share! All subjects, clubs, and grades are welcome!
The WSD Annual P-12 Parent Conference " Vision 2020" is on Saturday, March 21 at Lincoln elementary school. The sessions for parents are 45 min long and can focus on reading, numeracy, classroom and/or state assessments, interventions, SEL/PBIS, standards, curricula, GLAD strategies, or anything else you feel will be educational for parents to know. You can repeat your session 2-3 times or do it once. You will be compensated for your prep and presentation time from Migrant and Bilingual grants. Presentations can be in English or Spanish. Special Programs will provide lunch to all participants. Please submit your proposal using the link below or email questions to Nadya Bush bush.nadya@wenatcheeschools.org Thank you!
Finance & Operations
Larry Mayfield
Executive Director of Finance & Operations
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
Director of Communications
Stakeholder Survey Coming Next Month
In February we'll be launching a stakeholder survey to collect feedback on how we're doing as a district. This survey is part of Dr. Gordon's Transition Plan. The survey responses will be woven together with all of the hundreds of listening and learning conversations that Paul has had with both individuals and groups over the last seven months. The questions will be different than those asked during Paul's listening and learning sessions. A direct link will be sent to your staff email and if you're a parent, you'll also receive an email with a unique survey link.
Tech Center Program Guide
We are working on developing a Wenatchee Valley Technical Skills Center program guide. This booklet will be mailed out to all households in our District's service area in lieu of a winter Inside Wenatchee Schools newsletter. We're excited to help get the word out to our community about the variety of hands-on CTE programs at WV Tech. Special thanks to Pete Jelsing and the faculty at WV Tech for helping to pull the guide content together.
Learning & Teaching
Sarah Wall
Director of Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment
This year nearly all WSD K-1 teachers, elementary Special Education teachers, Intervention Specialists, and Instructional Coaches have attended WSD’s first-ever Impact Literacy trainings, facilitated by Dr. Staci Bain. The feedback has been so positive that additional trainings have been planned for Grades 2-6!
Impact Literacy focuses on equipping our staff with multi-sensory, highly effective, structured literacy routines to fill students’ skill gaps as well as deepen and advance learning for ALL students! This content knowledge is foundational for giving students the keys to unlock the code of reading so that they can become strong readers.
Teachers who have been trained have access to a Wenatchee Reads Google drive which contains resources to support their use of the Impact Literacy routines. They can also request additional support to use the routines in their classrooms, including: 1) Expert modeling in the classroom; 2) Expert co-teaching with the teacher in the classroom; 3) Expert observing the teacher teaching the routine and providing supportive feedback.
Impact Literacy aligns with these PLC beliefs:
We focus on learning.
We focus on results.
We leverage collective efficacy ( the belief that by working together, student outcomes will be improved for ALL students.)
Special Education Programs
Trisha Craig
Director fo Special Education
A big shout out to our very own Staci Bain’s work around literacy and the training she is providing specifically to K-1, Elementary Resource, Speech-Language Pathologist, and Intervention staff. We are excited to enhance our Tier 1 practices around teaching literacy in order to provide access for all learners.
District Information
Updated Policies & Procedures
The following policies and procedures have been reviewed and updated by the School Board between 8/27/19 and 12/14/19. Please click on the link to review these revised policies as they pertain to you. If you have any questions, please contact the Superintendent's office at white.k@wenatcheeschools.org or 663-8162, ext. 33223.
Policy 1225 - School Director Legislative Program
Policy 3241 - Student Discipline
Procedure 3241 - Student Discipline
Policy 1410 - Executive or Closed Sessions
Policy 1450 - Absence of a Board Member
Policy 2000 - Student Learning Goals
Policy 2108 - Learning Assistance Program
Policy 2110 - Transitional Bilingual Instruction Program
Policy 2161 - Special Education and Related Services for Eligible Students
Policy 2170 - Career and Technical Education
Procedure 2320P - Field Trips, Excursions, and Outdoor Education
Policy 3207 - Prohibition of Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying
Policy 5240 - Evaluation of Staff
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