ISST Quarterly Report
January 2019
ISST/Technology Continuous Improvement Activities: Dave Bolin
- Teacher Effectiveness: Our building administrators have logged nearly 650 observations and Mr. Gardner and I have completed 96. Our administrators are focusing on providing quality feedback to our teachers to enhance their instructional effectiveness. In addition to observations, conducting teacher learning walks to have quality discussions regarding powerful teacher practices is going well. Each building has a variety of opportunities for staff to conduct learning walk activities. These might include visiting another teacher's room or watching videos to reflect on effective teaching practices.
- Professional Development: Professional development continues to be a strength for the district. The buildings are continuing to use a combination of Monday Delayed Starts and Staff Meetings as a means to deliver professional development activities. Plans for Classified and Certified in-service activities for January 25 and February 8 have been completed. We have contracted with two trainers from the Gladstone School District who have been implementing professional development across the state on the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences. This two hour training will be delivered to both groups and continue our work with meeting the social emotional needs of our students.
- AVID Implementation: AVID implementation is occurring on a variety of levels across the district. Nicole Duncan has done an outstanding job executing all her responsibilities as AVID District Director. Her report below details activities from the second quarter.
- Student Learning: The implementation of Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Interim Assessments has gone very well across the district. The three part training model created by Nicole Duncan and Nicole Britton has been completed in all K-8 buildings. SHS has completed module 2, which I attended this Monday morning. The Collaborative Steering Committee met last week and feedback from the K-8 buildings is very positive and teachers are finding this to be a valuable tool. In collaboration with ODE, SBAC was on-site last month to film the NSSD story. This video will be used by ODE to promote SBAC Interim Assessments across the state.
Mentor Program: Julie Lafayette
As a mentor to first and second year teachers, it is rewarding to see the NSSD teachers excelling. It’s a steep learning curve to begin a new teaching position and take on the responsibilities of preparing many lesson plans for each day, discover behavior management techniques, and learn many teaching strategies to engage all learners, as well as attend meetings and find time to plan with team members. This year’s group of new teachers are impressive with their great character and willingness to work as long as it takes to be successful in improving student learning.
Support is important to help beginning teachers be successful. We are fortunate to have veteran teachers and the administrators who spend extra time with them, who provide resources, and who check in with them often.
Special Education: Sara Silbernagel
It has been a busy start to the school year with Special Ed student move in’s, 47 Special Ed students moved out of District and 12 returned to regular education. Susy Saray and I have set up specialized transportation for 64 students; this includes calling each parent to get details on each student’s needs. I have completed 6 ODE reports, with 7 more to complete throughout the school year. One of these reports (December Special Education Census) is my biggest report. This year we submitted 360 Special Ed students. I meet with each Special Ed teacher in our District to verify dates, eligibilities and student info.
AVID: Nicole Duncan
All sites are excited to share their successes and data at the board meetings they are hosting in the next few months.
SIS hosted a successful AVID showcase in October and will host a second showcase on February 13th, 2019 from 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. All board members are invited to attend.
SIS/SMS is setting goals around becoming an AVID Schoolwide site. Emphasis has been placed on family and community engagement activities.
Sublimity and Mari Linn have invited me to train their staff on Collaborative Study Groups, a collaboration technique used in content specific classes that models what AVID elective students experience in tutorials. This will take place February 8.
SES in their first year of implementation and anecdotal data shows an alignment of WICOR strategies in their 3rd-grade classrooms around collaboration and organization. They continue to set goals around the Certification and Coaching Instrument to become a certified site. They are working on a 3-year plan to be school-wide with their site team.
SHS site team continues to collect evidence in all four domains highlighted in the Coaching and Certification Instrument. Their upcoming focus of the month is on Inquiry. Evidence has been collected by the site team in organization and collaboration.
SHS is currently recruiting 9th and 10th graders to join the AVID elective at semester. The AVID elective is re-focusing on the use of AVID binders as an organizational tool for second semester.
As a brand new District Director, I have attended two of the five required trainings and am thankful for working with skilled administrators and site coordinators to continue moving AVID forward at their sites.
I have been involved with AVID coaching visits at least two times a month per site. Site teams are asked to participate in district level coaching visits to gain feedback on WICOR implementation.
A primary goals is to build capacity and sustainability of AVID district-wide. This month I will be training all administrators and site coordinators to become certified AVID trainers. We want to increase the number of trained teachers at all sites.
Jessica Roth has been accepted to be an AVID Staff Developer. Along with Vicky Storey, Jess will be able to offer AVID Path training district-wide. This can save the district $550 a person to offer these trainings within our district.
I have joined a regional professional learning community with other District Directors. This group is building a network to share learning opportunities and experiences for both students and staff.
We have hired all AVID tutor positions for both Middle School and High School elective classes.
Registration for Summer Institute will open in February. All sites will be requesting to attend Summer Institute in Seattle, WA July 1st - 3rd.
Tiffany Walbridge
We have had a busy beginning of the year with professional development. To kick off the year, we updated our online professional development request form. The form is now easier and less time consuming for staff and administration to complete. It also includes a follow up section to show how the event’s learning will be disseminated with other staff members. This form has streamlined and improved our turnaround time from the point staff enter the request to the point they are registered. I have worked closely with Nicole Duncan to provide our staff with a great Welcome Back In-service for all staff and a productive In-district in-service on Oct 12.
This year we have sent staff to forty-nine out of district trainings with several more upcoming. Currently we are prepping for a fulfilling Classified In-service on January 25 where staff will be updating required medical trainings along with having the opportunity to attend a multitude of open sessions including AVID 101, De-escalating Student Behaviors, Wellness & Worker Health, Growth Mindset and much more. We have an exciting Certified In-service scheduled on February 8.
Other projects would include working with our district nurses to assure all data was prepped and up to date for our district vision screenings in November. I am now returning to this data to include SSID numbers to meet a new ODE requirement. I have been working with Jane and Nicole to adjust and update how we track sub costs for professional development. Expulsion students carried over from the 2017-18 school year was eight high school and two middle school students. Of those we have exited four students. New expulsions this year have been two high school and four middle school students. I am diligently working with multiple departments, buildings and LBL to gather the extensive data needed to complete our federal Civil Rights Audit we are mandated to complete every two years. This audit is due the end of February.
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North Santiam School District
Email: david.bolin@nsantiam.k12.or.us
Website: https://www.nsantiam.k12.or.us/
Location: 1155 North 3rd Avenue, Stayton, OR, USA
Phone: 5037691582