Congratulations! You have been accepted to join Limitless, a Postsecondary Enrollment Learning Network – This network is sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and was part of a competitive application process. Our partnership with Heritage University was recognized by the Gates Foundation based on our collaborative experience, expertise, and dedication to supporting students in our region and improving high school to postsecondary enrollment. By participating in this Learning Network, we will have the opportunity to collaborate with practitioner leaders, share best practices, and collectively work towards enhancing educational pathways for students in our state. We are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and the positive impact we will make together with Heritage University and other educator partners from around the State of Washington.
Harrah Campus Teachers are on a New Journey! Principal Widener reports that the Harrah Campus Teachers began a new learning journey this week to understand and apply the new student growth elements of the teacher evaluation tool - CEL5D. The Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Washington developed this model for teacher evaluations, and it is used in many districts throughout the state. This past week, Tere Hernandez from ESD 105 met with all teacher teams during their preparation period to give them an overview of the student growth elements. Teachers will be engaging in this learning throughout the year.
Teachers are Life-long Learners - The Harrah Campus instructional leadership team met with the District Leadership Team to discuss Learning Targets this week. The definition of a learning target was discussed and confirmed. The support given by Dr. Julie Schillreff in recording students in every class across the district gave the team valuable insight into where students are in their use of the learning target and their understanding why the learning target is so important. We set a short-term goal to have 100% of staff using and communicating the learning target so that 45% of the students are able to rephrase the target in their own words and 25% of students will know why the learning is important.
Charger Volleyball has almost fifty athletes - On Monday, the Chargers hosted their first home volleyball game of the season as they faced off against the Squires from St. Joseph-Marquette. The majority of our students are from 7th and 8th grade with a small squad of about fourteen 6th grade students.
Spelling Competition at Harrah - In 6th grade, learners practice commonly misspelled words by competing to see who can accurately recognize the correct spelling of each target vocabulary word. Fifth graders apply their knowledge of tier-two vocabulary by writing them in sentences and drawing pictures to represent their definitions. What a fun way to learn to spell correctly!
Job Satisfaction is critical to student learning and success – A 2022 article in the Higher Education News, by Dr. Edward Hebert reported a strong correlation between faculty and staff morale and student learning outcomes and perceptions of their overall experiences. He writes, “Morale influences faculty behavior, productivity, and quality of teaching; ultimately affects student learning and program quality.” Principal Gloria Widener and her team are putting this research to practice through the Harrah Campus schools’ new climate and culture committee. The committee has put together a roving treat cart and went around to staff sharing yummy treats. It was a great Wednesday pick-me-up!
College and Career Day at White Swan High School - About 24 students will be attending the College and Career expo hosted by ESD105 on October 3rd . The students will be leaving at 8:30 am and return for lunch on campus. Ms. Barbosa, our GearUp director along with her assistant Desiree Little and Fernando Simental, our migrant student advocate will be taking the students to see and experience different college and career opportunities. This is an exciting opportunity for our students to interact with choices for the future.
The New Rodeo Club hosts Speakers for the Community - The rodeo club facilitated by Leona Ives meets on Wednesday and the goal of the club is to provide a glimpse into the rodeo world. Several community speakers have come in to talk with the students. On the 27th , Mr. Vic Woods came to the White Swan Campus to talk with the students.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support are expanding at White Swan High School - White Swan High School is working to expand our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). ESD 105 has been our partner in this work. We are excited to report that when the ESD team came out to evaluate our tier one system fidelity that we scored an 80%. This means that our campus has implemented and is using the tier one supports, including PBIS, to an 80% rate. Working with our partners at ESD has helped us move forward and continue to develop our systems. This week on Wednesday we met as a Tier two team to look at our implementation and fidelity. Any area that we did not score proficient in we made a plan to address so that we are at fidelity and offer services to our students.
Harrah Campus Student of the Month - This week was the Harrah Campus Student of the Month assembly. They held Pre-K Monday, 1st & 2nd Tuesday, 3rd & 4th Wednesday, 5th & 6th Thursday and 7th & 8th on Friday. Each team of teachers and the ASB students put on class competitions. It was definitely a great time for all!
High School Sports this week:
Date | Sport-Opponent | Location | Varsity Time | Dismissed/Depart |
Mon, Sept 25 | Girls Soccer vs Columbia Burbank | White Swan | 6:00 pm | NA |
Tues, Sept 26 | Girls Soccer vs Granger | White Swan | 6:00 pm | NA |
Tues, Sept 26 | Volleyball @ Cle Elum | Cle Elum HS | 5 pm JV/C, 6:30 pm | Dismissed-1:15 pm/Depart-1:30 pm |
Weds, Sept 27 | XCountry @ Cle Elum | Cle Elum HS | 3:30 pm | Dismissed - Lunch/Depart-12:00 pm |
Thurs, Sept 28 | Girls Soccer @ Cle Elum | Cle Elum HS | 6:00 pm | Dismissed-2:30 pm/Depart-2:45 pm |
Fri, Sept 29 | Football @ Highland | Highland HS | 7:00 pm | Dismissed-2:30 pm/Depart-4:00 pm |
Sat, Sept 30 | Girls Soccer vs La Salle | White Swan | 11:00 am | NA |
Sat, Sept 30 | XCountry @ Sun Fair Invite | Franklin Park, Yakima | 9:15 am | Depart-8:00 am |
Gear Up is coming to 6th and 7th Grade! Mt. Adams School District was informed by the UW Office for Minority Affairs and Diversity (OMA&D) that the UW GEAR UP proposal submitted to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) back in 2021 was selected for funding… this year! UW will receive a total grant award of $33 Million over 7 years to serve 5,979 students a year through partnerships with select Washington school districts. I am thrilled to share this GREAT news! Our partnership with UW has a lot of good work ahead of us to continue to support the two current GEAR UP grants serving 11th, 12th graders and first year freshmen in college AND ramp up another cohort of 6th and 7th graders with this new grant. I know you will agree that hard and good work is the best because we are supporting the hopes and dreams of the students we aim to serve.