Harrah Elementary and Mt. Adams Middle Schools celebrate students!
This week, each grade level on the Harrah School Campus held assemblies
to celebrate their students of the month. While some grades chose to
transform administrators into Christmas trees, others opted to “pie” staff
in the face or paint their beards.
Harrah Elementary and Mt. Adams Middle Schools celebrate students!
A Buffalo is in the House!
No, this is not the name of a new children’s book, it was the theme of a
lesson where fourth grade students were exploring the cultural
significance that buffalo had to the Sioux and Lakota Indian Tribes. To
develop a deeper understanding, students experienced a hands-on exhibit
in which they could feel an actual buffalo hide and head.
Celebration for Reading Success!
The 2nd grade teacher team reported during their Reading data chat that
on the latest vocabulary assessment, 94% of the students were proficient.
Did you read that? 94% proficiency for the students in 2
nd grade!!!!!! The
teachers attributed this wonderful news to the new instructional practice
that has students learning words in multiple ways: visually, auditorily, and
with physical movement.
Congratulations 2nd grade team!
Online Bullying is still Bullying!
Bullying is not tolerated in Mt. Adams District. To help drive this lesson
home to students, Deputy Allen, our District Sheriff Officer, conducted
presentations to our middle school students regarding bullying and
harassment in an online environment. Students learned how they can be
protected and ways they should ensure that they are not participating in
this kind of behavior.
A New Music Teacher is coming to Town!
A candidate has accepted the long-term music teaching position and
pending approval will start teaching when we return from winter break.
The candidate has experience teaching K-12 music and did a fantastic job
teaching a couple of classes when he came for the interview. A more
formal introduction to the campus community will take place in January.
Multiple Pathways help students graduate from High Swan High School
This week the WA State Board of Education announced that they are
considering allowing an additional year for the COVID 19 Graduation
Waiver. In the Graduation Requirement Emergency Waiver (GREW), OSPI
and the State Board of Education (SBE) provided flexibility options for the
Class of 2022. Mrs. Tenney reports that the GREW waiver is still in effect
for the 2024 school year and lets White Swan High School waive one
credit. Last year we could waive two credits and utilize a pathway option.
The waiver rules have been that in 2024 it would be one credit and not a
pathway. Now they are thinking about bringing back the waiver around the
pathway for 2024. Since White Swan has increased the number of CTE
pathways (from two to eight), our students have a pathway and do not
need a waiver. I suspect that other schools have not been proactive like
MASD to increase their pathways, and have relied on either the testing
pathway, or the Bridge to College classes pathway, and now are asking to
get the waiver back. We are in great shape thanks to Principal Tenney
because we did not count on SBE changing it and made sure we had a way
for our students to graduate.
New Wrestling Mats in White Swan
This season, our team of wrestlers will be on new mats. These mats show
the pride of our White Swan Cougars. This year, we have more wrestlers
than any year in the past! We look forward to high marks and many wins
demonstrating the strength, cunning, and swift moves of our Cougars on
the mat. With this new look, our team has a definite advantage!
White Swan Community Coalition
Dr. Julie Schillreff would like to thank everyone who attended the Coalition
meeting this week either via Zoom or in the community room at the Old
Harrah Elementary! Julie writes, “We enjoyed a taco lunch from
Guadalupana, learned about all the great things the Dream Makers are
doing, continued planning for our parenting classes, and collected
additional data on our coalition's functioning using a modified Coalition
Assessment Tool. Check out the meeting minutes (linked here) for more
information!” We hope you will be able to join us in person at the next
meeting (in person or on Zoom) on Tuesday, January 9th at 12:00 noon.