Have you noticed it has been snowing? Safety is our first Priority! This has been a
challenging week as far as the weather is concerned. The District’s number one goal is to keep
students safe, and even though the bus drivers are professional and well trained, the concern is
the visual challenges e.g., where the road ends and the surface ditch or drainage system begins.
The other concern is civilian drivers not stopping at stop signs or their inability to stop behind a
bus, which puts students in danger. Therefore, we have late starts, hoping that a little warmth
will help make the drive safer, or complete closures, if it appears that the danger will not lift in a
timely manner. Thank you to all of the parents and guardians for being flexible as we attempt to
predict the weather and road conditions in an effort to keep everyone safe!
Outdoor Learning Grant! The district has received a $35,000 Outdoor Learning grant from
OSPI. The writing of the grant was a collaborative effort between Mrs. Tenney and Mrs.
Jarnecke. The goal is to increase our students' engagement and ownership of their learning while connecting to outdoor-based activities that expose them to a wide variety of jobs and cultural experiences. We plan on focusing on three outdoor learning experiences for our students:
- Provide experiences that directly relate to possible job opportunities; ex: field trips and experiences developed in partnership with the Yakama Nation and with our CTE department.
- Provide outdoor science activities; ex: field trips and outdoor learning experiences to local wildlife reserve, visiting indigenous lands looking for plants, land forms and understanding environmental changes and boundaries, building and launching rockets, and developing raised beds where students will plant local medicinal plants and garden plants that can be shared with the community.
- Provide active outdoor activities to help students develop healthy habits and encourage hobby building such as archery, hiking, outdoor photography and cultural outdoor cooking.
Vaccine Clinics for the Mt. Adams School District Communities. In an effort to keep our
students and community safe and healthy, Nurse Scott Podruzny arranged for Vaccine Clinics in both Harrah and White Swan. He reports, “…the turnout was small for our first vaccine clinic,
but we are years into this new endemic. I am excited that we have 3 initial vaccinations for
students. I hope we might be able to get a larger turnout for our December 2nd vaccination clinic in White Swan. I Feel like the location will be more visible, and maybe we can get an
announcement before, at half time, and after each game to give the community a reminder.” His
follow up report is that we had a total of 13 patients at the vaccine clinic in White Swan. There
were 5 Pfizer boosters, 5 Moderna boosters, and 3 first doses of the 5–11-year-old Pfizer.
Upcoming Vaccine Clinic - Nurse Scott has arranged to have announcements made throughout the basketball games, but there were only two community members who received their booster during the game. Nurse Scott’s plan is to arrange for another vaccine clinic in Harrah so that the students who received their initial dose of covid vaccine can get their second dose. This work is aided by Anthony Maldonado at ESD 105 and will include all of the required school immunizations along with flu and COVID, hopefully before our winter break. Parents, please plan to attend this clinic and bring your children!
Yakama Nation Fisheries Partners with White Swan High School. We continue to expand
our Wednesday activities and community connections. This week Mrs. Tenney met with Kevin
Seger from Yakama Nation Fisheries. We are excited to announce that we will be partnering
together to provide our students with activities and career information about the Fisheries
program. There will also be opportunities for summer internships with the Fisheries program for students who are interested.
The barn is full of pigs! Currently there are 25 pigs in the barn on the White Swan Campus. The White Swan High School FFA students are working hard and will be showing the pigs in the
spring. The FFA program has been reactivated after a few years of inactivity and because of this, the students are also working hard to raise money. They will be making and selling holiday
wreaths. Please contact White Swan High School office at 509-874-8626 if you would like to
purchase a wreath or donate to the FFA club. Don’t wait – Get your wreath while they are still
available!
Student Learning Opportunities are Bolstered by the Implementation of Multi-Tiered
Systems of Support at White Swan High School (MTSS). The White Swan High School
leadership group has been working hard at developing the MTSS system. MTSS stands for
Multi-Tiered System of Support. Last year the team focused on the first steps of implementing
tier one supports. These are supports that help all students such as using Positive Behavioral
Intervention and Support school wide. This year we are expanding our supports and focusing on tier two and three supports such as credit completion, credit retrieval, Wednesday intervention classes, work completion time, grade contracts, freshman supports, in school and after school intensive tutoring, attendance supports and more. This system will also help students that need intensive supports or outside resources be identified and helped.
White Swan High School changed from a trimester to a semester system. In a semester
system the quarter “grade” should be looked at as a mid-semester progress report. The quarter
grade gives both families and students information about what has been happening up to that
point in the semester. The semester grade will be an accumulation of the work for the whole
semester including the first quarter. Principal Tenney state, “This is why we have instituted a
grading contract for students. Students are able to work with their teacher to establish a timeline to complete and turn in any late work or work that was not up to standard from the beginning of the semester to the end.” Example - If a students failed work in September they are able to meet with their teacher and repeat the work to show the skills needed. The grade will then be changed to reflect their new learning. This means students have the opportunity to raise their grades before the semester ends in January. Semester grades are used for eligibility and are what appear on transcripts and GPAs.
Sports Note: The basketball games against Wahluke have been rescheduled for 12/20/22.