This and That:

• The focus of our August 10 Leadership Academy (with your ICCL building team) will again be around School Design Plan.  We will be meeting all day at The Riverhouse – so feel free to share this date with your ICCL folks if you haven’t already.  In terms of agenda items on this day, you will have time to review and reflect (and possibly do some minor tweaks) to your building’s Design Plan. It would be helpful if you brought your most up to date version with you (with copies to share) or shared it electronically with those who will be joining you from your building. Please also plan to have your most recent SDP update in the Google Doc folder I shared with you last week – so you are able to take a peak at what other middle schools are thinking about in terms of Student B.
• You may have already heard that a blog has been created which highlights various PD opportunities BLS employees have available to them.  I would encourage you to share this link with your staff regularly (now and in the fall) as it will become updated throughout the summer.
• This is the last TRIBE update for the next few months.  This is the time of year when I normally reflect on the fact that the last nine months went extremely fast, but quite a bit was accomplished. I am so blessed to be able to work with each of you – and proud of the educational opportunities and teaching that you and your entire team (teachers, classified, support personnel) provided to our students this year.  Following are a few of the big picture achievements that went above and beyond the day-to-day excellence that was occurring in your classrooms:
  • CMS: No existing school experienced more loss (students, staff, programs) this year… and yet they rallied around the changes in schedule, standards-based instruction, grading and student management.  They have embraced their “losses” and used them  to launch into the “new.”
  • HDMS: Changes made to their House system in order to add back a number of elective offerings for students. To change the structure of how students are organized to learn – and have staff buy in to these changes in their establishment – has been a fascinating transition.
  • LPMS: Took advantage of the SDP process to re-evaluate current practices; which led to the creation of core belief, mission and vision statements – providing a lens of how to spend time and resources in the future. Big work for a new principal (working on her Doctorate) to get after.
  • PCMS: Everything was new.  This can be a blessing in many ways, but also present some challenges experienced in no other educational setting.  Creating culture, building morale, creating common language and expectations is easier said than done. But the team at PCMS have done amazing work this year.
  • PBMS: Taking the next step in the MYP implementation required some heavy lifting and a whole lot of encouragement and support.  School-wide standards based grading, and communication to parents, takes patience, planning, collaboration and a whole lot of PD.
  • REALMS: No current admin at the MS level has been at the helm longer, but it has been anything but a Groundhog Day experience this year.  Balancing the great EL work they have been doing with all of the “new” requirements of joining our district is no easy task.
  • SVMS: Strategic planning and delivery of staff and student celebrations this year have paid great dividends in creating culture and overcoming huge obstacles. The work around and associated with curriculum development, consistency of delivery, and building expectations have begun!
  • Tamarack: The process for transitioning a student back to her/his neighborhood school was analyzed and individualized for each student.  The student’s home school was seen as a partner to student’s success, with processes set up to reflect this belief.

Reminders:

• I will be out of communication reach from June 21 – July 10.  If you need help or assistance with anything prior to my return please contact Gary Timms or Lora Nordquist.