Enrollment

The first day of school came and went and we welcomed just over 9000 students through our doors.  This number will rise as we prepare to welcome Kindergartners to school on September 14. 

Chromebook Guidelines

Guidelines for Chromebook use, care and expectations are now posted on the District Website.  Feel free to share this link with families in school communications.  If there is a need for your school to have an agreement between the parent and the school with regards to Chromebook use and understanding, you are welcome to use the agreement form posted online.

Throughout this year, we will be piloting take home models with select programs. 

Facebook Pages

DVE, LRE, CTE, and Child Nutrition now have public facebook pages.  Please ‘like’ and promote throughout your schools.  We are excited to engage families and increase our social media presence!  A social media directory will soon be published to the District Website.  If you would like a school group included on this list (ASB, etc.) please contact Communications with the information.

Website Launch

Launch has been delayed until mid-December. While we can all breathe a small sigh of relief, attention to your new site is critical in these last few months. Departments need to validate the suggested categories of info and all schools should have a ‘web champion’ identified for continued work with Communications. An internal timeline of project checkpoints will be shared soon.

Graduation Recap
Administration, staff, and families celebrated Bonney Lake and Sumner High School graduates on June 9 and 10.  Approximately 290 graduates walked at BHS graduation and 342 for SHS.  Graduate names will be printed in the Bonney Lake Herald.     

Norovirus
A 10% absentee rate at Donald Eismann on Thursday prompted a communication to DEE families informing them that some students were recently absent with reported vomiting and diarrhea.  The Health Department worked with custodians and child nutrition staff on a deep clean and disinfecting school facilities. 

Retirement Reception
The School Board will be honoring 23 retiring teachers and staff members at the June 17 School Board meeting to be held at Maple Lawn Elementary.  Join the School Board in recognizing their dedication to students and families.  These employees represent over 547 years of service to the district.

What are your 3 things?
Dr. Johnson reminded Leadership on Friday that principals should always have 3 powerful, positive messages about the school they lead.  Never miss an opportunity to showcase your school.  Promote what is positive in your building with staff and families and keep those 3 things readily available.

Bond Informational Open Houses

Good feedback was received at the 3 open houses held this week.  Overall, approximately 45 people attended which comprised of employees, district families, and community members.  All projects on the list were well received.  Proposed budgeted amounts and project timelines were questioned - in addition to the District’s plan on the pool.  A solid FAQ is being built off the feedback received from the sessions.  The open house presentation and a survey soliciting community feedback on the proposed bond list will be posted on the District Website over summer break.  Link here to view the presentation.

Cabinet Training

Dennis Cheesebrow, consultant with TeamWorks International, worked with Cabinet members Thursday afternoon and Friday morning on establishing an Education Leadership System.  The ELS is an established approach for aligning school boards, administration, staff, parents, and the public to increase learning for all students.  Leaders were trained on the development of partnership as a capacity of the district, not just the individuals, to promote a robust and resilient response to change, challenge, and opportunity.  The model will enable the principals to achieve excellence in their role as instructional and building leaders which will ultimately support the delivery of learning in the classroom and the resources that support it.  More on this to come.

Central Office Summer Hours
Summer hours will go into effect at Central Office on Friday, June 19.  The schedule will be communicated as follows:

Effective June 19 - August 7
Central Office Summer Hours
7:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., or by appointment (253) 891-6000

 

Bond Informational Open Houses
Administration will hold 3 informational open houses that will provide our community with an overview of the Facilities Committee work to date.  The format will be as follows:

Administrative Updates
Elli Mcdaniel joins Instructional Services as our new Elementary Literacy Program Administrator.  She will play an instrumental role in assisting teachers and staff implement CCSS in ELA in conjunction with the implementation of the district literacy adoption.  Welcome Elli!

Capturing Kids Hearts

BHS is implementing a program for teachers called Capturing Kids Hearts (CKH).  This program revitalizes staff by giving them tools to curb discipline problems and achieve overall academic success for students.  Staff will be trained in August by certified trainers from the Flippin Group.  

Central Office Space

A committee has been working to look at all possible solutions for reorganizing office space in Central Office.  The end goal will be to reorganize so people who work together are strategically placed.  A plan will be solidified by June.

Congratulations State Achievement Award Winners
State Superintendent Randy Dorn will honor recipients of the 2014 Washington Achievement Awards at a ceremony to be held April 28, 2015 in Spanaway, WA. Crestwood Elementary and Liberty Ridge Elementary will be recognized as top-performing schools and awarded the Washington Achievement Award for 2014.

Habits of Mind

The Art Costa Centre for Thinking describes Habits of Mind as “knowing how to behave intelligently when you DON'T know the answer. It means having a disposition toward behaving intelligently when confronted with problems, the answers to which are not immediately known: dichotomies, dilemmas, enigmas and uncertainties.”  The 16 Habits of Mind are dispositions that we want students to develop so that they are more capable of successfully working at a higher level. Habits of mind are skillfully and mindfully employed by successful people from all walks of life when they are confronted with problems they can't readily solve.

Online Learning Program

Program effectiveness is being studied. The return on investment of online classes is not at an acceptable level.

Systems of Support

Beginning next month, Team Works Consultant, Dennis Cheesebrow, will be working with the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendents (Sara, Laurie, and Marc) on developing systems in the district.  The philosophy of Team Works is to lead through partnerships rather than isolation.  This is just FYI - your leaders are growing their leadership skills through professional development and implementation!