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General Library Item Name Release Date Expire date Access Content Private Friday Report 2012-09-21 September 22, 2012

Administrative Content
Board Meetings & Minutes Drafts Draft minutes from the September 11, 2012 regular board meeting were included with last week's Friday Report. No updates were recommended. Draft minutes from the September 18 special meeting were supplied on September 19 and no updates were recommended. Board-Superintendent Correspondence The first item of correspondence is an email from a North Middle School student, and my response. This student is to be commended for addressing uncivil behavior and enlisting adult assistance to stop it. The second and third email series follow up Cross Country Team Captain Colin Wiedmer's public comments to the board during the last meeting. The fourth item is a Mill Creek Elementary parent complaint, and my response, about early release and lack of resources at, and performance of, Everett Public Schools. The family recently attended a K-8 school in a district (that contains only that school) in Illinois with reported revenues of over $15,000 per student. Attachment: Horbelt-Cohn Emails (North bully) 20120920.pdf (54 KB) Attachment: Wiedmer-Cohn Emails (Bruin mile) 20120915.pdf (59 KB) Attachment: Wiedmer-LeSesne Emails (Bruin mile) 20120921.pdf (93 KB) Attachment: Yip-Cohn Emails (Early release) 20120915.pdf (20 KB) Legislative Update Charter Schools Initiative 1240: The August 31, 2012 and September 9, 2012 editions of the Friday Report carried an initial item and follow-up, respectively, on the issue of charter schools in Washington State. Directors were provided several attachments on the topic, including WSSDA's "easy-to-read summary" of this initiative and the agency's rationale for its position opposing the measure. The NWESD 189 staff have provided both a summary and the full version of a report on charter schools that is receiving considerable comment in media. Both are attached for director information. In addition, a copy of the current edition of the SIRS publication devoted entirely to charter schools was sent to you. There are numerous articles included in the publication. Attachment: Stanford CREDO Charter School Research Summary.pdf (35 KB) Attachment: Stanford CREDO Charter School Study.pdf (4,037 KB) Director Inquiry: Heatherwood Middle School Summer Reading Program In the late spring, 2012, members of the Heatherwood PTA, in partnership with Heatherwoods seventh grade literacy team and teacher librarian, helped spearhead a summer reading program. The purpose of the program was to mitigate the effects of what some researchers call the summer slide, a potential regression of reading skills attributed to students reading less over the summer months. Staff chose the novel Ghost Canoe, by Will Hobbs, for all incoming seventh graders to read. In addition to keeping reading skills sharp, the Heatherwood staff intended for the novel to serve as a common platform for classroom discussion and a prelude to key concepts that students will learn in Washington State history their first trimester. Sixth grade literacy teachers read the first chapter of Ghost Canoe aloud to their classes the last week of school and assigned the remainder of the novel for summer reading. New students were directed to the parameters of the program through Heatherwoods website. While local public libraries and the University Bookstore in Mill Creek were notified about the assignment by Heatherwoods teacher librarian, there were several reported instances of the novel being sold out or backlogged for several weeks. In all, staff reported that two-thirds of the class of 300 read the book by the first day of school, with the remaining students given the opportunity to finish by September 10. An assessment was subsequently given, gauging students skills against several key first trimester reading targets. The staff recognizes there

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is more development work to be done in the future, but report overall a very positive experience. GEAR UP Status (Strategic Target: 1.1.b) The district is entering year two of the current Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) Grant. Our grant award this year totals over $350,000. North will receive $143,804, while Evergreen will receive $209,975. There is also an additional contract for $9,765 that will provide support for the upcoming AVID Path Training in November. This year, GEAR UP services will focus on aiding eighth grade students at Evergreen and North as they begin to transition to high school. Students will begin the year participating in activities that will bring students, teachers and counselors from the high school to their school. Over the course of the year, the activities will begin to take place at the high schools (Cascade and Everett) and by the spring, all activities will take place at the high schools. The purpose of this transition is to assist students in feeling comfortable at the high schools they will attend. Students will learn about high school course offerings, clubs, athletics, and activities, as well as services available at the school. They will also meet school staff and upperclassmen who will provide them with information and mentoring. The grant will also pay for field trips aimed at career exploration, and college visits. The summer program will involve three separate ways that students can participate in activities that will prepare them for high school. Details about summer offerings will be provided in the spring. Elementary Science Training (Strategic Target: 1.2.a, 1.2.c) The science scores continue to improve year after year. One of the key factors in this growth is the ongoing professional development provided for science teachers. One example is the training for teachers new to the district or changing grade levels/subjects. Everett is unusual in requiring that all change of grade level and new teachers receive training on science materials, K-12. Even middle and high school teachers, who have strong science backgrounds and multiple years of experience with our inquiry-based programs, are still provided training when changing to a new grade level/course. Training is important to provide consistent high quality instruction at all schools. Our science curriculum is articulated K-12. Teachers at elementary, middle, and high school can expect incoming students to have a rich set of prior science experiences they can build on. The long-term outcome of the consistent support for science is reflected in increased science scores, increased enrollment in science classes in high school, and the need to increase the rigor in middle and high school to match the high level of science experiences students bring with them from prior grades. The K-5 training in particular is designed for grade level changes, taking into account that teachers already have experience using the science modules (kits), that they understand the use of science notebooks and recognize the strong PLC support in the building. The focus is on the unique materials, procedures, classroom management strategies, integration of reading and math, and recent upgrades for a given module. The trainers are master teachers and experienced with each module and understand the changes that have been made to the materials over the last few years. An added feature is the opportunity to learn tips and techniques from other buildings that the teachers can bring back to their own grade level team. Secondary Reading and Writing Assessments (Strategic Target: 1.3.a) Before the school year began, our Secondary Reading and Writing Assessments were delivered to our middle and high schools in preparation for administering our baseline assessments. This was accomplished due to the outstanding collaboration between the offices of curriculum, assessment, Learning Management System (LMS), and our building assessment coordinators. In previous years, our secondary teachers have administered both the Secondary Reading Assessment and the Secondary Writing Assessment. However, after piloting the writing portfolio process last year, this is now being implemented district-wide in grades 6-10, in place of the Secondary Writing Assessment. The writing portfolio process will provide teachers with the opportunity to gather baseline and formative data about each of their students using prompts selected by their building teams. Teachers are then able to use this data immediately to inform instruction and to provide interventions that are individualized for their students needs. As the term progresses, teachers will continue to facilitate and monitor the development of their students writing portfolios, and will use the writing samples contained in the portfolios to continue providing rigorous instruction that is targeted, individualized, and relevant to the students in their classrooms. In addition to the classroom-based writing portfolio assessment process, our 6th-10th grade literacy teachers are currently administering the Secondary Reading Assessment. Due to the tremendous work of our LMS team, every secondary building has had support in providing individualized answer sheets for every student, and in scanning the answer sheets and uploading the results into LMS. This provides teachers with immediate access to their students results and the opportunity for immediate intervention. The next step with our districtwide reading and writing assessment process is to provide support as our teachers analyze their data, implement best practices, and develop instructional plans using the knowledge and insight they have gained about their students as they collaborate with their building teams. AVID District Leadership Training (Strategic Target: 1.3.a) The humanities curriculum specialist, serving as the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) elementary district liaison, completed the third of four sessions of AVID district leadership training. While teachers are to use AVID strategies and instruction practices during the AVID Summer Institute, district leaders also receive small group intensive training on district implementation. Best practices learned include coaching teachers and principals, setting goals and establishing data points to measure success, creating district level systems to support teachers and principals, and developing a multi-year plan for implementation. Managers from the AVID organization provide coaching and support to the district liaison and will conduct a site-visit later during this school year.

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Annual Washington Educational Research Association Conference (Strategic Target: 2.1.a) The annual WERA/OSPI Washington State Assessment Conference is December 6-7, with the pre-conference workshops on December 5. The theme of this years conference is Education at the Crossroads -- Common Standards, Common Practice, Common Assessments. Keynote speakers include, Charlotte Danielson who is speaking on Assessing Teacher Effectiveness and Jim Popham who is speaking on "Formative Assessment: Enough TalkingLets Get Walking!". Pre-conference workshops include: Using the Framework for Teaching in an Evaluation System Smarter Balanced Assessments Are Coming in Only Two Years: Are you ready? Approaches to Evaluating RTI: Using Data Across the System to Determine Progress and Plan for Improvement P-3 Leadership: Creating Strong Systems of Support at the Community, District and Building Level College and Career Readiness: Where We Are, How to Measure It, Where Were Going, and How to Get There eVal: Washington's Web-based Support to Teacher and Principal Evaluations A Look at Principal Evaluation Through Growth-Colored Glasses Advanced Implementation of RTI: Richland, Walla Walla, and White River School Districts Describe Their Models What Every District Assessment Coordinator Ought to Know Mathematics as a Graduation Requirement: Connections Between the EOC and COEWays to Help Students Gain Confidence, Skills, and Proficiency In addition, on December 6 and 7, sixty breakouts sessions will be offered. Topics of these sessions include OSPI state assessment updates in all subjects, end-of-course testing in math and science, the Common Core State Standards, online testing, RTI, the state accountability index, research studies on effective practices, educational leadership, and much more. Everett Public Schools will be well represented among the presenters. Terry Feller, student assessment coordinator, will present a workshop for new assessment coordinators with Kimberly DeRousie, OSPI. Jeanne Willard and Allison Larsen will present the work of the On-Time Graduation Committee. Jeanne Willard and LaRae Marks will facilitate a presentation on the meaning of rigor and how rigor is integral to ensuring students are college- and career-ready. Supporting Implementation of WaKIDS, the Washington Inventory of Developing Skills (Strategic Target: 5.3.a) On September 20, nine kindergarten teachers from Everett joined kindergarten teachers from Edmonds School District for a Teaching Strategies GOLD Tech Support Session. This collaborative training was funded by a Gates Foundation grant to the three districts involved in the P-3 Cross District Leadership Coalition. The session provided teachers with an opportunity to share successes and challenges in gathering evidence of student development in relation to objectives in six domains: social emotional, physical, cognitive, language, literacy, and math. They also received support from trainers and more experienced staff as they began entering student data into the online Teaching Strategies GOLD system. To differentiate for a range of needs, optional mini-sessions were available on using various technologies (video clip, photos, Excel, and iPads) to help in documenting the teachers observation of childrens skills. Support is also provided by the new district Early Learning Facilitator who is working directly with all WaKIDS kindergarten teachers to help address issues that arise as teachers implement this new assessment system. Jackson High School FIRST Robotics Team 2910 and Girls Generation (Strategic Target: 5.4.a) Jackson High School's For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Team 2910 is currently preparing for an exciting year of Robotics; to get things started, a competition is scheduled for September 29 called Girls Generation. This competition is specifically designed to encourage girls to explore the world of engineering. In the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), often called The Varsity Sport for the Mind or The Super Bowl of Smarts one doesnt always see all-male teams out on the playing field. Youll find boys and girls side-by-side, hooking up electronics, tightening chains, switching out wheels, plugging in pneumatics and testing software. FIRST ladies are everywhere. To emphasize and expand the engineering opportunities for young women, FIRST offers the Girls Generation robotics competition. Local girls gain the engineering spotlight by taking over all technical roles on their teams for an exciting day of scrimmaging. Last year over 130 girls from 22 FRC teams participated, making this the largest girls-only robotics scrimmage in the world! The Girls Generation Competition will be held on Saturday, September 29 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Tahoma High School. This event is for girls to get a chance to compete without the boys. The main focus is to encourage young women to join the profession of engineering. Jackson High school currently has 13 girls who will be participating in this event. Robotics a TEAM Sport at Middle School and High School (Strategic Action: 5.4.a) The STEM team helped prepare and submit grants to support FIRST Lego League Robotics Teams at four middle schools, along with expanding FIRST Robotics to a second high school. This support will expand the FIRST Lego League afterschool robotics program to North and Evergreen, joining teams at Gateway and Heatherwood middle schools. Cascade is forming a FIRST Robotics Team to join the successful Jackson FIRST Robotic team. We are on our way to having enough teams to have our own intra-district robotics competitions! IEP PLUS Update Pursuant to the board information request of February 18, 2010, the extent of available data reporting for special education students can now be determined. The new system (IEP PLUS) provides detailed reports outlining the number of special education students, nature of disability, and ethnicity. This information can be divided by school and then by

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sub-population within a given school. The system does not yet integrate performance data as measured by state standardized testing. Enrollment Update Finance staff concluded their headcount and FTE reporting for September, and the FTE and headcount enrollment reports are attached for director background. Staff report overall, headcount on September 10 was 122 under the October projection, but staff anticipate the district will add 96 more students by October. Staff estimate that by October, the elementary schools will be 76 over projection, middle schools 23 under projection, and high schools 79 under projection. The headcount on day eight was 18,508, 80 under the October 1 projection. Attachments: Sept FTE 2012-13.pdf (12 KB) | Sept HC 2012-13.pdf (12 KB) Washington State Economic and Revenue Council The Washington State Economic and Revenue Council has issued its September 2012 revenue projection for the remainder of the 2011-13 biennium. The current projection has improved by $29 million above the June 2012 forecast to a total of $30,469 billion. While we had hoped for a more favorable projection, this does mitigate the need for a special legislative session. The projection for the upcoming 2013-15 biennium has been increased by a similar amount. A related Daily Herald article is available for the board. Public Records Requests Updates The following new public records requests have been received and completed: Everett Tribune: A request was received from Michael Whitney at the Everett Tribune for the attendance records of the five elected school board members from January 1, 2012 onward. Mr. Whitney was provided the link to BoardDocs and instructions on where to locate this information. Director Russell provided his record of director attendance. Kathy Mahan is providing her record of director attendance. Rodman Reynolds: Mr. Reynolds requested and received copies of the August 31, 2012 and September 7, 2012 Friday Reports, excluding attachments. Mr. Reynolds made a second request for and received a copy of the September 14, 2012 Friday Report, excluding attachments, and a copy of the attachment from the August 31, 2012 Friday Report titled Reynolds-Moloney Emails (20120826).pdf. Jonathan Zellner: Mr. Zellner is an attorney in Connecticut. He requested any employment and/or volunteer records for Mr. Paul Arcudi for 2006-07. Staff did a search of the districts employee and volunteer databases and determined that we had no records responsive to Mr. Zellners request. NSBA Annual Conference The NSBA Annual Conference is scheduled for April 13-15, 2013 in San Diego. Registration and housing opens mid-October. There is always a rush by attendees across the country to reserve hotel rooms and they fill up very quickly! Please contact Debbie or Kathy with your decision (either way) regarding your attendance at the NSBA conference by Monday, October 8. In order to have a chance at our first choice of hotels we need to begin the travel/registration process now. Miscellaneous Attachments, News Releases & Articles Attachment: EEA Shortwaves 201209.pdf (654 KB) Attachment: Policy and Procedure Updates 20120921.pdf (57 KB) News Releases Points of Pride Budget Articles Field Trip Requests Attachment: Cascade HS FT to Tour Eastern Washington Universities 20120921.pdf (363 KB) Attachment: Jackson HS FT - ASB Leadership Conference 20120921.pdf (396 KB) Attachment: Cascade HS FT Updates 20120921.pdf (950 KB) Attachment: Jackson HS FT Volleyball Tournament 20120921.pdf (367 KB) Directors' Dates to Remember Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, September 25 - Board Meeting - 4:30 p.m. - Board Room October 2 - Special Board Meeting - 5 p.m. - Mill Creek City Council Chambers October 9 - Board Meeting - 4:30 p.m. - Board Room October 23 - Board Meeting - 4:30 p.m. - Board Room November 13 - Board Meeting - 4:30 p.m. - Board Room November 27 - Board Meeting - 4:30 p.m. - Board Room December 11 - Board Meeting - 4:30 p.m. - Board Room

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Jackson HS FT - ASB Leadership Conference 20120921.pdf (396 KB) Cascade HS FT to Tour Eastern Washington Universities 20120921.pdf (363 KB) Cascade HS FT Updates 20120921.pdf (950 KB) Sept FTE 2012-13.pdf (12 KB) EEA Shortwaves 201209.pdf (654 KB) Community Contacts

Executive Content

Sept HC 2012-13.pdf (12 KB)

Stanford CREDO Charter School Research Summary.pdf (35 KB) Stanford CREDO Charter School Study.pdf (4,037 KB) Horbelt-Cohn Emails (North bully) 20120920.pdf (54 KB)

Joyce Stewart, Sally Lancaster, and I attended the

WSSDA New Director News 201209.pdf (894 KB)

2013 Washington Teacher of the Year Award Ceremony which was held in Seattle at the EMP Museum. We Wiedmer-LeSesne Emails (Bruin mile) 20120921.pdf (93 KB) attended in support of Everett High Schools Commander Rick Gile who was among the nine Yip-Cohn Emails (Early release) 20120915.pdf (20 KB) Wiedmer-Cohn Emails (Bruin mile) 20120915.pdf (59 KB) Jackson HS FT Volleyball Tournament 20120921.pdf (367 KB) Board Work Plan 2011-12 Report.pdf (32 KB)

finalists. Commander Gile is Everett Public Schools Teacher of the Year for 2012-13. That distinction put Policy and Procedure Updates 20120921.pdf (57 KB) him in the running for the regional Teacher of the Year from the Northwest Educational Service District 189, and upon receiving that award he went on to be considered for the states Teacher of the Year award. The WSSDA Legislative Assembly is underway Friday afternoon and all day Saturday at the Airport Marriott. Carol Andrews and I are attending. We were recognized publicly for our graduation rate improvements by former Congressman Jay Inslee in his remarks. OSPI, SBE, and legislator presentations and panels provided information

on state assessment additions and changes, funding outlook, legislative activities, and state achievement index revisions. I met with several community members at the Rotary Club of Everett's weekly meeting this week. I attended with directors the Band Burrito Dinner at Jackson High School to support the band boosters. Several students and parents thanked us for joining them, and were delighted to learn that we moved the board meeting location to be able to be with them.
Staff Contacts School visits this week included Jefferson, Monroe, and Emerson Elementaries; Eisenhower and North Middle; and Cascade High School. Helping kick off the district counselors annual staff meeting series is always a treat. Counselors engaged in a variety of collaboration activities in addition to receiving information from Becky Ballbach, Joanne Buiteweg (regarding the Culiminating Exhibition updates), and Nyla Fritz. CHS students and parents organized a fundraiser for Saturday to celebrate the completion of the new synthetic track at CHS. Jeff Russell and Ed Petersen are representing the board, and I plan on joining them after breaking away mid-day from the WSSDA assembly. Mary Waggoner joined me for a telephone interview conducted by a reporter from KING-5 News. We expect a story

on several schools' work soon.

The fifth group of staff attended the first installment in our TPEP training series at Longfellow Annex, and I joined them to observe a portion of the time and to provide opening and closing remarks. JoAnne Fabian provided me an orientation to the new analytics software that is part of the LMS suite. It is easy to see the seeds of the board dashboard in the platform and data display capabilities. Superintendents Cabinet discussed upcoming board meeting agendas, the next Presidents Council and Superintendents Leadership Team agendas, ideas for quarterly Cabinet workshop meetings, Focus and Emerging school plans, BoardDocs standards, and district wellness activities. Cabinet-level interviews were held for the elementary assistant principal vacancy. While I planned to attend both the CHS vs. Mariner and JHS vs. Edmonds-Woodway football games on Friday evening, slow traffic from the airport north prevented me from making it in time to the CHS game. Both games were held at Everett Memorial Stadium.

Last Modified by Debbie Vanderwilt on September 26, 2012

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