Olympia’ eastside schools present positive outcomes of the student-focused School Improvement Plans

The Olympia School Board held a work session last Thursday, February 2, to learn about the current progress made with the School Improvement Plans (SIP) at the district’s eastside schools.

Participants at the meeting included principals from the eastside schools, including Boston Harbor Elementary, Centennial Elementary School, Lincoln Options Elementary School, Madison Elementary School, McKenny Elementary, Pioneer Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, Reeves Middle School, Washington Middle School, Avanti High School, Olympia High School, and Olympia Regional Learning Academy.

In each SIP, the schools highlighted how the outcomes of their plan relate to one of the six Student Outcomes listed in the 2019-2022 Olympia School District Improvement Plan:

• Outcome 1: Be compassionate and kind.
• Outcome 2: Have the academic and life skills to pursue their individual career, civic and educational goals.
• Outcome 3: Advocate for the social, physical, and mental wellness of themselves and others and be hopeful about the future.
• Outcome 4: Have the skills, knowledge, and courage to identify and confront personal, systemic, and societal bias.
• Outcome 5: Discover their passions, be curious, and love learning.
• Outcome 6: Be critical thinkers who contribute to and collaborate with our local, global and natural world.

McKenny Elementary School Principal Michael Havens facilitated the discussion.

“We all appreciate the care that was taken to create outcomes that reflect the voices of students and community members. We feel supported and how we have been allowed flexibility,” Havens declared.

Each of the ten school principals were given three minutes to present, and Havens stated that each principal will formally address only one outcome.

Elementary schools

Havens reported McKenny Elementary School’s achievement in counseling and friendship groups.

“Our counselor is able to run a few different groups a day for friendship groups,” Havens said. “These are parents, teachers, or students themselves advocating to be a part of that and she [the counselor] works with them on social skills and learning just the way to foster kindness and friendship.”

Domenico Spatola-Knoll, Madison Elementary School principal, shared their practice of giving a “Madison dollar” to teachers, staff, or students who perform good deeds.

“We have Madison dollars: it can be anything you see a child doing. And you might say ‘thank you so much for being such a friend to this student’ and can you give them the token, and some kids collect these,” Spatola-Knoll said.

Boston Harbor Elementary Principal Jennifer Brotherton talked about the diversification of their library activities.

“We have worked to diversify our library catalog and to provide more opportunities for all of our students to see themselves in the literature that we have. We [also] have equity-focused reads every month. Teachers can sign up and the librarian or I will go and read a book to the class, which is really nice way to connect,” Brotherton said.

Joel Lang, Pioneer Elementary School principal, was represented by teacher Laurie Raben in sharing the school’s take on career week.

“We would be creating a special week beyond the traditional career week-- it's a focus on anything that you're passionate about, whether it's a hobby, skill, and craft, a career or travel, whatever that may be that people will want to hear about kids and their families and have an opportunity to shine in this area,” Raben shared.

Centennial Elementary School Principal Shannon Ritter reported their school’s program on developing students’ critical thinking.

“Over the next several months, each classroom will read a series of books that focus on building social-emotional skills through literature. Each of the teachers will read books as common guiding questions, getting students to think about how those books make them feel. These questions will help students build empathy and understanding of how their emotions are affected by what they read, and how to help them learn how to be critical thinkers,” Ritter said.

Lincoln Options Elementary School Principal Marcela Abadi shared her school’s premier program called “Studio Day.”

“Studio Day is a way for teachers to reflect on their teaching, and it provides opportunities for teachers to plan together, work together and also see student growth during that studio day,” Abadi shared.

Middle Schools

Washington Middle School Assistant Principal Bonnie Hauschka shared their success in sports.

“Participation in sports helps our students to be physically active and have a healthy body image that enables them to develop an understanding that athletics are hope-enhancing behaviors. I think it’s a really important piece of the middle school experience and helps bring our students and our community together,” Hauschka said.

Reeves Middle School Principal Aaron Davis was joined by Clara Householder, adviser of the “empower group,” a social program of the school.

“I spend all day telling the students how important their social connections are for not only their mental well-being but also their physical wellbeing and the empower group is 100% a part of helping his kids have strong social connections, not just with each other, also with other students across the district and members of our community,” Householder shared.

High Schools

Olympia High School Principal Matt Grant reported Olympia High School’s accomplishments in handling special education.

“We're having a lot of success with special ed there. We're working with our teachers who have case management, they were kind of in-depth with the families,” Grant said.

Stacey Anderson, one of the principals from the Olympia Regional Learning Academy, reported how their school made a staff-developed survey, aside from the Panorama survey, to be more appropriate to the younger learners.

“The panorama survey was hard for them [K-2] to understand what was being asked. And like some of the other schools, our staff wanted to develop a more appropriate K-2 survey, and we gave that assessment this winter. And we saw really positive results. This one had the students pick a smiley face, and kind of a medium face [and] a frowny face for each question,” Anderson shared.

The next session on Monday, February 13, would feature the presentation of the west side schools’ SIP.