Parents helping make kindness matter at CVMS

Oregon’s graduation rate, among worst in nation, inches up 1 percent

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Newberg Graduation Rate Climbs

We are so proud of all of the hard work that Newberg High School has been doing around All means All and graduation. The four-year graduation rate for the Class of 2016 is 79.3%. We have seen a steady improvement over the past 4 years and are very excited about our latest numbers. Great work Newberg High School!

Inclement Weather Update

At the January 26 State Board Meeting they decided to allow flexibility in school instructional hours. If recommended by the superintendent, a school district’s board can take action and request that the use of 14 hours of inclement weather time be reinstituted for the 2016-17 school year. At this point, we do not need to take this step and I am hopeful we have seen all our snow days for the year. Here is a link to an article in the Portland Tribune.

School visits next week

While these past few weeks have been extremely busy and there is no end in sight, I have decided to combine some mid-year talks with school visits. It will be dedicated time for me to sit down with Principals and have meaningful discussions about what is going on in their buildings, what they feel that could be going better and to celebrate accomplishments. Some of these mid-year discussions will occur out in buildings and some will be here at the District Office.

Tuesday, January 31 Dundee Elementary 11:00 am

Thursday, February 2 Newberg High School 1:00 pm

Friday, February 3 Joan Austin Elementary 9:00 am

Calendar this week

Monday: Senior Staff, George Fox – guest speaking for senior lecture series

Tuesday: Schoolzilla meeting, Meeting with Representative Nobel

Thursday: Secondary Principal Professional Development

Friday: Phone meeting with Representative Suzanne Bonamici

Reflection

I am incredibly grateful we have been able to go to school for a full week. It seems like such a long time since that has happened. I have heard from a number of staff and students that it is nice to get back to routines.

This week Dave, Gwen and I also got to learn together at COSA’s winter conference. Much of the time was spent in sessions geared toward budget and the upcoming legislative session. I will continue to support our district through advocacy with our elected officials. I have met with most of them and will continue to do so through this session. I have been able to talk with them about the Governor’s proposed budget as well as the co-chair’s budget and what impact that would have on the Newberg School District. In order to support current service level, they simply must find a way to reach $8.4 billion. After the release of the state graduation rate data, I cannot comprehend how anyone could justify not making K-12 education the priority. We are just getting our trends to go in the right direction and that coincides with 3-4 years of more stable funding than in the previous 3-4 years. I know it is going to take a great deal of advocacy, but the data tells a very convincing story of the need for stable funding in K-12. We also got to learn from Noelle Ellerson Ng, an executive director for AASA in charge of advocacy and policy. She spends a considerable amount of time in Washington DC lobbying for K-12 education.

On that graduation note, I am incredibly proud of our increases in graduation rate, our decreases in drop-out numbers and the credit recovery accomplishments so far this year. None of these things are easy, but all are essential for our kids. In the Oregonian this week, we were highlighted as a district struggling to successfully graduate our English Language Learning and our ever-EL’s. Our data clearly shows that we have some significant work to do in that area. But Kyle did an outstanding job articulating all the systems that are being put into practice, all the professional development our staff has completed and the ways we are connecting with every student and their family – All Means All! Clearly we are doing the right work and just like the data is beginning to reflect all the hard work being done throughout our system, the data of our ELL students will begin to reflect the great work Kyle talked about. I feel very good about how we have committed to this work, but I also don’t want to miss the opportunity to celebrate the highest graduation rate we have had comprehensively at NHS. I also want to celebrate the 11% increase in graduation rate for our economically disadvantaged students and the over 25% increase in special education student graduation rate. We own the work we need to do, but we should also be very proud of the growth we have made. It is a result of hard work and dedication of everyone.

Thank you and congratulations! Kym